Introduction to Assessment
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What is assessment? š§
Assessment is a process of gathering information about someoneās learning. Assessment is a much broader term than ātestā or āexaminationā and can employ many different techniques to gather relevant information (e.g., teacher observation with note-taking; teacher or peer assessment with a checklist of descriptors).
There are fundamentally two types of assessment:
- Formative assessment: to help someone to learn.
- Summative assessment: to see how much someone has learnt
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the focus was on summative assessment through examinations and tests for selection purposes or in order to give a qualification. When this process became scientific, it involved using a technique called āthe Bell curveā to ensure that exactly the same proportion of people would get the same pass and fail grades each year. In the classroom, assessment followed teachingācompletely separatelyātaking the form of an oral examination of each student or a class test written by the teacher, with marks deducted for grammatical and vocabulary mistakes.
There was a slow shift starting in the 1980s towards seeing assessment more broadly and more positively. As a result, in education nowadays, assessment is conceived as a way of scaffolding and enhancing learning (formative).
A guide for teachers introduces the topic of assessment as follows:
āAssessment is an integral part of language teaching and learning, not merely a final step in the process nor just a judgment about an activity accomplished. [ā¦] All types of language tests are a form of assessment, but tests are not the only possible means for assessment. Assessing also implies informal checking or verification, which can be done in various ways, one of which is testing. All assessments involve collecting data for the purposes of making effective decisions, ranging from tests to checklists in continuous assessment as well as informal observations by a teacher, only to mention some examples and without any value judgment nor prioritizing.ā (Piccardo et al., 2011, p. 42)
Characteristics of good assessment šš¼
Read this description of characteristics of assessment that promotes learning. It comes from a British reform project in the 1990s. Which of these characteristics do you think describe assessment processes in your institution? Which of them do you think should be introduced?
Assessment:
- is an essential part of teaching and learning;
- involves sharing learning goals with pupils;
- aims to help learners to know and recognize the standards they are aiming for;
- provides feedback which leads to students recognizing their next steps and how to take them;
- involves learners in self-assessment;
- is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve;
- involves both teacher and students reviewing and reflecting on assessment data.
Other terms ā
- Evaluation: In English, unlike with assessment, the term āevaluationā usually implies giving a value judgement; for example hotels and hotel booking services have evaluation questionnaires. In education one hears of programme evaluation, coursebook evaluation, and sometimes course evaluation by the students. Evaluation can be formative in purpose, information gathered in order to improve a process (for example with programme evaluation) or it may be purely summative when related to a finished product like a coursebook.
- Grading: Grading is not assessment. It is a summative, administrative process ā a form of evaluation. It does not contribute to learning.
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