what are the major purposes of assessment in education?

8/2/2019 What are the major purposes of assessment in education?

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What are the major purposes of assessment in education?

Consider how assessment procedures can most effectively influence the learningof students.

All of us have experienced assessment in one form or other throughout our lives. We have

formed our views of assessment through these experiences and have traditionally viewed

assessment as the end of some learning process. This need not be the case as assessments by

themselves can serve as opportunities to learn and teach. As teachers and as students we have

different perspectives on the purposes of assessment. School principals, administrators,

parent and employers use assessments and their results in different ways to suit their agendas

and needs. The question is then whose purpose should assessment meet?

What is assessment?

Assessment is a way of measuring what students know and of expressing whatstudents should learn.

- Mathematical Sciences Education Board, National Research Council

(Anon, 1996b).

Assessment is the process of gathering, describing, or quantifying informationabout performance.

- Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing(Anon, 1997).

The above definitions of assessment, although getting to the core of the meaning, appear to be

restrictive in their scope. I prefer the definition found in the Standards for Teacher

Competence in Educational Assessment of Students. Here, assessment is defined as

the process of obtaining information that is used to make educational decisionsabout students, to give feedback to the student about his or her progress,strengths, and weaknesses, to judge instructional effectiveness and curricularadequacy, and to inform policy. (Sanders 1990, p. 1)

This definition of assessment includes the major purposes of assessment as part of its scope.

Assessment is an integral part of most education system and, sadly, also the most neglected

part of good teaching. We can perceive this from the lack of discussion on assessment in

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papers promoting aspects of good teaching. Perhaps, most educational practitioners are still

not conversant with the multi-faceted purposes of assessment and how assessment can

effectively influence learning.

In this essay, I will first develop arguments for the purposes of assessment in education and

conclude that, of all the purposes of assessment, the most educationally worthwhile purpose is

to make use of assessment to enhance learning and teaching.

In the second part of the essay, I will be considering how assessment procedures can most

effectively influence the learning of students. I will be looking at assessment procedures

before, during and after the assessment, as well as how the assessment data can be used to

promote efffective learning and teaching. I will also relate the discussion to my personal

experience teaching in Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic in particular.

What are the major purposes of assessment?

In this section of the essay, I will be discussing the purposes of assessment and identifying the

benefiaciaries of these different purposes of assessment. One of the most important questions

to be answered whenever we discuss assessment is the question - What are the purposes of

assessment? It is important to answer this question as the purposes of assessment would

determine the methodology and content of the assessment procedure adopted (Clough 1996, p.

4). It would also help to determine the test validity which is tied to the purposes for which an

assessment is held (Dietel, 1991).

The purpose of an assessment should dictate the type of questions being asked, the methods

employed, and the uses of the resulting information. These addresses the what, how and why

of assessment. There are many existing views of the purposes of assessment and these range

from the users perspective (Ward 1980 pp. 5-6) to functionality (Denvir, 1989).

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Both Dietel (1991, p. 1) and Ward (1980, pp. 5-6) list the purposes of assessment according to

their relevance for the groups of people within the educational community. This view answers

the question of Assessment for whom? For students, assessments serve as means of

motivation, means of identifying areas needing attention, recognition of knowledge, skill and

effort, means of getting a job, means of entry to higher course. Parents use assessment results

to determine school accountability and gauge student progress. Teachers and administrators

use assessment to determine grades, as part of teaching process, to identify areas for further

practice, as evaluation of teaching success, as evaluation of course success, to clarify aim of

course, as incentive to conscientious and purposeful teaching and as a means of accreditation.

Administrators and school planners monitor curriculum effectiveness, assess alternatives,

plan and improve school curriculum through school assessment results. Policy makers set

standards, monitor quality of education and formulate policies using assessment results. To

the employer, assessment results serve as a measure of employability and to the general

public, it serves as a measure of competency.

An alternative view by Denvir (1989, p. 277) answers the question of Assessment for what

purposes? and considers the purposes of assessment under the four main functions of

teaching, selection, evaluation, & curriculum control.

