Throughout the courses that I am teaching, I am getting feedback by performing both formative and summative assessments. While formative assessment focuses on assessing both student understanding and teaching effectiveness (Dixson and Worrell, 2016), summative assessment determines the proficiency of students (Dixson and Worrell, 2016).<\/p>\n
There are many forms of formative and summative assessments. Here is a list of the ones that I am using.<\/p>\n
While the formative assessments happen spontaneously during the lectures, based on the students\u2019 reactions\/questions to the topic covered, they are planned during the seminars. I am therefore always concluding a week of lectures (two to three lectures) by a seminar in order to give them an opportunity to assess their knowledge on a regular basis. I am covering one main topic\/chapter per week so that the week\u2019s seminar allows to repeat and summarize what has been learned so far and clarify some unclear aspects. The seminars offer a more casual setting where students have more time to reflect upon their knowledge and ask questions. At the beginning of the week, the students are given reading assignments for the seminar. I provide them with research papers (one or two) that are related to the week\u2019s topic so that the students can put their knowledge into context. I also use these papers to teach about scientific writing (e.g., how to write an abstract, how to plan an experimental design) and to exercise their critical reading. I sometimes use Flinga<\/a> as a pedagogical tool during these seminars to activate the students. Finally yet importantly, I rearrange the tables in the classroom as a U-shape so that students face each other; this facilitates the discussion among them.<\/p>\n In order to assess the understanding of my students, I am using written exams at the bachelor level (see development project<\/a>) and oral exams at the master\/PhD level.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Literature cited<\/strong><\/p>\n Dixson, D.D. and Worrell, F.C. (2016). Formative and summative assessment in the classroom. Theory Into Practice, 55, 153-159.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout the courses that I am teaching, I am getting feedback by performing both formative and summative assessments. While formative assessment focuses on assessing both student understanding and teaching effectiveness (Dixson and Worrell, 2016), summative assessment determines the proficiency of students (Dixson and Worrell, 2016). There are many forms of formative and summative assessments. Here … Continue reading Assessment methods<\/span> \n
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