Assessment Practices Used to Grade the Students - Literature review Example

Professional Practice Essay Insert Name Tutor Date Introduction In this essay I will be focusing on an alternative method of assessment that can be adopted in Saudi Arabia to replace the current assessment practices where examinations are used at the end of a certain learning period. Use of examinations has proved not to be an effective method of assessment especially for a subject like mathematics. In assessing mathematics students, reliability and validity of the assessment test needs to be taken into account. Reliability refers to the consistency of the assessment practice in measuring the knowledge, skills and understanding of the students. Validity refers to the ability of the assessment practice to measure what it is intended to measure and having accurate decisions made in references to the assessment results. Use of examinations at the end of the learning period may not be able to achieve all this. This is because examination results may not fully achieve all this and may lead to making of poor decisions regarding the students. According to Shepard (2000), “ the content of assessments should match challenging subject matter standards and serve to instantiate what it means to know and learn in each of the disciplines” p8. This is what lacks in the examinations since their goal is to grade the students according to marks they score and not gauge whether the student really knows what he or she is supposed to know regarding the subject. In this essay, I will therefore consider Classroom Assessment which I believe fully satisfies the objectives of assessment especially in mathematics as a subject. Some of the conceptual resources that I will consider include the assessment strategies, assessment for learning, of learning and as learning, formative assessment and assessment as a social practice. Classroom Assessment This is a formative assessment method that helps in assessing the extent to which students understand the course content and also their feedback on the effectiveness of the teacher’s method of teaching. It therefore does more than measuring the extent of learning. The manner in which it is administered, what it assesses and the communication of the assessment results leaves the students with a clear indication of what is worth learning, how they should learn it and how they are expected to perform. It is therefore a very comprehensive method of assessment which ensures that students do not learn just for the test. According to Stobart (2008), most of the current methods of assessment encourage shallow learning by the students since they learn just for the test. Therefore there has been diminishing confidence in what the assessment results represent. Assessment strategies There are various strategies that are involved in classroom assessment. According to Thomas & Cross (1993), the techniques used in classroom assessment include Background knowledge probes, Minute paper, Misconception/Preconception check and One sentence summaries. Background knowledge probe involves collecting general information from the students about what they know regarding the topic and also their preparation for that topic. Simple and short questionnaires are prepared by the teachers and given out to the students before the topic is introduced. Their main aim is to help the teacher be aware of the needs of the students and therefore focus more attention on some of the mentioned areas. The results of this assessment should be share with the students and they are used to make decisions and assign priorities. A Minute paper is the mostly used classroom assessment method which helps in obtaining immediate and succinct feedback. Here the teacher stops the students for about two or three minutes and asks them to briefly respond to the following questions: “What was the most important thing you learned in class today” or “What important questions remains unanswered?” (Thomas & Cross, 1993). This helps to assess the ability for the students to recall what they had learnt. The students respond by writing the minute paper in answering the two questions. Misconception/Preconception check involves asking questions from a specific area where students are most likely to develop misconception or preconceptions. They may be a few questions which are open ended or True/False statements. Some of the responses include “I’m absolutely certain this is true”, “I’m pretty sure it is true”, “I have no idea if this is true or false”, “I’m pretty sure it is false” or “I’m absolutely certain it is false”. The teacher reviews the most common misconception and shares with class which is used to make informed decisions (Thomas & Cross, 1993). One sentence summaries are used by the teachers to assess the ability of a student to concisely, completely and creatively summarize large amounts of information on a certain topic. Some of the key words for summarizing include who, does what, to whom, why, when and how. They are used to assess whether the student has understood the main idea in the topic. These strategies can however be very effective in assessing mathematics students. This is because mathematics is one of the subjects where students are good in making preconceptions which in most cases hinder them from understanding the real concepts. It also involves various difficulties which require a student to be able to summarize the contents into one main formula. Assessment for learning, of learning and as learning According to Elwood &Klenowski (2002) defines assessment of learning as one that is used to grade the ability of the students in retaining what they have been taught by the teacher while assessment for learning enables the students to know the goals they are expected to achieve and offer the teachers feedback of the learning process. Assessment for learning involves teachers being the central characters but they use their personal knowledge on how they know the students, how they understand the learning context and the curriculum to identify various learning needs in the students. It usually takes place at the middle of learning. Earl, L. (2003) describes it as follows “Assessment for Learning shifts the emphasis from summative to formative assessment, from making judgments to creating descriptions that can be used in the service of the next stage of learning” p24. Assessment of learning is the commonly used in schools and an example is the use of examinations. It is summative assessment which shows the student’s progress in school and positions the student’s performance as compared to others. Assessment as learning recognizes the role