BOOST CHILDREN'S LEARNING

I will like to share with the class something I found that interests me while I was reading this week.

My interest, like i shared last week is a search, to know what are best tools to engage when assessing children. I found something on research about the effect of qualitative assessment in young children.

The article is: Baroudi,Z.M (2007) Formative Assessment: Definition, Elements and Role in Instructional Practice. Post Script, (1444-383x), 8 (1), 37-48. Retrieved from Walden University Library

Baroudi,2007 wrote about a research carried out by Butler (1987) who compared the responses of
four groups of Year 6 and 7 students. Three out of the four groups had been given praise, and the fourth group was given no praise at all. Those who had received comments showed the greatest motivation to carry out further tasks in the second lesson even when the later task was tougher.

Based on this effect of Praise feedback on learners, it was discovered and established that feedback can stimulate better performance in lessons. Thus Dweck 2000 carried out a study to check for the quality of feedback in its language that conveyed the feedback. He wanted to see how far a child can go when you offers descriptive information about the work, or performance relative to the intended learning goals. It avoids marks or comments that judge the level of achievement or imply that the learning journey is over” (Chappuis & Chappuis, 2008). 

Further studies revealed that the descriptive language of feedback goes a long way to determine learners’ response behavior. Baroudi (2007) cited Dweck’s (2000) work in a study carried out to check this response in a group of kindergarten children. Two different groups of children after completing a task successfully were given some forms of complements. Some received praise on their personality traits, such as: you are a good boy, I am so proud of you, etc.  Others received praise on their efforts or the process followed that sounded like: you tried hard, could you think of better ways to do it or you found a good way to do it, could you think of other ways that could also work?   Subsequently, these children were faced with a more challenging task, which they found difficult to complete, and the study revealed that those children who were given personality trait praise feedback were more critical of their work, and lacked motivation to carry on in the task. They even rated their intelligence as lower than the other group that received descriptive praise on their work (Baroudi, 2007). 

  CONCLUSION:

In summary, I would like to say that I have learned a great deal about early assessment in these three weeks. My affinity to formative assessment is to employ age appropriate, individually responsive practice as we 

assess young children In a most suitable way. I believe that assessment should do more than judge learners, it should help both teacher and learner improve on learning. It a tasking model to work with and teachers will need to go through mind renewal for teachers who are willing to work. It does not replace summative assessment but can be used to improve the outcome of summative assessment.