The text reading from the book presented in the book represents the process of learning as an active and constructive acquisition of knowledge through the emergent individual interactions with the personal experiences with people in significant, purposeful context. In a school setup, a curriculum is usually put in place to aid in maintaining the schooling structure and accountability systems that are put in place to ensure individual professional development and the generational community in overall.
The use of assessment approaches to assessments to assess student learning has both its advantages and disadvantages. One of the pros of assessments is that it involves the documentation a child’s or student’s progress which in the long run enables the identification of the weaknesses and strengths through individual student work documentation, or portfolios. As gotten from the book reading, the policies put in place in the case study of the Bronx New School, offer beneficial assessment criteria that
Another benefit of performing assessment on individual students entails increased family involvements. This includes a structured administration and management team of parent coordinators that ensure there is a smooth communication or contact between home and school. On the other hand, the formation of parental committees and associational activities increase the one on one interaction among the students, teachers and parents.
The difficulties showcased in the case study of the Bronx New School are the issues highlighted on the experiences of teachers and parents. Teachers have a consistent problem of learning how to observe children and document what they do in a descriptive approach rather than in an evaluation point of view. Subsequently, the teachers have a problem of balancing good teaching and student testing pressure. Tests are important in assessing student progress in any school therefore the limitations related to tests ought to be minimized to facilitate students’ exceptional performance.
Conclusively, it is worth noting that in any given educational setup, the communicational structures between the three vital entities, that is, the teachers, parents and kids, is important in assessing and evaluating a student’s progressive performance. This is done through meetings that facilitate positive decision making with regards to child development. Additionally, strong leadership is also important to ensure that every involved entity gets a chance to be heard on the issues of the education system.
