Seminar: ON Assessment

SEMINAR
ON
ASSESSMENT
Practices for the Classroom

GOOD EDUCATION PRACTICES
1. Maximizes student/faculty contact.

2. Develops student cooperation.
3. Uses active learning techniques.
4. Gives feedback promptly.
5. Emphasizes time on task.
6. Communicates high expectations.
7. Respects learners’ diversity.
Principles of Learning
Learning requires the active participation of the
student.
People learn in a variety of ways and at different

rates.
Learning is both an individual and a group process.
Learning is most effective when students reflect on

the process of learning and set goals for
improvement.
What is Assessment?
The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin

verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’.
In assessment one is supposed to sit with

the learner. This implies it is something we
do ‘with’ and ‘for’ students and not ‘to’
students (Green, 1999).
Why assess students?
• To gather evidence of student learning
• To inform instruction
• To motivate students and increase student
achievement
Assessment in education is the process of

gathering, interpreting, recording, and
using information about pupils’ responses
to an educational task. (Harlen, Gipps, Broadfoot,
Nuttal,1992)
Values and Attitudes about Assessment
1. Teachers value and believe in students.
2. Sharing learning goals with the students.
3. Involving students in self-assessment.
4. Providing feedback that helps students
recognize their next steps and how to take
them.
5. Being confident that every student can
improve.
6. Providing students with examples of what we
expect from them.
3 types of Assessment
• Assessment FOR Learning
– Formative Assessment
– Informs students and teachers
• Assessment AS Learning
– Student’s Metacognition
• Assessment OF Learning
– Summative/Final/Official Assessment
– Evaluation of students by teachers
What Is Assessment for Learning?
Assessment for learning occurs throughout the learning process.
It is designed to make each student’s understanding visible, so that
teachers can decide what they can do to help students progress.
Students learn in individual and idiosyncratic ways, yet, at the same time,
there are predictable patterns of connections and preconceptions that
some students may experience as they move along the continuum from
emergent to proficient.
In assessment for learning, teachers use assessment as an investigative

tool to find out as much as they can about what their students know and
can do, and what confusions, preconceptions, or gaps they might have.
The wide variety of information that teachers collect about their students’
learning processes provides the basis for determining what they need to
do next to move student learning forward. It provides the basis for
providing descriptive feedback for students and deciding on groupings,
instructional strategies, and resources.
What Is Assessment as Learning?
Assessment as learning focusses on students and emphasizes assessment as a
process of metacognition (knowledge of one’s own thought processes) for
students.
Assessment as learning emerges from the idea that learning is not just a matter of
transferring ideas from someone who is knowledgeable to someone who is not,
but is an active process of cognitive restructuring that occurs when individuals
interact with new ideas.
Within this view of learning, students are the critical connectors between
assessment and learning. For students to be actively engaged in creating their
own understanding, they must learn to be critical assessors who make sense of
information, relate it to prior knowledge, and use it for new learning.
This is the regulatory process in metacognition; that is, students become adept at
personally monitoring what they are learning, and use what they discover from the
monitoring to make adjustments, adaptations, and even major changes in their
thinking.
What Is Assessment of Learning?
Assessment of learning refers to strategies designed to confirm what

students know, demonstrate whether or not they have met curriculum
outcomes or the goals of their individualized programs, or to certify
proficiency and make decisions about students’ future programs or
placements.
It is designed to provide evidence of achievement to parents, other

educators, the students themselves, and sometimes to outside groups
(e.g., employers, other educational institutions).
Assessment of learning is the assessment that becomes public and

results in statements or symbols about how well students are learning. It
often contributes to pivotal decisions that will affect students’ futures. It is
important, then, that the underlying logic and measurement of
assessment of learning be credible and defensible.
The Garden Analogy
If we think of our children as plants …
Summative assessment of the plants is the process of

simply measuring them. It might be interesting to
compare and analyze measurements but, in themselves,
these do not affect the growth of the plants.
Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the

equivalent of feeding and watering the plants appropriate
to their needs - directly affecting their growth.
Factors Inhibiting Assessment
A tendency for teachers to assess quantity and
presentation of work rather than quality of
learning.
Greater attention given to marking and grading,
much of it tending to lower self esteem of
students, rather than providing advice for
improvement.
A strong emphasis on comparing students with
each other, which demoralizes the less
successful learners.
Shifts in Assessment
From assessing to To assessing to
learn what students learn what students
do not know understand
From using results to To using results to

calculate grades inform instruction
From end-of-term To students

assessments by engaged in ongoing
teachers assessment of their
work and others
From judgmental
feedback that may To descriptive
harm student feedback that
motivation empowers and
motivates students
Why these shifts in assessment?
A change in the mission of schools:

