Aligning curriculum essay example

ID Number

Business Technology

One standard for teaching Business Technology in Pennsylvania is to teach, support, and challenge every learner to appreciate and achieve his or her maximum potential and to obtain the skills and knowledge needed in understanding the influence of emerging technologies. From this standard, the three learning activities are as follows:
– Identify the different kinds of technologies used at home and in the classroom
– Identify emerging technologies employed for personal and educational success
– Examine the influence of emerging technologies in people’s daily life

In teaching the same standard for grade levels 10 to 12, the following will be the learning objectives:

– Apply the productive and creative use of emerging technologies for personal and educational success
– Evaluate the emerging input and output technologies
– Examine the varied operating systems and suggest the best system for certain user needs.
A norm-referenced evaluation is designed to offer a measure performance that can be interpreted in terms of the relative standing of an individual. Criterion referenced assessment is design to offer a measure of performance that can be interpreted in the aspect of clearly delimited and defined domain learning of tasks.

Example of a normative assessment:

Example of a criterion-referenced assessment:
– Define technology and give an example of how technology aids in making lives easier.
– Describe the differences between technology used at home and in school.
– Discuss how messages are delivered through emerging technologies.
– How can one become responsible in dealing with technologies?
– What are some of the challenges in evaluating technology?
Classroom evaluation is one of the most potent tools that teachers use to determine what learners know and what learners can do. Assessment of learners helps teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students. Further, assessment helps teachers plan and deliver future instruction. Classroom assessment is highly significant in motivating and shaping instruction and learning. Assessment guides learners toward achieving improvement in their academic performance. Assessment links instruction with evaluation. It has three purposes namely to determine eligibility, to establish instructional goals, and to assess the student’s progress in the curriculum. Normative assessment is easier to measure compared to criterion-referenced assessment because it has a fixed form of scoring. On the other hand, in criterion-referenced assessment, the score of responses will vary depending on the discretion of the teacher. Both tests are valid however, in terms of ethics, criterion-referenced assessment can be easily manipulated. Extra caution in giving the test is a must.
Validity is extensively recognized as the touchstone of psychological and educational measurement. However, in the framework of criterion-referenced measurement, validity has little attention. One of the most significant roles of the criterion-referenced testing has been an increased content emphasis. The interpretations of the results are reliant upon certain content domain and the degree to which the measurement is representative of its domain. The major components of content validity have been espoused in other frameworks yet seldom taken into account seriously. Therefore, the content validity of criterion-referenced may often appear less debatable. Despite this, it has been realized that no matter how important criterion-referenced measures are, content validity is not too often sufficient. Criterion-referenced measures necessitate evidence for support. On the other hand, norm-referenced test is considered objective, valid, and fair. Example of a norm-referenced test is the paper and pencil test. Paper-and-pencil tools pertain to a general set of evaluation tools in which the learners read questions and answer them in writing. This encompasses tests, including knowledge and skills tests, as well as inventories, including interest and personality inventories. Paper-and-pencil tests can be utilized to evaluate lesson-related understanding and capacity or skill conditions. The potential variety of qualifications which can be evaluated using paper-and-pencil tests is reasonably extensive. For instance, such assessment tools can evaluate anything from stored knowledge in order to know the level of understanding and the capacity of learning of the students. It can also evaluate the students’ learning after the lecture has been conducted.

Sources

Academic Standards for Business, Computer and Information Technology. (2012). COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
Sciencekids. co. nz,. (2014). Technology Quiz – Questions & Answers, Computers, IT, Gadgets, Trivia for Kids, Test. Retrieved 9 June 2014, from http://www. sciencekids. co. nz/quizzes/technology. html
In 400–500 words, analyze your findings when you compared and contrasted norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments. Consider the validity and ethics of each type. Is one more valid than the other? Is one type more ethical than the other? Explain your answer.