Don’t you Always Rely on One Single Teaching
Practice
By
Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School
of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Sunday,
May 22, 2016
Post
283
“Don’t
you always rely on one single teaching practice; it may not work all the time
for all of your students.” This is a statement I constantly heard from a
colleague of mine who passed away some time ago. And he was indeed right!
Learning outcomes can be assessed differently, but no matter what, they must be
aligned with the right assessment strategy to benefit the student not the
teacher.
Assessments
need to be 100% aligned with one’s teaching and course objectives. Oftentimes I
have heard ex-students of mine complaining that they feel that they are being
graded unfairly because there is no consistency between what is being taught
and the way it is being graded.
I
must confess that I hardly ever use multiple-choice exams in my content
courses. As a language teacher, in a regular English class, I may use this type
of test. However, as I stated before, I do not usually work on exams, but if I
do, I also provide other types of exercises as part of student examination.
Now, if I relate this to a teacher's class who solely follows a teaching method, I guess he could have been more
productive trying a different kind of testing devices such as Problem-Based
Learning.
Had
I been in a position where I must come up with various ways to test student comprehension and learning, I would have used all these techniques to maximize student
learning in my class.
What
do you think?
Sunday, May 22, 2016
