Qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqw …info.moe.gov.et/pdf/workshop teaching methods...

Qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqw

ertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwert

yuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyui

opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopa

sdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdf

ghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghj

klzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklz

xcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcv

bnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbn

mqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmq

wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwe

rtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwerty

uiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuio

pasdfgh

jklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjkl

zxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc

Teaching Methods Workshop ALM:

Student Handouts

2/26/2012

Edited by David Fenech

Teaching Methods Workshop ALM: Student Handouts

1

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2

Reflection on Skills and Qualities (Handout 1.1) ......................................................................................... 3

1.3 The Teacher as Role Model (Handout 1.3) ............................................................................................. 4

CASE STUDY 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 4

CASE STUDY 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 4

CASE STUDY 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 4

CASE STUDY 4 ............................................................................................................................................ 4

SMART Objectives (Handout 2.1) ............................................................................................................... 6

Lesson Plan and Evaluation (Handout 2.2) ................................................................................................... 7

Some Active Learning Methods (Handout 3.2) ............................................................................................ 9

Part One: Input ......................................................................................................................................... 9

Part Two: Interaction Patterns ................................................................................................................ 10

Part Three: Activities .............................................................................................................................. 10

Part Four: Evaluating Learning ................................................................................................................ 11

Active Learning Methods Quiz (Handout 3.1) ........................................................................................... 12

Question and Answer Techniques (Handout 3.3) ....................................................................................... 13

Encouraging participation (Handout 3.4) .................................................................................................... 15

Classroom Management (Handout 4.1) ...................................................................................................... 16

What can the teacher do to improve the following situations? ............................................................. 17

Assessment of Learning/Assessment for Learning (Handout 5.1) .............................................................. 18

Assessment Methods (5.2) .......................................................................................................................... 19

Formative Assessment ............................................................................................................................ 19

Summative Assessment .......................................................................................................................... 19

Self-Assessment ...................................................................................................................................... 20

Peer Assessment ..................................................................................................................................... 21

Assessment Checklist (Handout 5.3) .......................................................................................................... 22

Assessment for Learning (Handout 5.4) ..................................................................................................... 23

How not to Test (Handout 5.5) ................................................................................................................... 24


2

Introduction

The following handouts can be photocopied and are intended to be used with the Workshop

Teacher’s Guide.


3

Reflection on Skills and Qualities (Handout 1.1)

Name_________________________________________________________________

1. What skills do I need to improve? How will I do it?

2. What personal qualities do I lack? How can I develop these qualities?


4

1.3 The Teacher as Role Model (Handout 1.3)

CASE STUDY 1

Fekadu is liked by his students; he is always friendly and cheerful, and often arrives late to his

classes and cracks a joke about his lateness. He is an entertaining teacher of English and makes

his students laugh. He is helpful and encourages them with their work, and often uses his own

experiences as teaching material for the lessons. He promises to help them improve, and they

often hand him drafts of work they are doing. He reads their work and makes helpful comments,

but they rarely get it back in time to make improvements before the final deadline. He is a good

sportsman, and organises football games for the male students and boys in the local village.

CASE STUDY 2

Fantu prides herself on her Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Addis Ababa

University. She has excellent knowledge of the psychology of child development and delivers

well-structured lectures, using many technical terms, in good English. She is impatient when her

students ask very basic questions, and does not waste her time going back over things she thinks

they should already know and understand. She compares them unfavourably with the students

she studied with, and is often highly critical of the comments they make when she occasionally

asks a question or provides an opportunity for discussion. She is very strict with her marking and

disappointed when students do not live up to her expectations. She runs an English speaking club

one evening a week, where she enjoys conversing with students and helping them to improve

their English.

CASE STUDY 3

Tesfaye is regarded as a competent teacher of Mathematics; he is well dressed, arrives on time

and his lessons are well planned and logical, although rather repetitive. He expects students to

work hard. There is little opportunity for students to be involved and demonstrate what they can

do or what they understand. He marks students’ work methodically and records their scores out

of a set number and gives this mark back to the students. He rarely makes any comments on their

work, either orally or in writing. He seems to favour the girls in the class, and is often seen in the

town with some of the girls in the evenings.

