GROUP WORK (to be accomplished for 3 days):

CHAPTER 1: LESSON 1 to 3: Inquiry, Interviews, Observation, Narrative Report

Directions:
1. Each group will be given a specific topic. As a survey specialist, your task is to gather data by conducting
interviews and observation.
2. Interview at least 3 to 5 students within SRNHS during school hour (break, lunch, subject period).
3. Before conducting interviews, make sure that you have a list of questions and observation form before the
actual conduct of data gathering. The number of questions depends on you, on how you can gain in-depth
understanding on your explored topic. [You may utilize video recording, audio recording].
4. What you are required to submit: - Narrative report [on short bond paper, encoded or handwritten (as long as
presentable]. The narrative includes but not limited to the following contents:
- Front page with your group info sheet, and Title to your designated topic (think of an own title);
- Synthesized interviews;
- Ethics observed in the conduct of the process.
- Your conclusions/ learning/ insights gained from your respondents; Recommendations;
-Last page, your documentation- pictures
5. Please observe ethics in conducting research.
Designation of topics (all are in present S.Y. [2018-2019])
Group 1 & 6: Study habits/ routines of SHS students with Honors/ Academic excellence
Group 2: Leadership style/ approach/ experiences of a school leader such as SSG/ Club presidents
Group 3: Impact of being “In a relationship status” to a SHS student (benefits, inspirations they get, downsides if ever)
Group 4 & 5: Upcoming SHS graduate students (grade 12) from SRNHS for this school year, their academic
experience, activities, journeys so far.
6. Submission is on November 19, 2018. (Narrative)

Sample Narrative
ACTION RESEARCH PAPER #2: RESEARCHING ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN YOUR
PROFESSIONAL AREA

NARRATIVE REPORT

This Action research focuses on the ‘Assessment practices in our professional area’ wherein we
are tasked to interview our colleagues with regards to their instructional decisions and assessment
procedures. We are currently employed with the Department of Education (Bulacan Division),
stationed at San Roque National High School (SRNHS) in Paombong, Bulacan. We are under the
Senior High School Department (SHS), composed of 12 faculty members catering Academic (General
Academic Strand) and Technical Vocational (TechVoc) track to almost 300 Grade 11 & 12 students.
With this diverse population and relatively new program (New K-12 Curriculum), assessment of
learning by the teachers is indeed crucial in making decisions or judgment about the performance of the
students in a certain instruction. As mentioned, the main areas explored in this action research is the
Assessment practices of SRNHS Teachers (SHS Department), the strengths and limitations of their
practices, and their recommendations for future instructors that will be using the same procedure. Out
of 12 teaching personnel, I have interviewed 6 faculty members teaching Grades 11 and 12 with
different subjects handled. Their teaching experience ranges from 2-8years. The interview sheets
together with the name of the respondents are attached with this report.

Good assessment practice is a key feature of effective teaching and learning in schools.
According to Gabuyo (2012), Assessment of Learning focuses on the development and utilization of
assessment tools to improve the teaching-learning process. It emphasizes on the use of testing for
measuring knowledge, comprehension, and other thinking skills. Assessment is an act or process of
collecting and interpreting information about student learning. On a day-to-day basis, teachers and
students are assessing in a multitude of different ways. In order to explore the assessment practices of
teachers in SRNHS-SHS Department, interview questions are constructed.

The first question asked about their instructional decisions that are pertinent during and at the
end of the instructional period. According to Ms. Gatchalian (an English major), giving examples and
refining instructions are pertinent for instructional period, a teacher should know what method should
be applied for students’ better understanding. Mr. Gabriel (ICT coordinator) responded that he decide
for his instructional strategies depending on the response of his students and at the end of instruction,
he decide if will advance with the next topic or conduct remediation. Mr. Mendoza (Math major) is
asking himself questions during and at the end of the instructional period in order to come up with the
decision which includes: Is my teaching strategy employed for a specific topic effective? What
assessment is appropriate for this topic? According to Mrs. Gabriel (social science major), it is vital for
teachers to know their students. Decision whether to advance or not is crucial for teachers, therefore-
assessment for learning and of learning should always be considered. Given their responses, it can be
concluded that teachers does instructional decisions on the basis of their assessment with their students.
They conduct assessment during and at the end of the instructional period (even before). Teachers used
assessment to gather information in the classroom; Information that helps teachers understand their
students, information that is used to plan and monitor their classroom instruction, and information that
is used for testing and grading.

