Dtlls †Enabling Learning and Assessment Essay

Course get going 1 m utilize Account of Peer perspicacity Activity Within this piece of work I get out be reflecting on an appraisal activity utilize by a peer whilst I was observing their lesson for A- direct psychology. The pupils were e re everyy(prenominal) gray 17-19 and the lesson was on theories of depression and was a revise session for scholars before their exams the following month. The legal opinion activity was an everyday shaping discernment where the students were congeald into throngs of two or three pupils and were indeed aband whizzd an argona of the defer matter, the learners so had to create order notes as a group on a piece of flipchart paper using their own notes and text books. The learners were wherefore devoten 15 minutes to revise these notes, once this time was up the learn so seclude aimed the learners to wholly find a new partner and then t all(prenominal) their revised notes to their peer. The four-in-hand peer would try to give all their key notes without looking at the flipchart, but round learners were allowed when they got stuck on sealed points. The student peer would fool to take written notes to att stop over with their revision.The learners would then swap in their pairs and the roles would be reversed, after(prenominal) both learners had sh bed their revision notes they would then swap a come to find a new learner to pair with, this process continued until all learners had a full m extirpate of revision notes for the discipline. Brown et al on the subject of appraisal denseiness state It is often described as the match between what is think to be valued and what is measured. (Brown et al., 1997, p.239). I hope this activity was very well-grounded as it allowed the tutor to assess the notes the learners would be revising from for a summational exam in the future. The aims of this sound judgment were explained in full enlarge and the learners dumb what was expected of them fr om this activity.The point of the activity was for peer attainment to take place to aid revision in the subject of theories of depression this was definitely achieved by the end of the lesson as all learner had a full bent grass of revision notes on from from each one one aspect of the subject confirming the cogency of the estimate. The students were in charge of creating their own notes in each group and then raceing these notes onto their peers, this does cause just about reli tycoon issues as with all learners some students may wear put more(prenominal) effort into their revision notes than new(prenominal)s. hence you may get a learner who has put as oftentimes in throwation into his or hers notes as possible giving a broad amount of cognition on a certain bea of the subject and they may thenreceive from a peer basic knowledge of another argona of the subject. Reece and pushchair talk of reliability as the ability of a test to consistently measure what it is suppo sed to measure. (Reece and Walker, 2007, p.348), I believe this method of mind does not consistently measure but the tutor did circulate the schoolroom at all times aiding learners if they were finding it hard to put key points down on paper. This method does however aid specialty as less able learners were given the chance to gain knowledge of the subject from more able learners. The more able learners alike had the chance to practice and develop their subject knowledge aiding revision in the class. Word Count 520ReferencesBrown, G., Bull, J. and Pendlebury, M. (1997) Assessing Students tuition in Higher Education. Oxon, p.239. Reece, I. and Walker, S. (2007) Teaching, Training and breeding A Practical Guide. 6th ed. Sunderland Business Education Publishers Ltd, p.321.Coursework 2 Assessment Information inwardly own Organisation Assessment information within my own organisation is recorded from the beginning of a learner get together the college. Every potential student as part of the interview demo takes part in a minimum core assessment this is a basic screening test to assess the students literacy and numeracy skills. This initial assessment allows us to correctly place the learner on the castigate level of furrow. These results are placed in the college database, following the enrolment of each learner the minimum core results form a group divers(prenominal)iation profile for each class put together by the course leader. This profile is use by the tutor so they substructure sort skill tasks and understand individual learners charterfully from the very beginning.Once the course commences moldable assessments are created by the tutor and apply in each lesson. Each learner receives feedback from these assessments and if expected, targets undersideful be get dressed so the learner is clear on what is expected of them. Validity and reliability of assessments used during a course are checked at uniform standardisation betings within cu rriculum teams, these take place to sample print of constructive and summative theory assessments. Allowing tutors to internally verify samples of learners work so all tutorsin the department are consistent in their marking. Reece and Walker explain validity as how well the test measures what it is supposed to measure (Reece and Walker, 2007, p.321). Within these meetings the team will likewise evaluate and create plastic and summative assessments for future use a chance to share in force(p) practice. The meetings are also used to discuss virtual(a) assessments as different tutors privyister corroborate differing views on assessment criteria this support the reliability of the assessments. summative assessments are entered on a standardised tracking papers which every tutor in the department arse access.Updating this tracking document then enables each tutor or the head of department to dupe the progress of every learner athletic supportering to identify any at risk st udents who may need more attention or end up not completing the course. This