Purpose of Assessment (Module 1 – Part 1)

As mentioned in the ebook for Module 1, assessment “is much more than administering tests and assigning grades to students”.  I do agree.  In p.9 of Assessment Notes, Eric Soulsby referenced various literature pointing to assessment’s role in improving student learning:

·       Allen, M. J.  (2004).  Assessing academic programs in higher education.  Anker Publishing Company.

·       Huba, M. E. & Freed, J. E.  (2000).  Learner-centered assessment on college campuses: Shifting the focus from teaching to learning.  Allyn and Bacon.

·       Walvoord, B. E.  (2004).  Assessment clear and simple.  Wiley.

He also mentioned several references to assessment’s role in improving both learning and development:

·       Erwin, T. D.  (1991).  Assessing student learning and development: A guide to the principles, goals, and methods of determining college outcomes.  Jossey-Bass.

·       Palomba, C. A. & Banta, T. W.  (1999).  Assessment essentials: Planning, implementing, and improving assessment in higher education.  Wiley.

So, one of the things I just learned is that there is a distinction between learning and development.  I like how Questionmark puts it:

The primary difference between learning and development lies in their purpose and focus.  Learning is focused on acquiring new knowledge and skills, while development is focused on improving existing skills and developing new ones for future opportunities.

I should also mention that I have encountered the term “assessment for learning” many times.  Cambridge Assessment International Education puts it this way:

Assessment for learning (AFL) is an approach to teaching and learning that creates feedback which is then used to improve students’ performance. Students become more involved in the learning process and from this gain confidence in what they are expected to learn and to what standard.

Giving feedback is great, but we probably do not do enough of it, especially if we are not involved in vocational education.  Grading assessments can already be a time-consuming task, so it would be even more tedious to tell each student what he or she should change and what improvement can be made.  In the past, I had found myself cutting and pasting some general feedback for common things while also trying to say something specific to a student.

Furthermore, in pp.10-11 of his notes, Soulsby listed 4 main purposes of assessment:

1.     assist student learning (formative assessment)

2.     assess student achievement (summative assessment)

3.     evaluate programs

4.     improve teaching performance

For items 1-3, Soulsby cited the editorial work of Pellegrino, Pudowsky and Glaser in 2001:

·       Pellegrino, J. W., Chudowski, N., & Glaser, R.  (Eds.).  (2001).  Knowing what students know: The science and design of educational assessment.  National Academies Press.

While for items 3-4, he referenced this:

·       Walvoord, B. E.  (2004).  Assessment clear and simple.  Wiley.

I had mostly thought of assessments as a means to assess student achievement, so I probably should more consciously consider how assessments can assist student learning, evaluate programs and/or improve teaching performance.

In my career as an educator for more than 20 years, I have already encountered the terms “formative assessment” and “summative assessment” during training sessions and conversations with colleagues.  I would also add that I do believe that in many jurisdictions, government entities use results in standardized testing for accreditation, school rating and school ranking.   As for the passing rates in board exams, they can be a gauge on whether programs in an educational institution are good or bad.

Now, in online tests and quizzes, it may be possible to assign a level of difficulty to every question and map/link those same questions to specific learning outcomes.  Then it will be easy to get statistics after the assessment is administered.  So, if it turns out that many students missed questions related to Learning Outcome 2, then that would tell the teacher to perhaps spend more time covering LO2 and/or give more practice in the future.  (Of course, it would also mean that the teacher should perhaps review LO2 with the current students.)  Also, if there are significant numbers of students failing to answer more difficult questions, then that could be a signal for the teacher to spend more time developing students’ higher-order thinking skills as per Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Lastly, when it comes to the value of education, I would probably modify the image in the ebook for Module 1 to something as follows:

 

In short, then, I should not underestimate the importance of good assessments.  As I give better assessments, I can help myself and my students to improve/develop, which in turn means that I will be contributing to the betterment of society and businesses in the long run.

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