UNIT 2

Assessing Learning & Teaching

ASSESSMENT : INTRODUCING THE TERMS

• In order to frame and guide discussion, it

is useful to clarify key terms at the
outset.
• In this unit, we examine the nature of
assessment and the different forms it
can take.
What does assessment mean?

• Traditionally, assessment has been used primarily

to judge the state of learning.
• Assessment is the means we use to gather
information about how much our learners have
learnt.
• Strategies such as tests, exams and presentations
are instruments used to gather information.
How do teachers assess?

• Foundation Phase teachers use a different assessment tool where

they make use of observation to assess a performance (listening to
learners read and speak or ask them to draw).
• Learner, like some teachers, interpret assessment competively and
as a judgement, not a chance to learn.
• The problem with assessment is that a very narrow range of
assessment strategies is used, and that learners and teachers see
assessment primarily as a judgement that is defined in terms of
marks and a ranking in class.
How do different users understand assessment?

• Teachers and learners use assessment in

many different ways, which is influenced by
our embedded theoretical assumptions.
• In order to implement new assessment
strategies, teachers need to be aware of how
different stakeholders use and understand
assessment.
Deepening our understanding of assessment

• Assessment or testing in schools becomes a wasteful and

irritating and doesn’t provide reliable information on the
quality of learning.
• As teacher-assessors, we must always ask whether our
assessment achieves a purpose that is educationally
useful.
• This useful purpose can be realised in different ways:
Continued

• Does it help us understand why learners don’t understand

certain concepts and what we can do about this?
• Does it help learners understand where and why they are
going wrong, and what they can do about this?
• Does it provide information reliable enough for us to make
formal judgements about the quality of learners?
• Are there other assessment strategies that would provide
better information about the outcomes we are assessing?
Widening the range of information gathering instruments
used

• What can we get learners to do or provide us with in order to compile

evidence we need to make judgements about assessment?
Examples:
• Evaluating
• Designing
• Word-processing
• Researching
• Drawing
• Computing
• Discussing etc.
Using assessment formatively and summatively

• Formative Assessment: A good formative assessment

should provide teachers with evidence that is reliable
enough to make judgements about whether a learner
should pass or fail, as teachers use this strategy by
listening to learners' responses to their questions,
contributions in group work or scan through learners
written work.
• A teacher/assessor operates diagnostically by suggesting
where the problem in learning lie and what should be
done to remedy these problems.
Cont.

• Summatively Assessment: teachers assess

evidence and makes judgments about whether
candidates can be progressed to into the next
grade, or they should be kept back.
• This is done in the form of exams, portfolios,
projects or a year mark that includes all of these.
• A good summative assessment should also
provide information about learner's strengths and
weaknesses.
When do we assess learners?

• We assess learners continuously, we need to think of assessment

differently, not as a disruption to teaching, but as an integral part of
teaching.
• Continuous assessment provides teachers with information that can
improve their teaching.
• Three broad-categories of assessment:
1. In-lesson check-ups includes a few review questions at the start of a
lesson.
2. After-lesson information gathering these are similar to check-ups but
often implemented and recorded more formally.
3. Summing up a learner's performance
Three-stages of Assessment process

Stage 1 : Plan Assessment

1. Specify what judgements or decisions need to be made from the
assessment.
2. Ensure these decisions are guided by the course or lesson aims
and objectives (outcomes).
3. Describe the kind of information you need to make a valid
judgement.
4. Decide when and how to collect the required information.
5. Select or construct an information-gathering instrument that is
appropriate to your purpose.
Stages continues…

Stage 2: Implement Assessment

6. Obtain the information required. (run your assessments).
7. Analyse and record the information it begins with marking the
assessment, using the assessment criteria as your guide and
deciding on the difficult cases.
 Stage 3: Use the assessment information generated
8. Form your judgements about what the information you have
gathered means.
9. Make decisions about what you do.
10. Communicate your assessment decisions.
Choosing appropriate assessment instruments

• Sometimes teachers use unsuitable or inappropriate assessment

instruments
• The problem with inappropriate assessment- page 128 Activity 4
• What did we think of these assessments
• Problem 1. Different interpretations of assessment information
• The teacher’s way of assessing the learner is different from how the
learner perceived an instruction, it is due to unclear criteria or
requirements.
• Solution is that teachers should ensure that marking criteria are
specified
PROBLEMS CONTINUES..

