Before the 1950's educators all over the world are confused what really is understanding. They cannot agree on one definition for such a definition may either be too broad or narrow as to understand what understanding really is. To shed light to this confusion, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues proposed six levels of understanding: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Until today, this classification has been of great help clarifying what is really understanding. In Bloom's taxonomy, the first three levels are considered of low order thinking; the second three are of high order thinking. Krathwohl made some modifications of Bloom's taxonomy; however, the different levels stay with slight modifications. This taxonomy of thinking skills has shed some light to the confusion of what is understanding. Unfortunately, so many educators today do not really know what is understanding and how is it taught to the students.
As I was checking the reports cards for the high school students, I observed a pattern. Most of our senior students have low grades in Science, Math and English. How come our students fare low in these subjects compared with the others? In English IV, I exhaust all possible means to make my assessment valid. I also check long exams for both Science and Math. I am sure they are valid too. However, because grades of students are low, it may follow that there is minimal transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the students. Understanding is transfer of knowledge, not just mere recall of facts. Science, Math and English are subjects whose measure for understanding cannot only be gauged by memory recall during tests. Assessing understanding of these three subjects goes beyond the multiple choice, identification and matching type tests. Other evidences of learning beyond the usual test in the classroom are needed. Are our students unable to perform tasks that use concepts learned from these subjects?
In the case of English, I always assess learning based on how well the students perform the task I asked them to do. Performing authentic and realistic tasks that require skills learned in English best measures understanding of the subject. These tasks are not linear nor simple. They demand complex interplay of several skills which really tells me that knowledge transfer indeed has taken place. This understanding (i.e. knowledge transfer) as measured by authentic task performance has six facets. I know there is understanding when the students can explain, can interpret, can apply, can emphatize, and have perspective and self-knowledge. Let me take my first grading authentic task as an example. My first major requirement in English IV is a critical analysis.
The critical analysis is an individual task which requires students to write a critique of a story/motion picture with the elements of fiction as framework. To complete the task, they have to view purposively the movie, apply what they have learned about writing simple but effective sentences, and appraise the story on its elements. While viewing the movie, they are to analyze the elements of the story based on literary aesthetics. They are, therefore, required to read information with regards to aesthetic standards for short stories and for motion pictures. The critique is to be written in simple grammatically correct sentences. The students are expected to organize their thoughts in coherent paragraphs through effective use of conjunctions for transitions of ideas. This task is apparently not simple. It demands three of the four macro skills in English.
To perform the task successfully the student needs skills in listening, reading and writing. Unfortunately, most students thought that learning is best assessed by quizzes and long tests. In English IV, this is not the case. I believe that no objective test can approximate how much knowledge has been transferred to the students. It is only performance tasking that can best reflect understanding of English. I know a student understands if he can explain what the story is all about. He should also be able to interpret the story in terms of enduring learning. I also know he understands English if he can apply all the rules of composition in writing the critique. Does he see the bigger picture of what he is doing? Is he aware of his limitations in terms of doing the critique? These are some of the indicators that a student has understood the concepts and skills in the first quarter. When one is not able to write a critique well, it is safe to conclude that he has limited understanding of English in the first grading period.
I have always been known to give low grades. No, I do not. The grades the students get are numerical reflections of how much (or in some cases, how little) they have understood English IV. The students themselves determine their own grades. I was merely facilitating understanding of the English language and the transfer of knowledge from me to them. When students are not able to manifest the six facets of understanding which are what I was looking for, no learning has taken place, no knowledge transfer happened. This absence or limited learning is reflected in the students' grades. I do look for other evidences of understanding such as quizzes, tests and class recitations. However, I do not believe that understanding can be best measured by paper and pencil test or simply by reciting in class. All three are simplistic view of a complex process of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which is English.
I am not hard to please, but a student has to prove to me his understanding of English IV. I give perfect scores of 100. There were lots of them last grading period. I can be cruel though and give a student a zero only to be kind and make him understand that he has limited understanding of the subject. If a student feels sad because he fails in my subject, he should have reflected why. If he continues to deny his failure, he has no self-knowledge, so he deserves to fail. If after introspection, he realizes the reasons why he failed, he deserves another chance at redeeming himself, but not this time - maybe next grading period but only if he will manifest understanding of the subject I am trying for him to understand.
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