Assessment Reflection

In the last Friday I got a make-up class for PETA course. Unfortunately I came late to the course due to another event that I had to handle. Yet, I still could attend the class and get some new information.

In the day I learnt about assessment. It’s good news for me because although I came late, I have learnt the concept in Language Teaching Methodologies class so I didn’t get confused. Firstly I got the article from Ms.Tika, my lecturer. Then she asked us to answer some questions related to the assessment topic. Based on my understanding, I underlined the three phrases: diagnostic assessment, formative assessment & summative assessment. Diagnostic assessment is a form of assessment done before teaching and learning process. It provides teacher with an understanding of the prior knowledge and skills a student brings to a lesson. Formative assessment is an assessment to inform and improve the learning process. Summative assessment is an assessment that is used to get report on learners’ achievement. These are the main factors of assessment. Then I found something interesting in the class. Ms.Tika gave the analogy of formative and summative like an iceberg below:

The summative is in the upper while the formative is in the down side. The analogy is the summative assessment only covers a little part of whole learning process. The formative decides more on students’ level of understanding. Ironically, that’s what happens in our country. The graduation relies more on the summative test, where the process of learning itself is less assessed. In my opinion, I regard it as unfairness to the students. It is because they have learnt a lot of things but only few are assessed. I know everyone can say it and it’s not an easy thing to actualize. All I have to do now is keep working hard and always be an innovative teacher. Talk less, do more.