Unit 1: The Nature of Assessment

• After completing this unit, you will be able to

• Define and differentiate between the terms, assessment, test,
measurement and evaluation

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 Introduction
• Decision making is a daily task. Many people make hundreds of
decisions daily; and to make wise decisions, one needs information.
• The role of measurement is to provide decision makers with accurate
and relevant information.
• The whole field of differential psychology is based on the fact that
individuals differ, that these differences are important, and that we
need to measure these differences and use this information in decision
making.
• Educators, for example, are concerned with measuring and evaluating
the progress of their students, the value and relevance of the
curriculum, and the effectiveness of instruction.
• The most basic principle of this course is that measurement and
evaluation are essential to sound educational decision making.
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 The Nature of Assessment

• The concepts assessment, test, measurement and evaluation are often

used interchangeably by practitioners as if they have the same
meaning.
• This is not so. As a teacher, you should be able to:
• distinguish one from the other
• use any particular one at the appropriate time to discuss issues in the classroom.

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 What is Assessment?
• The term assessment is used in a variety of ways:
• Assessment is the process of collecting or obtaining information that
is used for making decisions about students, curricula, programme and
educational policies.
• It is a technical process to determining how much a student has
learned.
• Assessment is a systematic basis for making inference about the
learning and development of students (Brown and Knight, 1994)
• It is the use of both formal and informal data-gathering procedures
and the combining of the data in a global fashion to reach an overall
judgment
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 Formal & informal assessment
• Formal assessments are formal ways of finding out how much a student has
learnt or improved during the instructional period (Morrison, 2013)
• Formal assessments are the systematic, data-based tests that measure what and
how well the students have learned.
• It determines the students’ proficiency or mastery of the content, and can be used
for comparisons against certain standards.
• All formal assessments have standardized/formal methods for
• administering the tests.
• grading or scoring the test
• interpreting grades or test scores

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• Examples of formal assessment
• Criterion-referenced tests – “intra individual differences” compare a students’
individual performance from their previous one or against a standard
• Norm-referenced test - linked to “inter individual differences” This test compares
the student’s skill or knowledge to other students in the similar age group or
class.
• Achievement test -a test that measures a student's achievement and progression
in a specific subject/course or topic over a set period of time.
• Aptitude tests - used to determine an individual's ability/potential to succeed in
a certain task, with no prior knowledge or training

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 Informal assessment
• Informal assessment is a procedure for obtaining information that can be used to
make judgements about children's learning behaviour and characteristics or
programs using means other than standardized instruments(Morrison,2013).
• It can also be explained as tools that are used to judge and evaluate students’
performance and skill levels without making use of standardized tests and
scoring patterns.
• Informal assessments are subjective, and there are no strict criteria to evaluate
the performance
• It is spontaneous forms of assessment that can easily be incorporated in the day-
to-day classroom activities
• it measures the students’ performance and progress.

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 Examples of informal assessment
Method Purpose
Interviews Engaging children in discussion through Allows children to explain behaviour, work samples, or
questions particular answers
Observation Watching/looking at children/students in a Enables teachers to identify student/children's
systematic way behaviours, document performance, and make decisions
Portfolio Collection of children's work samples and Provides documentation of a child's achievement in
other products specific areas over time; can include test scores, writing
work samples, videotapes, etc.

Checklist A list of behaviours identifying children's Enables teachers to observe and easily check off what
skills and knowledge children know and are able to do
Rating scale Contains a list of descriptors for a set of Enables teachers to record data when they are observed
behaviours
Anecdotal Gives a brief written description of Provides insight into a particular behaviour and a basis
Record student behaviour at one time for planning a specific teaching strategy
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Which one of these types of assessment is better?
• We can use either type (depending on the intended purpose) to improve
teaching and learning.
• The type of assessment we should use should match the intended purpose of
the assessment.
• Formal assessment cannot replace informal assessment - one complements the
other, in depicting the accurate pictures of our students
• if we want to assess the students’ academic achievement and compare it with
other students, then we can use the formal assessment.
• If we want to use assessment to monitor students’ progress and help them
maximize their own learning, or use assessment to improve instruction, then we
can use the informal assessment.
• Both formal and informal assessments involve gathering, interpreting, and
acting on information(Ruiz-Primo& Furtak,2004).

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 What is classroom assessment?

• Classroom assessment is the process, usually conducted by teachers,

of designing, collecting, interpreting, and applying information about
student learning and attainment to make educational decisions.
• Classroom assessment includes all the process involved in making
decisions about students learning progress.
• It includes the observation of students’ written work, their answers to questions in class,
and performance on teacher-made and standardized tests.
• The assessment procedure may be formal (pencil and paper test, standard test) or informal
(observation, interviews, portfolio, etc).

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 What is assessment?

