Definition of Assessment

A systemic approach which is a set of techniques, intended to improve learning is called classroom assessment.

According to (Marsh, 2008), Assessment’ is the term typically used to describe the activities taken by a teacher to obtain information about the knowledge, skills and attitudes of students. It is important to take assessment because it shows a clear picture of student understands. It also gives teacher an idea about the method of teaching. It helps in make them know that whether they are following correct method of teaching or not. Activities can involve the collection of formal assessment data (e.g. by use of objective tests) or the use of informal data (e.g. by use of observation checklist). Teachers typically assign a grade or mark (numerical score, letter grade, descriptive ranking) for work undertaken by students such as a project or written test. However (McMillan, 2013) describes assessment as a broad concept which serves various purposes. It assesses students’ learning capabilities, how they are achieving and how much they are achieving. Assessment is not helpful only to the teacher in meeting their teaching needs; it also helps the students by catering their educational requirements. Motivation is one the major goals of assessment so that students could be promoted further in academic life.

Assessment is a major part of learning. Stiggins (2011) believes that assessment is done to check school curriculum and the teaching progress whether teaching practice is meeting the goal for which curriculum is designed. Assessment also helps in knowing the status of the student and clears the intelligence level of everyone. Sometimes students attend all the classes but still did not get good marks so it shows the reason that they are not concentrating on classes. Assessment describes the skills a teacher possesses as assessment tests are reflection of what is taught by teacher in the class. It enables teacher to determine whether he is meeting his teaching goals. Thus, assessment enables teacher to make it sure that he is teaching effectively. So, assessment can be said a tool for improvement of instructions which, ultimately, leads to improved learning. Teacher can also improve the process of assessment for better results.

Assessment is the key to learning as well as future success. According to (Stiggins, 2011) “students are considered as the most important part of assessment results”. They are like consumers of assessment results as when they come to school, the first thing they do is to look at their teacher for getting an evidence of success. If the evidence is in favour of them then they start growing a sense of hopefulness and expectations of more success in future. This can also help students in making more efforts to get good marks.

Importance of Assessment for Teacher and Students

If students do not understand the concept, a teacher may re-teach that unit or part, employ different strategies until students get that. However, classroom assessment was not considered of a crucial part of teaching (McMillan, 2013).

For instance, back in 2014, I started teaching at a local `school where, in the starting days, I used to teach Mathematics to 9^th grade’s students. A chapter of class curriculum was algebra. I taught all the students from scratch because they were not aware of the basics of algebra. We revised the very first chapter of algebra two times in a fortnight and finally conducted a classroom test.

If students do not understand the concept, a teacher may re-teach that unit or part, employ different strategies until students get that. However, classroom assessment was not considered of a crucial part of teaching (McMillan, 2013).

For instance, back in 2014, I started teaching at a local `school where, in the starting days, I used to teach Mathematics to 9^th grade’s students. A chapter of class curriculum was algebra. I taught all the students from scratch because they were not aware of the basics of algebra. We revised the very first chapter of algebra two times in a fortnight and finally conducted a classroom test.

I had 26 students in my class a test was conducted for two units they learnt. But what I observed was shocking to me. All the students performed under-average. It happened twice in three consecutive weeks. After observing myself and results, I came to know the exact method, I was using, was for higher-level students. The method I was using a very difficult method and they were unable to understand perfectly. So I made them understand with another method which they followed very easily. So, in this way classroom assessment helps teacher to be effective at teaching.

Bloom, Madaus, Hastings and Stiggins (2011) argue, “Classroom assessments that serve as meaningful sources of information don’t surprise students”. Instead, these assessments reflect the concepts and skills that the teacher emphasized in class, along with the teacher’s clear criteria for judging students’ performance. These concepts, skills, and criteria align with the teacher’s instructional activities and, ideally, with state or district standards. Students see these assessments as fair measures of important learning goals.

Teachers facilitate learning by providing students with important feedback on their learning progress and by helping them to identify learning problems (Bloom, Madaus, & Hastings, 1981; Stiggins, 2002Students get feedback from teachers and come to know their weaknesses and strengths.

Assessment for Improvement of Instruction

According to Gardner (2006), “serving learning is the primary goal of assessment”.  Assessment has something to guide students to meet their learning objective. For instance, if a student aims to achieve 90 marks in his subject but he achieves only 52 marks. He will try to find the gap. There might be some problems due to which he could not meet his expectation of getting desired scores.

Assessment encourages students’ active involvements in the class where students monitor their progress; they identify the achievement gaps in their learning as assessment assess their weak and strong points which they may use to improve their learning.

Assessment motivates students to get involved in their own learning which is one of the major purposes of assessment however it depends upon the manner,  type of assessment and frequency of given feedback(McMillan, 2013).