CASE STUDY 4

Aster is a new teacher and is trying hard to establish herself as a member of the teaching staff.

Most students like her, as she shows interest in them as individuals, is trying to learn their names

and is very patient when she explains a new concept in Biology. Her subject knowledge is good,

but there is a group of male students who continually ask difficult (and often irrelevant)

questions and disrupt the flow of her lessons. She is always neatly dressed and well-organised.

She always tries to get to class before her students so she can greet them and set out her work

and materials so the lesson can proceed smoothly. When she sets work, she expects it in within a

week and promises to return it the following week. Some of the boys in the class have handed in

no work this semester; those who have handed it in are pleased with the comments they have

been given which have helped them improve.

She has set up a support group for female students that meet once a week, but at the moment this

has no clear focus.


5

Comments on a Case Study:

CASE STUDY (insert number)

Positive characteristics Negative characteristics

My Personal Characteristics

Positive characteristics Behaviours (How you show the characteristic.)

1 1

2

2 1

2

3 1

2

Negative characteristics Behaviours

1 1

2

2 1

2

3 1

2

What do you think is your most positive characteristic as a teacher?

What is your most negative characteristic? How can you change it?


6

SMART Objectives (Handout 2.1)

Which of these objectives is SMART? (handout 2.1)

1.By the end of the lesson students will know about the Battle of Adwa.

2.By the end of the lesson students will be able to identify given rock samples.

3.By the end of the lesson students will be able to understand climate.

4.By the end of the lesson students will have written a descriptive paragraph to begin a

story.

5.By the end of the lesson students will be able to form English questions using the

auxiliary verb ‘do’.

Add some objectives of your own:

_________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

If they are not SMART, why not? Can they be improved?

Which of these objectives is SMART? (handout 2.1)

1. By the end of the lesson students will know about the Battle of Adwa.

2. By the end of the lesson students will be able to identify given rock samples.

3. By the end of the lesson students will be able to understand climate.

4. By the end of the lesson students will have written a descriptive paragraph to

begin a story.

5. By the end of the lesson students will be able to form English questions using

the auxiliary verb ‘do’.

Add some objectives of your own:

_________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

- If they are not SMART, why not? Can they be improved?


7

Lesson Plan and Evaluation (Handout 2.2)

Subject:

Title of Lesson:

Specific learning objective(s):

Time Teacher activity Student activity


8

Lesson Evaluation

List two successful things about the lesson and why were they successful?

Were the objectives achieved? Were the activities clear and useful? Did the students make

good progress? Did you use ALMs? Were the students all actively involved?

List one or two suggestions for improvement. What did not go so well? How could you

improve next time?

What was the balance between teacher and student activity? How did the students respond

to the lesson? Were your assessment methods successful? Have you recorded any

assessment marks, grades or notes?

Do any students need particular attention or help? What can you do to help them?


9

Some Active Learning Methods (Handout 3.2)

Part One: Input

These are methods for giving information to your students. Section A has some variations on

lecturing. Section B covers text-based information and Section C covers demonstrations,

showing your students how to do something.

Section A The Lecture: Traditional lectures are good for giving information to students quickly and with

limited resources. However, some students find it hard to take in information this way and it

makes the students very passive. You can make your lectures more effective in these ways:

Visual Aids: These are pictures, maps, diagrams, charts etc. that relate to the information you are

giving the students. These should be prepared in advance and put on the wall so

that all the students can see them clearly.

Gapped Lectures: This is when you divide the lecture into short sections and give a short activity

to do between each section. This allows the students to absorb and manipulate the

information you give them. Never lecture for more than 15 minutes and follow this

with a 5 or 10 minute activity such as brainstorming, a quiz, thought bubble, some

questions to answer or a problem to solve. Then continue for another 15 minutes.

This allows the students to absorb the information.

Buzz Group: When you make a break in your lecture, the students in pairs or groups discuss what

you have told them. You can give them some specific questions to discuss. Before

you continue the lecture you can ask them some questions to check understanding.

