Barry Westling

Williams, Yes, this is typical in career schools in the United States. Using a variety of assessment methods and using grading components helps give a comprehensive view of the students learning, rather than basing a large percentage of a grade on 1 or 2 major tests or a written paper. Barry Westling

John, Good point about finals. Some instructors will develop their classes where assessment of learning does rely on a single final examination. Rather quizzes, and multiple smaller exams are given throughout the course so that course end, all graded work is already computed and the student knows their grade. Barry Westling

Williams, Great! I believe when I know about my students level of prior learning I can better assist them with the new learning that will be required in my classes. Pretesting can help with that. Barry Westling

Williams, Yes, knowledge and skills helps them get into their new career. Behavior, grooming, professionalism, and language are a few of the soft skills that also assist in landing a good first job. If we can provide emphasis on some of these categories, that'd help as well. Barry Westling

John, Keeping students engaged and involved is the goal and is sometimes difficult to sustain. I think one key is to create an internal interest in the student so that they will want to participate, on their own, without too much prodding by their learning facilitator. When students understand "why" they need to sharpen their skills, and can visualize the personal benefits they may obtain, that can create one type of internal motivaion that inspires them to be engaged, independent from the instructors always having to push to get participation. Barry Westling

John, I try to simply the idea by just trying to relate to students where they are. Each class will have it's own blend of superstars and under-achievers, and usually a bunch right in the middle. Only by getting to know them and establishing a level of mutual trust and respect can I expect to "be real" and honestly tell them what they need to hear, especially if there expectations not being met. Barry Westling

Williams, We do lead, and students are usually very observant about their instructors habits and practices. They know when it is an off day or when the instructor is less prepared than ordinary. Consistency is as important as preparedness because, just as in instruction, repetition prepares students. Barry Westling

Melissa, Yes, and technically evaluation means to compare to some set of standards. So an evaluation could be a comparison of student performance matched against the course objectives or learning outcomes. Also, grading rubrics are a great way to try to instill an objective measure of student learning in the assessment process. Barry Westling

Melissa, You convey an important sentiment. If we really want to help our students we can be more effective if we have information about their prior knowledge, thus enabling instructors to modify or adjust the lessons to better match the specific students currently in session. Barry Westling

Renee, This seems reasonable, especially if thye student is demonstrating learned knowledge. I agree that too much will skew grades, students may take advantage of that opportunity, and we will end up without a true measure of student learning. Barry Westling