?
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OV
RR
PP
A?A
UVI
ST
, ?
ED
OV
RR
PP
A?A
UVI
ST
, ?
ED
OV
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, Chapter 1: Why Do Teachers Need to Know About Assessment?
CHAPTER 1
WHY DO TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ASSESSMENT?
ST
Instructor to Instructor
Firing Up the Troops
U
If you’re teaching a classroom-assessment course, whether your students are prospective
teachers or experienced classroom teachers, you’ll almost certainly need to do at least some sort
of motivational job to get your students to approach the course with suitable zeal.
VI
More often than not, at least in my experience, most students take courses because they
are required to do so. Teacher education students typically enroll in a classroom-assessment
course either because it is a licensure requirement or because the student’s advisor urged the
A
course be taken. Experienced teachers might sign up for a classroom assessment course as part of
a degree program or, increasingly, because officials of a school district have decided the
?A
district’s educators need a dose of classroom assessment. Teachers who are directed to take a
course, even though it might be billed as a professional development course, are rarely jubilant
about that obligatory prospect. Having taught such indifferent, reluctant, or sometimes hostile
teachers, I know.
At any rate, I encourage you not to assume your students are breathlessly waiting to
PP
gobble up all the assessment truths you toss their way. And, if you agree, this means you need to
try to bolster my efforts in Chapter 1 to get readers to recognize the importance of learning about
classroom assessment. Part of the rationale for mastering the content you’ll be treating in
Chapter 1 sounds fairly lofty, for example, “A competent educational professional these days
must know something about assessment because students’ test scores are the chief indicators of
RR
educational quality.” But I’ve found in my own courses that the most effective hook for students
is the recognition that this assessment content can make them more effective teachers.
Indeed, in the ninth edition of Classroom Assessment, you’ll find that I often bang away
OV
on this bongo, namely, the linkage between testing and teaching. Happily, not only is the
potential for the textbook’s instructional payoff a sound motivational ploy—it also happens to be
the truth. Thus, I hope you’ll spend at least some early-on time trying to get your students
energized so they’ll tackle the textbook’s content with enthusiasm. It really is important content.
Truly, teachers who are better classroom assessors will almost certainly be better teachers. Your
students need to realize it.
ED
The chapter’s “Teste Self-Test About Teaching,” if you wish to use it for your entire
class, ought to be completed at the very outset of the course, for instance, during the first 5-10
minutes of your first class session. You can decide, of course, whether you’ll be asking students
to fill out the same self-test at the course’s conclusion. It’s more convenient for students, of
?
course, if you can print out the self-test, then pass it out so your students don’t need to mark up
their “precious” book.
1
ED
OV
RR
PP
A?A
UVI
ST
, ?
ED
OV
RR
PP
A?A
UVI
ST
, ?
ED
OV
RR
PP
A?A
UVI
ST
, Chapter 1: Why Do Teachers Need to Know About Assessment?
CHAPTER 1
WHY DO TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ASSESSMENT?
ST
Instructor to Instructor
Firing Up the Troops
U
If you’re teaching a classroom-assessment course, whether your students are prospective
teachers or experienced classroom teachers, you’ll almost certainly need to do at least some sort
of motivational job to get your students to approach the course with suitable zeal.
VI
More often than not, at least in my experience, most students take courses because they
are required to do so. Teacher education students typically enroll in a classroom-assessment
course either because it is a licensure requirement or because the student’s advisor urged the
A
course be taken. Experienced teachers might sign up for a classroom assessment course as part of
a degree program or, increasingly, because officials of a school district have decided the
?A
district’s educators need a dose of classroom assessment. Teachers who are directed to take a
course, even though it might be billed as a professional development course, are rarely jubilant
about that obligatory prospect. Having taught such indifferent, reluctant, or sometimes hostile
teachers, I know.
At any rate, I encourage you not to assume your students are breathlessly waiting to
PP
gobble up all the assessment truths you toss their way. And, if you agree, this means you need to
try to bolster my efforts in Chapter 1 to get readers to recognize the importance of learning about
classroom assessment. Part of the rationale for mastering the content you’ll be treating in
Chapter 1 sounds fairly lofty, for example, “A competent educational professional these days
must know something about assessment because students’ test scores are the chief indicators of
RR
educational quality.” But I’ve found in my own courses that the most effective hook for students
is the recognition that this assessment content can make them more effective teachers.
Indeed, in the ninth edition of Classroom Assessment, you’ll find that I often bang away
OV
on this bongo, namely, the linkage between testing and teaching. Happily, not only is the
potential for the textbook’s instructional payoff a sound motivational ploy—it also happens to be
the truth. Thus, I hope you’ll spend at least some early-on time trying to get your students
energized so they’ll tackle the textbook’s content with enthusiasm. It really is important content.
Truly, teachers who are better classroom assessors will almost certainly be better teachers. Your
students need to realize it.
ED
The chapter’s “Teste Self-Test About Teaching,” if you wish to use it for your entire
class, ought to be completed at the very outset of the course, for instance, during the first 5-10
minutes of your first class session. You can decide, of course, whether you’ll be asking students
to fill out the same self-test at the course’s conclusion. It’s more convenient for students, of
?
course, if you can print out the self-test, then pass it out so your students don’t need to mark up
their “precious” book.
1
