MY PHILOSOPHY OF ASSESSING LEARNING 1

My Philosophy of Assessing Learning

Alicia Duran
Salt Lake Community College
April 2018
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My Philosophy of Assessing Learning

I believe assessments are crucial to an effective education, however, I do not

believe that assessment should be focused solely on memorization. Assessment are a

good way to measure the students’ mastery as well as the level understanding of a topic,

and they are a way to determine which areas need reinforcement. In order to accomplish

this, as a teacher, I must teach my students critical thinking and analytical skills that

will allow them to excel during these types of tests. Subsequently, the tests I administer

should focus mainly on understanding rather than simply short-term memorization.

I believe that not all students learn the same way and at the same pace, therefore,

they should not be assessed in the same way. Meaning that my students will be given the

opportunity to decide which type of assessment they are most comfortable with.

Formative and summative assessments provide many alternatives to the traditional pen-

and-paper evaluation; some of these include oral presentations, end-of-unit projects,

teacher-student interviews, a written assignment, etc. These are effective alternatives to

test the students’ knowledge, understanding, and mastery of a topic.

I believe that, if given properly, the feedback I give to my student on their

assessments should encourage them to do better on their next test. The feedback will

inform students of the changes and improvements that can be made, and it will also

highlight their strengths. Furthermore, my instruction and feedback will be detailed

enough so that my students know what exactly it is that I am asking for, what areas they

need to improve on, and what are the things that they have done correctly.
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Lastly, I believe that fair does not always mean equal; as I mentioned before my

students will be offered alternatives ways of testing. Moreover, assessment practices

may be altered slightly depending on the class’ needs, as a whole, or on an individual

student basis when needed.