Questions and Answers: This is one of the most important activities a teacher performs. Make

sure you ask questions to as many students as possible in different parts of the

classroom. Be sure to ask questions of different levels of difficulty.

Active Listening: You give your students an activity to perform while they listen to your lecture.

These can be some questions to answer or blanks to fill in on a handout.

Section B – Written Material If you want to present information to your students in a different way you can give it in a written

format. They can read it individually or in small groups. After they have read it you can ask

questions or a group member can summarise it. Each group can have the same material or a

different text. In the latter case, you can do a crossover group method or a spokesperson can stand

up and tell the other groups what his or her group’s text said. The material can also be given to

read before a class so they come to class ready to talk about it or do a quiz to check understanding.

Students can also be told to go to the library and read a particular book or do research on a topic

that interests them.

Section C – Demonstrations These are most appropriate to Science classes. This is when the teacher shows the students how

something can be done. It can be a laboratory experiment or solving a theorem in Mathematics.

Then the students should attempt to do it themselves.


10

Part Two: Interaction Patterns

Independent Work: This is when a student works alone. It can be an assignment to complete in

class or at home or an activity or exercise to be completed. It can be used no matter how

many students you have in your class.

Pair Work: They can work with the person they are sitting next to or you can arrange the pairs to

have a weak person with a better student or with someone they haven’t worked with before

etc. In pairs, they can complete a task, discuss a topic or answer some questions. It gives

shy students a chance to express their ideas with a friend so they don’t feel nervous. In a

language class it gives everyone the chance to practice oral work.

Group Work: The same as pair work but with groups of 4-6 students. They can produce written

work such as mind maps, posters etc. If they discuss a topic or questions in the group, one

person can be the spokesperson to give the group’s answers. The teacher should always go

around group to group listening and checking that everyone in the group is participating and

that they are doing the activity correctly.

Crossover Groups: After a few minutes talking in their group, two people are moved from each

group to another group. This can be repeated and it ensures that information and ideas move

throughout the whole class. Whole class feedback can then be very brief.

Cooperative Learning: Each member of the group can have a specific task: facilitator (to lead

the discussion), note taker, time keeper, reporter (to feed back to the whole class) etc. A

different person should have each role each time the activity is done.

Part Three: Activities

Brainstorming: In this activity, students write down or tell you everything they know about a topic. It can

be done first individually, in pairs, groups or whole class. The teacher can write the main ideas on

the board. Be careful not to let the students shout out their answers. They should put up their hands

and you should ask them to tell you. You can ask people who don’t offer to speak what they think

about the topic, too, to encourage them to participate. This activity is very useful both before starting

a new topic, to see what the students already know about it, and to revise the topic of a previous class

or one you have just talked about.

Case Studies: You provide the students with two or more different situations or scenarios and the students

have to study them and describe how they would deal with them or what they tell them about the

world. They should be as real as possible. They can be useful in social studies to describe how

different people live or they could describe weather conditions in different parts of the world etc.

Matching Exercise: This is when the students match one column of information, definitions, descriptions

etc. with a second column. For example, one list might be a list of vocabulary and the other the

definitions in a different order and the students have to match them with a line.

Goldfish Bowl: This is a form of debate. Two people sit in the middle of the circle of students on two

chairs. They are assigned a point of view to argue in favour of. If another student wants to replace

one of the people in the centre to put the argument more forcefully, he or she taps that person on the

shoulder and takes his or her place etc.

Sinking Boat Game: A boat is sinking containing a group of historical figures, scientific inventions,

medicines, professions or any other category and each student has to argue why the one they

represent should be saved.

Speeches or Presentation: Students give a short speech on a topic they have prepared to the class. This is

useful in language classes or for students to research a topic and present their finding to the class. It

can also be done as a group with each member contributing a part of the presentation.


11

Report Writing: Students write a report about an experiment, field work, a visit, a book or anything else

that is suitable to your subject area.

