FEEDBACK: Anderson's Article

I really like the idea promoted in the article about the need to shift from traditional assessment to alternative assessment. The shift is crucially needed, just to be fair, I think? We are all different people with different learning styles; some good in this area, some are good in that area, etc. So, yeah, it might be a good idea to shift or to integrate the assessment so that students will have the chance to be assessed not just through exam, but also through a variety of instructional and assessment strategies. If we are to do the shifting, of course there are a lot of consideration to be taken before we could really implement the shifting; the teacher needs to receive well-training course to be able to run the alternative assessment, the parents need to be made understood about what's happening, etc.

Thanks to the writer, I now see the differences/gap between traditional and alternative assessment. Since traditional assessment is exam-oriented, the teaching and learning is passive; the teacher will do most of the talking and students, whether they listen to the teaching or not, they will still need to sit for the exams and face the questions which they know or don't know the answers. Experiencing this back in secondary school, in an exam class, I tend to feel very sleepy especially if it's a subject I don't really like. I just loved English class, but the activities … talking about the theme/setting/characters/etc of a literature component; translating text; answering worksheet and submit then get the paper back; receive bad or good praise from teacher; feedback …???

Rubric - I like this. Though it's not easy to prepare this (for me) unless you are an expert who deal with preparing rubric everyday, I think it's a good scoring tool (holistic/analytic) and the end result should be able to let the students know what part or in what area they need to improve. Shifting from traditional to alternative assessment, we should experience teaching and learning in a more active way. The teacher, being a facilitator, assists the students' learning, and the students also should be responsible with their own learning. Yes, I would love to see the shifting from traditional to alternative assessment in this country become successful.