Assessment Methods For A Learner 's Knowledge

|assessment as a process of making judgments of learners’ knowledge, skills and competence against set criteria |

Assessments are the way to find out if learning has actually taken place. Enabling us, as tutors, to see if objectives have been met.

2.2 The strengths and limitations of a range of assessment methods in relation to the individual learner needs:

Before any actual classroom teaching can take place, initial and diagnostic assessments must be carried out. These are paramount in agreeing individual learning goals, and planning the progression of the learner with the teacher.

There is a large variety of assessment methods available for assessing learners’ achievements. These include observation; questioning the learner; examining product evidence; discussion; witness testimony; looking at learner statements; recognising prior learning; simulated environment; skills tests; oral and written examinations; assignments; case studies and projects. Choosing the most appropriate assessment methods is vitally important, to help and support the learner and to ensure the job of the assessor is as straightforward, reliable and problem-free as possible.

Assessment opportunities should be created during each lesson in an informal way. This can be through having a conversation with a learner about what has happened during the lesson and asking some key questions to see if they are able to show that they have understood and therefore, the objectives have been met.

Assessment is essential in teaching throughout any subject or course in practical and theory work. First initial assessment is used to ensure students are on the correct course. Once learning starts differentiated formative assessments are carried out throughout ending with summative assessment which usually warrants a grade or a pass.

Assessment is used as a tool for marking and grading in a practical environment and can be used to motivate by on-going improvement of the task, creating learning opportunities and to give feedback. It also allows students the chance to work at their own speed to produce the best product, when it is felt that they are competent in the task to be assessed. This is measured against the tasks listed in aims and objectives of lesson plan and should, Help learners to achieve their full potential and enable learners to achieve the standard required for their course. Encourage learners to develop independent learning skills and identify any further support

Effective assessment for learning will enable the teacher to pass on the responsibility to the pupil overtime to be able to manage their own learning. This allows the pupil to become more actively involved in the process.

In one of my lessons on measurement with non-standard units, I used different kinds of materials for hands-on activities, but I did not include electronic technology. In my observation, I realized that I should have incorporated techniques like that in the course for my visual students; which I noticed during the lesson activity it would have helped certain learners better. Therefore, the next time we watched a video on the topic and reviewed the lesson, which helped immensely. Assessing a student without considering what kind of assessment technique to use is inefficient.

Assessment collects key information about a learner. It is a way of understanding what level of knowledge that learner already has, and a way of monitoring what learning has taken place. It begins right at the start of the teaching and learning cycle (see Figure 1), with Initial and diagnostic assessment, as observed in unit 401 and continues with formative and summative assessment.

Assess - Using many types of assessment such as questionnaires, tests and interviews to discover the information you need to gather to help to understand the learners needs.

The areas for development about this assessment is we need to keep the group focused and set a time limit; some learner may not get involved, others may take over. For example in a small group there are five learners: three teenagers, one middle aged and one sixties. When the teacher asks a question the teenagers always answer and the other two are always quiet and they let the teenagers talk. So they don’t participate or attempt to answer any of the questions. They might think that younger learners know everything. Examination is a formal assessment. Learners can have books or notes with them, the cons are some learners may be anxious and may have been taught purely to pass expected questions. (Gravells, 2012). When planning an assessment, it has to be valid, reliable, fair and ethical. For example if I am going to assess a group of learners who is different age, religion or comes from a different country, I need to make sure that the assessment is appropriate to the qualification that is suitable for the group and available to all and differentiates for any particular needs like elder, deaf, etc.

Summative assessments usually occur at the end of a lesson and are used to evaluate student’s understanding of the skills and concepts that were taught. These assessments are seen as a “digital snapshot” because they provide insight of a student’s knowledge at a single period of time, (pg 78, Van de Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2013). Tests and quizzes are a popular type of summative assessments.

This paper aims to examine the purpose of Assessment for Learning and the different methods that can be utilized to put it into effect in the classroom, through reviewing different pieces of literature, reflecting upon strategies that I have seen in lesson observations and evaluating the effectiveness of strategies I have used in my own lessons.