Principles and Practices of Assessment.

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Principles and Practices of Assessment.

Introduction.

Assessment is the process where information is gathered and discussed from several

sources, in an attempt to understand the needs of students, and what they can do with the

knowledge acquired from education. Principles of assessment are guidelines used by instructors

in gauging the level of expertise of their students when the students show their understanding

practically. I am going to discuss the major principles of assessment and how and when these

principles are used.

Functions of assessment in learning and development.

Laveault and Allan (2016) argue that assessment is used for the sole purpose of finding

out how much a student can do in the practical world using the knowledge gained via education.

However, there are types of assessments that have different roles in gauging the understanding of

a student. The initial assessment is a form of assessment done before the beginning of learning,

and it determines learners' needs at the start of their learning program. Formative assessment is
used by instructors to measure the understanding of an individual during their learning process.

Formative assessment is done mostly using tests and quick questions during lessons. Lastly, we

have a summative assessment that is used to evaluate the understanding of a student at the end of

a unit in a course (Garcia, 2015). It is done using exams and projects. Summative assessment has

a standard or a benchmark, like marking schemes, which students’ results are compared against. 

Concepts and Principles of Assessment.

Concepts are aspects involved during an assessment, whereas principles are how these

concepts are put into practice. Assessment proves whether a learner is knowledgeable and can

show skills learned. Concepts of assessment are used to ensure the assessment process is a

success (Rao et al 2014). During an assessment, judgment is done concerning the understanding,

skills, and competence of a student against set criteria, which means summative assessment is

used in this concept of assessment because exams and projects are involved. Reliability and

validity are concepts of assessment that evaluate the quality of research. Reliability shows the

consistency of a student’s results during the assessment, while validity measures the accuracy of

the same results. In both reliability and validity, the results are measured against a criterion that

is considered the standard qualification of the assessment.

Instructors always need to have evidence of assessment as this proves whether a student

is competent or not. It is used to show that the student has skills and attributes as described in the

unit of competency and that assessment requirements are met.

References
García-Jiménez, E. (2015). Assessment of learning: From feedback to self-regulation. The role of

technologies. Electronic Journal of Educational Research, Assessment &

Evaluation, 21(2).

Laveault, D., & Allal, L. (2016). Implementing assessment for learning: Theoretical and practical

issues. In Assessment for learning: Meeting the challenge of implementation (pp. 1-18).

Springer, Cham.

Rao, U. H., & Nayak, U. (2014). Key Concepts and Principles. In The InfoSec Handbook (pp.

29-61). Apress, Berkeley, CA.