The BilBea Learning Journey

Situation

“The new trainees are waiting downstairs, and I’m not sure what to do with them. I know Helen was going to do some kind of assessment so she could start developing the students’ training profiles this week, but she’s away today – any suggestions??”
“Well, there are some communication assessments in that storeroom cupboard, I think we used them a couple of years ago – and a marking scheme somewhere too – why not just use one of them? That should give Helen some starting points to work from.”
“OK – that will do for the first 2 hours”.

Problems
Where to begin?!

• Firstly, they weren’t trained for this. Why bother training for something only to have the trainers pull something out of a cupboard? Do we have all that knowledge they are testing?
• Was assessment planned into the instructional design? Sounds like it wasn’t – big black mark!
• Outside of assessment (maybe) if it was planned for today, where is all the preparation sitting on your desk for the replacement teacher? (see above point)
• Even if assessment wasn’t planned – some lesson plans for a possible replacement is essential. Perhaps something to go on with and do the assessment later.
• The unfair nature of the assessment seems obvious. Some students will ace the assessment due to prior knowledge, others are disadvantaged.
• The statement of ‘needing to kill 2 hours with assessment’ doesn’t inspire one’s confidence in this person as a trainer.
• What does Helen need to complete ‘training profiles’? Does the 2 hour test even gather the right information?
• Was this test designed for this course or another?
• How was it designed? Is the marking sheet even valid or correct?

…. the list continues, but my time is up!