A two-day Capacity Building Programme (CBP) on “Strengthening Assessment and Evaluation Practices” was organised at St. Joseph’s Sr. Sec. School
A two-day Capacity Building Programme (CBP) on “Strengthening Assessment and Evaluation Practices” was organised at St. Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, from February 17th to 18th, 2023. 53 teachers of various government, aided, and private schools attended the interactive workshop held under the aegis of the CBSE Training Programme to chart a road map for customising the assessment pattern as per the curriculum.
The erudite Resource Persons, Ms. Anupama Sharma, former principal and CBSE Resource Person, and the school’s knowledge head, Ms. Monica Chawla, school principal and CBSE Resource Person, meticulously helped the participating teachers to chalk out a road map for customising the assessment pattern as per the curriculum.
As per the NEP 2020, the rubrics of the teaching learning process, teaching methodology, pedagogy, evaluation, and assessment should be such that they empower in the student an ability to demonstrate along with an apt set of skills, knowledge, and language.
The main objective of this workshop was to make the participants understand the integral elements of the latest structure of assessment and to optimise learning and development in all students through regular assessments. The two-day session began with a welcome speech by Ms. Monica Chawla, who emphasised on the importance of training programmes for educators to keep them abreast of the changing scenarios. She further added that how assessment being the third vertical besides curriculum and pedagogy hold a lot of significance in determining the learning outcomes. The day progressed with an ice-breaker session by Ms. Anupama Sharma, followed by a detailed discussion of the new structure of assessment, with reference to the need for the same evaluation practises at CBSE and for assessment of learning. Ms. Anupama detailed for teachers’ various types of assessments, including diagnostic, summative, confirmative, norm-referenced, criteria-referenced, and ipsative. Teachers were given hands-on experience making a “blue print” of question paper preparation based on their own subjects, keeping in mind the typology of questions, forming smart learning outcomes, and incorporating the L.A.A.R. cycle of assessment. Ms. Chawla highlighted the importance of portfolios as part of scholastic assessment, along with the need for and contents of a good portfolio.
Ms. Sharma and Ms. Chawla, the valued resource persons, tried, through their insights and knowledge, to strengthen and acquaint the teachers with various aspects and the purpose of multiple assessments, periodic testing, student portfolios, and subject enrichment activities. They also familiarised the teachers with co-scholastic activities as per the rescheduled structure to deliver the curriculum in lieu of preparation for being well equipped with 21st century skills. Ms. Anupama Sharma emphasised the importance of continuous assessment by saying, “Assessment is not about assessing the child, but assessing our teaching.”
As it is said, great assessments are made, not born, and the participating teachers were seen developing effective rubrics for competency-based questions in the workshop. Talking about the subject enrichment activities, Ms. Chawla gave teachers a powerful tool called the “4 A’s,” namely, activate the previous knowledge, acquire new knowledge, analyse learning, and assess learning. She further used the “3 E’s” approach, i.e., educate, encourage, and enlighten, to sum up her session.
Both resource persons agreed that the speaking-listening ratio between the teacher and the students needed to be reversed, with the teacher speaking less and less while making conscious efforts to elicit maximum responses and voluntary participation from her students. This would encourage “curiosity and research” amongst learners, besides urging the students to “self-apply and self-reflect upon their work.” Peer-evaluation was another aspect that they dwelt upon, besides providing comprehensive training and a detailed blueprint in all the aspects of assessment. Ms. Sharma reminded her erudite audience about the significance of providing a year-round practise environment in classes for the holistic development and 360-degree assessment of learners through various games and class activities. The workshop was well received as Ms. Anupama Sharma wound up the exhaustive session to a thunderous applause from all those present.
All in all, the training session helped the teachers acquire the art of measuring the performance of the students on the basis of beginner, progressing, and proficient learners. Mrs. Monica Chawla, the host school principal as well as the CBSE resource person, guided the teachers to redefine, relearn, and recreate procedures as a paradigm shift. She urged the participating teachers to build modalities for the students where they can navigate independently, own their learning, and practise it as a skill. She applauded CBSE’s great initiative to empower teachers to ensure qualitative education and raise the learners’ level of learning and understanding. She also was full of praise for the knowledge and practises shared by Ms. Anupama Sharma with the participating teachers and ensured that she, as a principal, would not leave any stone unturned in gaining and imparting insight into such pertinent thematic approaches.
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