Second question asked about the assessment procedures or instruments used for each of the
decisions that are identified. 5 out of 6 respondents answered that they utilized Paper and pencil test as
an assessment procedure. As responded by Mr. Gabriel, they conduct pre and post test to assess
whether there is an improvement on the mastery level of students and thru item analysis, they can
readily evaluate the MPS achieved by their students. Mr. Mendoza uses recitation during instruction as
a basis of his assessment and long quiz at the end of instruction. Mr. Sacdalan (Tech-Voc Coor) used
performance based assessment since he’s assessing the skills of students under the bread and pastry
subject. During the instructional process the main concern of a classroom teacher is to monitor the
learning progress of the students. Teacher should assess whether students achieved the intended
learning outcomes set for a particular lesson. Based on researches, it shows that providing feedback to
students is the most significant strategy to move students forward in their learning (Gabuyo, 2012). At
the end of instruction, summative assessment determine the extent to which the instructional objectives
have been met and to determine the effectiveness of instruction.

For the third question, respondents were asked about the strengths and limitations of the
currently used assessments. According to Ms. Gatchalian, some students are better in skills or
performance rather than paper-pencil test and that students have individual styles of learning. Mr.
Gabriel responded that an advantage of paper and pencil test is that it’s the easiest way of assessing
especially if you have handful of students. He also stated that one of its limitations is that psychomotor
skills learned are not demonstrated. While Mrs. Gabriel answered that paper and pencil test measures
learning indirectly and it’s better when measuring factual knowledge while its limitation is that it only
assess low level thinking skills and not all students are good with memorization. As for Mr. Sacdalan,
performance based assessment can readily checked the acquired skills by the students that cannot be
measured by a test. Zimmaro (2003) stated that performance-based assessment is a direct and
systematic observation of the actual performances of the student based from a predetermined
performance criterion. Students are required to perform a task rather than select an answer from a given
list of options. Performance based is a direct measure of learning or competence (indicating that
cognitive complex outcomes, affective and psychomotor skills have been mastered) while paper and
pencil test measures learning indirectly.

Lastly, the instructors’ recommendations for future assessments (if impediments such as time
and expenses did not exist): The teacher may assess the students based on his/her skills or talents (Ms.
Gatchalian). Mr. Gabriel suggested to ‘vary’ our assessments. We have to assess our students
holistically and mentioned not to use ‘one-size-fits-all’ idea. We have varied learners that need varied
assessments. Mr. Mendoza responded that we have to consider our learners when doing our
assessments. Mr. Sacdalan, Mrs. Gabriel, and Ms. Selga recommended to used a combination of paper
and pencil test and performance-based assessment in measuring the effectiveness of instruction and if
the intended learning outcomes were mastered by the students.

Assessing the learning outcomes of the students is one of the very critical functions of teachers.
Day-to-day assessment should help teachers and students in a day-to-day fashion. I would like to end
this report by citing lines from the book of Fautley & Savage (2008, p. 11): There is an old saying to
the effect that ‘weighing the pig doesn’t make it any fatter’. This is true in education too: a teacher may
test their students’ knowledge every day, but what is likely to really make a difference is if the students
learn something in between the tests. It could be argued in this instance that greater gains could be
made if the teacher were to teach more and test less. We can also wonder about what happens to all the
marks gained in these tests. If they are simply entered into a mark book, then no real use is being made
of the assessment data.