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| EDLT 485: Assessment Overview |
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In this unit it is not essential that you spend time searching library shelves, requesting loans, or engaging in internet research (though wider reading will always be helpful because of the introductory nature of the unit). You can complete the assignment tasks based on your reading of the unit materials (ten chapters) - plus a lot of thinking! Because you do not have to waste precious time searching for reading material in order to complete the assignment tasks then I expect you to read the chapters cloesly, probably twice (or more) in many cases. I aslo expect that you will spend much more time thinking and trying to apply the various ideas than you are used to spending on more familar 'essay-style' assignments. So you spend less time getting information for your assignment tasks but probably more time doing the assignment tasks.
In keeping with our view that successful teachers are those who are able to combine content knowledge, pedagogical (teaching) knowledge and curriculum knowledge to make decisions about the most appropriate teaching/learning in any given context, I have designed a series of teasks which require you to practice particular skills, to decide amongst competing beliefs and actions (or philosophies and strategies), to justify your decisions, to plan different sorts of teaching activites, and sometimes to repeat tasks in order to monitor progress in your learning. I expect you to use the chapters to expand your pedagogical knowledge and to use your brain - both the thinking and the emotional parts - to justify your choice of stategies, philosophy, and desred outcomes. I recognise that for most of you, the classroom context will be hypothetical - the age and ability range of the students, the demographic structure of the class, access to resources, and so on will be unknown factors in your planning. However I also know that all plans have to be adapted to suit different contexts and that the value of practice in planning and decision making is not diminished, at your stage of development, by being carried out for a hypothetical (or 'ideal') context. It is the thinking about which strategies are most suitable for achieving particualr outcomes that I want you to practise.
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