Assessment

REST 319
Objectives:
 Explain why assessment
 Distinguish formative and summative
assessment
 Classify different assessment methods
 Describe characteristics of a good
assessment
 Identify the basic principles involved in reliable
and valid test design
In education:

 The term assessment refers to the wide

variety of methods or tools that educators
use to evaluate, measure, and document
the academic readiness, learning
progress, skill acquisition, or educational
needs of students.
“ Assessment Drives Student Learning.”
George E Miller
1919-1998
“Assessment drives learning in at least four
ways: its content, its format, its timing and any
subsequent feedback given to the examinee.”
van der Vleuten

van der Vleuten, C. (1996) The Assessment of Professional Competence:

Developments, Research and Practical Implications, Advances in Health
Sciences Education, 1, pp. 41–67.
“The ‘law’ of educational cause and effect
states that: for every evaluative action,
there is an equal (or greater) (and
sometimes opposite) educational reaction.”

Schuwirth, L.W.T. (2001) General Concerns About Assessment. Web

address: www.fdg.unimaas.nl/educ/lambert/ubc.
 Evolution of Medical Students

“Assessment drives learning in the direction you wish.”

 Learning Assessment

Feedback

Linking Learning, Assessment, and Feedback

We should assess what we teach
and teach what we assess.
 Assessment Fundamentals

• Why do we assess?

• What should we assess?

• When should we assess?

• How should we assess?

 Why Do We Assess?

• Determine whether learning outcomes are met

• Support of students’ learning
• Certification and competency judgment
• Teaching program development and
implementation
• Accountability
• Understanding the learning process
 Assessment Serves Multiple
Stakeholders
• Students
• Teachers
• Department, Faculty; University;
Administrators
• Public; Governmental Agencies

• Stakeholders’ interest in assessment is not

necessarily aligned.
 Stakeholders’ Priorities

• Students

• Teacher

• Faculty, University

• Public, Government
What Should We Assess?
Knowledge

Effective Education

Skills Attitude
Knowledge and Performance
Professional authenticity

Does Performance
Shows how

Knows how
Cognition
Knows
Miller GE. The assessment of clinical
skills/competence/performance. Academic Medicine
(Supplement) 1990; 65: S63-S7.
What Should We Assess?

Performance Assessment in vivo

Does

Shows Performance Assessment in vitro

how

Knows how Context-based tests

Knows Factual tests

When Should We Assess?
Date of Examination

Concept of Mastery
‘All or none state’ – not really
Continuum of Performance
– ‘Learning Curve’
A examination that attempts to test students’ mastery at a given
point of time is less preferable than one that tests the mastery
over a span of time.
 Types of assessment
1. Formative assessment
•  refers to a wide variety of methods that
teachers use to conduct in-process
evaluations of student comprehension,
learning needs, and academic progress
during a lesson, unit, or
course. techniques, and 
academic support.
• Formative assessments help teachers
identify concepts that students are
struggling to understand, skills they are
having difficulty acquiring, or 
learning standards they have not yet
achieved so that adjustments can be
made to lessons, instructional
 Types of assessment
2. Summative assessments
•  are used to evaluate student learning, skill
acquisition, and academic achievement at
the conclusion of a defined instructional
period—typically at the end of a project,
unit, course, semester, program, or school
year. 
 2. Summative assessments
• Summative assessments are given at the conclusion
of a specific instructional period, and therefore they
are generally evaluative, rather than diagnostic
• Summative-assessment results are often recorded as
scores or grades that are then factored into a
student’s permanent academic record,
• Examples:
– The tests, assignments, or projects are used to
determine whether students have learned what they
were expected to learn. 
 How Should We Assess?

• Utility of Assessment Instruments:

– Validity
– Reliability
– Educational Impact
– Cost
– Acceptability

Utility = validity x reliability x educational impact x cost effectiveness x

acceptability
 Validity

• Validity: Ability of the assessment instrument

to test what it is supposed to test.

• Example: The course aims to determine

whether the students are able to
communicate effectively.

• What assessment instrument would you

choose for the given purpose?
Content validity: ability of the assessment
instrument to sample representative content
of the course.

Course content Assessment

 Reliability

• Reliability refers to the consistency of test scores and

the concept of reliability is linked to specific types of
consistency.
– Over time
– Between different examiners,
– Different testing conditions

• Instruments for student assessment needs high

reliability to ensure transparency and fairness
Examiner

Question

Ex 1 Ex 2 Ex 3 Ex 4 Ex 5
Q1 X
Q2 X
Q3 X
Q4 X
Q5 X
Examiner

Question

Ex 1 Ex 2 Ex 3 Ex 4 Ex 5
Q1 X X X X X
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Examiner

Question

Ex 1 Ex 2 Ex 3 Ex 4 Ex 5
Q1 X
Q2 X

Q3 X
Q4 X
Q5 X
Educational impact
There is probably more bad
practice and ignorance of
significant issues in the area of
assessment than in any other
aspect of higher education.

Boud, 1995
 ..… this would not be so bad if it
were not for the fact that the effects of
bad practice are far more potent than
they are for any aspect of teaching.
Students can, with difficulty, escape
from the effects of poor teaching, they
cannot (by definition, if they want to
graduate) escape from the effects of
poor assessment.

Boud, 1995
 Principle One: “Learning >> Assessment
>> Feedback” in that order!

• Learning should drive assessment and feedback; not the other

way round

• Teaching is easy bit; defining the purpose of assessment is

critical

• Balance between “assessment of learning” and “assessment for

learning”
 Principles Two: Validity, Validity, Validity

• Validity is the single most important

determinant in assessment

• Our interest is in validity of inference;

validity can not be compromised

• Balance between educational needs

and institutional needs
Principle Three: Educational Impact

• Any assessment is anxiety provoking for the students and

(staff)

• Assessment has potential positive and negative steering

effects on learning and professional development

• “Curriculum instructs teacher what to teach; exam instructs

students what to learn.” Donald Melnick, 1991
Assessment is a moral activity.
What we choose to assess and
how shows quite starkly what we
value.

Knight, 1995
 Authentic Assessment
• …simulate or replicate important real-
world challenges (Wiggins and McTighe)

• …measures a student’s ability to perform

a real world task (Northern Illinois University)
 Authentic Assessment

• A form of assessment in which students

are asked to perform real-world tasks that
demonstrate meaningful application of
essential knowledge and skills. 
• Student performance on a task is typically
scored on a rubric to determine how
successfully the student has met specific
standards. (Mueller)