document is shared with the learners they back fancy what still needs to be achieved to gain their qualification and how far they have come in confiness of progression, this aids motivation in the classroom and also a sense of achievement to see how much they have already finished. The learners have logbooks provided by the awarding body VTCT, this is where tutors record all operable summative assessment and sign clear up to say they have met the criteria do by VTCT. The logbook is used by the learner to build a portfolio of consultations forms and photographs from applicatives, written assignments and any online tests the learner has to complete during the course.The college also uses Pro-Monitor a computerised package which tutors can record individual learner progress and discipline targets for learners to achieve by a certain time. Learners can access Pro-Monitor and stimulant individual targ ets they wish to achieve, it can also show them graphs and ocular aids on how much of their qualification they have achieved, this is brilliant for more visual learners who may find written feedback harder to understand. These different behaviors of recording assessment information are vital in enabling tutors to identify when students are falling behind and planning for future development, a side solvent of not using these implements could be learners nearing the end of their course without completing assessments that are mandatory.ReferencesReece, I. and Walker, S. (2007) Teaching, Training and Learning- a PracticalGuide. 6th ed. Sunderland Business Edition Publishers, p.321.Coursework 3 Evaluation of Assessment ActivitiesAssessment is defined by Gravells and Simpson as a measure of reading, at a given point in time. applicable skills, knowledge and/or attitudes can be measured towards a subject or qualification. (Gravells and Simpson, 2008). There are three main types of as sessment initial, formative and summative these types of assessment can then be informal in the way of crosswords, gapped hand-outs, quizzes, discussions and journals or they can be formal in the way of exams, assignments, tests and observations. Formative assessment, used properly, is such an integral part of the article of impression and learning process that it could be argued that it shouldnt fifty-fifty be called assessment. When we consider teaching and learning methods, many of them questioning, case studies, and projects are also assessment methods used as learning checks. Scales states Assessment for learning is based on the belief that everyone can learn and formative assessment is a key strategy to help learners improve and develop (Scales, 2010) With this in mind the first assessment activity to be evaluated is a crossword used as an informal summative assessment.Crosswords are a simple and easy way of assessing learners knowledge during a unit. Crosswords can be up loaded to the college interactive website vitiate, learners can then download the activity as a form of homework or as an extension task during directed studies. These can then be handed in to the tutor for marking. A more effective method is to use a crossword as learning check during a lesson once the learners have completed the crossword they can then discuss as a group the answers. The tutor can also use extended questioning, asking more able learners to explain in more depth an answer to help aid differentiation. Feedback from learners suggests that crosswords are a challenging way of testing knowledge and encourages the learners to look at subject matter in different ways without having to sit tests all the time, which can be very daunting for certain learners.Something gained from feedback from a group of level 1s, is that because a majority of the learners have learning needs which affects their literacy they find the crossword in itself challenging to complete. To overcome this it has been noted that providing learners with a word bank of key words for each unit has helped in completing such tasks ascrosswords, as the learner still needs to know which word they are looking for but aids in development their spelling for the future. Feedback is the most significant part of formative assessment research suggests that immediate oral feedback is the most effective, whether this is done by one on ones or as a group discussion. The feedback provided should be developmental and make the learners extend their thinking and learning to a higher level and should also focus on positive points first before go onto more developmental areas for the learner to consider.By conducting formative assessment it can ensure that the teacher gains a full arrangement of the learners existing capabilities so that realistic goals can then be set and additional support if needed can be organised. With this feedback individual targets can then be created for each learner and placed on the college Pro-Monitor musical arrangement where the learners can access their targets as and when needed to see how they are developing in the course. Learners are also encouraged to create their own ad hominem targets on Pro-Monitor, using feedback from formative assessments it allows learners to realise key strengths and weaknesses to help in creating these targets. The use of this feedback is very much like the idea of scaffolding, Bruner (Wood et al., 1976) coined this term in the 1950s and believed using a more knowledgeable other to challenge the learner to achieve more by providing scaffolding to help them climb to higher levels.Learners in dialogue with teachers can see where they ask to reach but initially may need help in the form of questions, prompts and pointers to get there. additive assessment is the assessment of learning and it leads to the gaining of qualifications and grades. Weeden suggests Summative assessment is a snapshot judgement that records what a learner can do at a particular time. (Weeden et al., 2002, p.19) This process of qualification is fundamental for learners and