A teacher is expected to carry out regular assessments in the classroom. Assessment is believed to be a major contributor to raising standards in schools in terms of teaching and learning and student achievement. When properly used, assessment can have a positive effect on learning and can improve a student’s understanding towards how they can learn and improve.
Many in the education system can benefit from assessment including students, teachers and parents, allowing them to understand the best practices for learning towards individuals as well as groups of students which in turn inform planning and curriculum delivery.
Systems of Assessment
To inform the assessment of students at the end of each level (called key stages in the UK), the National Curriculum provides level descriptions. Formal assessments are based upon a combination of teacher assessments and standard, objective assessments. There are several systems of assessment:
- diagnostic and standard tests produced by commercial companies
- national assessments at key ages (in the UK there are national assessments at ages 7, 11 and 14
- examinations by examination boards, typically for students at ages 16 and above (e.g. GCSE and A Level)
- vocational and occupational examinations (e.g. NVQ, GNVQ, BTEC)
- teacher assessments – either for formal requirements as part of the assessments above or as part of everyday teaching and learning
Such systems are set in place to monitor teaching and learning and to moderate the value of such achievements gained by students. Arguably these standardised assessments offer a focus point to work towards for students, motivating learning and encouraging success. However, such assessment can also have a negative effect with regards to motivation.
Purpose of Assessment
There is a range of purposes for assessment:
- Certification – Qualifying students for their lives beyond school by awarding passes, fails, grades and marks.
- Diagnosis – Identifying a student’s particular strengths, weaknesses, difficulties and needs in order to inform curriculum planning.
- Improvement of learning and teaching – Providing feedback to students and teachers respectively so that action can be planed.
- Evaluation – Evaluating the quality of teaching, learning, curricula, schools and providers of education.
- Motivating students and teachers – Giving a focal point for learning.
As shown above, it is therefore important to be clear of the intention of the assessment and how best to assess. There may well be students that will be potentially demotivated by the notion of being assessed simply for selection and certification and therefore may be prevented in improving. The award of a grade for some students has very limited formative potential especially if failure has regularly occurred previously.
Internally conductive assessment has greater educational validity than external assessment. For example, using a diagnostic form of assessment is very different in purpose, detail, and contents from an end of course examination such as a GCSE. Using such assessment results as performance markers, highlighting improvement and providing formative feedback to improve the student’s learning.
Types of Assessment
There are many types of assessment that may be used:
- Norm-referenced assessment – Measures a student’s achievements compared to other students. There will normally be a base line set by students that is thought to be the average achievement. Other students are assessed against this average to determine if they are above of below in attainment.
- Criterion-referenced assessment – Assessed against a pre-determined set of criteria the students must achieve. Such assessment is now commonly used in vocational studies including BTEC and NVQ.
- Diagnostic assessment – Designed to identify particular strengths, weaknesses and problems in a student’s learning in order to support their development.
- Formative assessment – Suggests and shapes the content of future plans. Provides feedback to teachers and students on their current performances, strengths and weaknesses in order to inform them on how to improve.
- Summative assessment – Assessment of learning, which is terminal. Comes at the end of a programme of study to assess learning such as an examination.
It is clear that assessment plays a very important part in education and a student’s learning development. It not only informs the learner on how they may achieve but also informs the teacher on how their students learn. Additionally, assessment is used to ensure quality of teaching is kept and to inform a teacher on how to improve best practice. We don’t stop learning but we can only learn after assessing our abilities as learners and practitioners.