Assessment For Students And Schools Performances

Assessment plays a significant role in the learning experience of students. It determines their progression through their programmes and enables them to demonstrate that they have achieved the intended learning outcomes. It is assessment that provides the main basis for public recognition of achievement, through the awarding of qualifications and/or credit.

The term ‘formative assessment’ is used to describe the activities and processes used by teachers and learners to gather information that informs future teaching and learning. Assessment becomes formative if the information gathered is used as feedback to adapt and modify teaching and learning (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p.2). There are a variety of different methods and techniques that can be used by teachers and learners that can contribute to enhancing learner progress. These include

Effective assessment will identify individual educational needs of all children as well as informing them about their specific performances and achievements, this will then allow teachers to use approaches that are personalised to the needs of a child. Assessment can be used not only to measure learning but also to promote learning by teaching pupils how to ask questions as well as answering them, by emphasising to a child that it is acceptable to ‘have a go’ and that by giving the wrong answer is still an opportunity to learn. It further provides the student with an understanding of what levels they are working at, what level they would like to working towards, and plan on how they are going to reach that level.

Assessment, both formative and summative, plays a significant part in the learning experience as it determines progression and enables learners to demonstrate that they have achieved their desired learning outcomes.

What is an assessment? Alan Rogers (1994, p172) defines assessment as collection of data on which we base our evaluation. According to Reece and Walker (2008, p5) assessment consists of tests and observations that we, as tutor, use to determine how well the students has achieved the objectives. Geoff Petty (2004, p449) writes that “Assessment measures the breadth and depth of learning”. Assessments are used in all areas and domain of everyday life, whether formal or informal, ranging from taking a written or practical driving test to claims for income support or acquiring life insurance on-line.

The principles of assessment in Scotland are clearly highlighted within Scotland’s latest educational reform, Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). It details that assessment in schools should be an integral part of learning and teaching and should continually be employed to provide a clear understanding of an individual’s achievement. Through this integration teachers are given the opportunity to work together with pupils to create achievable and challenging goals while maximising their potential as individuals to succeed as effective contributors, confident individuals, successful learners and responsible citizens (Scottish Executive, 2006). Assessment has been a massive topic for debate in Scottish education for a number of years and seen

Assessment is a process through which we gauge a learners level and progression, ensuring learning is taking place and the learner is developing their skills and knowledge. Susan Wallace recognises the importance of assessment as more than a means of determining learner achievement but also “as an indicator of the quality of learning.” (2007: 119) discussing the need for ‘ongoing assessment’ to evaluate how receptive learners are to the lessons.

1.1 Assessment measures the learner’s progress towards or the completion of, the learning aim and criteria, and can be used at any point during the learning cycle. It can provide information to adapt the delivery to suit the learner’s needs and abilities; a learner may need more help or time on some aspects, or has progressed quicker than planned and requires additional goals. By standardising the assessment process this creates uniformity for all learners.

From my school days I have bitter memories of going through various tests to show my daily learning in every mid and end of term test. These tests were mainly recall-based testing which made me feel that my memory was tested rather than my understanding. Furthermore the scores were very important to each student. Every student’s scores were at the entrance of the classroom, which meant that all of the students could see everyone else’s score. On the contrary I never got feedback to support our learning further. Therefore, I was not fully on board with the idea of using assessment as the foundation of learning and teaching the curriculum. Seeing ‘Assessment is for Learning’ [AifL] used in practice has shifted my views on assessments, as it was

The goal of educational assessment is to record, evaluate and enable improved student learning. The monitoring of student work, through developing understanding of key subject concepts and their achievement of syllabus objectives requires comparison against outcomes and standards. These outcomes and standards help define the criteria which is considered essential and relevant for assessment. Through correct implementation, integration, and reliability and validity, all forms of assessment should enable improved student learning when teaching is targeted towards syllabus outcomes, objectives and through highlighting gaps in student knowledge.

Recently, whenever I hear current teachers discussing about assessing students, ‘Formative Assessment’ is sure to be highlighted. Nowadays this method (formative assessment) is becoming popular among schools and is being applied widely in schools including my own school. Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) identified in the few past decades, formative assessment has turned out to be the main goal for teachers and educational systems. On the foundation of Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) findings and from my experience in the field of teaching, I found out nowadays teachers and school stakeholders strongly feel that formative assessment is the best method to assess in order to enhance students’ learning. For these evident reasons, I am interested in finding

According to the 1998 Black and Wiliam study, assessment refers to “all those activities undertaken by teachers – and by their students in assessing themselves – which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.” This ten-year review of research on assessment proved that formative assessment could raise achievement in schools when a focus on how children learn was implemented. In early 2002, the Scottish Government implemented Assessment is for Learning (AifL), which gathers evidence from various research methodologies and activities and seeks to link research, policy, and practice to develop informed policy. Black and Wiliam were one of the key influences of AifL and

Assessment is defined as the gathering of information in order to make an informed decision (Charlesworth & Leali, 2011, p. 373; Puckett & Black, 2000, p. 9). Assessment should support learning, and be an integral part of it. Assessment should be ongoing and part of the daily routine, as opposed to something that is done to students at the end of the instruction (Charlesworth & Leali, 2011, p. 374). The assessment should support the mathematical learning that is taking place and provide valuable information not only to the teacher but the student as well (Charlesworth & Leali, 2011, p. 374). Macmillan (2012, pp 169 -170), describe assessment as either formative or summative. Formative assessment is continuous focusing on what the children are

Students may not take it as seriously as summative assessment. It can be a time taking process. Students need different kinds of formative assessment at different stages in their learning.[2]

Assessments provide learners opportunities to develop mastery of their ideas, skills and competencies, whilst educators use assessment tasks as both teaching and learning tools (Spiller, 2009:6 & 7).