Drawing a Map, Picture or Graph: Students can prepare flow charts, graphs or any other visual

representation of information. By making the image they can remember it better. They can be

displayed on the wall of the class for everyone to see.

Assignment or Homework: This allows the students to practice the ideas, revise the knowledge and

demonstrate what they have learnt. It can be a good form of assessment. It should be challenging but

within their ability to complete. It can be individual or in groups. It is important to explain very

clearly how the work should be done and by when. It can be for the next class or to be done in a

week or whatever time seems appropriate. You should be strict that it is finished on time.

Research: Students learn best when they experience something for themselves not just read or hear about

it. To do research, students investigate a problem, theory or topic individually or in groups

consulting a range of sources of information and exploring every side of the topic to reach their own

conclusions. They can feedback their results by a presentation, report, or visually on a poster.

Fieldwork: This involves going out to collect samples from the land for biologists, or to museums or

historical sites for historians or to a factory for economists etc.

Project Work: This is work to be done individually or in groups over a longer period of time. Be sure that

every student has a project plan, due dates and a clear list of everything that has to be included in the

project.

Experiments: This involves taking a theory and testing to see if it is true. The tests are carried out and the

results recorded to see if they confirm the theory.

Games and Competitions: Make Learning Fun! This keeps the students interested. You can create a

competitive situation in which students compete individually or in pairs or groups to be the first to

answer some questions or complete a task. You can do a quiz about a topic you have taught and see

who gets the most answers right.

Part Four: Evaluating Learning

Self-Assessment: Learners mark their own work according to answers you give them to see how much

they know. They assess their own learning.

Peer Assessment: Students exchange work they have done and mark it according to your answers, or give

honest comments on each other’s work.

Evaluation of Lesson: This can be done to assess your students’ learning or your own teaching. It can

take the form of a questionnaire, a brainstorm, oral questioning, paired discussion and class feedback

or any method that allows the students to evaluate the lesson.

Quizzes: This is a short series of questions that tests knowledge, ideas or issues presented during a class.

Quizzes are a great way to check that students have learnt and understood a topic. They can be used

to revise material from a previous lesson or that students have read a text you set them to read for

homework. They can be marked in class by exchanging papers with a partner or collected by you to

mark. You can collect the marks for your records.

Questioning: Every class should begin with some form of revision of the previous lesson by a quiz or

asking questions. You can do the same at the end of a lesson to check learning. This allows informal

assessment by you of the progress of the class as a whole and of individuals. Be sure to ask questions

of different types and levels of difficulty to test different thinking skills. Don’t forget to ask different

people not just the ones who offer to answer.


12

Active Learning Methods Quiz (Handout 3.1)

What are the names of these Active Learning Methods? Put these words next to the description:

quiz role play or drama thought bubble mind map or spidergram

stimulus material debate ranking creative writing pyramiding visit

guest speaker

1. This is a reflective activity where students write down their ideas and feelings about a

particular topic. It can be individual or in groups. It can be done as an introduction to a

topic or to revise one. __________________

2. This is when you give your students a video, pictures, an article to read to get them

thinking about a topic and make them interested in it. ______________

3. This is an organized discussion on a controversial topic. Some students are on one side

of the argument and some are on the other side. They take it in turns to speak. There is a

vote to decide which side has won. _______________

4. This is when students act something in front of the class. ______________

5. This is when students use their imaginations to write a story, poem, play, newspaper

article etc. _________________

6. This involves going to a place of interest in the area. It may be a museum, farm or

factory. The teacher should make it active by giving the students questions to answer

while they are there. _________________

7. Invite someone who is an expert or who has something interesting to say to come to talk

to your class. ________________

8. This is a series of short questions that test knowledge either before or after presenting the

information. It can be short, from 5-20 minutes and students can correct each other’s

work. It can be used to revise a previous lesson. _______________

9. In this activity the students have to put a series of statements in order from the most

important to the least important. __________________

10. This is a method of group work where you move from the individual to the whole class.

Individuals complete a task then move into pairs, then into fours and so on.

