Reflection on Chapters 7 and 8

Journal Entry #4:  Reflection on Chapters 7 and 8

            Chapter 7 in Moursund’s text was all about assessment.  It was very interesting to learn that assessment with PBL is very different from the traditional assessment of tests and quizzes.  On page 65, Moursund (2003) asked, “Are the testing methods valid, reliable, and fair?”.  This is a question that teachers should be asking themselves before giving an assessment.  This is also a question that the developers of standardized tests should also be asking themselves.  I am a strong believer in the idea that the word “fair” does not necessarily mean “equal”.  In order for an assessment to be fair, it must meet the needs of the individual learner.  In this way, assessment should be modified for different learners if necessary to remain fair for each individual. 

            Assessment is very important, and it is done to obtain information for important decisions, to motivate people, and to emphasize accountability.  However, I think that it is vital to not let one of these reasons become too important and over-power the others.  The over emphasis on some assessments can actually have negative effects.  When schools are “failing” certain requirements for standardized test scores, teachers frequently teach to the test, and teach students for the wrong reasons.  Students will then end up learning just to pass a test instead of learning to learn and become more knowledgeable.  Higher order thinking skills are less likely to develop when teachers are teaching just to pass tests. 

            This chapter emphasized the importance of making the students aware of the stakes of a particular assessment.  This is necessary so that students know what to expect.  I think it is sometimes better to conduct many low stakes assessments and fewer high stakes assessments in order to reduce student anxiety.  As a tutor for SATs and ACTs, I am personally familiar with the high level of anxiety that students have over taking these tests.  The stakes for these tests are very high, and some students struggle with relaxing enough to allow themselves to truly showcase their talents during these tests. 

            When reading this chapter, I debated with the idea of assessing my students on cooperative learning and collaborative problem solving.  Of course, I think it is important for them to be able to do these things well, but I am undecided about whether this should affect their grade in math.  I finally decided that some self-feedback and peer-feedback would definitely be beneficial for the processes, and that it would not need to have an impact on the students’ formal grades.

            I thought about my own PBL lesson while reading about the different formative and summative evaluations.  Students will receive formative evaluation when their complete their project proposal, the computer model of their product, and the plan for the real-life model.  They will also receive formative evaluation through the ongoing teacher and peer feedback received.  The students will receive a summative evaluation after their final project presentation.  I really like the project planning table displayed in this chapter, and I think I will modify this to use with my PBL lesson, having some of it already filled in, and having the students fill in some of it themselves. 

            To me, Chapter 8 was shorter than Chapter 7, and a little less interesting.  It focused on the future of IT-PBL.  Since the book was copyrighted in 2003, some of the information was out-dated.  In fact, we can see how some of the information has already come true (10 years later).  My former high school, Paramus Catholic High School, is the largest Catholic High School in New Jersey.  It is currently my younger sister’s high school (and will be my other younger sister’s high school next fall), is now REQUIRING all incoming freshman to purchase a tablet (iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc) for school purposes.  This shows how far technology has advanced and is continuing to advance.  It also shows how schools are adapting and changing to meet the newest technological trends.  Basically, the future of IT is rapidly increasing and will continue to do so, and the future of IT-PBL will hopefully be adapted into the school culture as easily and quickly as possible.