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“Educators have traditionally relied on assessment that compares students with ore successful peers as a means to motivate students to learn, but recent research suggests students will likely be motivated and confident learners when they experience progress and achievement, rather than the failure and defeat with being compared to more successful peers”  I love this with my son who has Down Syndrome. He gets compared to his own IEP goals, not others. Where my son that doesn’t have DS is constantly compared to his peers instead of his own progress.

covid has been the most recent societal change that has significantly effected our students and teachers and community.

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1. I think that covid has had the biggest change on students and their learning. As a teacher its hard enough to get students engaged and students sometimes don't have access to the technology needed.

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What recent societal changes have had a significant effect on your students and their community? What has the effect been on teaching and learning?

I would say the largest change in society would be Covid-19. It has had a very large impact on our students as a whole. The struggles that they have had to go through, mentally and physically, have really taken a toll on the students. It has also changed teaching and schools as a whole.

What is the difference between validity and reliability as related to evaluation?

Validity refers to the extent to which a test measures, and what it claims to measure. Reliability, on the other hand, refers to the consistency of the test results.

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What recent societal changes have had a significant effect on your students and their community? What has the effect been on teaching and learning?

One obvious change is COVID. It has affected social, economic, physical and mental well being. It has changed out routines and mindsets in nearly every way imaginable. As teachers we have had to adapt to changing to online learning, demos lose the interaction, or even become lecture. Students may not have access to the best devices or fastest connection. Situations like this may cause the brightest students to become the weakest link.

What is the difference between validity and reliability as related to evaluation?

With reliability, there is little difference between assessment by different methods or teachers, where validity is asking “is this assessing what I need assessed.” I can't really put this into words well. I cant wait to heat what some of my fellow students have to say on this.

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There are many considerations to look at. For instance the covid and the way school is looking. Online compared to in class. Student interaction verse social distancing. Do students learn the same or there's less of an advantage for students to be home.

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What recent societal changes have had a significant effect on your students and their community? What has the effect been on teaching and learning?

Covid 19 has had the most significant effect on our students and community this year. With changes to how often they can attend school, how many kids per class depending on the size of a class, online classes, having to social distance, wear masks, all of these things have affected students.

It has made teaching different. We have had to learn how to teach online, provide online work for students to do at home, temper our expectations as to what they will be able to learn and achieve this year, deal with inconsistent attendance, lots of incomplete online assignments. Learning has become more difficult for students because a lot of them don't care to do online learning. If they don't understand something, oftentimes they just don’t do it instead of asking for help. Or if they do ask for help they might not get it until the next day once the teacher is back at school. They are also missing out on important practical class time which is slowing the learning process.

What is the difference between validity and reliability as related to evaluation?

Reliability is being able to assess a student and make statements about that student according to the assessment. You should have enough  information to assess so that your assessment will be similar everytime. If another teacher assesses the student using the same information but different methods then that teacher’s assessment and statements should be similar to yours. If it is not then the assessment is not reliable which can be due to not enough information used to assess.

Validity is how well your assessment measures what you are trying to measure. It measures if you are properly teaching and students are properly learning the intended outcome or are they learning something that you are not intentionally teaching instead?

ex.) Are the students learning a different outcome but are still able to complete the assignment and make it appear that they are meeting the proper outcome?

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What recent societal changes have had a significant effect on your students and their community? What has the effect been on teaching and learning?

I think the biggest society change to affect students recently has been the pandemic. High school students are now having their classes online, with minimal testing and adapted curriculums. Students in MB are not required to have their grade 12 exams, students last year weren’t required to finish the school year and students feel like they are getting a ‘pass’ in their classes. I’ve also heard students mentioning how their grades are significantly higher than previous years, they’re doing less work and their teachers are essentially ‘cutting them a break’ for doing school through the pandemic. While I do acknowledge that things have changed drastically because of this, how are we letting our students slide through this easily? What are they learning? How will this affect their futures in  a positive way?

What is the difference between validity and reliability as related to evaluation?

Validity refers to the accuracy of an assessment -- whether or not it measures what it is supposed to measure. Even if a test is reliable, it may not provide a valid measure.

A semester or quarter exam that only includes content covered during the last six weeks is not a valid measure of the course's overall objectives -- it has very low content validity. It should have content from the whole semester.

reliability - refers to how consistent an assessment tool is. The results of the test should be consistent and provide the same results time and time again. Give the same assessment twice, separated by days, weeks, or months

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Comment /Question 1&2)

“There is considerable evidence that assessment is a powerful process for enhancing learning. Black and Wiliam (1998) synthesized over 250 studies linking assessment and learning, and found that the intentional use of assessment in the classroom to promote learning improved student achievement. Increasing the amount of time on assessment, however, does not necessarily enhance learning. Rather, when teachers use classroom assessment to become aware of the knowledge, skills, and beliefs that their students bring to a learning task, use this knowledge as a starting point for new instruction, and monitor students’ changing perceptions as instruction proceeds, classroom assessment promotes learning”.

1) - How teachers go about “assessment to become aware of the knowledge, skills, and beliefs that their students bring to a learning task” needs to be done in a stress-free way and almost to the point where the students don’t even realize there being formative assessed or tested. This is critical when early in the learning process and early in the relationship with all the students. If this is all done right, I believe good solid rapports and relationships begin. The students develop more entirely, meaning better student social skills and blending with society and the workplace.

2) - How this knowledge is used to become a starting point for new instruction for students is essential in creating that initial spark to find that intrinsic motivation towards the material taught to them. I think students look for predictability over time when learning things. If the learning gets boring and the students have experienced this before, they mentally disengage from the learning. Intrinsic motivation created by the teacher for the student, in the beginning, eliminates this issue. Then consistently employing various philosophies with a range of techniques and practices to attract and excite the students will create an intriguingly positive culture in my class that students will want to be in and learn.