A shift from a focus on sorting and ranking
students to a focus on leaving no child behind.
A strong research base:

Evidence of the substantial impact on student
achievement
Self-Evaluation
Where would you place your assessment practice on the
following continuum?
The main focus is on:

Quantity of work/Presentation Quality of learning
Marking/Grading Advice for improvement
Comparing students Identifying individual

progress
Implications for classroom practice
 Share learning goals with students.
 Involve students in self-assessment.
 Provide feedback that helps students recognize their next
steps and how to take them.
 Be confident that every student can improve.
Assessment AS Learning.
Develops students’:
• skills of metacognition
• critical thinking skills
• communication and interpersonal skills
Assessment  Evaluation
(various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Reflective: Internally Prescriptive:External

Defined Criteria/Goals -ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Judgmental: Arrive at
Areas for Improvement an Overall
Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Fixed: To Reward
Problems Are Clarified Success, Punish
Failure
Absolute: Strive for Comparative: Divide
Ideal Outcomes Better from Worse
Coöperative: Learn Competitive: Beat
Summary of Differences
Dimension of Difference Assessment Evaluation
Timing Formative Summative
Focus of Measurement Process-Oriented Product-Oriented
Relationship Between
Reflective Prescriptive
Administrator and Recipient
Findings, Uses Thereof Diagnostic Judgmental
Ongoing Modifiability of Criteria,

Flexible Fixed
Measures Thereof
Standards of Measurement Absolute Comparative
Relation Between Objects of A/E Coöperative Competitive

Five Keys
to
Quality
Assessment
Identify Clarify Use Provide

Involve
the the Sound Effective
Students
Purpose Targets Design Feedback
How Do I
Where Am Where Am
Close the
I Going? I Now?
Gap?
How to Answer the Three Guiding Questions
Seven Strategies of Formative Assessment
Where am I 1. Provide a clear and understandable

version of the learning targets.
going?
2. Use examples of strong and weak
work.
Where am I 3. Offer regular descriptive feedback.
now? 4. Teach students to self-assess and

set goals.
How can I close 5. Design lessons to focus on one

aspect of quality at a time.
the gap? 6. Teach students focused revision.
7. Engage students in self-reflection

and let them document and share
their learning.
GENERALIZATION:
Formative Assessment
- Formal and informal processes teachers and students
use to gather evidence for the purpose of improving
learning.
Summative Assessment
- Assessments that provide evidence of student
achievement for the purpose of making a judgment
about student competence or program effectiveness.
Promotion and Retention
The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he
can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how
many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it
hard to answer.
Alice Wellington Rollins

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SEMINAR

Practices for the Classroom

1. Maximizes student/faculty contact.

People learn in a variety of ways and at different

Learning is both an individual and a group process.

Learning is most effective when students reflect on

The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin

In assessment one is supposed to sit with

Assessment in education is the process of

In assessment for learning, teachers use assessment as an investigative

Assessment of learning refers to strategies designed to confirm what

It is designed to provide evidence of achievement to parents, other

Assessment of learning is the assessment that becomes public and

Summative assessment of the plants is the process of

Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the

From using results to To using results to

From end-of-term To students

A change in the mission of schools:

A strong research base:

The main focus is on:

Marking/Grading Advice for improvement

Comparing students Identifying individual

Reflective: Internally Prescriptive:External

Timing Formative Summative

Focus of Measurement Process-Oriented Product-Oriented

Ongoing Modifiability of Criteria,

Relation Between Objects of A/E Coöperative Competitive

Identify Clarify Use Provide

Seven Strategies of Formative Assessment

Where am I 1. Provide a clear and understandable

Where am I 3. Offer regular descriptive feedback.

now? 4. Teach students to self-assess and

How can I close 5. Design lessons to focus on one

7. Engage students in self-reflection

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