Throughout this course, I have learned so much that the knowledge I gained will be useful to me as a future teacher. Testing and assessment is a very important course for teachers to learn how to deal with tests and assessments. It provides knowledge for the basic such as definition of terms up until the complex knowledge such as calculating the average marks for examining the level of difficulty of each question. It gives me so much information I need to help me later in my profession.
When I first enrolled my degree as a TESL student, I was introduced to some of the courses that explain what are knowledge needed as a teacher. My mother is a teacher so basically what I learnt from the previous courses were just the same as what my mom learnt and somewhat related to what she is doing now. I did learn how to produce a lesson plan in one of the previous courses but what I did not learn was how to construct a good lesson plan and there are actually few characteristics that need to be taken into consideration. Lesson plan is very important for a teacher as it gives one an idea of what he/she would be teaching in the class. It can also be used as a proof of what we have taught the students in the class. The heart of a lesson plan is the objectives or learning outcomes. This course gives us idea of how a good and bad learning outcomes are. It also provides information of what criterias need to be taken into consideration when writing the learning outcomes. This knowledge has somehow improved my skill of constructing a good lesson plan.
As what everybody may concern, teachers are familiar with quizzes and tests. it benefits us a lot in taking this course as it provides us information and tips on how to construct good questions. By good questions, I mean, questions that are clear, precise and can be classified into its own level of difficulty. I’ve never known that to construct questions, one should use the Bloom’s taxonomy as the bench mark for each question. Plus, it is a shocked to know that the length of the answers also affects the quality of the question. Through this course, I am now able to produce good questions that is not only reliable but also valid.
I’ve found out that testing and assessment course is not only a course that teaches me on how to produce a test but it manages to teach me so many things indeed. Some teachers might just able to produce questions but they don’t really care of what happen after the test. They just did the questions for students to answer and the never really cared of the quality of the questions itself. This is where I realized that this course has taught me in becoming a better teacher in the future. There are some mathematical calculations involved but it just some simple maths calculation. As a teacher, I should be able to analyze students answer for me to be able to determine which question that they can answer well and which one they could not by doing some calculations. This is very important for teachers to know for us to help student improve their learning. Thus I am glad to be taking this course as it gives me chance to be better and more quality teacher than what I supposed to be.
In addition, Dr Joharry also puts so much efforts in making sure that his students get what his teaching. He loves to shout and move around in the class but that what makes him special as it makes the class alive. His high-pitch voice helps students to understand his lesson better as we tried so hard to understand what he is trying to deliver because sometimes he sound so angry and that makes us feel a bit scared. So far, he has never been late to class. His most priority is his class. Dr Joharry also loves to share his thoughts and he always wants students to express themselves too. The class is not always teacher-centered class but it is sometimes student-centered learning environment as he tends to asks his students of their preference in doing something. After all, he is not only reliable but he is also valid. What I can say is that I enjoy this class so much and I believe that the ideas shared by Dr. Joharry and his subject has made me become a more enthusiastic teacher to be. I could not stop thinking of what he said and in shaa Allah I will try my best to implement this later when I become a teacher, “ Assessment for learning helps students not assessment of learning”.
-NUR ATIQAH MOHD YUSOF-
Testing & Assessment subject has taught me a lot of things. This subject taught me how to make a good learning outcome in order to achieve teacher’s objectives during Teaching and Learning session. Besides, I also learnt how to make a good test using MCQ and Essay questions in order to assess students’ performance without being bias by using Table of Specifications.
This subject is very important to all teachers especially to the future teacher like me, because it will helps me a lot in the future. It gives me the basic or foundation knowledge in preparing examination questions in the future. Furthermore, it can also help me in assessing my students’ performance in the future, so that the validity and the reliability of the test could be measured without bias.
The method that has been used by the lecturer do make the lessons become more interesting and can be understood by giving continuous coursework, so that we can participate in class.
Basically, the subject do helps me a lot in preparing me to be a teacher in the future.
-NUR DIYANAH KHAIRUL HISHAM-
