AKLAN STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Industrial Technology

Kalibo, Aklan

REPORT
IN
ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING

REPORT TITLE:
TEACHER OBSERVATION and STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT

PREPARED BY: MAYBELYN L. OCZON

TEACHER OBSERVATION

Teacher observation can be characterized as two types: incidental and planned.

 Incidental observation occurs during the ongoing (deliberate) activities of teaching and
learning and the interactions between teacher and students.

 Planned observation involves deliberate planning of an opportunity for the teacher to

observe specific learning outcomes.

ARGUMENTS FOR VALUING TEACHER OBSERVATION

Teacher observation is an important but underutilised assessment technique. It is
sometimes argued that teachers are unable to make appropriate and dependable assessment
judgments from observations of students in natural settings. A strong justification for using
teacher observation in assessment is its capacity to enhance assessment validity. By extending
the range of possible assessments, teacher observation allows assessment to be more:

 Comprehensive — ensuring recognition of all desired learning outcomes, especially

those not otherwise assessable than in classroom contexts;
 Connected — situated within familiar learning contexts and closely related to
curriculum frameworks, learning experiences and pedagogical planning;
 Contextualised — sensitive to the effects of context on performance and deriving
assessment evidence from a variety of situations and occasions;
 Authentic — interesting, challenging, worthwhile and meaningful to students;
 Holistic — emphasising relatedness and connections in learning and involving
performance on complex wholes rather than separate components.

COLLECTION AND RECORDING OF EVIDENCE

All assessment requires the collection and recording of evidence of student learning.
Evidence is documentation that records, illustrates or confirms student demonstrations of
learning outcomes.

Collection and recording of evidence is necessary for two reasons:

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  Accountability — justification of the assessment judgments; and
 Verification — confirmation of the assessment judgments.

PLANNING FOR TEACHER OBSERVATION

Teacher observations cannot be useful without planning. Different types of evidence
require different types of planning. An essential requirement for all types of evidence is
anticipating the kinds of learning outcomes that may be demonstrated. This is particularly
important where observation is incidental and where judgments (rather than descriptions) are
recorded.

The advantages of prepared observation sheets include:

 Opportunity to share learning expectations with students in advance.
 Encouragement of student self-monitoring and self-assessment.
 Clarification of the desired learning outcomes to guide learning.
 Focus on the desired learning outcomes to guide teaching.
 Cuing of attention to the full range of relevant learning outcomes.
 Having available an explicit and standard recording format.
 Ease of recording of student performance characteristics.
 Structured means of providing feedback to students.

Disadvantages of prepared observation sheets include:

 The need to allow for several levels of learning outcomes on a single sheet.
 It can be difficult to anticipate all the learning outcomes that might appear.
 It is possible that other serendipitous learning outcomes will be missed.
 Students’ learning may be constrained by listed learning outcomes.

FACTORS AFFECTING VALIDITY OF TEACHER OBSERVATIONS

1. Prejudgments and prejudices

2. Selective perception
3. Selective perception
4. Inappropriate inference
5. Inconsistency

STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT

Student self-assessment involves students in evaluating their own work and learning
progress.

Self-assessment is a valuable learning tool as well as part of an assessment

process. Through self-assessment, students can:

 identify their own skill gaps, where their knowledge is weak

 see where to focus their attention in learning
 set realistic goals
 revise their work
 track their own progress
 if online, decide when to move to the next level of the course

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 This process helps students stay involved and motivated and encourages self-reflection and
responsibility for their learning.

Questions:

1. It is a documentation that records, illustrates or confirms student demonstration of

learning outcomes.
2. It involves deliberate planning of an opportunity for the teacher to observe specific
learning outcomes.
3. It involves students in evaluating their own work and learning progress.
4. It emphasize relatedness and connections in learning and involving performance on
complex wholes rather than separate component.
5. It occurs during the ongoing activities of teaching and learning and the interactions
between teacher and students.
6. It ensures recognition of all desired learning outcomes, especially those not otherwise
assessable than in classroom contexts.
7. It is a confirmation of the assessment judgments.

8-10 Enumerate the factors affecting the validity of teacher observation.

Answer keys:

1. Evidence
2. Planned observation
3. Student self-assessment
4. Holistic
5. Incidental observation
6. Comprehension
7. Verification

8-10

 Prejudgments and prejudices

 Selective perception
 Selective perception
 Inappropriate inference
 Inconsistency