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As I marked the exam papers, I could not help from wondering this thing “What does it mean to be a truly educated person?”.  Looking at some of the lackluster inarticulate answers of my PG students, I was wondering what went wrong in my class.  Did I emphasis the wrong thing?  Did I emphasis exam results than what they should know regardless of whatever grade they might get? 

I encourage my students to be reflective.  I give them reflective questions.  When I found a note about what kinds of questions that self-regulated learners ask themselves, I share the note with my students.  In one class, I discussed with them about self-regulation model/theory and using the note, we discussed about how we can use it in different context of our lives.  I did my best in this case to guide my students not to be good test takers, but true learners.  But again, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink“.

But one thing that I notice is not many of my students are avid readers.  Meaning, not many of them like to read.  When I asked some of them if they have the textbook that I have recommended, NONE of them have the textbook (this was my UG class).  Unfortunately, it happens not only in my UG class, but also in my PG class.  The only difference is for my PG class, they realise the importance of having a textbook in the middle of semester, so by week 10 (there are only 14 weeks in one semester),  majority have the textbook.  Well, better late than never.  The UG class?  I rest my case. Perhaps they did borrow the textbook from the library and it is just that I don’t know about it (husn zahn in Arabic – or in English it means think positively or in Malay – bersangka baik)

 

I was marking the personality psychology paper.  I am sad.  I thought that they could answer well because they were allowed to bring in notes.  Well, apparently, some of them didn’t study well.  It can be seen from their answers.  A copy -paste answer with lack of articulation.  So, I decided to take a break for a few minutes by checking my email.  Sengtat has promised me to submit a part of the first chapter of his thesis.  I have yet to receive any email from him yet.  Sigh. 

As I browse the title and sender of the emails that I received, my eyes caught something.   “Thank you, Dr Hadijah”. 

Jolyn gave me an email to thank me for the best wishes card that I gave them yesterday (the first student who did so).  I never thought and expected any student to thank me.  After all, it is just a card.  

But, I want to make difference in my students’ life (in positive ways).  Like what my mentors have done for me.  For example, Yedullah Kazmi gave me books, pencil and whatsnot.  Every time I read the books that he gave me, I always remember the time when I was his student.  Even though he used to call me SII (stupid, idiot, ignoramus), but I never sulked or felt bad about it.  I consider it as a form of endearment.  What a heck!  It is not easy to be the chosen one to be called as such.   

But, I do believe that we need to invest in relationship.  It is quite easy to invest in it using money, but most difficult one is time and concern (care?).   

I don’t know how far my effort will leave its impact, but I do believe that “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together“

I have taught this course more than one semester.  It has been more than 5 years in fact.  I am not saying that I am an expert in this subject matter but I know the difficulty of remembering many theories related to personality which belong to different schools of thoughts.  It is not easy.  So, to help the students in this matter, I allow them to bring few pages (A4 size) of notes that they can bring to the exam hall.  

But I never thought that they would exchange their notes among themselves during the exam.  I never anticipate this thing could happen.  This was the first incident that happened in five years (and I hope this would be the last).  This is akin to cheating because you are looking at other people’s notes, rather than on your own.  I was informed by a student who saw this and I double checked it.  When I walked around nearby the conspirators, I noticed that there were notes with different hand-writing on both sides of them.  I knew instantly that what had been reported is true.  Indeed.

I didn’t want to spoil the “mood” so, I just kept it to myself.  But I would definitely not let this thing go without any punishment.  This is a classic example of “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” or in Malay “Diberi betis hendak peha“

There are several types of assessments: 1) Assessment of learning, 2) Assessment for learning and 3) Assessment as learning

Assessment of learning

This refers to summative assessment.  It could be in a form of final examination or any examination that meant to see to what extent students have understood certain concepts.  

Assessment for learning

This refers to formative assessment.  One of the main purposes of formative assessment is to  see to what extent teachers could improve their teaching and support that they provide to students based on students’ performance.  For example, a quiz that is given to students based on certain topics covered.  Based on the quiz results, teacher would make a decision for improvement of teaching and learning activities in class.  

Assessment as learning

This refers to reflective self-evaluation.  This type of assessment is not meant for grading purposes but it is meant to help students to understand themselves better in terms of what they have learned and how well they have understood the concepts/topics they have learned.  

Can a quiz be formative and reflective self-evaluation at the same time?

For me, it can be when you let the students decide if they want to quiz to be graded or ungraded.  Meaning, they can take any quiz that I give without feeling pressure of being graded and this would be “assessment as learning” – because they take the quiz as a means to help them reflect on their understanding and learning i.e. reflective self-evaluation.  But at the same time, the same quiz can be considered as formative assessment [assessment for learning] if the students want the marks of the quiz to be graded.  

How can we (as teachers) implement all three assessments? 

In my case, what I normally do is, I have a mixture of assessments that I give to my students such as quiz, presentation, report and final exam.  Final exam is an example of summative assessment i.e. assessment of learning.  For quiz, I make it in such a way that there will be graded quizzes (formative assessment or assessment for learning) and there are also ungraded quizzes (assessment as learning).  For the ungraded quizzes , I normally give after we have finished discussing about a topic, for instance.  But for graded quizzes, it comprises of several topics.  So, in this case prior to take any graded quiz, students have self-assessed themselves on any given topic.  Of course, since it is ungraded, I notice that some students don’t take it seriously and thus, will not make any attempt to take the ungraded quiz.  I have seen it in the recent courses that I taught this semester (Semester 2, 2018/2019). 

What should I do then? 

Well, I give soft reminder several times but in the end of the day, I have to respect the students’ decision.  If they think it is the best for them to skip any ungraded quizzes, it is their right.  I have no right to force them in their learning.  After all, as adult learners, they should be responsible towards their learning.  They are not secondary school students.  The major difference between secondary school students and university students is for secondary school students, they need extra guidance when it comes to helping them in decision making.  University students?  What a heck!  They are adults, and they should be responsible and accountable with whatever decision that they make.  Welcome to adulthood!