ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING


Assessment – refers to the process of gathering, describing or quantifying information about the student performance. It includes paper and pencil test, extended responses (example essays) and performance assessment are usually referred to as ―authentic assessment task (example presentation of research work)

 

Measurement – is a process of obtaining a numerical description of the degree to which an individual possesses a particular characteristic. Measurements answers the questions ―how much?

 

Evaluation - it refers to the process of examining the performance of student. It also determines whether or not the student has met the lesson instructional objectives.

 

Test – is an instrument or systematic procedures designed to measure the quality, ability, skill or knowledge of students by giving a set of question in a uniform manner. Since test is a form of assessment, tests also answer the question ―how does individual student perform?

 

Testing is the method used to measure the level of achievement or performance of the learner. It also refers to the administration, scoring and interpretation of an instrument (procedure) designed to elicit information about performance in a simple of a particular area of behavior.

 

Types of Measurement                                            

There are two ways of interpreting the student performance in relation to classroom instruction.

 

Norm-reference test is a test designed to measure the performance of a student compared with other students. Each individual is compared with other examinees and assigned a score-usually expressed as percentile, a grade equivalent score or a stanine. The achievement of student is reported for broad skill areas, although some norm referenced tests do report student achievement for individual.

The purpose is to rank each student with respect to the achievement of others in broad areas of knowledge and to discriminate high and low achievers.

 

Criterion- referenced test is a test designed to measure the performance of students with respect to some particular criterion or standard. Each individual is compared with a pre-determined set of standard for acceptable achievement. The performance of the other examinees are irrelevant. A student‘s score is usually expressed as a percentage and student achievement is reported for individual skills,

 

Common Characteristics of Norm-Referenced Test and Criterion-Referenced Tests

1.          Both require specification of the achievement domain to be measured

2.          Both require a relevant and representative sample of test items

3.          Both use the same types of test items

4.          Both used the same rules for item writing (except for item difficulty)

5.          Both are judge with the same qualities of goodness (validity and reliability)

6.          Both are useful in educational assessment

 

Differences between Norm-Referenced Tests and Criterion Referenced Tests

  TYPES OF ASSESSMENT                                    

There are four type of assessment in terms of their functional role in relation to classroom instruction. These are the placement assessment, diagnostic assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment.

A.    Placement Assessment is concerned with the entry performance of student, the purpose of placement evaluation is to determine the prerequisite skills, degree of mastery of the course objectives and the best mode of learning.

 

B.    Diagnostic Assessment is a type of assessment given before instruction. It aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students regarding the topics to be discussed. The purpose of diagnostic assessment:

·        To determine the level of competence of the students

·        To identify the students who have already knowledge about the lesson;

·        To determine the causes of learning problems and formulate a plane for remedial action.

 

C.    Formative Assessment is a type of assessment used to monitor the learning progress of the students during or after instruction. Purpose of formative assessment:

·        To provide feedback immediately to both student and teacher regarding the success and failure of learning.

·        To identify the learning errors that is need of correction

·        To provide information to the teacher for modifying instruction and used for improving learning and instruction

 

D.    Summative Assessment is a type of assessment usually given at the end of a course or unit. Purpose of summative assessment:

·        To determine the extent to which the instructional objectives have been met;

·        To certify student mastery of the intended outcome and used for assigning grades;

·        To provide information for judging appropriateness of the instructional objectives

·        To determine the effectiveness of instruction

 

  MODE OF ASSESSMENT 

 

A.    Traditional Assessment

1.          Assessment in which students typically select an answer or recall information to complete the assessment. Test may be standardized or teacher made test, these tests may be multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, true-false, matching type.

2.          Indirect measures of assessment since the test items are designed to represent competence by extracting knowledge and skills from their real life context.

3.          Items on standardized instrument tendstotest only the domain of knowledge and skill to avoid ambiguity to the test takers.

4.          One-time measures to rely on a single correct answer to each item. There is a limited potential for traditional test to measure higher order thinking skills.

 

B.   Performance assessment

 

1.          Assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills

 

2.          Direct measures of students performance because task are design to incorporate contexts, problems, and solutions strategies that students would use in real life.

3.          Designed ill-structured challenges since the goal is to help students prepare forthe complex ambiguities in life.

4.          Focus on processes and rationales. There is no single correct answer, instead students are led to craft polished, thorough and justifiable responses, performances and products.

5.          Involve long-range projects, exhibits, and performances are linked to the curriculum

6.          Teacher is an important collaborator in creating tasks, as well as in developing guidelines for scoring and interpretation

 

C.   Portfolio Assessment

 

1.    Portfolio is a collection of student‘s work specifically to tell a particular story about the student.

2.    A portfolio is not a pie of student work that accumulates over a semester or year

3.    A portfolio contains a purposefully selected subset of student work

4.    It measures the growth and development of students.


BACK