Assessment for teaching - An assessment is not only a grading device but also a teaching

technique in its own right (Milton 1982, p. 31). Assessment used for this purpose has a

formative and diagnostic component. It aims at collecting sufficiently detailed information to

help teachers plan and teach effectively in order to maximise students future learning. It can

be used to monitor the students strengths, weaknesses and progress. The process of

constructing the assessment itself is also beneficial as it helps teachers put their courses in

perspective.

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Assessment for curriculum control - Assessment results can be used for measuring the

effectiveness of instruction and learning (Rudman, 1989). This can be summative if it is used

at the end of the instruction or course. It can also be formative if the results are used as a

feedback mechanism for school planners and teachers.

In addition, I would like to add an additional purpose, assessment for informing.

Assessment results are useful devices for informing Educational Boards, parents, and general

public. This serves as a means of accountability on the part of the school to the parents and

general public. This is a summative process unless curriculum control is also part of the

purpose.

As can be seen from the preceding discussion, assessment is educationally worthwhile only if

it is used in teaching and learning or if it is part of a feedback mechanism to improve the

curriculum. A farmer once quoted: You cant fatten a hog by weighing it. To be useful,

assessment must positively influence learning and not merely record the results of learning. I

believe that no educational practitioners will object to the argument that the primary

educationally worthwhile purpose of assessment is to improve learning & teaching.

Thompson (1989, p. 1) also concurs that of all the purposes of assessment, the main purpose

of assessment should be to inform teaching. This covers aspects of teaching in diagnosis,

evaluation as well as grading.

The purposes of assessment in Singapore Polytechnic, where I work as a lecturer, are defined

in A Guide to Standards and Criteria in Teaching by Cheong. Assessment here is to be

used as a means of helping students to learn, a way of reporting student progress and

attainment, and a way of helping lecturers improve their teaching (Cheong 1996, Appendix

II, p. 6). These purposes here again acknowledge that one of the primary purposes of

assessment is to improve learning and teaching. However, to my knowledge, few lecturers in

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Singapore Polytechnic utilise assessment beyond the reporting of student progress and

attainment. I believe this to be true not only in the Singapore Polytechnic but also elsewhere

in educational institutes throughout the world. This begs the questions of why the situation

arises and how it can be remedied? The situation could have risen from education

practitioners being unaware of the implications of assessment for learning and teaching. I will

discuss this in the next section of this essay. The second question of how to utilise assessment

to effect learning will be discussed in the subsequent section.

How does assessment influence learning and teaching?

There are many ways where assessment can influence learning and teaching. Assessment can

provide motivation to learn by giving a sense of success in the subject (Rowntree, 1987),

by providing immediate, attainable goals toward which to work and by providing knowledge

of learning progress (Gronlund 1981, p. 490). However, it can also provide negative impact

on motivation and self esteem. Students can also judge the effectiveness of their learning

from assessments. They can build up a sense of confidence as learners through assessment.

Assessment also helps students to learn how to learn by influencing the choice of learning

style and strategy (Boud 1995, p. 37). Assessment should encourage deep learning to

promote understanding and active learning approaches. It should discourage surface learning,

which is of limited educational value. One factor that is found to influence students choice of

deep or surface learning approach is their perception of what will be demanded of them on

subsequent examinations. However, not all surface or rote learning is bad; there are some

things which is more efficient to learn by rote, such as multiplication tables, resistor codes.

Assessments given to students have an impact on what and how the students learn.

Students often ask Will that be included in the assessment? They will not pay attention to

items that are not tested and not attempt to learn these items. The type of assessment tells our

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students the real aims of the teaching. Assessments provide for a way for the lecturers to

identify for the students what is important to learn. As a lecturer, I have also often

encountered students asking, Will this be in the exams? There have been many studies

indicating that students take their cue from the assessment.

From our students point of view, assessment always defines the actualcurriculum ... Assessment sends messages about the standard and amount ofwork required, and what aspects of the syllabus are more important.