of student in the assessment and learning process. This is the ultimate goal of assessment where students monitor what they are learning and use the feedback to adjust their understanding. Here the students are their own assessors (Earl, 2003, p25). Classroom assessment incorporates all these aspects in that it is done for learning, of learning and as learning. Formative assessment This is explained by Yorke (2003) as being formal and informal. Formal formative assessment is defined as one which is usually done in reference to a specific framework for curricular assessment. It involves activities to be done by the student and others to be done by the teacher who must provide feedback to the students. Informal formative assessment is conducted in the course of events but the events are not specified in the curriculum design. These include immediate feedback which is given as learning continues. Basically informal formative assessment is continuous. According to Elwood and Klenowski (2002), formative assessment can be linked with assessment for learning where both the student and the teacher are involved in learning and assessment and are uniquely positioned to evaluate their own learning. They both obtain information which is used to make changes in teaching and learning to meet the needs of the students. Boston, (2002) states that “when teachers know how students are progressing and where they are having trouble, they can use this information to make necessary instructional adjustments, such as reteaching, trying alternative instructional approaches, or offering more opportunities for practice”. This is the main idea as to why am in support of classroom assessment. Here the teacher is even able to observe and discuss with the student the areas where the student is experiencing difficulties during learning. The teacher is therefore able to make adjustments that will help in overcoming that particular difficulty. Assessment as a social practice According to constructivist theory of learning, assessment is an as essentially a social practice. Assessment plays a significant role in social and cultural reproduction for example in allocation of education and economic opportunities and also to control the processes of teaching and learning. This is because it evaluates the extent to which the teacher has taught and also how the students have learnt (Broadfoot, 1996). Assessment being a social practice involves consideration of the goals of various players such as the student, the teachers, the institution and also the parent. If individual goals are considered, the results of the assessment may not have any positive impact to the process of learning. For example the goal of the parent may be to see good grades on the results of the student. This is different from the teacher who want to ensure that the student understand and that he/she uses the best teaching method to achieve this. However, with all the goals considered, a comprehensive plan can be adopted. Opinions of another mathematics teacher I offered a questionnaire to another mathematics teacher to seek his views on the current assessment method that we are using in our institution which involves administering the exams at the end of a learning period. The questions contained in the questionnaire were open ended to allow the teacher give all the available opinions. Most of the issues he raised are the same issues that I have talked about in this paper. Below are some of the responses: When asked about the qualities of a good assessment practice, some of the identified qualities include one that has goals and standards. He explained that the students should always be made aware of the goals before, during and after an assessment. The other quality was that there should be feedback information which will help the learner to make adjustments. Another quality was that it should involve interaction and dialogue around leaning. There should be open discussion between the teacher and the students on the matters beings assessed. The other quality was that the learners should have choices in the content and the process of assessment. It should only not be from the side of the teacher but the student should also be involved. I also asked about the qualities of a good assessor and the opinion was that he or she should be able to tailor the teaching towards the needs of the student. He said that assessors should not always concentrate on the curriculum but should focus on the needs of the students. This I interpreted to be in favour of informal formative assessment which is conducted during the course of events and not in reference to a particular curricular framework. There was also a question about the right time for conducting assessment. The teacher stated that assessment should be continuous and done after every topic. This will ensure that any arising issue during the topic is addressed before proceeding to the next topic. On the views of the institution’s current method of assessment where examinations are used, the respondent stated that examinations are just a method of comparing the performance of the students with each other. This is because the results are in grades and positions in the class. Therefore the student receives feedback in terms of the grade and the position in class. He said that this may not be of any help to the student because it does not reflect what the student did not understand during learning is. It also does not help the teacher to identify the areas where he or she needs to make adjustments during teaching. The respondent therefore recommended an assessment method that engages and empowers both the teachers and the students. He explained this as the assessment which will enable the students to take responsibility of their own learning. This way they will be able to give feedback to the teacher during learning as well as focus on the goal of the assessment during the assessment period. Generally, this teacher was also in support for classroom assessment because this is the form of assessment that will meet all the mentioned qualities. It is done continuously, it involves the students, there is definition of the goal and there is exchange of feedback. Adoption of such an assessment method would make teaching easier even for technical subjects like mathematics. Unlike other subjects, mathematics requires a lot of interaction between the teacher and the students. It requires a step-by-step teaching and it is therefore important to conduct assessment at the end of every topic. Involvement of the students also helps in changing their attitudes especially in the technical subjects like mathematics. Because they