BASICS OF ASSESSMENT

Basics of Assessment

 OBJECTIVES

• To understand the meaning and importance of assessment in education.

• To identify different types and methods of assessment.

• To learn how to design fair and effective assessments.

• To evaluate students' learning progress and outcomes accurately.

• To use assessment results to improve teaching and learning.

 Learning outcomes 

After completing this topic, the student-teacher will be able to:

• Explain the meaning, purpose, and importance of assessment in education.

• Distinguish between assessment, evaluation, and measurement.

• Identify and describe different types of assessment (formative, summative, diagnostic, etc.).

• Develop appropriate tools and techniques for assessing learning.

• Analyze the qualities of a good assessment tool (validity, reliability, objectivity).

• Apply assessment strategies effectively in classroom teaching.

Assessment is the systematic basis for making inferences about the learning and development of students. It is the process of defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information to increase students' learning and development.

What does assessment mean in education?

The purpose of assessments in education is two-fold. It helps the students to demonstrate their learning, provide feedback on the errors they've been making, and help provide opportunities to better their performance with each assessment.

For the teachers, it works as an excellent tool to figure out if their teaching methodology is working or not.

What is the importance of assessment?

Assessments help the students understand their errors, understand the feedback received on their errors, and help them improve. Assessments may also provide another opportunity to assimilate the new information and re-do the exam to improve performance.

Importance of Assessment

Assessments are extremely important while teaching a concept in a class. Not only does it serve the students, but it also serves the teachers. Assessments work as an excellent feedback mechanism to let the student know about their progress.

• The Effects of Assessment

Assessment is a key component of learning because it helps students learn. When students are able to see how they are doing in a class, they are able to determine whether or not they understand course material. Assessment can also help motivate students. If students know they are doing poorly, they may begin to work harder.

• Teaching

Just as assessment helps students, assessment helps teachers. Frequent assessment allows teachers to see if their teaching has been effective. Assessment also allows teachers to ensure students learn what they need to know in order to meet the course's learning objectives.

Frequency and Feedback

Assessment is designed so that students understand their progress towards course goals and modify their behavior in order to meet those goals. In order to do that, assessment should be ongoing. In other words, classes that use one or two exams a term are not using assessment as effectively as it could be used. In order for students to gain a true representation of their understanding, frequent assessment is critical, and it should be accompanied with feedback

Common Assessment Terms

Assessment for Accountability

The assessment of some unit, such as a department, program or entire institution, which is used to satisfy some group of external stakeholders. Stakeholders might include accreditation agencies, state government, or trustees. Results are often compared across similar units, such as other similar programs and are always summative. An example of assessment for accountability would be ABET accreditation in engineering schools, whereby ABET creates a set of standards that must be met in order for an engineering school to receive ABET accreditation status.

Assessment for Improvement

Assessment activities that are designed to feed the results directly, and ideally, immediately, back into revising the course, program or institution with the goal of improving student learning. Both formative and summative assessment data can be used to guide improvements.

Concept Maps

Concept maps are graphical representations that can be used to reveal how students organize their knowledge about a concept or process.  They include concepts, usually represented in enclosed circles or boxes, and relationships between concepts, indicated by a line connecting two concepts. 

Direct Assessment of Learning

Direct assessment is when measures of learning are based on student performance or demonstrates the learning itself.  Scoring performance on tests, term papers, or the execution of lab skills, would all be examples of direct assessment of learning. Direct assessment of learning can occur within a course (e.g., performance on a series of tests) or could occur across courses or years (comparing writing scores from sophomore to senior year).

Embedded Assessment

A means of gathering information about student learning that is integrated into the teaching-learning process. Results can be used to assess individual student performance or they can be aggregated to provide information about the course or program.  can be formative or summative, quantitative or qualitative.  Example: as part of a course, expecting each senior to complete a research paper that is graded for content and style, but is also assessed for advanced ability to locate and evaluate Web-based information (as part of a college-wide outcome to demonstrate information literacy).