(Ramsden 1992, pp. 187-188)

This explains the prevalence of 10-year series (past exam papers) for the GCE O and A

Level Examinations in Singapore. Students and teachers use the past exam questions as an

indication of what is important and the content on which the students will be tested. It is thus

not surprising that in the examination oriented educational system in Singapore (which has a

centrally dictated curriculum), teaching to the test becomes a prevalent teaching strategy

among schoolteachers. This is especially true when students, parents, teachers and school

principals place high stakes on exam results and schools are ranked based on these exam

results.

Assessment also helps to provide feedback to teachers and students (Rowntree, 1987). It

can do this by pre-assessing learners needs, monitoring learning progress, diagnosing and

remedying of learning disabilities and appraising of course outcomes. When teachers are

better informed of the learning progress and difficulties of their students, they can make better

decisions about what a student needs to learn next and how to teach that material in a manner

that will maximise the students learning. Unfortunately, researchers quoted by Thompson

(1989, p. 22) indicate that teachers seldom, if ever, consider information obtained from

assessment when planning or teaching. I find these to be very true from my personal teaching

experience and discussions with other teachers. Other than informing teaching, assessment

can also help students learn to judge effectiveness of their learning.

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There are some factors that can prevent that can prevent assessments from contributing to

improved learning. These are wrong focus of assessments, too little feedback, ambiguous and

unclear questions, assessments that are too short, lack of communication on purpose and

finally insufficient assessments to provide sample of students achievement (Jacobs 1992, pp.

13-14). The challenge then is to overcome these and any other related problems to effect

learning through the use of assessment procedures.

How can assessment procedures effectively influence the learning ofstudents?

Having considered the implications of assessment on learning, we will now consider how

assessment procedures can be used to effectively improve learning. It would be helpful to

consider what are the characteristics of a good assessment scheme before we delve into the

assessment procedures. These characteristics may vary according to the purposes and the

users of the assessment, but generally will require the assessment to be valid, reliable,

utilisable or efficient (Ward 1980, pp. 9-13).

Validity refers to the appropriateness and relevance of the assessment to the syllabus. Is the

assessment measuring what it is suppose to measure? Assessments that do not measure up to

the validity criteria may have far reaching effects. Invalid assessments are unfair to students

affecting their motivation. They can affect lecturers by detracting from advantages of

assessment. Employers will not be able to use the results of invalid assessments and the

general public would not have confidence in the competency of the graduate.

Reliability refers to the consistency of measurement. To achieve reliability, there should be

broad and consistent coverage, assessment should be on the same work and tasks should be

marked consistently.

Efficiency enables us to make the best use of time, effort and money without making

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unnecessary demands on students, lecturers and examiners. The assessment should be easily

administered, scored and interpreted (Fuchs, 1995).

Any good assessment scheme must first satisfy these criteria before we can consider how to

influence students learning through assessment. I shall group the procedures to improve

learning through formal assessment in 3 main phases, i.e., before, during and after the

assessment. It will be seen that the preparatory work done before the assessment bears the

most contribution to the success of using assessment to inform learning and teaching.

1. Before the Assessment

Designing a suitable scheme of assessment includes deciding on the purpose and methods of

assessment, the knowledge or abilities to be assessed. Before we start to design any scheme of

assessment, we need to clarify the following questions,

1. Who is to be assessed?2. Who is to carry out the assessment?3. Who is making use of the assessment results?

4. What is the purpose of the assessment?5. What is to be assessed?6. When and where to carry out the assessment?7. What assessment methods are available?8. How do we decide which assessment method to use?9. How to carry out the assessment?10. What assessment format do we use?

I shall only be addressing the following questions which affect learning most directly withinthe scope of this essay;

1. What is the purpose of the assessment?2. What is to be assessed?3. What assessment methods are available?4. How do we decide which assessment method to use?

