Republic of the Philippines

PRESIDENT RAMON MAGSAYSAY TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

(Iba, Zambales Main Campus)
Graduate School
MaEd – Social Studies

Course Code Title: SS301 Instructional Planning and Procedures in Social Studies
Topic: Planning for Assessment
Professor: Ms. Marie Fe Dizon-De Guzman, EdD.
Reporters: Mr. James Andro B. Ribot and Elvin Francis T. Labandelo

Objectives: Discuss how teachers improve the tie between planning and assessment
Recognize considerations in planning with exceptionalities.

What is assessment for learning?

 Assessment for learning is best described as a process by which assessment information is used by
teachers to adjust their teaching strategies, and by students to adjust their learning strategies.
 Assessment, teaching, and learning are inextricably linked as each informs the others.
 Assessment is a powerful process that can either optimize or inhibit learning, depending on how it is
applied.
For teachers
Assessment for learning helps teachers gather information to:
 plan and modify teaching and learning programs for individual students, groups of students, and the
class as a whole
 pinpoint students’ strengths so that both teachers and students can build on them
 identify students’ learning needs in a clear and constructive way so they can be addressed
 involve parents, families in their children's learning.
For students
 Assessment for learning provides students with information and guidance so they can plan and
manage the next steps in their learning.
 Assessment for learning uses information to lead from what has been learned to what needs to be
learned next.
Describing assessment for learning
Assessment for learning should use a range of approaches. These may include:
 day-to-day activities, such as learning conversations
 a simple mental note taken by the teacher during observation
 student self and peer assessments
 a detailed analysis of a student’s work
 assessment tools, which may be written items, structured interview questions, or items teachers make
up themselves.
 What matters most is not so much the form of the assessment, but how the information gathered is
used to improve teaching and learning.

Purposes of assessment

Teaching and learning

The primary purpose of assessment is to improve students’ learning and teachers’ teaching as both respond to
the information it provides. Assessment for learning is an ongoing process that arises out of the interaction
between teaching and learning. What makes assessment for learning effective is how well the information is
used.

System improvement
Assessment can do more than simply diagnose and identify students’ learning needs; it can be used to assist
improvements across the education system in a cycle of continuous improvement.
 Students and teachers can use the information gained from assessment to determine their next
teaching and learning steps.
 Parents, families can be kept informed of next plans for teaching and learning and the progress being
made, so they can play an active role in their children’s learning.
 School leaders can use the information for school-wide planning, to support their teachers and
determine professional development needs.
 Communities and Boards of Trustees can use assessment information to assist their governance role
and their decisions about staffing and resourcing.
 The Education Review Office can use assessment information to inform their advice for school
improvement.
  The Ministry of Education can use assessment information to undertake policy review and
development at a national level, so that government funding and policy intervention is targeted
appropriately to support improved student outcomes.

Learning Assessment & Instructional Alignment

Learning assessment is more than testing students and assigning grades. It is a system that provides
feedback about student learning. This tutorial introduces an assessment approach using the Revised
Bloom’s Taxonomy. Using the taxonomy can improve your assessment system and improve student
learning by aligning course objectives, activities and assessments with each other.

Learning improves when objectives, activities and assessments are aligned

In this course you'll learn how to:

 write observable learning objectives
 choose learning activities that support your learning
objectives
 choose assessments that match your activities and objectives
 use a taxonomy to align learning objectives, activities and assessments

What is learning assessment? A system and process.

Learning assessment is a system and process of collecting evidence about student learning. Assessment is a
lot like research because it involves observing, recording, scoring and interpreting the information we
collect. A good system of assessment provides:

 feedback to students about their learning

 feedback to teachers about their instruction
 evidence to support teachers’ judgments about grading
How does assessment begin? Assessment begins with the end in mind.
A system of assessment begins by defining course learning objectives: what students should be able
to do at the end of instruction. The learning objectives give you a clear target so you can choose learning
activities and assessments that are aimed directly toward those objectives. When activities and assessments
are lined up with the ultimate objectives, you have alignment.

Why should assessments, learning objectives, and instructional strategies be aligned?

Assessments should reveal how well students have learned what we want
them to learn while instruction ensures that they learn it. For this to occur,
assessments, learning objectives, and instructional strategies need to be
closely aligned so that they reinforce one another.

To ensure that these three components of your course are aligned, ask
yourself the following questions:
 Learning objectives: What do I want students to know how to
do when they leave this course?
 Assessments: What kinds of tasks will reveal whether students
have achieved the learning objectives I have identified?
 Instructional strategies: What kinds of activities in and out of
class will reinforce my learning objectives and prepare students for assessments?

What if the components of a course are misaligned?

 If assessments are misaligned with learning objectives or instructional strategies, it can undermine
both student motivation and learning. Consider these two scenarios:
 Your objective is for students to learn to apply analytical skills, but your assessment measures
only factual recall. Consequently, students hone their analytical skills and are frustrated that the exam
does not measure what they learned.
 Your assessment measures students’ ability to compare and critique the arguments of different
authors, but your instructional strategies focus entirely on summarizing the arguments of different
authors. Consequently, students do not learn or practice the skills of comparison and evaluation that
will be assessed.

