ProfEd 107: Learning in Assessment

Module 1
Diagnostic assessment.
- This is a form of pre-assessment that allows a teacher to determine individual student's prior
knowledge including misconceptions before instruction. In short, it is primarily used to diagnose
what students already know and don't yet know in order to guide instruction. The results of
diagnostic assessment also provide a basis for comparison to determine how much learning has
taken place after the learning activity is complete. This is usually done by giving diagnostic
pretests.
Formative assessment.
- Formative assessment takes place during instruction (during the formative process) to provide the
teacher with information regarding how well the learning objectives of a given learning activity
are being met. Formative assessment, teachers monitor student learning to get ongoing
feedback to improve their teaching and for students to improve their learning. In formative
assessment, students are helped to identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that
need work. Likewise, teachers are also helped to recognize where students are struggling and so
address problems immediately. It is evidence-based improvement of on-going teaching-learning.
It is not sound to assess learning only at the end of a unit. Many a teacher has presumed everything is
clear to students only to get frustrated at the end of the unit that a lot of things were not understood. It is
like proceeding to "XYZ" when "ABC" where not yet mastered. It is not only frustrating but also a waste
of teaching-learning time and effort. Formative assessment is referred to as assessment for learning
because it is meant to ensure that learning takes place. In the process of instruction, the teacher checks on
students' learning. If he/she discovers that concepts and skills are not yet mastered, right there and then,
the teacher re-teaches to ensure learning. This, the phrase "assessment for learning".
How do teachers do formative assessment?
- Teacher can determine students' level of understanding while teaching by asking students
questions. A usual question that teachers ask to find out if their students can follow the lesson is
"Did you understand?" Class usually responds in chorus "Yes, Ma'am" or "Yes, Sir". A better
way to check on students' level of understanding, however, is to find out if indeed they
understood the lesson by asking them questions or using other ways of formative assessment.
Summative assessment.
- This is used to evaluate student learning at the end of a defined instructional period. While
formative assessment is referred to as assessment for learning, summative assessment is referred
to as assessment of learning. It is assessment of learning typically at the end of a project, unit,
course, semester, program, or school year, after diagnostic assessment, teaching and formative
assessment are done. It is a picture of how much learning took place and to what extent the
learning, chapter, unit or course outcomes were attained. The results of summative assessments
are the bases for grades and report to parents. Summative assessments are done through paper-
and-pencil tests and non-paper-and-pencil tests.
Traditional assessment.
 - Traditional assessment included the paper-and-pencil tests. Paper-and-pencil are either the
selected-response type or constructed-response.
Authentic assessment.
- The term authentic assessment was coined by Grant Wiggins (1993) a leading proponent of
reform in testing. Assessment is termed authentic because students' knowledge and skill are
assessed in a context that approximates the real world or real life as closely as possible. The
assessment requires student performance that models realistic encounters in life in contrast to
taking a written test or writing an essay. That is why authentic assessment is likewise called
performance assessment.
- Authentic assessment is also known as non-traditional assessment and alternative
assessment. It is referred to as alternative assessment because it offers students more choices than
just taking a paper-and-pencil test like multiple choice or an essay. The world alternative implies
that there is another way of assessing learning other than the traditional or paper-pencil test that
we have been used to.
- Authentic assessment can be in the form of students' performance to display skills learned,
mastery of a process or procedure or in the form of a product or concrete output. Some examples
of performance are: a student is able to dance tango, to dribble the ball, to send an email, to give a
report in class using Power point, to set up an experiment, to lobby at the Municipal Council.
Authentic assessment can be done also by assessing the product of students' learning such as a
haiku composed, a pair of pants sewn, journal entries, writing samples, art work, a research paper
written, a videotaped interview; a capstone project. Through capstone projects students explore
issues they are passionate about and work toward finding solutions to problems.
Criterion-referenced assessment.
- In criterion-referenced assessment we compare a student's performance against a criterion of
success which is the predetermined standard. With criterion-referenced tests, each student's
performance against a criterion for success which is the predetermined standard. With criterion
referenced tests, each student's performance is compared directly to the standard, without
considering how other students performed in the assessment.
- Criterion-referenced assessments often uses "cut scores" to place students into categories
such as "basic," "proficient," and "advanced." The performance of each student is compared
against a standard set by the teacher. It is not compared against the performance of the other
students.

Norm-referenced assessment.

- In norm-referenced assessment we compare a student's performance with the performance of

