Task 4 Professional Teacher Assessment Identity

My principles and values of assessment.

Assessment view and values I have
The view I have of assessment is that it is a positive, constant and integral part of the
learning process. My view has been shaped by and aligns with the Teaching, Assessing and
Reporting Policy set out by the Department of Education (2016) and the AITSL Standards
(2014) for teachers. I believe that every student has the potential to learn and achieve
success, and that my role in this to provide them with high quality and authentic assessment
tasks which enrich their learning and help them to develop positive connections to
assessments and their future learning (Readman and Allen. 2013; DOE. 2016). The need for
students to develop positive connections with assessment is brought to the forefront when
we start to look at why students engage in learning. Readman and Allen (2013) suggest that
students who have a positive relationship to assessment are more likely to be intrinsically
motived to engage in learning and achieve greater success. My role is to create assessment
tasks which not only develop the skills and concepts necessary to complete the task, but
also make the experiences enjoyable to nurture the students curiosity about the world and
their love of learning. I believe that when we take the enjoyment out of learning we are doing
a disservice to the student, we are after all wanting to create lifelong learners and the first
step to achieving this is to encourage the drive to learn new things (Ministerial Council on
Education, Employment and Training Affairs. 2008)

Readman and Allen (2013) write about some of the key principles that I believe are essential
to creating and implementing assessments that foster positive engagement by the students.
some of the principles are; that the students need to be provided with assessments which
instil confidence and competence. I believe this can be achieved by making sure any
assessment is pitched at an appropriate ability level for the student, one that challenges
them but is not so advanced that they lose interest and disengage from the learning
(Readman and Allen. 201) . Another key principle is to apply when creating and
implementing assessment is to create assessments which increase student self-awareness
and independence. I believe I achieve this by helping the students to develop their own
learning goals based on the assessment ahead. My role is to help them learn and refine the
skills necessary to eventually become motivated to continue learning throughout their lives.
In relation to assessment I believe that I foster this by a safe and positive classroom where
everyone is respected and valued. In my opinion and experience from my own schooling,

students who feel safe and valued in the classroom feel confident in their abilities to try and
achieve in challenging tasks and situations.

Assessment relates to myself as an educator and needs to be ingrained in my teaching

practises. As a pre-service teacher my aim is to focus on evaluating my lessons to identify
areas of both strengths and weaknesses in order to continually improve my skills as a
teacher. I can model good assessment practise to my students by showing them that I am
continually assessing myself and being assessed by others, this will demonstrate that I am
continually trying to improve the way I teach.

The three types of assessment have a distinct purpose for the learning cycle. Readman and
Allen (2013) state that assessment of learning is summative, assessment as learning is the
formative, and assessment for learning is diagnostic assessment. Understanding by design
is an approach which uses assessment of learning as the starting point for the planning
process which put the intended learning outcomes front and centre during the planning
process. I have found UBD approach to planning to be easier and a more succinct way to
plan a unit of work than previous methods I have used. Such as, the content based
approach which involved just teaching the content which is required by the curriculum for
that particular subject. The problem I have with this approach is that it does not allow for
student to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts as the content is just brushed
over to sign off and say it has been covered. This is why I believe that using the UBD
approach to planning is of more benefit to the students as it can allow for more meaningful
connections to be created by creating learning experiences which engage and involve
deeper and integrated learning which mirrors what students will be facing once leaving
school. Our lives are completely integrated and we use all content areas on a daily basis
without even thinking about whether or not we need to think about how to write using out
English skills or if measuring out ingredients is using our scientific thinking skills.

Providing feedback in a timely manner and in a positive light can greatly impact the way
students relate to assessment (Readman and Allen. 2013). I believe that providing students
with uplifting and encouraging feedback is the one of the first steps to building a positive
relationship with assessment and needs to be implemented from the very start. Some of the
ways I provide feedback to students are though conversations with students throughout the
lessons praising what they have done well and providing encouragement and advice for

things they may need to improve on. I chose not to use negative statements or criticism
when providing feedback as it can undermine the confidence of the student and therefore
damage the positive relationship building towards learning and assessment which is taking
place. Another way I provide feedback to students is through written comments on their
work, I have adopted an approach from my second year practicum, which I find is working
well with students so far where I write 2 stars and a wish, meaning I write 2 positive
comments and one thing to improve on. This approach to providing written feedback still
aligns with my belief of using positive feedback whilst still identifying areas for improvement
in a positive way. Students need to build up their confidence and resilience, so only saying
positive things would eventually create more problems due to not addressing areas to work
on (Whitton, Barker, Nosworthy, Sinclair, & Nanlohy. 2010)

Reporting to parents is another area that I believe is highly important. It is not only a
requirement by the DOE (2016) but it addresses AITSL standard 5.5 (2014), which states
that graduate teachers are required to demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies
for reporting to students and parents/carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and
reliable records of student achievement. Providing feedback to students has become easier
now that the DOE has launched its new platform called Connect (DOE. 2016). In my opinion
this is an invaluable tool for teachers by creating an additional way for teacher to provide
instant feedback to parents by keeping them up-to-date on the work and leaning taking place
in the classroom environment. I dont believe that this will take over other forms of feedback
such as sending notes home and arranging meetings but it allows the parents to be more
involved and informed without too much extra effort.

My goal for teaching is to encourage and nurture my students by implementing activities,

assessments and experiences which will help motivate them to become life-long learners. I
will implement practises where I can continually assess my own learning and progression to
improve my teaching practises and in turn improve my students learning so that they can
succeed. Additionally, I will endeavour to continue using the UBD approach to planning as it
has placed the assessment as the centre focus which ensures my planning is kept in a
succinct and appropriate progression (McTighe & Wiggins, 2011).

References
Australian Institue for Teaching and SchoolLeadership (AITSL). (2014). Australian
Professional Standards for Teachers. Education Services Austrtalia
Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standardsfor-teachers/standards/list.

Department of Education (DOE). (2016). Connect. Retrieved from:

https://connect.det.wa.edu.au/group/staff/overview

Government of Western Australia. (2011). Code of Conduct. Department of

Education. Retrieved from:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/policies/detcms/policy-planning-andaccountability/policies-framework/guidelines/code-of-conduct1.en?catid=3457094

Mctighe. G., & Wiggins. J. 2011. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating
High-Quality Units. Association for Supervision & Curriculum
Development. United States: ASCD.

Ministirial Council on Education, Employment and Training Affairs. 2008. Melbourne

Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. Retreived from:
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_
the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Readman, K., & Allen, B. (2013). Practical planning and assessment South
Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.

Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C., & Nanlohy, P. (2010). Learning
for teaching: teaching for learning (2nd ed.. ed.). South Melbourne, Vic.:
Cengage Learning Australia.