______________

11. This is a visual representation of ideas on any topic. The topic to be studied is written in a

circle in the middle and then there are branches to circles on each sub-topic.

___________


13

Question and Answer Techniques (Handout 3.3)

Asking and answering is vital to the learning process. The purposes of questioning are the

following:

• To monitor progress. Asking questions allows the teacher to evaluate the

understanding of what he has taught and to assess the class as a whole and

individual students. It is vital that all students have the chance to answer.

• To encourage the application of knowledge. This stimulates higher-level thinking.

• To stimulate participation.

• To revise what has been taught. This reinforces the knowledge and assesses the

understanding of it.

• To begin discussions. The questions will serve to focus the discussion.

• To encourage creative thinking. Students who learn by being asked questions will

themselves be critical thinkers who ask questions in their working lives.

• To diagnose student problems. The teacher’s questions may reveal mistakes,

misunderstandings or faulty reasoning in the students which the teacher can

correct.

• To stimulate student interest. Ask a question that makes the students think deeply

about a topic before you teach it.

Note: A teacher should never talk for more than about ten minutes before asking

some questions or doing some other activity to make the students think about what he

or she is saying.

The following strategies may help increase the student involvement:

1. Begin with some straightforward, ‘easy’ questions about facts. These can often be directed

to students who are usually shy about answering questions as it will give them confidence

to speak. Follow with more complex questions that require inferring, evaluating or

summarizing. Perhaps allow time for students to discuss how to answer in pairs.

Examples: When was the Battle of Adwa? Why did the Ethiopians win? What would

have happened if the Italians had won? (These are different levels of analysis.)

2. Be sure everyone has heard and understood your questions. You may want to help by

writing the questions on the board or having a handout prepared for them to discuss in

pairs or groups. This can be the same handout for all groups or a different one for each

group. Then you can use CROSSOVER activities or FEEDBACK to disseminate the

questions and answers.

3. Don’t always ask the students who raise their hands to give you the answers. They will

probably always be the same people. Ask different students each time in a random way or

use it as a way to keep all students attentive. For example, if you see two students chatting

at the back, you can ask them a question as a form of discipline to warn them next time to

be attentive.


14

4. Encourage students to back up their answers with evidence. For example, if they give a

Yes/No or True/False answer, ask them ‘What makes you say that?’ or ‘What evidence is

there for that?’

5. To fully understand a topic, students must think about it at different levels. Bloom’

Taxonomy of Learning tells us that there are many different levels of understanding. Our

questions should use these levels.

6. The simplest questions are ‘closed’ questions which have a factual answer: What is the

capital city of Egypt? Who is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia? See Point 1 (above.) Open

questions require a more complex answer: Why did Menelik II choose Addis Ababa as the

capital of Ethiopia?

7. Questions can be categorized using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. Here are the different

categories with the key words to help you write and ask questions:

Knowledge � List

� Name

� Identify

� Show

� Define

� Recognise

� Recall

� State

Comprehension � Summarise

� Explain

� Put into your own words

� Interpret

� Describe

� Compare

� Differentiate

� Demonstrate

Application � Solve

� Illustrate

� Calculate

� Use

� Interpret

� Relate

� Apply

� Classify

Analysis � Analyse

� Organise

� Deduce

� Choose

� Contrast

� Compare

� Distinguish

Synthesis � Design

� Support

� Report

� Discuss

� Devise

� Compare

� Create

Evaluation � Evaluate

� Choose

� Estimate

� Judge

� Defend

� Criticise

� Justify

8. Research has shown (See ‘Essentials of Educational Measurement’ Ebel and Frisbie 1991)

that, despite the rhetoric about fostering higher order thinking skills, the vast majority of

teachers’ questions require recall, recognition and literal comprehension i.e. the intellectual

level of most verbal exchanges is much lower than it ought to be so use Bloom’s Taxonomy

to make sure you ask higher level questions.

9. Avoid the rhetorical technique used by preachers: “What does the Bible say about this? It

says ….” If you ask a question, don’t answer it yourself, let your students answer it. Also,

make sure that a specific student answers your question, don’t accept a murmured answer

from the class in general.


