Reimagining Assessments
In the traditional education system, all learning efforts culminate in how well a learner performed in an assessment. Assessments are viewed as the most important event in the learning journey and a way to evaluate where a learner stands in relation to others. Assessments are intended to show the mastery of the content, themes and ideas, but they end up showing the mastery of assessment questions.
This approach to assessing learners and learning leads to focus on only getting good grades, an unhealthy competitive spirit and a loss of joy of learning. How can we shift that?
To be able to transform how we think and design assessments, we need to reimagine and come to a new understanding of what assessment is and why they are needed.
The origin of the word assessment comes from the latin word ‘asseidre’ that means ‘to sit beside’. Assessment is a means to identify and communicate where a learner is in their learning journey. It is also a means to understand what needs to change in our instructions. An effective assessment will allow the learner to demonstrate their understanding of the concept. It will be authentic and contextual and will be able to capture what is essential to learning.
Here are key characteristics of an effective assessment:
An assessment is a process not an event. We can not assess our learners at the end of a specific time period. It is continuous and is a part of the learning process.
Our learners need to be aware of what they are being assessed on, how they are being assessed and why they are being assessed.
The process of assessment does not end with a score or a grade. Learners must be able to understand the feedback, reflect on their learning and plan how they will improve.
An effective assessment will provide feedback to both the learner and the assessor.
Assessments need to factor in the learner's emotions as well. They should not be clinical in nature.
Now that we know what effective assessments should be able to do, let’s see how we can design an effective assessment:
The assessment should focus on content and skills rather than recalling facts from memory.
The assessment should require effort from the learner end and learners should be given adequate time to do it.
Everything can not ride on one assessment i.e. a learner’s performance can not be judged on how well they did in one assessment.
The assessment should be aligned to the learning standard.
The rubrics that would be used to evaluate learners should be in a learner appropriate language.
The assessment should be able to accommodate cultural diversity.
We need to remember that assessments are a part of the learning process and not separate from it. It informs and guides the learner as well as the educator.