What is the purpose of the assessment? This has been discussed in depth in previous

sections in this essay. What are students being assessed for? This can be directly linked to the

question of the purpose of education. It is important to note that learners and learning,

whatever their nature and contexts, are likely to be more purposive and effective if there are

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clear targets and outcomes on which to focus

What is to be assessed? The Mathematical Sciences Education Board (National Research

Council) identified three educational principles that form the foundation of all assessment

strategies, the Content Principle, the Learning Principle and the Equity Principle (Anon,

1996b). The Content Principle says that assessment should measure important learning

outcomes (Fuchs, 1995). The assessment methods and tasks must be in line with the goals,

objectives, contents and instructional approaches of the curriculum (Thompson 1989, p. 2;

Dietel, 1991). Assessments that do not reflect the curriculum generate little information about

students learning or the effectiveness of the instruction.

The Learning Principle says that if we want to develop higher order learning skills such as

analysis, synthesis, arguments etc., we need to able to assess meaning and understanding. A

strategic mix of surface and deep learning is preferable. This can be encouraged and

supported by a mix of assessment approaches: multiple choice for a quick and efficient way of

testing recall, projects and essays for assessing understanding and to encourage deeper level of

understanding.

The Equity Principle says that assessment should support every students opportunity to learn.

What assessment methods are available? The traditional examination system for

assessment is well known and widely utilised. This can in the form of written examinations,

practical examinations, and oral examinations, in course assessment, project, and assignment

work or course work assessment.

The advantage of the examination system is that it can provide achievement benchmarks that

indicate a students success relative to his or her peers. Objectivity is maintained and the

student is not subject to the subjectivity of individual teachers. External examinations can

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also serve as a means of ensuring consistent standards between schools. Examinations have

traditionally acted as a motivating influence for students with the idea that success in

examination leads to a good job. Traditional assessments are usually product based, which is

not suitable for process based or objectives based curriculum. These objectives require

process-based assessments schemes generally classified as alternative assessments.

Alternative assessments require the students to perform, create, produce or do something that

requires them to use higher level problem solving skills to achieve higher order learning

objectives. These assessment methods include open-ended questions, essays, portfolios, and

oral and integrated performance assessments. Examples of alternative assessments are

Performance Based Assessment (Shepard, 1995), Behavioural Assessment (Fuchs, 1995),

Mastery Learning (Gronlund 1981, pp. 500 to 503), Curriculum Based Measurement (Fuchs,

1995), Portfolio Assessment (Kulieke, 1990) or Profiling (Hitchcock, 1986) and Authentic

Assessment (Kulieke, 1990).

Alternative assessment not only prompted the teachers to teach differently, but criteria were

made explicit, and children learnt more (Shepard 1995). Interesting and sufficiently

challenging assessment activities can help motivate students to master the activities.

A portfolio or profile is basically a record of achievement (Broadfoot, 1989). It is a collection

of work, usually drawn from students classroom work. A portfolio becomes a portfolio

assessment when the assessment purpose is defined; criteria or methods are made clear for

determining what is put into the portfolio, by whom, and when; and the criteria for assessing

the work is identified and used to make judgements about performance. Portfolios are

multidimensional presentation methods designed to record student progress, effort,

performances and/or achievement, and encourage students to reflect on their learning

(Macintosh 1984, p. 212). The use of portfolios requires assessment methods to be matched to

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learning goals. Portfolios provide one of the best means to meet the educationally worthwhile

purposes of assessment. These purposes include improving student motivation, aiding

discipline, increasing communication, making opportunities for self and peer assessment,

placing assessment at centre of learning process and freeing the curriculum (Hitchcock 1986,

pp. 19 to 36). However, due to its highly formative nature and lack of summative element, it

may not be of much use to end users requiring certification. Employers need to understand

these alternative assessment records before they can be widely accepted in place of the

diplomas and certificates (Harris, p. 109).

