This week was even more interesting than Week 1. I have learnt a lot.
Before starting the programme when I saw search tools and writing objectives in the course programme, I thought what I can learn, I know about these.
But all was totally new to me.
I have never thought that there are so many search tools.
I liked DOAJ tool and Google Scholar in particular. I am sure I will be using them a lot.
Then it was ABCD objective, it is the first time when I saw them. It took some time for me to understand how it works and having read other participants' posts, I felt relieved and came up with my own. The difference is that I am focusing on teacher training course, not an English language class. I hope it is still o.k. But I need to check with Donna to be on the safe side.
I found the model very useful as it disciplines the teacher. I will share the model with other teachers as well for sure in the teacher training courses.
There is still one question that is in my mind: it concerns the formulation of the mastery degree in the ABCD model in terms of percentages (e.g.80%, 95%). I thought how come one teacher can predict the degree in terms of percentages, we are teaching human beings, not machines. This is still a mystery for me. Can anyone explain this to me or give me link where I can read more.
Nodira
Hi Nodira!
ReplyDeleteYou've raised a really interesting question! I agree with you partially! Percentages don't seem useful for measuring learning in the affective domain, but I think they can be valid in cognitive domain. If the learners have got 18 out of 20 test items correct, their success rate is 90%, simple is that! We don't expect our students to perform everything with 100 % accuracy, do we?
Muhammad Rashid
Dear Nodira,
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks a lot for visiting my blog and leaving your comments.
Second, I would like to comment on your question about measuring students' degree of success in percentage. You are right to a certain degree that we are assessing people, not machines. But the more clear and objective our grading system is, the more effetctive it would be. At our university we are adapting rating system now when every subject should be graded at 100 points (70 for semester and 30 for exam). Last year I tried to figure out how to use such grading effectively in my course. In fact, in final tests we've been using percentage for quite a long time. I agree with Muhammad, it's all very simple in tests and I'd say rather convenient to define the grade. We have 2 to 5 system (2 is the worst, 5 is the best), so for final tests we just define what percent is 5, 4, etc. Actually, I liked the Jupitergrade system where you don't have just 100 points but have as many points as you like but finally it's percentage that counts.
By the way, I've been to Tashkent once when travelling from Samarkand to Moscow. It's rather modern and nice.
Hi Nodira,
ReplyDeleteRashid has rightly said that percentages can be valid in the cognitive domain. Some times we assume things just as in the research that there is hypothesis that there will be no significant difference in .......Yes, a teacher can assume the percentage of measuring the learning at objective setting stage. Since the teacher knows his/her class very well, his/her prediction does carry some weight. The actual percentage is known at end of the lesson. After practicing objective setting for some time, a teacher can achieve some mastery over predicting the right percentage.
Hi dears,
ReplyDeleteThanks to all of you for your valuable comments. By communicating with you and maybe asking 'silly' questions, I am trying to understand the things.
I do agree that teachers can predict, but usually we aim for about 80%. otherwise we wouldn't plan and teach that lesson. But this figure is taken as average of the class performance not an individual one? As we end up having learners who get 50%, 70, 90 etc. That's still very tricky question.
Stasya, as for the rating system, we have been using the same system in all institutions for about 10 years. I know what you mean, but still you don;t have the whole class who reach 80 or 85%, do you?
Also I am pleased to hear that you have been to Tashkent, you are more than welcome once more.
With best,
Nodira
Hi Nodira,
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take a try at explaining the degree to you also. The degree is the degree of mastery you wish to see from a student. For some things, like keeping a journal on reading, the degree can be simple, like make one journal entry per week (sorta like these blogs--either you post to your blog or you don't). For quizzes and tests, there's a passing score. In my classes, it's 70%. For more complex tasks, like writing an essay or research paper or giving a presentation in which the teacher evaluates the assignment by many different criteria, we use a rubric in which we describe the parts of the task and the range of possible scores. In the ABCD objective, I'd simply say that the student must write the essay with a score of at least 75% on the grading rubric. We talk about rubrics during this course.
One thing about objectives -- they can be simple or complex. They can describe a single lesson, complex task, a group of assignments, a section of a course, etc. the best rubrics have 4 parts: audience, behavior (that is measurable), condition, and degree.
We use rubrics to let students know exactly what they are do do and how they will be evaluated. Objectives help define a course, establish how course and curricular goals are met, and guide our teaching.
Oh--to answer your other question, yes it's great that you are using a teacher-training course for your project.
I hope this helps and does not muddy the water.
Donna
Hi Donna,
ReplyDeleteYOur post helped me a lot! Thanks for this! Now I understand that it is the minimum requirement, passing percentage. That wasn't on the website you have provided and it said usually it is 80% so I was confused. Now I really understand that! Well, actually in our system the passing score is defined to be 56% in all HEIs on all subjects. So everytime I will have to write this?
Nodira