it is good to keep in mind the emotional aspects and design of assessment in relation to validity and reliability. With this in mind the second assessment activity to be evaluated is a practical observation used as a formal summative assessment. Practical observations are used end-to-end all 3 NVQ levels in yellowish pink therapy as the subject is highly vocationally based. Beauty therapy NVQs are broken down into units, for each unit there will be practical assessments that have to be completed at the end of the unit, where the learner is observed and assessed by the teacher.VTCT arethe awarding body for the beauty therapy NVQs and they set out the practical assessment criteria for each unit, this criteria is printed in the learners logbooks which is where each assessment is signed off if a pass has been achieved. To aid the reliability of the pr actical assessments all beauty lecturers at the college come together at standardisation meetings where the criteria is discussed in detail and a learner marking sheet is created which includes each of the areas the learner has to meet to gain a pass in the assessment. If this was not done each teacher could interpret the assessment criteria in different ways therefore learners would not be assessed more or less and reliably. Petty states the same examiner should give the same mark if they unknowingly mark a script double on different days (Petty, 2009), using standardisation this means that even with practical based assessments the results should continuously be the same.To help learners during practical assessments learning outcomes are written on the whiteboard to highlight key points they will need to show competency in or do to achieve a pass in the assessment. During the observation the teacher will also ask questions to the learners to help achieve the unit criteria, this is also where differentiation of the learners can take place as more able learners will be asked more open-ended and higher order questions then less able learners who will be asked standard criteria questions. The use of cameras in practical assessments is something that is still fairly new and is being experimented with but does seem to show some success. As part of the observation learners have to keep their working area exonerated and tidy and show due regard for health and safety, the teacher can now take pictures of each learners working area before the assessment takes place and then at the commencement of the assessment.With regards to practical assessments like knock down art, make-up and face painting the finished article can also be documented by a photo that the learner can then be used in their own portfolio to be displace to the awarding body. From these pictures the teacher can then feedback to the learner at the end of the assessment any positive points of the pra ctical and also any areas that the learner would need to further develop, the learner can then have these pictures as a visual aid to understand how they can improve for the following assessment and also works as a good revision aid for the future. Another approach to embrace ICT in assessments is to video learners assessments so they can themselves evaluateand feedback on client care and professionalism during their observation.It has been noted that using cameras in practical observations has been received well by the learners, they have commented that it brings a new dimension to receiving feedback and allows them to visualise areas they need to focus on improving and reinforces the assessment criteria for them too. Feedback from practical observation is given individually immediately after the learners assessment, feedback is given verbally with key points both positive and ones for development are written on the bottom of the consultation form the learner completed during the assessment (these consultation forms also go into the learners portfolio). Practical assessments can grant a lot to interpretation by the teacher so it is important the practical marking sheet is filled in during the observations and a pass or fail is determined by how many of the boxes the learner showed competence in, depending on which level the learner is currently studying determines the number of criteria they need to meet.Learners can feel very nervous and daunted by practical assessments at the beginning of the year as it the proverbial unknown, formative practical assessments do help to calm learners worries as they are a trial run of the summative assessment, also setting out some time to explain and discuss the unit assessment criteria and what will be expected of them from this. During the practical observations themselves the use of cameras also seems to help learners forget the formality of the observation and relax into the assessment.In conclusion all assessment methods should be a positive contribution to learning and good assessment activities are important to aiding teaching. However assessments are only worthwhile if they assist the learner and teacher to move through the learning outcomes of the unit, otherwise it is irrelevant. Designing assessment activities which stretch the learners abilities and promotes their development is a skill that comes with beat and understanding of the current learners on your course and it is definitely something that will always be tweaked and changed throughout your career. Word Count 1,594ReferencesGravells, A. and Simpson, S. (2008) Planning and enabling Learning in the Lifelonf Learning Sector. Exeter Learning matters, p.50. Petty, G. (2009)Teaching Today A practical guide. 4th ed. Cheltenham Nelson Thornes. Scales, P. (2010) Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Berkshire McGraw-Hill Education, p.180. Weeden, P., Winter, J. and Broadfoot, P. (2002) Assessment Whats in it for schools?. London Routledge Falmer, p.19. Wood, D., Bruner, J. and Ross, G. (1976) The role of tutoring in problem solving. In journal of child psychology and psychiatry., pp.89-100.