• Problem 2: A lack of good information

• Incident 2 of activity 4 reveals how many report cards are
uninformative, the report gives no information on whether a
learner can use English to discuss or follow instruction.
• The solution is that teachers should use good summative
assessments to provide information that is valid, reliable and
useful
• Summative assessment should sum up learning and should also be
based on several assessments over a period.
USING CRITERION-REFERENCED ASSESSMENT

• The setting of appropriate, acceptable and measurable criteria is one

way in which we can make assessment more useful educationally.
• Example of assessment guidelines for foundation phase pg130-131
• Cynthia’s assessment on pg 132- The problem with norm referencing
• Adapting the report: The use of assessment criteria- Assessing learners
against set criteria rather than against the standard set by other
learners pg 135
• When individual learners are assessed against a set of educational
requirements, criteria or standards and these criteria are stated
explicitly, the assessment is described as criterion referenced.
 The requirements of
assessment criteria:

Exceeded

Criteria for
Assessing Satisfied

learning
Partially satisfied

Not satisfied
Characteristics of Criterion Referencing

• Criterion referencing involves deciding on some requirements that

learners have to fulfil in order to succeed.
• The success of a learner is measured against educational
standards not against a class average
• It is possible that all learners will achieve all the intended learning
• Educators use a minimum standard that must be reached by all
rather than a maximum standard
Setting a criteria

• Teachers should ensure that all learners meet the assessment criteria (The
minimum level of competence)
• Push learners to achieve at much higher levels, which aren’t necessarily listed
in the assessment criteria
• Linking learning intentions and assessment criteria- The criteria to be used in
an assessment task should be:
• Clearly stated and understood by both the learner and the teacher at the
beginning of the assessment activity
• Linked clearly to the kinds of learning you have been working towards in class
(Test what you teach)
• Checklists and rating scales are useful ways of recording marks
Guidelines used to make traditional
assessment methods more effectively

• Short-question tests: Questions should elicit answers that range

from short immediate answers (one-word answers or multiple-
choice tests) to answers that will fill a book (a portfolio or a
research project)
: Questions should also be phrased in a very
open and unstructured manner (designed to get
precise information on learner recall and
understanding)
Guidelines continues…

• Open-ended, less structured questions: Maximise the freedom learners have to

express their opinions and feelings, they encourage ideas by opening up the
range of possible responses, they are assessed against a very limited set of
criteria that focuses more on process and structure than on content

• Highly structured or closed questions:Limit learner freedom but for an

important educational purpose, the purpose is that good education requires
learners to know certain things and to do certain things whether they like them
or not
: Learners must be able to explain knowledge to
an assessor in precise, detailed and to-the-point
language
ESSAYS AND PROJECT WORK

• The essay is an assessment format that can be use in more and less
structured ways.
• The essay can be used to assess imagination, problem-solving
abilities, objective explanations of concepts and processes and
critical argument
• It is an important information-gathering instrument and must be
used, particularly in assessment at higher levels of schooling
• Essays provide learners with more freedom to organize their ideas
and communicate them in their own particular style
Disadvantages of essays

• Learners may choose the wrong topic and answer it badly.

• Learners may choose a question because it looks like the easier of
two choices, even though it covers a section of work they aren’t
that sure about.
• Essays make assessment much more difficult and subjective
• Global assessment where no criteria and weighting of criteria are
listed provides the most difficulties
• Global assessment tends to lead to big deviations in the marks
allocated by different markers
Assessment of project work

• A project is a long, often research-based essay. It widens the kinds of

skills needed by learners and assessed by teachers, the length of time it
takes, the number of different components it comprises and the fact that
so much of this is done alone makes project work difficult for learners
• Teachers must reduce the openness of project-work questions, this can be
done by handling out a detailed project or task instruction i.e. Compiling
a clear set of criteria against which the project will be assessed and also
state components the project must include.
• Breaking the project down into smaller bits and asking that these be
submitted regularly
• Meeting with learners regularly during the project process
Widening our choice of assessment methods

• Read from page 142-156

• Assessment as teaching: An information-gathering strategy that is
continuous and diagnostic
• Using observation as an assessment instrument
• Assessing group work
• Self and peer assessment
• Portfolio assessment
• Using a mix of methods
 As teachers we
keep records to
What are we monitor learner’s
expected to progress in order
record? to shape our own
classroom
Recording teaching.

assessment There are

There are two
guidelines that
ways to record an
outline minimum
assessment: 1.
expectations for
Using checklists,
recording and
2. Using rating
reporting for
scales
official purposes.
Using checklists

• The use of a checklist helps to make our

observation more focused because it
helps us to overlook any distracting and
irrelevant behaviour. A checklist also
helps to ensure that assessment is
comprehensive, since it allows us to
verify that all important aspects are
covered.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Using rating scales

• Rating scales are used to make judgements through

observations
• Helps the assessor to record the degree of an This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

impression gained while observing learners

• A scale with a certain range is used but in all cases
each number represents a particular level of
competence for example, 1 to 3, 1 to 5, or 1-10 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY