Learner evaluation is the series of tests and observations aimed at providing insight on how a child learns and their current level of knowledge, skills and abilities. Usually, learners are evaluated through various methods – from surveys to verbal and written questions to test them.
In this article, we discuss some of the most important things that teachers like you have to consider before you start evaluating your learners.
1. The amount of what has been covered
You can’t measure what doesn’t exist – and that means you just can’t evaluate students on things that you aren’t sure they’re familiar about.
In actual sense, evaluating students on things you haven’t covered yet might demoralize instead of encourage them. Therefore, it has to be in their books first.
2. The level/ class of the learners
Methods and ways of evaluation vary according to academic levels. For students in elementary school, you can’t start to issue surveys so they can write to you what they think of their teachers and lessons.
This means you have to be extra careful to find the right method, or you just have to try out different methods and find out what gets the best results.
3. The time frame
The time frame within which a certain topic has been covered, is very important as far as student evaluation is concerned. This is because it reveals the retention capacity of your students.
To be accurate about this, you have to test between 2-3 different periods, so you can find out how long their memories last.
4. The different abilities of learners
All students have their own level of capability and one of your goals while assessing your students should be to find out the differences between what they can or cannot do.
With that as your goal, you should test your students using the same methods so you can be clear enough about it.
5. Your purpose/ intention
Your purpose is your key driver in almost everything that you do. This means you have to have a purpose that inspires you to test these students and find out how much they know. Examples include;
- Making sure that all students get to understand what they do or don’t know
- Trying to get all students at the same level
- Improving the general performance of all your students
Besides the examinations organized by the school, so many teachers simply go about their topics without trying to find out how the students are coping with them. Therefore your purpose should be strong enough to you lest you quit as well.
6. The complexity of what you’re teaching
In almost every subject, there are certain topics that you can teach without worrying whether your students will understand or not. However, there are others that need you to put a lot of pressure on your students to learn.
Since evaluating students is one of the ways that you can improve their academic performance, you have to do more of it when you’re covering complex topics.
7. Familiarity with the topics
The way your students have familiarized with the topics you’ve taught them says a lot about how they’ll yield or perform on your evaluations.
However, it’s usually better for you to evaluate your learners on the topics that they are more familiar with.
8. The credibility of your evaluation measures
Different teachers prefer to use different evaluation measures depending on what they like and what works for them. However, we have to agree that a written test is better than a verbal test, so they’re not all alike.
Therefore, you should always carefully consider the methods you use to evaluate your students before you even start.
9. The amount of resources required
Depending on your assessment method, there are many resources that you need in order to make the assessment happen to its effectiveness. The main examples include;
- Your time
- The right tools
- Financial resources
- The time of your colleagues if you had them involved
Normally, the school provides these resources, but you might also have to personally contribute to the cause.
Conclusion;
In so many cases, some teachers have admitted that they find it a little harder to evaluate students than to simply teach them. However, there’s no point in teaching students if you’re not even sure they understand what you teach them, and you don’t even know their weaknesses. Therefore, all teachers ought to know the value of evaluation and embrace it as a part of teaching.