Assessment Article

A forrmative assessment is an assessment that is intended to determine whether a learning process is taking place satisfactorily or whether it needs adjusting to help the students learn.  This assessment takes place during the course of the learning program to give the teacher an idea of how the course is going.  This type of assessment is often done through the use of ungraded pop quizes.  A summative assessment is a measurement that is made at the end of a learning course to tell what the students have achieved throughout the course.  Grades are often given as the basis for the assessment.  An example of a summative assessment that we can closely relate too is the final examinations that we take after the completions of a course.

In a criterion-referenced assessment, the content, difficulty and types of items that are on the assessment are all determined by the objective demands of the leaning goals.  This method is preferred when there is a set level of competence that a student must meet to determine whether he/she has achieved the objectives needed.  This is much like the tests that we are given from the FAA to assess whether or not we have learned the material needed to get a certain certificate or rating.  A norm-referenced assessment is used when there are not really any true agreement as to what the learner must know.  For this type of situation the assessment is based off of other learners and how well each learner did respectively compared to the rest of the class.  A self-referenced assessment is used when the learning goals are personal.  For example if there is no way of knowing what a learner must or should know at the end of a course, the only appropriate way to assess the learner is through the learners self assessment.

Self-directed learning is a learning technique in which the learner controls both the objectives and the means of learning.  These types of learners are usually more sophisticated and search for oppertunities to apply critical thought to the things that they have previously learned. These types of learners also tend to prefer self-referenced assessments or critiques from their peers at the formative and summative levels.

Selecting Methods & Characteristics of Adult Learners

Role-playing

Role -playing can be used to play out many different scenarios within the aviation field.  One place that you could use it is to act an emergency such as an engine fire in flight.  To do this, I would take two chairs and place the student in the left and myself in the right as the captain and co-pilot respectively.  Then I would give the student a scenario for the engine fire to happen and have the student complete the correct procedures and checklists to solve the problem and/or land the aircraft safely while telling myself (co-pilot) what to do. After completing the scenario I would then debrief the student on the scenario, telling him/her what went smoothly and what may still need improvement.

4 Categories of Instructional Methods

1) Instructor Centered - In this method the instructor is primarily responsible for conveying information to the students.  The methods that are instructor centered are the lecture, questioning and demonstration.

2) Interactive method - In this method learning is facilitated by involvement, cooperation, collaboration and the construction of knowledge through dialogue.  Within this method there are four methods that are used to teach, class discussion, Discussion Groups, Group Projects and peer teaching.

3) Individualized Learning Methods - This method is based on the thought that each individual learns at different speeds and greatly benefits from immediate feedback. This method consists of modularized instruction, computerized instruction and independent projects.

4) Experiential Learning Methods - In this method it is believed that learning is facilitated by experiencing or doing.  These consist of the field or clinical methods, laboratory methods, role-playing, simulations and games and drills.

Discussion Groups - A discussion group can be used in many places, especially when a large group of people is present.  However, I believe that the most important time to use this method is when there is a large group of people in which only a few of the people are participating. In this scenario the discussion group will make sure that everyone is participating and learning in the class.  To do this I would separate the class into groups of four or five people that all have different strengths and weaknesses ao they can all benefit from each other and have something to contribute to the discussion. I would also make sure to give the students a clear objective with an interesting and meaningful topic to keep the class on task and learning.  

Considering Context in Selecting Methods

Group size often comes into play when there are more then 30 students, in this scenario it becomes too hard for everyone to participate and the instructor centered methods are usually the best choices. Physical facilities can also have weight in selecting a method.  For example it will be hard to organize group discussion if there are no moveable chairs or tables.  Resources can also reduce the methods to use by not having the correct resources at your fingertips. An example of this would be trying to use the lecture method with powerpoint, if powerpoint is not available then you may not be able to use this method. Time of day can also affect the method we choose. For example if you are teaching an early morning session it would be best to use a method in which the students can stay fairly involved to keep them awake and learning.  Whether the learning experience is required or voluntary also comes into play when selecting a method.  For if the student is willing to be there and has their own motivation you may be able to choose a more individualized approach method. But if it is just a requirement for the student you may want to pick a more interactive method to keep them more involved.

Characteristics of Adult Learners

When dealing with adults, there are three main demographic characteristics that we as CFI's must take into account.  The first one being age.  Age is a huge demographic because it gives the instructor clues to many of the values, beliefs and different experiences that the student may have.  Age can also affect the way that we choose to teach, for an older student may have different physical requirements or learning strategies.  Another demographic characteristic is gender.  When instructing both men and women, the instructor must be careful to avoid gender stereotypes.  Also within the subject of gender, there is evidence that suggests men's and women's developmental paths are different.  Language and background is the third demographic characteristic of adults.  Language and background can affect the student through a couple different ways. Firstly if the students language or "tongue" differs from that of the instructor this can often creeate a barrier that inhibits learning.  If the students background is also different this can create problems by the student holding different values and beliefs that the instructor does not hold or even understand.

Adults tend to learn differently mostly due to the fact that they are there learning the material on their own accord. This means that they expect the material that they are learning to be relevant to what they want to learn or what is going to help them to increase their pay-scale.  This also means that many adults will prefer to learn the material quickly so they can continue on with their day to day lives which means that they may not be as willing to take part in activities that they cannot see relating to them. For these adults the best situation is to have a well developed lesson prepared for them that has goals and objectives that obtain to them so they will be more willing to learn the material.  Teaching an adult also means that they will have more previous knowledge then other students we encounter, so in this situation we must be more careful to not insult the things that they have previously learned.  I also believe that when teaching an adult student I would use more of a self directed approach, so instead of teaching them everything that they need to know face to face, I would try to give more take home assignments for the student to complete on their own so they can relate the material to their own personal experiences.

Constructivist vs. Positivist

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge and tries to define what knowledge really means.

Within Epistemology there are two methods, constructivist and positivist.  The constructivist method says that knowledge is being able to make sense of and process the information that they receive.  Much of this method has to do with the individual student and his or her past experiences and how they affect the students ability to process facts.  Teachers that use this method of teaching will be more likely to give an essay exam rather then a multiple-choice exam like a positivist teacher may do.  The positivist method says that knowledge is just the factual and verifiable information.  This method does not depend on the student processing of information, for it is more dependent upon the student being able to regurgitate the information in a factual way.

I tend to identify more with the constructivist epistemology.  My main reason for this is that I believe more in depth learning will be achieved using this method over the posivist method.  One of the main points from the article that stated this for me was on page 48, "The positivist teacher says a student "knows" a Frost poem when the student knows what expert critics say it means; the constructivist teacher says a student "knows" a Frost poem when he can make sense of it for himself."  The other reason that I identify with the constructivists is because it is the way that I learn things best.  With the positivist method the learning seems to only go to the learning level of understanding, but with the consstructivist method it seems as though the student will have to more often take themselves to the learning level of correlation in order to be able to attain the knowledge.

I learn best with the kinesthetic modality.  I have always been able to learn things in the classroom through readings and lectures through the auditory and visual modalities, however I tend to learn much easier and more memorably when I can learn things in a more hands on approach.  One point that I took out of this article that will be of great use in teaching is that it does not matter whether the student is taught in the modality that best works for him/her, what matters that most is that the content being taught is being taught in the content's best modality.  Another thing that I took from the article is that memories are stored in terms of their meaning, not their modality.  So if I want something to stick with a student for a long time then I should assign some personal meaning to it for the student.