NEED FOR ASSESSMENT

In assessment one is supposed to sit with the learner. This implies it is something we do ‘with’ and ‘for’ students and not ‘to’ students (Green, 1999). [Word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’]

Assessment in education is the process of gathering, interpreting, recording, and using information about pupils’ responses to an educational task. (Harlen, Gipps, Broadfoot, Nuttal,1992)

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

l  Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

ü  School-based evaluation system of students

ü  covers all aspects of a student’s development process

ü  Emphasizes on two fold objectives-continuity in evaluation and assessment of broad based learning & behavioral outcomes.

l  The term ‘continuous’ is meant to emphasize that evaluation of identified aspects of students ‘growth and development’ is a continuous process rather than an event, built into the total teaching-learning process and spread over the entire span of academic session. It means regularity of assessment, diagnosis of learning gaps, and use of corrective measures and feedback of evidence to teachers and students for their self evaluation.

The ‘continuous’ aspect of CCE takes care of ‘continual’ and ‘periodicity’ aspect of evaluation.

ü  Continual means assessment of students in the beginning of instruction (placement evaluation) and assessment during the instructional process (formative evaluation) done informally using multiple techniques of evaluation.

ü  Periodicity means assessment of performance done frequently at the end of unit/term (summative)

Need of Continuous Assessment

ü  Reduce stress on children

ü  Make evaluation comprehensive and regular

ü  Provide space for the teacher for creative teaching

ü  Provide a tool of diagnosis and remediation

ü  Produce learners with greater skills

ü  Continuous evaluation spread over the total span of the instructional time as an integral built-in aspect of the total teaching-learning process.

ü  Functional and meaningful declaration of results for effective use by teachers, students, parents and the society.

ü  Wider uses of test results for purposes of assessment of levels of pupils’ achievements, proficiencies, improvement, through diagnosis and remedial/enrichment programmes.

ü  It helps the teacher to organize effective teaching strategies.

ü  Continuous evaluation helps in regular assessment to the extent and degree of learner’s progress.

ü   Continuous evaluation serves to diagnose weaknesses and permits the teacher to ascertain an individual learner’s strengths and weaknesses and her needs.

ü  It provides immediate feedback to the teacher, who can then decide whether a particular unit or concept needs re-teaching in the whole class or whether a few individuals are in need of remedial instruction.

ü  By continuous evaluation, children can know their strengths and weaknesses.

ü  It provides the child a realistic self assessment of how he/she studies. It can motivate children to develop good study habits, to correct errors, and to direct their activities towards the achievement of desired goals.

ü  It helps a learner to determine the areas of instruction in which more emphasis is required.

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT

ü  Diagnostic assessment/pre-assessment provides instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity.

ü  They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed.

ü  Diagnostic assessment data may be gleaned from:

• Summative assessments of the previous learning activity.
• Short assessments that focus on key knowledge and concepts such as Concept Tests and Minute Papers

l  Diagnostic assessment looks backwards rather than forwards.

l  It assesses what the learner already knows and/or the nature of difficulties that the learner might have, which, if undiagnosed, might limit their engagement in new learning.

l  It is often used before teaching or when a problem arises.

l  Diagnostic tests are criterion referenced. This means that the test items and goals are determined according to a fixed set of requirements. They are scored using true test score criteria.

l  Each test is scored based only on the student's own performance regarding his or her grade level requirements. 

Need of Diagnostic Assessment

ü  Helps to pinpoint specific grade level strengths and weaknesses.

ü  Weaknesses can be properly targeted for remediation.

ü  The diagnostic prescriptive assessment is designed to be parentally administered at any time of the year.

ü  There are no lengthy periods of waiting for professionals to score and interpret the tests as these can be prepared and scored by teacher themselves.

ü  Parental administration also has the added advantage of parents gaining first hand knowledge of their student's methods, procedures, and accomplishments during test taking.

ü  These tests can also be used for record keeping as they fulfill the need for portfolios that are required by some states.

ü  They can also be used as a pre-assessment for grade placement and are used by some parents for this purpose.

ü   By giving the test before the year begins, parents can discover direction for subject/grade placement, as well as target weaknesses for correction.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT (Assessment for learning)

ü  Taken at varying intervals throughout a course to provide information and feedback that will help improve

¡ the quality of student learning

¡ the quality of the course itself

Need of Formative Assessment

ü  To identify by teachers & learners of learning goals, intentions or outcomes and criteria for achieving these.

ü  To enhance conversations between teachers & students that continually builds and goes deeper.

ü  To provide effective, timely feedback to enable students to advance their learning.

ü  Teachers responding to identified learning needs and strengths by modifying their teaching approach (es).

ü  To provide high quality information to students about their learning;

ü  To encourage teacher and peer dialogue around learning;

ü  To  encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;

ü  To provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;

ü  To provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape teaching.

ü  To identify and remediate group or individual deficiencies.

ü  Effective feedback provides the platform for the active involvement of students in their own learning.

ü  It enables teachers to adjust teaching to take into account the results of assessment.

ü  To incorporate varied learning styles into deciding how and what to teach.

ü  To encourages students to understand the criteria that will be used to judge their work offers an opportunity to students to improve their work .

ü  To provide feedback for teachers to modify subsequent learning activities and experience

ü  To move focus away from achieving grades and onto learning processes, in order to increase self efficacy and reduce the negative impact of extrinsic motivation.

ü  To improve students' metacognitive awareness of how they learn.

ü  “Frequent, ongoing assessment allows both for fine-tuning of instruction and student focus on progress.“

ü  To clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);

ü  To  facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning;