Assessment+(continued4)

**How can assessment impact our pedagogy?**

Pedagogy is defined as the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction. Assessment can impact our pedagogy because if teachers can implement positive forms of assessment for students this can impact how students view the process of assessment. Assessment for learning requires teachers to believe that all students have unlimited learning potential, learning requires active construction of meaning and assessment experiences affect the way students’ view themselves. Students’ self-esteem plays a role in motivating them to do well. Students who consistently receive negative feedback from assessment hardly ever look forward to their next assessment experience. This in turn makes them less prepared for the assessment thus increasing the likelihood that they will not do well again and so the cycle continues. Students who consistently succeed in assessment have a different cycle. Their high expectations motivate them to do well next time and so they prepare for the experience, increasing their likelihood of success. The teacher who is unaware of this impact and puts students through more of the same assessment experiences reinforces this self-belief; positive for one but overwhelmingly negative for another. To change this into a positive experience for all students this requires a major shift in assessment pedagogy with a refocus on formative assessment and self-assessment to create conditions for assessment for learning.

Depending on the way a teacher views assessment can affect our pedagogy, or the way we teach. In //The National Education Technology Plan// , President Obama says “ //the challenge is to think about what we must be assessing.// ” This can also impact our pedagogy because depending on what each individual teacher feels is important to asses may differ from another teacher. After meeting the criteria of the national and state standards, different teachers may want to go more in depth teaching certain topics. One teacher may feel that a particular math topic is important to assess and will therefore focus on teaching that topic. Another teacher may think that reading is important to assess and will therefore focus on that. A third teacher may think that social skills are important to asses and will therefore focus on group work and collaboration.

Standards play an important role because they make sure teachers are all assessing the same things. They ensure that students are being taught the same information and are being prepared to take the standardized tests. However, a teacher’s pedagogy can also play a part in this. Depending on what the teacher feels is important has an influence on what else may be assessed. Many teachers may also choose to assess students on their character and ability to get along with others as well as the content that is required with the standards. Teachers should not only teach to the standards. They should also teach students things that will be useful in their everyday lives along with incorporating the essential information the students need to meet the standards. This ensures that all students meet the basic level of education standard.

Teachers can use the data collected from standardized tests to make decisions about how or what they teach. If teachers are not meeting the standard for their test scores, they will be able to change their teaching style. Although we can create standardized tests from collected data, this has been done in the past. We have tried to use these standardized tests to give students well-rounded educations, but it turns out that this is not the best way. The basis for the standardized tests was to make sure that every student was receiving the same education, regardless of school, social status, and ethnicity. However, it has had more of a negative effect on students today. These students are being taught just well enough to pass standardized tests. The problem with the standardized test is not the test itself, but the fact that teachers are teaching the test content because they feel this is the best way for students to pass.Administrators have become so worried about standardized testing that they administer practice tests and such. It is important to realize that each student in every school district is different. Some of the material that must be covered on these test fit certain student’s learning style. Other students may have a difficult time with these tests. Cultural backgrounds and many other factors effect the way each student accepts things that they learn. Implementing different styles of teaching such as using technology in the classroom could impact how the students internalize the information. All students learn differently and it is important for the teacher to teach using different techniques (multiple intelligences).