What do well-aligned assessments look like?

This table presents examples of the kinds of activities that can be used to assess different types of learning
objectives (adapted from the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy).

Type of learning Examples of appropriate assessments

 objective
Recall Objective test items such as fill-in-the-blank, matching, labeling, or multiple-choice questions
Recognize that require students to:
Identify  recall or recognize terms, facts, and concepts
Interpret Activities such as papers, exams, problem sets, class discussions, or concept maps that require
Exemplify students to:
Classify  summarize readings, films, or speeches
Summarize  compare and contrast two or more theories, events, or processes
Infer  classify or categorize cases, elements, or events using established criteria
Compare  paraphrase documents or speeches
Explain  find or identify examples or illustrations of a concept or principle
Apply Activities such as problem sets, performances, labs, prototyping, or simulations that require
Execute students to:
Implement  use procedures to solve or complete familiar or unfamiliar tasks
 determine which procedure(s) are most appropriate for a given task
Analyze Activities such as case studies, critiques, labs, papers, projects, debates, or concept maps that
Differentiate require students to:
Organize  discriminate or select relevant and irrelevant parts
Attribute  determine how elements function together
 determine bias, values, or underlying intent in presented material
Evaluate Activities such as journals, diaries, critiques, problem sets, product reviews, or studies that
Check require students to:
Critique  test, monitor, judge, or critique readings, performances, or products against established
Assess criteria or standards
Create Activities such as research projects, musical compositions, performances, essays, business
Generate plans, website designs, or set designs that require students to:
Plan  make, build, design or generate something new
Produce
Design

This table does not list all possible examples of appropriate assessments. You can develop and use other
assessments – just make sure that they align with your learning objectives and instructional strategies!

Choosing appropriate assessments

Vary assessments
Student learning styles vary widely, and their strengths and challenges with respect to assessment vary as well. 
Instructors need to consider that variation as they choose assessments for their courses.  By varying the way, we
assess student understanding, we are more likely to offer opportunities for every student to demonstrate their
knowledge.  This can be accomplished by creating courses with three or more forms of assessment, for example
papers, class projects and exams.  This can also be accomplished by offering choices of how to be assessed, for
example giving students the option of writing a paper or taking an exam for a unit of instruction, as long as by
the end of a course they have done both forms of assessment.  This might also be accomplished by offering
multiple questions, and having students choose which to answer.  New faculty members should think creatively
how to best elicit quality student responses.

Consider intervals for assessment

The frequency of assessment varies widely from course to course.  Some classes assess only twice, on a
midterm and a final.  Others have weekly assignments, presentations and homework.  Think about the
frequency with which your students should be assessed, based on the knowledge that assessment drives learning
by focusing student attention, energy, and motivation to learn.  New faculty members need to try various
intervals and choose those that best support their students’ learning.

Match learning goals to assessments

What we assess is what our students’ study, engage with, and explore in more depth.  By beginning with what
we want students to know and be able to do, we can design and choose assessments to demonstrate the
appropriate knowledge and skills we are aiming for them to learn.  After choosing student learning outcomes,
make a grid that places learning outcomes across one axis, and the assessment that demonstrates their
achievement of those outcomes on the other axis.  In this way new faculty members can double check to be
certain that each of the student learning outcomes have been assessed.  If we make clear to students how each
assessment furthers the goals of the course, they are able to make informed choices about how to spend their
limited study time to achieve the course goals.
Direct and indirect assessment
Assessment strategies are typically classified as direct, where actual student behavior is measured or assessed,
or indirect, including things like surveys, focus groups, and similar activities that gather impressions or opinions
about a program or its learning goals.  If student assessment is embedded in a course, meaning it impacts a
course grade, it is typically taken more seriously.

Collect data on student performance

In spite of our best efforts at choosing the appropriate forms of assessment, and the intervals that best support
student learning, there will be some topics, or units of instruction where students come up short.  If we collect
data on these issues, which test questions are commonly missed, which paper topics are commonly derailed,
what misconceptions some students are taking away, we can identify weaknesses in instruction and assessment
choices and make adjustments as needed.

Revise assessment choices

After analyzing student achievement systematically, we should begin to see gaps in our teaching or the
effectiveness of our assessments to measure student understanding.  This is the time to modify our assessments
and the instruction leading up to them to better support student learning.  Accomplished faculty members
continually revise the ways they assess student knowledge and skills to close the learning gap.  The more
students we can move toward deep understanding of the course topics, the more effective we are as instructors. 
The best time to make these revisions is right after an assessment is evaluated and the results analyzed to be
certain to make changes when the understanding of weaknesses is fresh in our minds. Throughout this revision
process it is important to maintain high expectations about what students should know and be able to do.

References:

https://assessment.tki.org.nz/Assessment-for-learning/Underlying-principles-of-assessment-for-
learning/What-is-assessment-for-learning

http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-
development/Documents/tutorials/Assessment/index.htm

https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/alignment.html
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/cdip/facultyteaching/Choosingappropriateassessment.html