Assignment 3

Running head: PLANNED EVALUATION APPROACH AND QUESTIONS 1

PLANNED EVALUATION APPROACH AND QUESTIONS 8

Planned Evaluation Approach and Questions

Antony Jacob

Cheanel Nolden

May 5, 2019

Planned Evaluation Approach and Questions

Identification of Students’ Innate Talents

In order to identify the talents of individual students, teachers will communicate with parents and guardians of the students from time to time so that the parents can information regarding the interests of the students at home. The teachers will also identify student’s innate talents through carefully observing the students to identify the activities that they like to engage in, apart from interviewing the students. The student assessment program will be done twice in a week and will involve putting students in groups so that they can develop social skills (Heeneman et al., 2015). Student’s social skills will be assessed through oral examination. The oral exams will be conducted by giving allowing students to present their ideas in their groups and later in the class on selected topics. The teacher will then note the weaknesses of each student and model ways of encouraging the students through individual-centered approaches (Heeneman et al., 2015). With time, students will master appropriate social skills so that they can be able to present and express themselves eloquently, and with the required social and moral competencies.

Another element of the program will involve exploring the students’ talents by asking them to complete talent-based tasks. There will be no limitations or restrictions as to the nature of task that the student will choose since the project to be completed will be based on their own personal interests. From the completed tasks, teachers will be able to identify students’ personal interests. Teachers will then group students based on their inclinations. For instance, the teacher will introduce creative arts to allow students to engage in taking different perspectives in order to explore their talents and expand their creativity (Jones, Kittendorf & Kumagai, 2017). In this way, even academically talented students will be in a position to rediscover and explore other alternative activities that can be useful in their future socioeconomic life. Physical education will also make a core element of the student assessment plan. Teachers will identify students who are talented in different games and will communicate with the parents to promote the student’s abilities by investing in such talents rather than discouraging the sports.

Rationale

The reason why talent-based assessment is important and should be included in the overall student’s assessment is that students view education different from the way parent do. In most occasions, parents and teachers put high academic expectations that they want students to achieve and discourages talent-based activities. This tendency often makes students feel pressured to the extent that most students study hard to pass exams rather than to discover their true talents, abilities, weaknesses, and inclinations. As such, it is necessary to make academic work more enjoyable to the students by simplifying the assessment process so that they can discover their areas of strength both in academic work and in social and talent-based activities (Cross, Hamner, Zito & Nourbakhsh, 2016). Teachers will improvise simple methods of discovering students’ inclinations through applying appropriate methods and technologies such as computer programs that simplify complex mathematical or scientific concepts to monitor the way students react and perform. It will then be necessary to emphasize on and motivate students in their areas of strength so that they can view themselves and the education positively. Research has shown that talent exploration and assessment enable students to reconnect with their creative selves so that they can experience a strong sense of self-worth (Jones, Kittendorf & Kumagai, 2017). Further, the creative activities in which students engage in in groups enhances their sense of belonging to one another since they have to cooperate and coordinate to accomplish common objectives. This fosters unity in multiverse classrooms and eliminates hate and prejudice. From these preliminary approaches, different facilities will be developed so that students who are talented in music, creative arts, or high social skills can be completing their tasks. These activities will be integrated in the academic curriculum so that they will also make part of students’ performance in addition to pure academic work.

The overall talent-based programmatic student assessment project has been found to positively impact on students’ view of performance and success. Research has shown that social, and talent-based activities increase student’s participation and motivation in the classroom (Jones, Kittendorf & Kumagai, 2017). When students engage in social and talent-based activities, they get insights on how to go about different issues of personal and professional lives so that even if they experience challenges in their academic work, they believe that they can make meaningful contributions to the society. Furthermore, the approach has been shown to invoke self-reflection amongst students to view education and future professional life through the ultimate humanistic objectives of improving the welfare of the society (Heeneman et al., 2015). Students will thus be able to apply different approaches that are not limited to academic excellence.

Three Major Areas

The three major areas for the programmatic student assessment program are development of social skills, improvement of critical thinking, and talent development. The social skills improvement will focus mainly on interpersonal relations and development of oral skills as well as societal moral expectations. Students will mainly work in groups to accomplish and will be evaluated and given immediate feedback. Some of the questions for this area are:

· Through which approaches can students learn what is socially wrong and right?

a) Can the real community setting be simulated in the classroom environment successfully?

b) How best can students be made to apply moral values to improve their academic performance?

c) Can social the skills program prevents undesirable behaviors such as bullying, hate, violence, or drug abuse?

Improvement of critical thinking skills will be conducted using different technologies to improve creativity. Computer software and applications will be used to increase students’ creativity. Further, students will be evaluated based on their critical thinking skills whenever they complete their academic assignments apart from the actual scores. Some of the questions for this area are:

· How can technology be used to improve students’ critical thinking skills?

a) Can students use computer applications constructively to boost their problem-solving skills?

b) Which technologies are the most appropriate for students depending on their grade?

c) Can students apply critical thinking skills in their academic work successfully?

The third area of focus will be talent-based assessment. In this unit, students will be assessed based on their innate talents after completion of different tasks that require creativity. Technology will be used to assess student’s affiliation to different academic subjects such as mathematics or engineering through the use of applications that can simplify complex theoretical processes (Domingo & Garganté, 2016). Through this approach, students can find academic work interesting, which can help to keep them attentive and engaged throughout the lessons. Some of the questions for this unit include:

· Does application of technologies have positive impacts on students’ attitudes towards education?

a) Which technological devices and applications are suitable for creative learning?

b) How can students be assisted to realize their dreams by exploiting their talents?

c) Can students have a positive view of education and life when they are assisted to discover and explore their talents?

Stakeholders

The stakeholders for the program are teachers, parents, education leaders, counselors, and religious leaders. Teachers should be involved since they understand the classroom environment and student’s attitudes. As such, they may suggest the best approaches of delivering the program. Parents should also participate since they understand the talents of their children, and tastes and preferences. They can thus help the teachers understand the needs or strengths and weaknesses of the students. Education stakeholders will play the role of asking for funds for the program from relevant financial organizations or the government. Further, counselors will be needed to evaluate the attitudes of the students towards the program, and to guide students on social issues. Lastly, religious leaders will participate by motivating and encouraging students to discover their true selves and will also provide guidance so that the program does not go against any religious faiths.

References

Cross, J., Hamner, E., Zito, L., & Nourbakhsh, I. (2016, October). Engineering and computational thinking talent in middle school students: a framework for defining and recognizing student affinities. In 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.

Domingo, M. G., & Garganté, A. B. (2016). Exploring the use of educational technology in primary education: Teachers' perception of mobile technology learning impacts and applications' use in the classroom. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 21-28.

Heeneman, S., Oudkerk Pool, A., Schuwirth, L. W., van der Vleuten, C. P., & Driessen, E. W. (2015). The impact of programmatic assessment on student learning: theory versus practice. Medical education, 49(5), 487-498.

Jones, E. K., Kittendorf, A. L., & Kumagai, A. K. (2017). Creative art and medical student development: a qualitative study. Medical education, 51(2), 174-183.