External Assessment

Use of criteria (rubric) or an instrument developed by an individual or organization external to the one being assessed. This kind of assessment is usually summative, quantitative, and often high-stakes, such as the SAT or GRE exams.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment refers to the gathering of information or data about student learning during a course or program that is used to guide improvements in teaching and learning. Formative assessment activities are usually low-stakes or no-stakes; they do not contribute substantially to the final evaluation or grade of the student or may not even be assessed at the individual student level.  For example, posing a question in class and asking for a show of hands in support of different response options would be a formative assessment at the class level.  Observing how many students responded incorrectly would be used to guide further teaching.

Indirect Assessment of Learning

Indirect assessments use perceptions, reflections or secondary evidence to make inferences about student learning. For example, surveys of employers, students’ self-assessments, and admissions to graduate schools are all indirect evidence of learning.

Individual Assessment

Uses the individual student, and his/her learning, as the level of analysis. Can be quantitative or qualitative, formative or summative, standards-based or value added, and used for improvement. Most of the student assessment conducted in higher education is focused on the individual. Student test scores, improvement in writing during a course, or a student’s improvement presentation skills over their undergraduate career are all examples of individual assessment.

Institutional Assessment

Uses the institution as the level of analysis. The assessment can be quantitative or qualitative, formative or summative, standards-based or value added, and used for improvement or for accountability. Ideally, institution-wide goals and objectives would serve as a basis for the assessment. For example, to measure the institutional goal of developing collaboration skills, an instructor and peer assessment tool could be used to measure how well seniors across the institution work in multi-cultural teams.

Local Assessment

Means and methods that are developed by an institution's faculty based on their teaching approaches, students, and learning goals. An example would be an English Department’s construction and use of a writing rubric to assess incoming freshmen’s writing samples, which might then be used assign students to appropriate writing courses, or might be compared to senior writing samples to get a measure of value-added.

Qualitative Assessment

Collects data that does not lend itself to quantitative methods but rather to interpretive criteria (see the first example under  "standards").

Quantitative Assessment

Collects data that can be analysed using quantitative methods (see  "assessment for accountability" for an example).

Rubric

A rubric is a scoring tool that explicitly represents the performance expectations for an assignment or piece of work. A rubric divides the assigned work into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at varying levels of mastery. Rubrics can be used for a wide array of assignments: papers, projects, oral presentations, artistic performances, group projects, etc. Rubrics can be used as scoring or grading guides, to provide formative feedback to support and guide ongoing learning efforts, or both.

Standards

Standards refer to an established level of accomplishment that all students are expected to meet or exceed. Standards do not imply standardization of a program or of testing. Performance or learning standards may be met through multiple pathways and demonstrated in various ways.  For example, instruction designed to meet a standard for verbal foreign language competency may include classroom conversations, one-on-one interactions with a TA, or the use of computer software. Assessing competence may be done by carrying on a conversation about daily activities or a common scenario, such as eating in a restaurant, or using a standardized test, using a rubric or grading key to score correct grammar and comprehensible pronunciation.

Summative Assessment

The gathering of information at the conclusion of a course, program, or undergraduate career to improve learning or to meet accountability demands. When used for improvement, impacts the next cohort of students taking the course or program. Examples: examining student final exams in a course to see if certain specific areas of the curriculum were understood less well than others; analysing senior projects for the ability to integrate across disciplines.

Value Added

The increase in learning that occurs during a course, program, or undergraduate education. Can either focus on the individual student  (how much better a student can write, for example, at the end than at the beginning) or on a cohort of students (whether senior papers demonstrate more sophisticated writing skills-in the aggregate-than freshmen papers). To measure value-added a baseline measurement is needed for comparison. The baseline measure can be from the same sample of students (longitudinal design) or from a different sample (cross-sectional). 

MEASUREMENT

Educational measurement is the science and practice of obtaining information about characteristics of students, such as their knowledge, skills, abilities, and interests. 

Meaning of measurement 

Different types of data are collected in educational measurement. Measurement is the numerical measure of an object or achievement. Under this, there is a sense of result or quantity. It is a process of quantization.

Definitions of measurement 

Definition of Measurement according to Kollinger 

“Measurement is the rule of thumb to actually provide the number of occurrences.”

