Primary Teachers' Workshop on Purposeful Assessment

" If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, We must teach in a way the child can learn." - Ivar Lovaas

On 30th April'15, a workshop was held at Blue Bells' School, conducted by Ms. Amarjeet Kaur and Ms. Preeti Puri on Purposeful Assessment. Ms. Steffi Lukose and Ms. Mahima Kapoor attended the workshop from the Primary, representing The Indian School.

As teachers we all know that assessment has many parameters apart from taking tests and giving marks. What makes assessment purposeful is the process of gathering, interpreting, recording and giving information about an individual student response to an educational task. This workshop was an interactive session which remarkably gave more insights on the 'what', 'why' and 'how' of Purposeful Assessment.

Group tasks helped teachers from different schools to mingle, share and work together. This helped us gain new knowledge on the different ways of assessment i.e. Assessment For Learning ( Formative Assessment) and Assessment Of Learning ( Summative Assessment). It highlighted implications of classroom practices such as involving students for self-assessment, providing feedback that helps students recognise their future steps and how to take such steps. Also how the learning goals, teaching strategies and assessment criteria should be matched so that teaching-learning becomes effective.

We discussed the different levels of cognitive domains and why we use Bloom's Taxonomy followed by the latest approach of Multi-Choice Items, requirements for writing good "items" and the advantages and disadvantages of MCI's.

The whole 4 hour workshop was interesting, captivating and thought-provoking . The speakers involved all the participants actively. All of us actively participated in all the activities and discussions that were held. We found we could follow and achieve all tasks set, as we are well-oriented in the same way at our own School. Compiled by Ms. Steffy Lukose and Ms. Mahima Kapoor.