15

Encouraging participation (Handout 3.4)

Tips to help you encourage the participation of quieter or shy students:

1. Participation is a vital part of active learning. Sometimes students do not willingly

participate in lessons.

2. There are many different reasons why students do not participate in class. These include;

shyness, fear of making a mistake, fear of public speaking, cultural pressure to remain

quiet and passive. There are many other reasons, and some students may have several

reasons.

3. There are many different ways of actively participating in a lesson, not just asking or

answering questions in front of the whole class. These include; individual work, pair

work and small group work.

4. To encourage participation in class try the following:

• Use different types of learning activities (whole class discussion, individual work,

pair work etc.)

• In whole class discussions ask different types of questions. For the easier questions

choose the students who do not usually participate. This will give them a chance to

participate and build their confidence.

• Give students time to think or to discuss before accepting answers. This gives

students a chance to think carefully before answering.

• Publically praise students who do participate but do not pressure those who do not.

Instead, try to create a supportive atmosphere in the class to allow all to join in.

• Do not allow any behaviour in class that will stop other students from participating.

Especially do not tolerate any bullying or making fun out of a student.

Note:

When students participate actively in lessons they learn better. There are

many reasons that may cause students to stop participating, but there are

also many different ways of including students and encouraging

participation in lessons.


16

Classroom Management (Handout 4.1)

Which of these are the most important for good Classroom Management?

Rank them and discuss your ranking with your partner. RANK

1. Be a good role model. For example, always be punctual.

2. Use different activities to keep the students’ interest and attention.

3. Establish ground rules for the class and ensure that they are obeyed.

4. Manage your time effectively and allow time at the end to explain any

assignment and to check that the objectives have been achieved.

5. Maintain hard work and discipline in your classes.

6. Give good, clear instructions.

7. Speak slowly and clearly to make sure everyone understands you.

8. Use resources such as hand-outs, visual aids etc.

9. Make sure all students are participating at all times.

10. Plan your lessons carefully so that you and your students know what is

happening at all times in the class.

11. Use a variety of teaching methods for each type of learner.

12. Be aware at all times of how students are reacting.

13. Have a good relationship with your students by greeting them, smiling,

praising, showing concern and interest, talking to them before and after

class etc.

14. Know your subject well.

15.

16.

17.

Can you add your own?


17

What can the teacher do to improve the following situations?

1. Students are working in groups but some groups have finished and are just sitting

chatting.

2. Latecomers disturb the class when they come in.

3. The teacher gives some reading for homework but some students have not done it.

4. Sometimes a mobile phone rings in your class even though the ground rules say that

phones must be turned off.

5. The teacher wants to talk but some of the students are still talking.

6. In group work there are always some students who do not participate.

7. The teacher has set students to do some work in groups but can see that some groups do

not seem to know what to do.

8. The teacher does all the talking and the students only write notes.

What can the teacher do to improve the following situations?

1. Students are working in groups but some groups have finished and are just sitting

chatting.

2. Latecomers disturb the class when they come in.

3. The teacher gives some reading for homework but some students have not done it.

4. Sometimes a mobile phone rings in your class even though the ground rules say that

phones must be turned off.

5. The teacher wants to talk but some of the students are still talking.

6. In group work there are always some students who do not participate.

7. The teacher has set students to do some work in groups but can see that some groups do

not seem to know what to do.

8. The teacher does all the talking and the students only write notes.


18

Assessment of Learning/Assessment for Learning (Handout 5.1)

1. At intervals during your lesson, you ask questions to check understanding. of/for/not

2. Students give you some work they have done and you return it with a mark out of 10.

of/for/not 3. Students copy your notes from the board. of/for/not

4. You ask students if they understand and they say ‘yes’ or nothing. of/for/not

5. To start a new topic, you brainstorm what they already know about it. of/for/not

6. You give an examination and report the results to the school and the parents. of/for/not



of/for/not

3. Students copy your notes from the board. of/for/not






of/for/not







of/for/not






19

Assessment Methods (5.2)

Formative Assessment

Advice to improve your assessment practice and to improve your students’ achievement:

1. Formative assessment is any assessment that is used to give students advice how to improve

their achievement. It can be either a formal or informal assessment, and it is also possible for

it to be a summative assessment.