understand their problems better, involving them in deciding the content of the assessment will help in focusing on the critical areas. Therefore conducting continuous classroom assessment will be of much help especially to mathematics students. Practicable action plan of steps for classroom assessment Below are the steps to be followed during classroom assessment: Step 1. Setting Targets and Writing Objectives Step 2. Choosing assessment items and technique Step 3. Administering assessments Step 4. Analyzing data and sharing the results with students Step 1. Setting targets and writing objectives This step involves the teacher determining the exact thing that the students should know or should be able to do. Basically it is setting the targets on what the student should achieve by the end of the topic or end of a learning period. Some of the achievements that may be targeted include the level of knowledge, reasoning ability attitude and product development. Knowledge can be assesses by use of quizzes, essays or asking questions. Reasoning can be assessed by use of essays or just making observations. Observation and rubrics can also be used to assess performance, product development and attitude. Considering these target areas, the teacher can be able to come up with specific objectives that state the benchmark for each area. Step 2. Choosing an assessment item and technique After the teacher has determined the objective of the test and the behaviours that will be targeted, the next thing is to come up with an assessment item and technique that will best assess the targeted aspects. Some of the items that can be used include interviews, easy items and objective items. The assessment techniques that may be used include Background knowledge probes, Minute paper, Misconception/Preconception check and One sentence summaries. The teacher will therefore choose the best technique depending on the target area. Since the teacher knows his or he students better, he/she will also choose the strategy that will work best for the students. The most important thing is that it should be in line with the assessment objectives. Step 3. Administering the assessments The quizzes, essays and the tests should be administered under conditions which are favourable for optimal performance by the student. This will ensure that the results are a true reflection of the student’s abilities and capabilities. Some of the important things to do when administering the tests include ensuring an comfortable environment which is free from distractions, giving precise instructions to the students on all what will be involved in the test including how they will hand in their papers and what will be the next step. The other thing the teacher should do is to closely monitor the students as they take the test to prevent them from cheating or getting distracted (Eggen & Kauchack, 2004). Step 4. Analysing data and sharing the results with the students The results of the test must be returned to the students, discussed with the teacher and students should be given feedback immediately. Feedback helps to motivate the students and make them achieve more. It also allows the students to deal with some of the common misconceptions. The results are also important for the teacher in identifying areas that need more focus. The teachers and the students should do this together and each gets feedback from the other. Justification of the steps These steps will be adequate in meeting the needs of my assessment task. The main priority things in classroom assessment are students’ involvement, interaction, a continuous form of assessment and giving of feedback. According to these steps, all these things will be covered. These steps allow for close interaction of teacher and the students as they discuss the results of the assessment test. There is also issuing of feedback from the teacher to the students and vice versa. This process can also be continuous where they can be done at the end of each topic. They are simple and not time consuming and therefore can be done regularly. According to Nicol (2007) learners fail to perform well in tests because they do not understand the requirements. This is however tackled in my step 3 where the teacher gives precise instructions to the students before they start the test. The steps also agree to the principles of a good assessment by Nicol (2007) which include feedback and involvement of the students. Conclusion To make assessment more beneficial to the key stakeholders who are the students, there is a need to change the current assessment practices which are used to grade the students and compare them with the others in class. Adoption of classroom assessment in place of use of examination can help realise more benefits and add meaning to the reasons for conducting assessment. This is because assessment should be a reflection of the real abilities of the student and not in the entire subject but in its various topics. This can help the teacher know which areas to focus more. These are the results that can result in improvement in the entire learning process from the sides of both the teacher and the student. I therefore encourage adoption of classroom assessment in the Saudi Arabian schools so as to improve students’ performance. Bibliography Shepard, L.A. 2000, 'The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture', Educational Researcher, Vol 29, No 7, pp. 4-14. Stobart, G. 2008, Testing times: the uses and abuses of assessment, Routledge, London; New York. Thomas A. & Cross, P., 1993, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, Second Edition, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco. Elwood, J. &Klenowski, V., 2002, 'Creating communities of shared practice: the challenges of assessment use in learning and teaching', Assessment &Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 27, no. 3,pp. 243-256. Earl, L., 2003, Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximise Student Learning, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA. Yorke, M., 2003, 'Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice', Higher Education, vol. 45, no. 4,pp. 477-501. Boston, C., 2002, The concept of formative assessment. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 8(9). Broadfoot, P. 1996, Education, assessment, and society: a sociological analysis, Open University Press, Buckingham; Philadelphia Nicol, D., 2007, Principles of good assessment and feedback, Theory and practice Assessment design for learner responsibility, vol. 29:31. Eggen, P. & Kauchack, D., 2004, Educational psychology: windows on classrooms. 6th ed. Pearson, New Jersey. Read More