REFLECTION JOURNAL

“Assessment: Bridging Teaching and Learning”

I just realized that all throughout my student days, I only looked at “assessment” as
getting the best grade in a course. I never thought of it as an important tool to improve
curriculum or teaching methodology. I never considered it as something that can help
strengthen learning styles or any part of the learning process.
And then I read on and learned that assessment is important not only in measuring the
students’ mastery after the course but more importantly the process during the course,
such that students can be directly involved in and manage their own learning, and
teachers can improve on their instructional tools and methodology.
Now, I quite understand that all factors in the learning-teaching process must be aligned
to successfully achieve the targeted learning outcome (what we want our students to
learn). The learning-teaching environment, the learning-teaching tools and the learning-
teaching techniques must all be in sync in order to achieve the best learning outcome.
Now I know, assessment is an important as all the other factors. For how can we
improve learning goals without assessment? How can we improve curriculum and
instruction without assessment? How can we improve teaching techniques without
assessment? How can we improve learning styles without assessment? How can we
delete the flaws and improve the system without assessment? Now, I am enlightened
why we do assessment and why we do it in particular ways.
Assessment helps us correct flaws and go a step higher. Assessment bridges teaching
and learning. Assessment leads us towards learning best and teaching best!