2. Formative assessment is very important to help students improve themselves. By giving good

quality feedback and advice to students, they are empowered and able to take actions

themselves to improve their grades. Formative assessment improves the motivation of

students. It also helps them to take responsibility for their learning.

3. It is important to praise achievements and also give suggestions for improvement. Detailed

comments about which parts of their work are good and what they can do to improve their

work are especially important.

4. When you give formative feedback, give only comments. Do not give a grade or a mark out

of 10. Research has shown that students will pay more attention to comments when a grade

or mark is not given.

5. When you give feedback, it is best to focus on 2 or 3 areas that need improvement. In longer

pieces of work there may be many mistakes – do not comment on all of them – this will

reduce the motivation of your students and distract them from making the most important

improvements. Instead, focus on the 2 or 3 most important areas and explain how to improve

these to the student.

Formative assessment is a crucial method to improve student performance. It is a

powerful way to make students more responsible for their work and to help them

become more independent learners.

Summative Assessment

Advice to improve your assessment practice and to improve your students’ achievement:

1. Summative assessment is any assessment that is used to give a final grade or mark. It is a

formal assessment of what a student understands at that time.

2. Summative assessment is best when students are assessed in different ways and at different

times. Don’t give one single test or assignment, instead assess throughout the course using

many different activities. This is continuous assessment.

3. Carefully plan what you are assessing. All assessments should relate to the course objectives.

Be careful to assess each objective equally.


20

4. Before the assessment, tell the students which topics the assessment will be about. Explain to

them how the assessment will work. This gives the students the best chance to succeed.

5. Give the students a chance to show different levels of understanding and skill in the

assessment. Let students show their factual understanding and also their deeper levels of

understanding like application and evaluation in the assessment.

6. After the assessment, give detailed feedback to the students. All feedback should explain to

students how to improve their achievement in the future. Research shows that just giving a

mark or grade does not help students improve, but giving students detailed comments can

improve achievement significantly.

Summative assessment is best when it is divided between several different activities

throughout a course – this is called continuous assessment. Summative assessment

should be followed by feedback so that students can learn from the process and improve

their results in the future.

Self-Assessment

Asking students to evaluate their work to help them improve:

1. Self-assessment is where a student assesses himself. This can be done in many ways. For

example you can ask a student to reflect on their effort and achievement, or you can explain

exactly how a question is marked and then ask the student to mark the question themselves.

2. Reflective activities are very useful for encouraging a student to be responsible for their own

achievement. By asking students to think about their strengths and weaknesses they can find

out how to improve and plan for future studying.

3. Reflective activities are also a good way of asking students to think about the way they study,

their effort and self-motivation. Academic research has shown that a student’s self-

motivation is very important, so reflecting about this is useful.

4. Marking work is a good way for students to learn from their mistakes. First, explain to the

class how a question is marked, then ask them to mark their own work. This can take a long

time for complex questions, but the learning value to the students is very high. This method

can also be used together with peer assessment – where students mark each other’s work and

give each other feedback.


21

Self-assessment is a very good way to encourage students to be responsible for their own

achievement. Reflective activities are a good way for students to evaluate the effort they

give to their study and the self-marking of work is another method for improving

understanding and learning from mistakes.

Peer Assessment

Asking students to evaluate each other’s work to help them improve:

1. Peer assessment is where students assess the work of other students. Like self-assessment,

this can be done in many ways and for many different activities. For example you can ask a

student to listen to a presentation and give feedback to the presenter, or, you can ask students

to mark each other’s essays (having first explained to them how to mark the work).

2. Peer assessment is a useful way of developing evaluation skills in students. By assessing

each other’s work the students learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a particular

piece of work. Peer assessment also develops an understanding of how teachers and

examiners assess work, which helps students do better in exams and formal assessments.

