Culture As A Parameter In Assessing Students' Performance

CULTURE AS A PARAMETER IN ASSESSING STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE
By:
Institutional Affiliation
Culture as a Parameter in Assessing Students' Performance
Introduction
Several assessment opportunities are available, indicative of the fact that no shortage of possibilities can occur at any given time. Given this, it is significant to understand that it remains the responsibility of the teachers to utilize their learning experiences as a meaningful assessment experience. To ensure efficiency in assessments that are driven towards improving learning and teaching, information generated from such activities are utilized to inform the teachers and their students in determining what needs to be done next. As a significant resource in schools, teachers are required to raise the standards of education. Improving the equity and efficiency of schooling, therefore, depends on ensuring that the teachers are well resourced and motivated to perform their tasks (Nowell et al., 2010). This paper, therefore, seeks to conduct a study aimed at understanding the manner in which culture may be initiated as a parameter in the assessment of student’s performance. This is pegged on the idea that the westernization of higher education does not consider the cultural particularities of students. As a result, non-English students studying in American/English universities often underperform because by western standards they are not "good" students. This is very often the case with Arab students studying in American universities. This paper therefore seeks to argue for the inclusion of culture as a significant element in planning assessment tools for students.
Culture as a Parameter in Assessing Students' Performance
Davies & Hazelton (2013) posits that assessment for learning enables students to integrate learning and teaching processes aimed at establishing the role of the teachers in education. Through assessment, teachers have the capacity to determine the knowledge, perception, and misconceptions of Arab students, thus informing curriculum planning and teaching practices that support students in operating at their edge of competence. Teachers, in this case, make use of a broad range of assessment tools and teaching methods that integrate assessment into the teaching and learning process. Regarding this, there is a need to determine that assessment goals remain explicit in assisting the Arab students to understand what they are learning and what is required of them from time to time. The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates the significance of establishing an educational environment that reflects the relevancy of the Arab student’s cultures, backgrounds and realities (Urda & Ramocki, 2015). Research, as established by Urda & Ramocki (2015) proves the relevance of culture and ethnic identities in mitigating negative experiences that increase the learner’s self-esteem, self-confidence, and resilience. Given this, it is necessary to examine that culture may be appropriated as a parameter aimed at assessing the performance of learners since this initiates a shared language in regards to the goals of teaching. On the other hand, culture integrates a learning process that includes the common understanding of the core purposes of evaluation designed to enable Arab students from different cultural backgrounds to meet their goals.
On the other hand, culture as an assessment parameter remains essential in the planning stages of instruction that meets the educational needs of Arab students, an aspect that ensures that appropriate teaching methods and learning outcomes are targeted and integrated in lieu to the Arab learner’s capacities. Through this, teachers are in a position to determine areas where students may lag behind emotionally, developmentally and behaviorally, an aspect that helps in the initiation of procedures aimed at supporting the learners to overcome their difficulties. In other words, this remains a continuous approach that enables teachers to understand the Arab learners from different cultural backgrounds in order to be aware of the expected results of a subject and the procedures that need to be utilized in assessing their performance in accordanceto the learning outcomes (Steffen & Hößle, 2017). Teachers are bound to gradually involve themselves in assessment processes aimed at enhancing the Arab student’s lifelong learning skills irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. Given this, the assessment and evaluation of learners enables teachers to initiate effective decision making and judgment in regards to the value, quality, and worth of response, performance based on the established curriculum standards. Assessment according to Hahn& Leslie (2017) reflects on the learners intended learning outcomes of a curriculum that needs consistency with the approaches that teachers utilize in teaching different students in a classroom. It is, therefore, significant to understand the sense of differences in socio-economic, cultural, and gender backgrounds that allow diverse students to acquire opportunities aimed at demonstrating the extent of their skills, knowledge, and abilities. Culture as an assessment tool may additionally be utilized in reporting and determining the progress of the Arab learners and in the decision-making process that relates to the promotion of the student's abilities.
According to Sang-Bin (2015), culture as a parameter in the assessment of the performance of the Arab learners occurs authentically, thus allowing the teachers to demonstrate the learning capacities and capabilities of Arab students through the demonstration of meaningful tasks. An instance of this is evident in the identification of misunderstandings in the students learning and in providing corrective direction and feedback that enhances further instruction. Assessment in this regard improves learning and the manner in which instruction is delivered to the Arab students. Culture, as established by this author, influences the Arab student's test for their responsiveness, an aspect that determines the learner’s norms, practices, and beliefs of the students regarding their backgrounds and environments. Besides this, implicit cultural assessment shapes the Arab students cultural and learning expectations including their interpretive frameworks. The most prominent cultural influence in the assessment of students is perceived to by those proportional to the content of the learning needs of the students (DeBerg & Chapman, 2012). Meaningful contexts and content for assessments help the learners from different cultures to engage their attention and encourage them in the sharing of ideologies, thus enhancing the learning process. Arab students in this case are therefore required to undertake active roles in the assessment process. When students from different cultures understand the need for evaluation criteria’s and approaches, they take ownership in circumscribing the quality and quantity of the process of their work, thus enhancing their self-assessment skills. The primary rationale for utilizing culture as a parameter in establishing the performance of students remains in developing independent life-long students who have the capacity to determine their progress and make improvements in their lives.
The teachers, therefore, make use of culture in assessing their learners. Through this, the teachers have the capacity to design assessment tools that detail two broad purposes that include the collection of relevant information that informs the classrooms instruction and the monitoring of the learner's progress towards the achievement of their learning outcomes. On the other hand, culture enables teachers to assist the Arab students in initiating self-monitoring and self-assessment strategies and skills. In order to effectively achieve this, teachers are required to ensure that their students from the Arab backgrounds are i...