LESSON 1: Using Assessment to plan Future Learning Goals.
Assessment is the process of gathering evidences of student’s performance over a period of time to determine learning and mastery of skills. Such evidences of learning can take the form of dialogue record, journals, written work, portfolios, test and other learning tasks. Assessment is to improve student learning and provide students, parents, and teachers with reliable information regarding student progress and extent of attainment of the expected learning outcomes.
PRINCIPLES ASSESSMENT
Assessment should be valid
- Validity ensures that assessment tasks and associated criteria effectively measure student.
2. Assessment should be reliable and consistent
-There is a need for assessment to be reliable and consistent processes for the settings.
3. Information about assessment should be explicit, accessible and transparent.
- Clear, accurate, consistent and timely information on assessment tasks
4. Assessment should be inclusive and equitable
- assessment should ensure that tasks and procedures do not disadvantage any group or individual.
5. Assessment should be an integral part of programme design and should relate directly to the programme aims and learning outcomes.
- Assessment tasks should primarily reflect the nature of the disciplined.
6.The amount of assessed work should be manageable.
-The scheduling of assignments and the amount of assessed work required.
7. Formative and summative assessment should be included in each programme.
- Formative and summative assessment should be incorporated into programmes to ensure that the purposes of assessment are adequately addressed.
8.Timely feedback that promotes learning and facilitates improvement should be an integral part of the assessment process.
- Students are entitled to feedback on submittedformative assessment tasks, and on summative tasks, where appropriate.
9.Staff development policy and strategy should include assessment.
- All those involved in the assessment of students must be competent to undertake the roles.
ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS
objective examination
essay examination
written work
portfolio assessment
assessment rubrics
LESSON 2: Providing Evidence of Achievement of Outcomes and Standard
Benjamin Bloom and a committee of colleagues in 1956, identified three domains of educational activities; the cognitive, referring to mental skills; affective, referring to growth in feeling or emotion; and psychomotor, referring to manual or physical skills.These domains are organized into categories or levels and arranged in hierarchical order form the simplest behavior to the most complex behavior.
Cognitive Domain- the cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills.
Remembering- define, describe, recite
Understanding- comprehending the meaning, distinguish, estimate, explain
Applying: using apply, change, compute, construct
Analyzing: analyze, compare, contrast, diagram
Evaluating: compare, conclude
Creating: Categorize,combine, compile
2. Psychomotor Domain -In the early seventies, E Simpson, Dave and A.S. Harrow recommended categories for the Psychomotor Domain which included physical coordination, movement, and use of the motor skills body parts.
Categories/Levels Outcomes Verbs Learning
Observing: watch, detect, distinguish, differentiate,
Imitating: explain, move, display, proceed, react,
Practicing: bend, calibrate, construct, differentiate,
Adapting:rearrange, create, design, originate
3. Affective Domain-the affective omain refers to the with situation emotionally such as fay in which we deal enthusiasm, motivation, values, and eeling, appreciation,attitudes
Receiving: being aware or sensitive to something and being willing to listen or pay attention.
Responding: showing commitment to respond in some measure to the idea or phenomenon.
Valuing: showing willingness to be perceived as valuing or favoring certain ideas.
Organizing: arranging values into priorities, creating a unique value system by comparing, relating and synthesizing values.
Internalizing: practicing value system that control one’s behavior, exhibiting behavior that is consisted pervasive, predictable and characteristics of a person.
LESSON 3: Examples of Assessment of Learning
Assessment of Learning or also known as the Summative Assessment. Its purpose is summative, intended to certify learning and report to parents and students about students’ progress in school, usually by signaling students’ relative position compared to other students.
TYPES OF SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
1.Performance Task-students are asked to complete a task that will test a specific set of skills and/or abilities and determine what the students knows and are capable of doing.
2.Written Product - students are asked to write an original selection. In addition, students may be asked to write about a previous activity such as field trip or guests speaker.
3.Oral Product - students are asked to prepare an oral piece of work; this can take the shape of any of the oral forms.
4.Test - the students are asked to write a test at the end of a section, chapter, unit, theme, etc. to demonstrate what they know.
5. Standardized Test - students are asked to write a test that is standardized in terms of content of the test and conditions under which the test is written.