Definition of measurement according to Campbell

“Measurement is to express objects or events in numbers or numbers according to the rules”

 

Definition of measurement according to Stevens

“Measurement is the process of assigning numbers or numbers to substances according to certain accepted rules.”

Types of Measurement 

1. Absolute measurement

2. Normative measurement

1. Ipsative measurement .

Evaluation

Evaluation is the process by which we assess the knowledge of a student. It is only through evaluation that the student's deficiencies in a subject, his interest in a subject and his talent are assessed. 

Definition of Evaluation

Definition of evaluation according to Quillin and Hanna: -

“Evaluation is the process of collecting and interpreting evidence about changes brought about by the school in the behavior of students.”

Definition of evaluation according to MN Dandekar: -

“Evaluation can be defined as a systematic method which ascertains the extent to which the student has been able to achieve the objectives.”

Examination

 Examination system was first invented by Henry Fishel or Henry Mishel

Examination in education is defined as the evaluation of the understanding of the knowledge of a person. The assessment can be done in the form of a formal test. What is examination is often misconstrued but is taken to check the knowledge of a student of a particular subject.

The exam includes a variety of questions like objective, subjective, one-word, etc. Each question in the exam is assigned marks according to the level of knowledge it requires. The students are required to answer the questions asked in exams. Marks are given based on the quality of answers given by a student in their examination. Evaluation is done based on marks obtained in the exam.

Difference between  measurement and evaluation. 

Measurement	Evaluation
Measurement is the process of assigning  numbers to events based on an established  set of rules.	Evaluation is concerned with making judgments  about instruction, a curriculum, or an educational  system, assessment is concerned with the  students’ performance.
It is an old concept	It is a new and technical concept
It answer the question “how much”	It answer the question “how good” or how  satisfactory
Scope of measurement is narrow	Scope of evaluation is wider
It simply indicates the numerical value.	It gives the value judgement to the numerical  value.
It is objective.	It is subjective.

Difference between assessment and evaluation

Assessment	Evaluation
The meaning of assessment is to review the data  about something or someone from different  sources in order to make improvement in the  current performance.	he meaning of evaluation is to judge the  performance of something or someone by  measuring the performance on the basis of existing  standards.
An assessment is an ongoing process.	An evaluation provides closure on the existing  process.
The purpose of assessment is to improve the  quality of performance.	The purpose of evaluation is to judge the  performance.
The assessment is an individualized process and is  not done against already set standards.	The evaluation is applied against the set standards
It is process oriented.	It is product oriented.
The outcome of assessment is constructive  feedback.	The outcome of evaluation is to show  shortcomings.

CONCEPT OF ASSESSMENT, MEASUREMENT, AND EVALUATION.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS 

1. Which of the following best defines assessment?

A) Judging students based on exams

B) Systematic process of collecting information to make educational decisions

C) Giving grades after exams

D) Comparing students with each other

2. Formative assessment is primarily used to:

A) Assign final grades

B) Identify learning disabilities

C) Monitor student learning during the instructional process

D) Compare performance between schools

3. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a good assessment tool?

A) Validity

B) Reliability

C) Bias

D) Objectivity

4. Summative assessment is usually conducted:

A) At the beginning of instruction

B) During the learning process

C) At the end of a unit or course

D) Only for diagnostic purposes

5. Diagnostic assessment is used to:

A) Promote students to the next grade

B) Identify students' learning difficulties

C) Assign homework

D) Rank students in class

6. Which of the following is an example of formative assessment?

A) Annual exam

B) Midterm test

C) Daily class quiz

D) Final semester examination

7. The term ‘reliability’ in assessment refers to:

A) The relevance of the assessment

B) The ability to measure what it is supposed to measure

C) The consistency of assessment results

D) The difficulty level of the assessment

8. Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) focuses on:

A) Only academic achievement

B) Only co-curricular activities

C) Both scholastic and co-scholastic development

D) Only final exam performance

9. Which of the following types of assessment is teacher-centered and product-based?

A) Summative

B) Formative

C) Peer assessment

D) Self-assessment

10. Validity in assessment refers to:

A) Scoring method

B) Time duration

C) Measuring what it is intended to measure

D) Easiness of the test