3. Peer assessment also raises achievement by encouraging competition. When students know

they are going to be assessed by each other they are motivated to work harder. Students learn

from their own feedback, and also from the feedback given to other students.

4. If not done carefully, peer assessment has the potential to cause problems between students

and to cause students to be upset. It is therefore important that the teacher explains to the

class why peer assessment is being used, its advantages, and sets clear ground rules so

students know how to do it in a way that is supportive for other students and not in a way to

cause problems. If it is done well, peer assessment helps to develop teamwork and leadership

skills.

Peer assessment is a very good way to help students work together to raise their

achievement. It gives a chance for students to learn to evaluate work and also develops

the teamwork and leadership skills of the students.


22

Assessment Checklist (Handout 5.3)

Assessment Checklist Yes No

1. Are your assessment methods related directly to the aims and

objectives of the course?

2. Do you use frequent diagnostic tests to discover weaknesses in

learning?

3. Do your students make efforts to overcome their weaknesses?

4. Do your methods recognize the efforts to learn which the less

able students are making?

5. Do your methods recognize and reward qualities which are

difficult to measure objectively?

6. Do you discuss the results of tests or other forms of assessment

to see why certain mistakes were made and to help the students

improve in future?

7. Do you use frequent quizzes to check progress? These can be

used to check whether a reading assignment has been done or to

check understanding of a lesson. They can be peer marked.

8. Do you use these methods of assessment?

• Traditional unseen examinations

• Open book examinations

• Open notes examinations

• Structured examinations: multiple choice, true/false, fill

in the blanks

• Essays

• Reports

• Practical work

• Oral exams

• Projects

• Self-assessment

• Peer-assessment

• Informal assessment (listening carefully to your students

and making notes about their progress)?

Discuss your answers with your partner.

Continuous Assessment helps students and teachers to identify their strengths and weaknesses before

end-of-term or end-of-year tests when it may be too late to help. You can do continuous

assessment by recording:

• Which students usually have most difficulty and which find the work easy;

• What parts of the lessons are difficult for most students and why (This enables you to plan

revision lessons or parts of lessons.)


23

Assessment for Learning (Handout 5.4)

The value of assessment for learning:

• Providing effective feedback to students;

• Actively involving students in their own learning;

• Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment;

• Recognizing the huge influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of

students, both of which can be crucial to learning;

• Considering the needs for students to be able to assess themselves and to understand how to

improve.

The risks of assessment:

• Valuing quantity and presentation rather than the quality of learning;

• Lowering the self-esteem of students by over-concentrating on judgments rather than advice

for improvement;

• Demoralising learners by comparing them negatively and repeatedly with more successful

learners;

• Working with an incomplete picture of learners’ needs (see below).

Assessment Methods

• Just as individuals vary in their preferred learning styles, so there will be variation in

performance on different assessment tasks.

• In order for students to demonstrate their achievements fairly, different assessment methods

are needed, so make sure you test in different ways.

Feedback

• Feedback must include clear guidance to students on how they can improve their work.

• Just giving a mark without comments does not help them.


24

How not to Test (Handout 5.5)

Read these learners’ complaints on this handout. Complete the sentences to say what is wrong with

the test design:

1. “The instructions just said ‘Fill the gaps.’ so I did but I got all the questions wrong because I

was only supposed to use one word.”

Instructions need …………………………………………………………………………………

2. “The course was all about listening and speaking and I really liked it but at the end we had to

do a written test and I did badly.”

The content of the test should ……………………………………………………………………

3. “I got the test back from the teacher and I hadn’t done very well. She just wrote ‘You

must work harder’ at the bottom,”

Feedback should ……………………………………………………………………………

4. “The test was multiple-choice. I am sure that two of the options were correct so I didn’t

know which to choose and I got no marks for that question.”

When you write a multiple-choice test, the options should be …………………………………….


25

Qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqw …info.moe.gov.et/pdf/workshop teaching methods...

Documents

Transcript of Qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqw …info.moe.gov.et/pdf/workshop teaching methods...