Another categorisation of assessments can be based on the distinction between formative and

summative. Formative assessments are usually conducted several times throughout the course

and provide ongoing feedback to teachers and students. Unlike summative assessments, the

purpose of formative assessments is not to grade or certify the student but to help both the

student and teacher focus upon the particular learning necessary for movement toward

mastery (Bloom 1981, p.71). Summative assessments are given at the end of the course and

are used to determine the extent of mastery and for grading. A third type of assessment is

diagnostic assessment. This is used for identifying deficiencies and problems as well as

strengths and special talents. Diagnostic assessment or evaluation can be done at the

beginning of the course or prior to a course to determine the zero point for all students

taking the course (Bloom 1982, p. 116).

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How do we decide which assessment method to use?

The teacher with a well-developed understanding of assessment will strive toconnect his or her goals for learning firmly with assessment strategies he or sheuses

Ramsden (1992, p. 189)

As teachers, we should be skilled in choosing assessment methods appropriate for

instructional decisions. The assessment methods chosen should be appropriate, useful,

administratively convenient, technically adequate and fair (Sanders, 1990).

The assessment methods used must reflect the content to be mastered. If the content of

assessment (what schools assess) and the format of assessment (how schools assess) do not

match what is taught and how it is taught, the assessment results may be meaningless. We can

all recognise the potential harm if decisions regarding students futures are made using these

results (Porter 1997, p. 1).

The assessment method must be of high technical quality. The factors determining technical

quality are reliability, validity, and efficiency which I have discussed previously.

The assessment methods used must match the purposes of the assessment. In addition, it must

be in agreement with the goals, objectives, content and instructional approaches of the

curriculum (Thompson 1989, p. 24). Some assessments are used mainly to gather information

Teaching Schedule

Informal Assessment

DiagnosticAssessment

InformsTeaching

Teacher

FormativeAssessment

InformsTeaching & Learning

Teacher & Students

FormativeAssessment

InformsTeaching & Learning

Teacher & Students

SummativeAssessment

InformsPerformance

Employer,

Public, etcBeneficiary

Purpose

Assessment Type

Assessment Type

Teaching Schedule

Figure 1- A Teaching & Learning Oriented Assessment Model

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about the students in order to make decisions about them, e.g., grading. The assessment for

this purpose would focus on the products of the student learning. Marzano (1993) indicates

the assessment method most appropriate for the types of skills being assessed. If simple

process or content skills are to be assessed, traditional response type of assessments would

suffice. However, for complex skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and

conceptualisations, performance assessments (usually alternative assessments) would be more

appropriate.

Types of Skills Multiple Choice,

Short Response

Performance Assessment

Process Skills: Simple Long division,punctuation

Process Skills: Complex problem solvingwritingcritical thinkinglifelong learning

Content/DeclarativeKnowledge: Simple

Recall Facts

Content/DeclarativeKnowledge: Complex

Concepts (e.g. democracy)Generalisations

Table 1 Matching assessment methods to skills being assessed

Other assessments may be designed to serve an instructional function. These may be used to

diagnose student strengths and weaknesses and plan appropriate instruction. In this case, we

need to assess the process as well as the product.

Ideally, to promote learning, we should implement multiple assessment techniques instead of

only written tests. Proper use of evaluation techniques requires an awareness of their

limitations as well as their strengths. In addition, for effective progress in learning, we need to

pitch assessment at appropriate levels of difficulties.

2. During the Assessment

The goal of good test administration is to provide and maintain conditions that will enable all

students to demonstrate their maximum level of achievement (Jacobs 1992, p. 150). This

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includes announcing the test the date, the content and format of test.

Assessment that is most useful, in the educational perspective, must be continuous. Every

lesson has built into it an assessment of students progress towards the objectives of the

lesson. This can be through informal or formal assessments. Informal assessment occurs

through listening to students, observing them, and making sense of what they say and do

(Thompson 1989, p. 1). Thought provoking questions, good listening skills, a tendency to

probe and analyse students ideas and responses all contribute to learning through informal

assessments.

It has been recognised that assessments can be used to enhance learning and classroom

teaching (Fuchs, 1995). Students feel that frequent testing helps them retain more content,

reduces test anxiety, and aids their own monitoring of their progress (Rudman 1989, p. 3).

