Assessment

In education, the term assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.

https://www.edglossary.org/assessment/

Assessment is a word that can drive fear into both students and teachers alike! The word “assessment” originally comes from the Latin words “ad” meaning to or at and “sedere” meaning sit, so the word means “to sit beside”.

In practice, this breaks down into three purposes — assessment for, as and of learning — each playing a different role in the classroom, from day-to-day check-ins to formal reporting.

Assessment is about the gathering of data to make judgements about student learning. The data can come from the students, teachers or from standardised tests. The purpose of assessment is to primarily gauge student learning. When planning a unit of work, teachers must be cognisant of the ongoing need to assess student learning and to revise their teaching plan accordingly. One of the first tasks in successful planning t is to know your stuents, so the first assessment task might be to assess prior knowledge to gauge “where the children are at” so the planning can be specific and targeted to the children’s needs.

The Three Types: Assessment For, As and Of Learning

Basically, there are three purposes of assessment — assessment for, as and of learning:

• assessment for learning;
• assessment as learning and
• assessment of learning.

Assessment for learning involves the teacher making inferences about student progress to inform their teaching. The emphasis here is using mini assessment tasks to inform the teaching and to assist the student to learn more. It is about improving teaching and learning, rather than achieving a mark or a score. It can provide feedback to encourage the student to move forward and to improve.

Assessment as learning involves students reflect on their own learning to inform their learning goals. Assessment as learning encourages students to take responsibility for their learning and to be reflective. It requires students to ask questions about their learning, to refcelt and to modify their learning gaols in order to succeed.

Assessment of learning involves teachers using the evidence of student learning to make judgements about student progress towards the standards/outcomes/objectives/content descriptors as mandated by the educational authority.

The two types of assessment are formative assessment and summative assessment. As their names imply, formative assessment is ongoing assessment during the learning process and summative assessment usually occurs at specific periods, especially at the conclusion of a unit of work. Whereas formative assessment is primarily for the student and teacher, summative assessments are usually for external stakeholders, such as parents at report time or for government and educational jurisdictions.