The Philosophy And Practice Of Assessment

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

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.

Assessment can be defined as the systematic gathering of information regarding the knowledge and ability of learners which enables learners to obtain feedback on the quality of their learning and enables teachers or assessors to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching/assessment.

Assessment is used to make a specific educational decision and is the process of evaluating the extent to which participants in education have developed their knowledge, understanding and skills.

Haydn (2009 cited in Capel et al 2009 page 329) defines assessment as "all those activities which are undertaken by teachers, and others, to measure the effectiveness of teaching and learning".

My personal philosophy of assessment consists of several components. The first component is that both formative and summative assessment belong in the classroom. The second component is that, although teachers should teach what is on the STAAR tests, they should try to avoid just “teaching to the test” the entire year. I also believe that different forms of assessments should be used throughout the year. Finally, I believe that assessments should always be structured in a way that is fair to the students, and addresses all learning styles. Overall, tests belong in the classroom, but should not be the focus of instruction and should be fair for all students.

Assessing is a crucial component of education that informs teachers on individual development and understanding (Booker, Bond, Sparrow

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 reliability of an assessment in a perfect situation should produce the same results if marked by another tutor or if that examiner unknowingly receives the same paper again. If different marks are given the assessment is consequently unreliable and proves that this assessment is subjective.

Assessment is carried out to ensure that learning has taken place. This is used to measures the learner’s knowledge and skills in their chosen area of learning. Assessment can be used to encourage learners to ask questions on anything they have not understood, learners at some point will have to know that they will have to prove their knowledge and understanding to the standards of the awarding body.

The function of assessment in learning and development is to provide a measurable way of planning and supporting students’ progress. Assessment is carried out by means of checks and tests carried out throughout the course. Assessors should provide feedback throughout ensuring that learning is occurring and the learner is at the correct level. It is also important that assessor’s decisions are also consistently reviewed and internally and externally verified.

Initial assessment can be described as set of procedures we go through to determine what previous experience, skills and abilities a learner has. The process may include skills scan screening for numeracy, literacy and language as well as learning styles and skills abilities, and recognise any prior R.P.L .The results of initial assessment should form individual learning plans so that training and support are delivered that will meet the needs of each learner .Formative assessment is the on-going assessment made in order to adapt to learners needs and respond to learning. Formative assessment helps you keep record of learner’s progress and

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.

Assessment is carried out to ensure that learning has taken place. It measures the learner’s knowledge and skills in their learning area. Assessment encourages learners to ask questions on anything they have not fully understood, as learners know that they will have to prove their knowledge and understanding to the standards of the awarding body.

My research clearly demonstrates that assessment resources are full of terminology such as “mission”, “goals”, “objectives”, “outcomes”, but it is lacking in any agreement for a specific meaning of each of these terms. Part of the difficulty comes from changes in approaches to education; shifts from objective-based, to competency-based, to outcomes-based, and so on.