Jacobs (1992, p. 30) also suggests that too few tests deprive students and teachers of feedback

on their progress and contributes to a lack of student motivation. However, too many tests

will impinge on the teaching time.

3. After the Assessment

After the assessment, teachers need to be able to describe the meaning, limitations, and

implications of the assessment results. Teachers should also be able to analyse and probe the

students explanation and reasoning as well as provide feedback to the students.

Feedback (Information Processing Theories) and reinforcement (Skinners Behavioural

Theories) are two of the most pivotal concepts in learning. Feedback is usually external while

reinforcement can be external or intrinsic (generated by the individual). Good feedback helps

to identify the students present state of learning, what they need to learn and how to proceed.

It also provides positive reinforcement for their learning achievements. The students should

also be provided with a clear explanation of the basis of assessment decisions. They need to

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know what they have done well and what needs to be improved or learned. They also need to

be given guidance on the possible courses of action to develop knowledge and skills (Sale

1996, p. 9).

In both feedback and reinforcement theories, the length of time between the response and the

feedback or reinforcement affects the amount of learning. Generally the more immediate the

feedback or reinforcement, the more learning is facilitated. Thus assessment results or

reactions should be as immediate as possible to facilitate learning (Jacobs 1992, p. 159).

The way the assessment decision is communicated to the students is also important, how we

say and what we say. While 88% of the students wanted to know the results of their tests,

only 44% wanted to discuss them with their teachers (Rudman 1989, p. 3). Why? It is not

just the feedback, but the subsequent action we take in making the outcomes of assessment

useful for future learning. Feedback is not enough, just as telling the students their

weaknesses is not effective teaching response. The teacher need to indicate to the students

where and to what extent growth is required.

4. Using the Assessment

There are several ways of using the assessment results to influence learning. We can use the

assessment at the beginning of the course. This helps us to identify what students bring to

instruction. It can help us as teachers to plan review material and identify potential issues to

be faced (Rudman 1989, p. 1). It can also help us to diagnose what the student knows.

We can use the assessment to reinforce learning (Skinner). Teachers seldom consider

information obtained from assessment when planning or teaching. However, we need to

assess our students learning in order to make informed instructional decisions such as

grouping of students in the class and determining the pace of classroom instruction (Rudman

1989, p. 1). Taylor suggests that it would be useful for teachers to perform a reflection and

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self evaluation on the assessment in order to learn from the students assessment (Taylor

1996, pp. 20-22).

We can use the assessment for decision making - this includes decisions about individual

students, planning teaching, developing curriculum, and school improvement (Sanders, 1990).

Fuchs also suggests that teachers make 3 types of decisions using assessment results,

1. Instructional Placement Decisions - what the student knows and where he orshe should be in the instructional sequence - i.e., what to teach next.

2. Formative Evaluation Decisions - information to monitor a students

learning while an instructional program is underway - how quickly progress is beingmade, whether the instructional program is effective, and whether a change ininstructional program is needed to promote the students learning.

3. Diagnostic Decisions - which specific difficulties account for the studentsinadequate progress so the teacher can remediate learning progress and design moreeffective instructional plans.

(Fuchs, 1995)

We can also use the assessment for grading. Grading students is an important part of

teaching. Grading is defined as indicating both a students level of performance and a

teachers valuing of that performance (Sander, 1990). Assessment can also be used for

measuring the effectiveness of instruction & learning (Rudman 1989, p. 1).

Finally, assessment results must generate accurate meaningful information (Fuchs, 1995) so

that we can make use of it meaningfully. This can only be done if the assessment has been

designed to collect meaningful information relevant to its designated purpose.

The Singapore Polytechnic Experience

Singapore Polytechnic also recognises that good assessment leads to effective learning. This

can be achieved in the following ways by lecturers as spelt out in the manual, A Guide to

Standards and Criteria in Teaching by Cheong,

1. Link assessment to learning: All assessment must follow the table of

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specifications in the curriculum. It is important to link the level of teaching andlearning in the classroom.