LESSON 4 - Conditions of Validity, Reliability and quality of Feedback
PRINCIPLE OF HIGH QUALITY ASSESSMENT
1. Clarity of learning targets (knowledge, reasoning, skills, products, affects)
A.Cognitive Targets
Benjamin Bloom (1954) proposed a hierarchy of educational objectives at the cognitive level.
These are:
• Knowledge – acquisition of facts, concepts and theories
• Comprehension - understanding, involves cognition or awareness of the interrelationships
• Application – transfer of knowledge from one field of study to another.
• Analysis – breaking down of a concept or idea into its components and explaining the concept.
• Synthesis – analysis, entails putting together the components in order to summarize the concept.
• Evaluation and Reasoning – valuing and judgment or putting the “worth” of a concept or principle.
Skills, Competencies and Abilities Targets
• Skills
• proficiently do
• Competencies
• Abilities
• Cognitive
• Affective
• Psychomotor
B.Products, Outputs and Project Targets- tangible and concrete evidence of a student’s ability -
need to clearly specify the level of workmanship of projects.e level of workmanship of projects.
need to clearly specify the level of workmanship of projects.
2. Appropriateness of Assessment Methods
a. Written-Response Instruments
•Objective tests
•Essays
•Checklists
b. Product Rating Scales
Used to rate products like book reports, maps, charts, diagrams, notebooks, creative endeavors.
c. Performance Tests - consists of a list of behaviors that make up a certain type of performance.
d. Oral Questioning – appropriate assessment method when the objectives.
e. Observation and Self Reports Useful supplementary methods when used in conjunction with oral questioning and performance tests.
3. Validity
The validity of an assessment tool is the extent to which it measures what it was designed to measure, without contamination from other characteristics. For example, a test of reading comprehension should not require mathematical ability.
Types of validity
• Face validity
• Content validity
• Criterion-related validity
4. Reliability
The reliability of an assessment tool is the extent to which it consistently and accurately measures learning.When the results of an assessment are reliable, we can be confident that repeated or equivalent assessments will provide consistent results.
Factors which can affect reliability:
• The length of the assessment
• The suitability of the questions
• The phrasing and terminology of the questions
• The consistency in test administration
• The design of the marking schedule and moderation of marking procedures.
• The readiness of students for the assessment
5. Fairness
The concept that assessment should be 'fair' covers a number of aspects.
• Student Knowledge and learning targets of assessment
• Opportunity to learn
• Prerequisite knowledge and skills
• Avoiding teacher stereotype
• Avoiding bias in assessment tasks and procedures
6. Positive Consequences
Learning assessments provide students with effective feedback and potentially improve their motivation and/or self-esteem.
7. Practicality and Efficiency
• Something practical is something effective in real situations.
• A practical test is one which can be practically administered.
Questions:
• Will the test take longer to design than apply?
• Will the test be easy to mark?
8. Ethics
• Conforming to the standards of conduct of a given profession.
• Possible harm to the participants.
• Confidentiality.
• Presence of concealment or deception.
• Temptation to assist students.
Reliability and Validity
An assessment that has very low reliability will also have low validity; clearly a measurement with very poor accuracy or consistency is unlikely to be fit for its purpose.
Quality Feedback
Feedback is an important part of the assessment process. It has a significant effect on student learning and has been described as “the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement” (Hattie, 1999).
Constructive - As well as highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of a given piece of work, it should set out ways in which the student can improve the work.
• encourages them to think critically about their work
• helps them see their learning in new ways
• helps promote dialogue between staff and students
Timely - Give feedback while the assessed work is still fresh in a student’s mind, before the student moves on to subsequent tasks.
Meaningful - It should target individual needs, be linked to specific assessment criteria, and be received by a student in time to benefit subsequent work.
Effective feedback:
• guides students to adapt
• guides teachers to adapt and adjust teaching
• guides students to become independent
• stimulates reflection
• is constructive
• has consequences
• is efficient
Feedback is valuable when it is received, understood and actedon. How students analyse, discuss and act on feedback is as important as the quality of the feedback itself (Nicol, 2010). Through the interaction students have with feedback, they come to understand how to develop their learning.