Topic 2.1The purpose and principles of assessment

Context of assessment: AGAIN!• Some of you will have already recognised that when we consider

context of assessment, we also need to consider our PEDAGOGICAL PREFERENCE

(i.e, our pedagogical practice)

• Obviously, this is a powerful and omnipresent context for assessment.

The Purpose of Assessment• Norman Gronlund(1993) = a

Behaviourist• W. James Popham(1995) = in between• Derek Rowntree(1987) = a

Progressive/Constructivist• There is very close relationship

between teaching, learning (pedagogical practice) and assessment.

Assessment of student learning outcomes is anIntegral part of the teaching/learning processeswe employ in our classrooms.

Note, the use of the word ‘outcomes’ (OBE).

1.It is directed towards a clearly defined set of learning outcomes.

1.It is designed to assess a clearly defined set of learning outcomes.

2.The methods and materials of instruction are congruent with the outcomes to be achieved.

2. The nature and function of the assessment items are congruent with the outcomes to be assessed.

3.The instruction is designed to fit the characteristics & needs of the students

3.The assessment items are designed to fit the reading level & other relevant student characteristics.

4.Instructional decisions are based on information that is meaningful, dependable & relevant.

4.The assessment results provide information that is meaningful, dependable & relevant.

Instruction is most effective when?

Assessment is most effective when?

5.Student are regularly informed concerning the progress of their learning.

5.Provision is made for giving students early feedback of assessment results.

6.Remediation is provided for students not achieving the expected learning outcomes.

6.Specific learning weaknesses are revealed by individual assessment instruments or clusters of instruments.

7.Instructional effectiveness is periodically reviewed against the expected learning outcomes & instruction is adjusted or modified as needed.

7.Assessment results provide information useful for evaluating the appropriateness of teaching/learning approaches used.

Instruction is most effective when?

Assessment is most effective when?

Source: modified from N.E. Gronlund (1993). How to make achievement tests and assessments (5th ed. P.2). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Progressives’ or Constructivists’ Views on Assessment?• They would agree with very little of Gronlund’s views.• What does assessment look like at schools employing a

curriculum underpinned by progressive or constructivist pedagogy? (For some Progressives/Constructivists: ‘Testing time is good teaching time wasted!’)

Effective teaching is all about good/well-informed decision-making

• Decisions at the beginning of the teaching/learning sequence

• Decisions during the teaching/learning sequence• Decisions at the end of

the teaching/learning sequence

The beginning of the teaching/learning sequence.

1. To what extent do students posses the skills, abilities and background knowledge needed to begin the teaching/learning sequence?

2. To what extent have students already achieved the expected learning outcomes of the proposed teaching/learning sequence?

3. Pre-test? (literacy and numeracy)

During the teaching/learning sequence (formative assessment).1. On which learning task are students progressing

satisfactorily? 2. On which tasks do they need help?3. Which students are having difficulties that

require remedial work or other interventions?Formative checklists?

At the end of the teaching/learning sequence (summative assessment).

1. Which students have achieved the expected learning outcomes and can proceed to the next teaching/learning sequence?

2. What grade or performance level should be allocated to each student?

Side-Effects of assessment1. The prejudicial aspect of assessment

2. Student’s knowledge of the assessment

3. The extrinsic rewards of assessment

4. The competitive aspects of assessment

5. The bureaucratic aspects of assessment

6. The nature of specific assessment techniques

7. The giving of grades

8. The reporting of assessment results

Assessment as Social Control

• Patricia Broadfoot has a particular interest in the sociology of education. In the now classic book Assessment, Schools and Society (1979) she sets out to demonstrate that assessment practices are one of the clearest indicators of the relationship between an educational system and the society that supports it.

• Broadfoot does this by looking at the questions: Who to assess?; What to assess?; When to assess?; How to assess?; and Why assess?

• In answering these questions, Broadfoot re-examines some of the purposes raised by Gronlund, Popham and Rowntree, but gives them a critical dimension.

• In particular, she demonstrates that assessment is not value-free, but reflects and gives shape to the social (and economic) order of the society that imposes particular assessment practices.

Broadfoot concludes:

• An analysis of developments in educational assessment procedures reveals more clearly than that of perhaps any other aspect of the educational system, the irreconcilable demands which must be put on education in a stratified society.

• On the one hand, it is possible to see the institution of various kinds of educational assessment as crucial steps in the fight against nepotism and inefficiency and in opening up opportunity for social mobility to a quite unprecedented extent.

• On the other hand, it is important to recognize assessment in limiting such mobility and even more crucially, in legitimating what is essentially still an education system strongly biased in favour of traditional privilege (Broadfoot, 1979, p.26).

• Broadfoot’s reference-point is the United Kingdom. • Pavla Miller’s Long Division, worked through the same issues

in SA schools.

• Miller’s title to her book tells all: for she claims that is exactly what schools do for the social order!