2. Deploy a variety of assessment methods: Multiple choice tests shouldpreferably be in combination with other methods requiring more in depth analysis.

Questions requiring quantitative manipulation modules must be balanced withquestions requiring explanations.

3. Assessment feedback: Students need to know how they might improve theirlearning. It will motivate them to learn better. Feedback however can only be donefor formative class tests and homework where papers are returned to the students.This does not apply to sessional examinations where feedback is not possible.

(Cheong 1996, Appendix I, p. 6)

These assessment guidelines focus on the learning of the students and would definitely

improve the learning of the students. Unfortunately, from personal experience, I have found

that most lecturers do not follow the above guidelines when it comes to assessment. The

reason could be due to lack of understanding the importance of assessment towards effective

learning.

Conclusions

There are two major diverging viewpoints on assessment. They are those of the constructivist

viewpoint and the technical quality viewpoint. From the measurement or technical quality

viewpoint, assessment takes the form where testing follows teaching. The focus is on

measuring performance and the quality of the assessment. Important characteristics are the

validity, reliability and efficiency of the assessments. These are all familiar terms and are

important indicators of the quality of assessment but they do not tell us if the students have

achieved the learning outcomes or if the teachers have taught well. Most curriculum

development process following this measurement viewpoint uses assessment as a means of

measuring attainment in order to award certificates, diplomas or some other form of award.

Assessment schemes designed for this purpose are usually done after the curriculum design.

This makes it difficult to use assessment as a tool to inform learning.

From the constructivist viewpoint, the primary goal of assessment is to change what and how

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teachers teach rather than measure performance for accountability purposes. The reform

strategy here is to change the content and format of traditional tests to enhance the coverage

of important learning outcomes and to mirror good instruction (Bond, 1994). The focus here

is on the learning outcome and teaching strategy. What have the students and teacher learnt?

Have the students learnt what the teacher intended them to learn? Correct answers do not

always mean that the students have learnt the concepts. The NCTM Evaluation Standard

(Anon, 1989) is an example of the constructivist viewpoint of assessment; it assesses not only

what the student know but also how they think.

Assessment should have both formative and summative contents for the assessment to be

useful to the students. The best way to ensure that assessment incorporates learning is to

provide meaningful feedback. Feedback should be on items that they get right as well as

items that they get wrong. We will also need to conduct frequent assessments to be able to

provide more opportunity for feedback. Feedback is also most effective when it is provided

promptly. Brown suggests:

The key to the use of assessment as an engine for learning is to allow theformative function to be pre-eminent. This is achieved by ensuring that eachassignment contains plenty of opportunities for learners to receive detailed,

positive and timely feedback, with lots of advice on how to improve. This notonly informs student activity, but also enables them to develop continuouslyand to achieve ever-better results. (Brown, 1995)

Teachers must also work together to create a school environment that values good assessment

practices (Porter, 1997). As teachers, we need to be aware of the continuous assessment

opportunities during teaching, thoughtfully plan the design and selection of assessment

schemes, be sensitive to students responses and to opportunities to probe further and be

willing to use the information gathered to improve teaching. Assessment needs to be

integrated and not interfaced to the curriculum as an afterthought. Determining and clarifying

what is to be assessed must has priority in the assessment process. Comprehensive assessment

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requires a variety of assessment techniques, which should be selected in terms of the purposes

to be served.

Finally, to inform learning and teaching, assessment must be used as a means to an end

(formative), rather than being an end in itself (summative).

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Anon (1997) CRESST Assessment Glossary, Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards,and Student Testing.[ONLINE] http://cresst96.cse.ucla.edu/glossary.htm

Bloom, B. S., et al. (1981) Evaluation to Improve Learning, McGrawHill.

Bond, L. A. (1994) Critical Issue: Rethinking Assessment and Its Role in SupportingEducational Reform, NCREL[ONLINE] http://www.ncrel.org/sdrd/areas/issues/methods/assments/as700.htm

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