other students, the norm group, not against a predetermined standard. The composition of the
norm group depends on the assessment. An example is comparing the performance of seventh
graders in Reading in a particular school system to the performance of nation-wide group of
seventh graders in Reading.
- Norm-referenced scores are generally reported as a percentile ranking. There used to be a
National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) in the Philippines from 1973 until its abolition
in 1994 where students were given percentile ranks. A student who got a 99th percentile rank in
the NCEE means that he belonged to the upper 1% and surpassed 99% of the NCEE examinees.
 A high school graduate who got a 75th percentile rank means he belonged to the upper 25% and
was above 75% of the examinees.
- The meaning of a norm-referenced score is derived from a comparison of students' score against
other students' scores (as stated in the scores of the norm group) while the meaning of a criterion-
referenced score is derived from comparing students' scores with established criterion of success.
The norm-referenced score will not tell you whether a student met, exceeded, or fell short of the
standard of proficiency. It is the criterion referenced score that will tell you whether or not a
student met the established standard of success or proficiency.
Contextualized assessment.
- In contextualized assessment, the focus is on the students' construction of functioning
knowledge. It is the students' performance in their application of knowledge and skills in the real
work context of the discipline area. Contextualized assessment makes use of performance-
based tasks which are authentic in nature. They reflect "real-life" tasks and require students to
utilize higher order thinking skills to fulfill on demand duties and tasks. A student may have
mastered the rules of subject-verb agreement, gets a perfect score in a multiple-choice test on
subject-verb agreement rules but when he/she delivers a speech in real life, fails to observe
subject-verb agreement rules.
Decontextualized assessment.
- On the other hand, decontextualized assessment includes written exams which are suitable for
assessing declarative knowledge, and do not necessarily have a direct connection to a real-life
context. It focuses on declarative knowledge and/or procedural knowledge in artificial situations
detached from the real work context. Both contextualized and contextualized learning and
assessment have their role in evaluating learning outcomes. In practice, decontextualized
assessment has been overemphasized compared to the place declarative knowledge has in the
curriculum. Both declarative knowledge and real-life application of that knowledge must be
assessed appropriately. A common mistake is to assess only the lead-in declarative knowledge,
not the functional knowledge that emerges from it.
Quality assessments
- are in accordance with contemporary view of active learning and motivation. This means that
learners discover and construct meaning; set, plan and work to realize their goals; associate and
link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways; think critically and creatively;
develop self-monitoring skills; have positive expectations for learning and confidence in the
skills; are enthusiastically and internally motivated to learn; apply what they learn to real-world
situations, and communicate effectively."
High quality assessments
- involve learners in the assessment process beginning with the setting of goals, monitoring of
their own learning and in building self-confidence because learners are intrinsically motivated to
learn.
- High quality assessments are not just a meaningless reproduction of knowledge learned but
linking information to other bits of information meaningfully while thinking critically and
creatively to apply what they learn to real-world situations. In short, high quality assessments are
contextualized, not decontextualized. Assessment of high quality is valid. Assessment is valid if it
 measures what it is supposed to measure, i.e., how well the learning outcomes have been attained.
A teacher must be true to his/her intended learning outcome/s. The idea of the alignment of
intended learning outcomes, teaching-learning activities and assessment is what they call
constructive alignment, the essence of outcome-based education.
- Assessment of high quality is reliable. Assessment is reliable when the test produces consistent
scores. If you give a test-retest in Math and find out that those who got high scores in the first
take also got high scores in the second take of the same test and those who got low scores in the
first take also got low in the re-test of the same test, then the assessment is reliable. If the opposite
happens such that those who scored high in the first take got low scores in the re-test and that
those who got low in the first take scored high in the re-take, then the assessment is not reliable.
- Assessment of high quality is fair. It is fair if it assesses what it is supposed to be assessed as
stated in the learning outcome which is expected to have been taught. This is the principle of
constructive alignment in action. Obviously, assessing learner on something they have not been
taught is unfair.
- Assessment is also unfair if it is biased against subgroups of students. Examples are: 1) when
negative stereotypes of particular subgroups are included in the test. An example is when the test
item portrays males in high-paying and prestigious jobs and females in low-paying and less
prestigious jobs; 2) when assessment unfairly penalizes a student based don't the students'
ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, religion and disability. For example, when a teacher
decides to see how well students can collaboratively solve problems which require students to
work together synchronously online where only affluent students who can afford to have laptops
and internet connectivity can participate while students from the lower economic status will be
deprived of the collaborative problem solving.
Using at least some performance-based assessment
- This means that the use of objective tests such as alternate response, multiple choice and
matching type is no longer adequate. This does not mean that we have to set aside the use of
object tests in assessment. Not at all. Objective tests (traditional assessment) complement
performance-based assessment. But the use of objectives alone won't suffice. Examining higher-
level cognitive skills and emphasizing integrated rather than isolated skills.
- This higher-level cognitive skills include problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making,
drawing of inferences, strategic thinking. That is why it is not enough to make use objective tests
that assess simple recall.
Using multiple assessment methods
- To assess students, a current trend is to use multiple methods - from multiple choice test to essay,
an interview, a project, a portfolio to self-evaluation. Again, it is emphasized that we have not to
do away with objective tests that measure simple recall. These tests that require simple recall
complement authentic assessment tools. Having high performance standards including world-
class standards for interpreting assessment results - Let us set standards high. Research says
"One's level of performance is lower than one's level of aspiration." It is therefore sound to
challenge students to meet high performance standards. Involving students in all aspects of
assessment - It works if the students are involved from the setting of expected targets to be
demonstrated after instruction to checking on their progress in the course of the teaching learning
process and to finally determine the extent to which they realize expected targets. Making
standards and criteria public rather than private and secretive - The evaluative criteria are
presented and explained at the beginning. Models of excellence, aligned to the criteria, are shown
to provide a clear 'picture 'of desired performance. This may eliminate students' fear or
unwelcoming attitude toward assessment Using computers as part of assessment - with
computers, a back of questions can be created which makes it possible for each student to be
presented with different questions but are of equivalent standard. with computerized marking,
immediate feedback may be given to students.