From the above definitions, one can say that assessment:

• is a systematic process of gathering information on a student,
programme or event for the purposes of making decisions
• provides information for decision-making,
• provides information for planning instruction and learning.
• is an integral part of instruction that enhances, empowers, and
celebrates student learning

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 Test
• It is the most commonly used method of making measurement in
education.
• What is a test?
• Simply put a test is a measuring tool or instrument in education. More
specifically a test is:
• A task or series of tasks which are used to measure specific trait or
attributes in people.
• A question or a task or a series of such, designed to elicit some
predetermined behaviour from the person being tested
• Considered to be a kind or class of measurement device typically used
to find out something about a person.
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 Test
• It is an instrument or systematic procedure for measuring sample of
behaviour by posing a set of questions in a uniform manner.
• It is designed to measure any quality, ability, skills or knowledge
• There is right or wrong answer.
• The end product of a test is a score

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Activity 1
• In one sentence, differentiate between assessment and test

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 What is testing?
Activity 2: In one sentence, differentiate between
test and testing
• Testing on the other hand is the process of administering the test on
the pupils.
• In other words the process of making you or letting you take the test
in order to obtain a quantitative representation of the cognitive or non-
cognitive traits you possess is called testing.
• So the instrument or tool is the test and the process of administering
the test is testing.

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 Measurement
• It is a systematic process of obtaining the quantified degree to which a trait or an
attribute is present in an individual or object.
• In other words it is a systematic assignment of numerical values or figures to a trait
or an attribute in a person or object.
• Measurement is a procedure for assigning numbers to attributes or characteristics of
persons or procedures.
• According to Ebel & Frisbie (1986) “Measurement involves using rules to assign a
number(s), such as score, rating or a ranking, to an individual or group for a
specified behaviour or performance.”
• Assigns numbers (e.g. 28/ 30 on the mathematics test; 90/ 100 on the science
project) marks obtained on tests or other pieces of work set by the teacher.
• It means that the values of the attribute are translated into numbers by
measurement
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 Measurement scales
• Measurement scales are used to categorize and/or quantify variables.
• Each scale of measurement satisfies one or more of the following
properties of measurement:
• Identity. Each value on the measurement scale has a unique meaning.
• Magnitude. Values on the measurement scale have an ordered
relationship to one another. That is, some values are larger and some are
smaller.
• Equal intervals. Scale units along the scale are equal to one another. This
means, for example, that the difference between 1 and 2 would be equal
to the difference between 19 and 20.
• A minimum value of zero. The scale has a true zero point, below which no
values exist.
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 Scale of measurement
• Four measurement scales
• Nominal – categories
• Race, gender, types of schools (e.g., public, private, parochial)
• Ordinal - ordered categories
• Finishing position in a race, grade levels
• Interval - equal intervals between numbers on the scale
• Test scores, achievement levels
• Ratio - equal intervals and an absolute zero (0)
• Height, weight, time

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 Evaluation
• Evaluation has been defined in a variety of ways:
• It is also the process of obtaining, analyzing and interpreting
information to determine the extent to which students
achieve the instructional objective (s).
• Stufflebeam et al. (2012) defined evaluation as "the process
of delineating, obtaining, and providing useful information
for judging decision alternatives."
• Evaluation is defined as the determination of the congruence
between performance and objectives.
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 Evaluation
• Other definitions simply categorize evaluation as professional
judgment or as a process that allows one to make a judgment about the
desirability or value of something.
• It is concerned with making judgments on the worth or value of a
performance, answer the question “how good, adequate, or desirable”.
• One can evaluate with either qualitative or quantitative data.

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Levels of evaluation
• There are two levels of evaluation
• Student level evaluation
• It seeks to determine the extent of a student level of academic achievement in
a specific subject area or discipline
• Programme level evaluation
• It seeks to determine the effectiveness of a programme

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 Types of evaluation
• There are two types of evaluation
• Formative
• Summative
• Robert Stakes (1970) used a simple scenario to distinguish between formative
and summative evaluation.
• In the preparation of food:
• When a cook tastes the food, it is formative
• When the guest tastes the food, it is summative

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 Formative evaluation
• A formative evaluation is a method for judging the worth of a program
while the program activities are forming (in progress).
• The process of judging the worth of teaching and learning during the
period of instruction.
• This part of the evaluation focuses on the process.
• The goal of formative evaluation is to monitor student learning, to provide
ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching
and by students to improve their learning.
More specifically, formative evaluation:
• help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that
need work
• help teachers recognize where students are struggling and address
problems
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immediately Philip Boateng
 Formative evaluation
• Formative evaluation are generally low stakes, which means that they
have low or no point value.
• Examples of formative evaluation include asking students to:
• Quizzes
• Class presentation
• Assignments
• Home work
• Project work

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 Summative evaluation
• A summative evaluation is a method of judging the worth of a program
or instruction at the end of the program or instructional activities
• The focus is on the outcome.
• The goal of summative evaluation is to evaluate student learning at
the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard
or benchmark.
• Summative evaluation are often high stakes, which means that they
have a high point value.
• Examples of summative evaluation include: End of semester exam,
BECE/ WASCE
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 Activity 3
Think of one difference between formative and summative evaluation
Exchange your idea with your neighbour
Share your idea with the entire class

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