Educational assessment. 2 Facts to Master

Educational assessment is defined as the process by which the quality of an individual’s work or performance is judged. In Zambian Schools, assessment of learning is usually carried out by teachers on the basis of impressions gained as they observe their pupils at work or by various kinds of work and tests given periodically. When different tests are given as an on-going process, such assessment is known as continuous assessment.

Child (1973) defines assessment as an omnibus term which includes all the processes and products which describe the nature and extent of the child’s learning, its degree of correspondence with the aims and objectives of teaching and its relationship with the environments which are designed to facilitate learning.

Evaluation on the other hand, is what follows once an assessment has been made. It involves the judgement about the effectiveness and worth of something for which the assessment has already been made – usually a teaching objective. Evaluation in the context of education is a process used to obtain information from testing, from direct observations of behaviour, from essays and from other devices to assess a student’s overall progress towards some pre-determined goals or objectives. It includes both a qualitative and a quantitative description and involves a value judgement or overall student’s behaviour.

PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT

Assessment is founded on following purposes:

1. To discover the knowledge and skills possessed by someone before embarking on a learning task. This is done through pre-task assessment.

2. To assess the progress and development of knowledge and skills during the process of learning. Formative assessment is suitable for this kind of work.

3. To locate particular difficulties in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Diagnostic or remedial assessment is quite effective in this area.

4. To measure the outcome of learning. Summative assessment plays a major role in this direction.

5. One of the teacher’s objectives in his/her teaching, amongst others, is to stimulate the acquisition, understanding and application of knowledge. It therefore seems perfectly reasonable and desirable that the teacher should also want to explore the extent to which these objectives have been achieved.

6. Beyond the classroom there are employers and professions who require some assurances about the level of competences reached by prospective students or pupils. These assurances must be expressed as accurately as possible and in terms which are readily and easily understood by all the people concerned. For example, examination marks in high schools are used to provide one such criterion.

7. To foster learning and improve teaching

8. To motivate the learners and learning process.

9. To evaluate the teaching and learning process.

10. To help build a positive and realistic self-image.

11. To provide information to parents about the achievements of their children.

TYPES OF ASSESSMENTS

A. Formative Assessment: This is when assessment gives information and evidence about learners learning. Formative assessment is an on-going process. Observations are made and information is collected about the learners.

The information collected is used to guide the teachers and the learners, help them and direct the teaching and learning. Formative assessment can be both formal and informal

Role of Formative Assessment

i. To motivate the learners extend their knowledge and skill and establish sound values.

ii. To provide healthy habits of study

iii. To help learners solve problems by using what they have learned.

iv. To help the teacher improve teaching methods and learning materials.

B. Summative Assessment: This sums up progress and achievement of the learners. Summative Assessment consists of both continuous assessment and formal assessment.

C. Criterion-Referenced Assessment: This type of assessment gives specific information about what an individual learner knows, understands and can do regardless of the performance of others. In short, it measures the learner’s performance against pre-determined expectations. It focuses on what a learner can do or not do in relation to a given objective.

The diploma programme stresses the use of criterion-referenced level of achievement in relation to the basic competencies.

Percentage marks must be related to criteria for assessing a learner’s achievement. These criteria are meant to measure the learner’s performance clearly. Example: 50% is passing mark for primary schools and 40% is a passing mark for Tertiary.

D. Norm-Reference Assessment: This is when you compare a learner’s performance against the performance of the class as a whole. Certain “norms” are established and the learners are judged against those norms and classified according to the set norm or the performance as “pass” or “fail”.

N.B: The grade seven external examinations for instance are both summative and norm-referenced. The performance of each candidate is judged against those who take the examination that year. The average performance of the pupils is taken into account. Cut-off points can be determined by each province.

E. Informal Continuous Assessment: This is when you assess and record the progress of the learners as you teach. This is normally structured in a subjective way. What this means is that the progress can be gathered from a number of situations in the classroom.

F. Formal Continuous Assessment: In this case an assessment situation is set up. An activity is organized to specifically assess certain competences in the learners. This can be done through projects, presentations, tests, puzzles, etc.

Principles of Continuous Assessment

1. It should be based on the basic competences contained in the syllabus and should relate to the real life of the learners.

2. It should go beyond the recall of knowledge

3. It should monitor progress in relation to the learning outcomes.