Assessment provides motivation to the students. They work hard in order to gain the score they desire. Whenever a student gets small reward or pay off for his work, they work even more to touch the heights. Some weaker students, who get lesser marks, are able to recognise their academic needs. McMillan regards classroom assessment as an active agent in motivation (McMillan, 2013).

Using summative assessment may improve the quality of education if a teacher uses summative assessment for external use, such as, monitoring school’s progress and accountability, choosing higher education. It depends upon teacher how he is using assessment- whether he wants to maximise test scores or he wants to make assessment more learning-oriented ( McMillan, 2013).

Almost all of the students have different cognitive skills; all are not same in various aspects of life. Assessment is usually done by ignoring this fact that all the human beings have no same qualities and skills. It should be taken into account that different people perceive the same thing differently and view them from different angles.

We are judging all the students at same level when they have different capabilities. One may be intelligent in studies; other may be brilliant in games. There could be no comparison in these two areas requiring totally different skills. If we ask a monkey and a elephant to climb the tree in order to get any reward, it would be absolutely unfair to say so. The same happens in education field where all the students are given same exams despite knowing the fact of human uniqueness in skills, behaviour and nature. In this way, assessment may not be accurate and fair (Meyer, Rose and Gorden, 2014).

Student Feedback and Learning Gaps

Lack of time, which is not taken into account while making assessments, is another barrier in path of learning. Every student does not possess same ability; some are unable to cope with time restriction. Assessment test are usually bound by time limits. These time-restrictions may affect the scores of test-takers which is one of prime disadvantages of classroom assessment (Gallo, Sheehy, Patton and Griffin, 2006)

Assessment may be subjective. A teacher may add some personal views about student while assessing student’s ability and it is also possible to make some wrong judgements on the basis of personal opinion. One student may not be good at his behaviour in class which doesn’t necessarily mean that he would not be good at studies. There seems a possibility of incorrectness in assessment, and assessment may be biased.

Morgan, Walton (2002) submitted two studies in Mathematics which were conducted regarding judgements of teachers. In the first study summative assessment was used and in other formative assessment was given preference. This study included two aspects: (1) external reviewer scored the traditional time examination, and second part contained a problem- solving task which was to be checked by class teacher. In this study, eleven education experts took part. Results of these studies were quite interesting as there was a great difference in judgements of teachers that they made for the same students. For instance, a student got the highest rating from one teacher and the same student got the lowest rank from another teacher (McGatha, M.B & Bush, 2013).

(2) Fairness and equity are major challenges in classroom assessment. This study presented two case-study reports of two teachers working in England with students of 6^th grades. The aim of this study was to judge that is there any discrepancies in assessment made by different individuals.  A researcher and class teacher both observed students. Class teacher and research had a meeting after each observation. Both assessed few of the class students who were chosen for target- study. There were huge differences in results presented by both- the researcher and the teacher. Research found that first impression of the students and their behaviour makes a big difference to classroom assessment. It was not their knowledge that they gained on which they were assessed; it was their habits and behaviour that influenced the assessment score.

Transparency in assessment is one of the major concerns that may challenge learning of pupils. Sometimes, a student may not achieve the same that other perceives. Surgenor argue that, “the quality of assessment conversations may vary to a degree that threatens fairness. Some secondary teacher in one study, for example, reported having regular assessment conversations with students, while other seemed to distribute rubrics without explanation” Surgenor (2010).

Assessment for Motivating Students to Learn

There have been great strides in education, in terms of assessment and reporting. However, few decades ago it was not as important component of education as it is today.  Assessment is used to assess the student’s knowledge.to motivate them, to judge them how they achieve and how much they have achieved. Though its aim is to promote learning among students but at the same time it can discourage students too. Classroom assessment does not always fulfil its purpose by supporting learning, there are few exceptions. Sometimes students just study to get pass-marks, not for learning and understanding the concept (Gibbs & Simpson, Claire, 2004).

I have various real-life experiences in my teaching career of four years. One of them I am going to share that took place in September, 2016 when assignment became hurdle in education of a boy named Varner. An essay based on the life of religious guru was given to all of the students of 10^th grade. I explained about nature and character of religious guru and asked students to find original ideas rather than copying it from somewhere. After exploring the resources, they had to write critical analysis report on that and several meetings were planned with the people who were family members of that religious guru.

A boy of my class could not attend some of those meetings which were scheduled by school-principal. Though boy wrote the critical essay in a very good manner but when I asked him to explain in front of whole class he could not do that. I explained his topic to him and the class also. After two days I provided mark sheets along with individual feedback to all students. The boy I mentioned above received the least marks.

Not only the teachers but also the students should be given knowledge of goals for which they are assessed. Allen (2004) says that, “course learning objectives are not secrets”. Highlighting them on syllabi allows students to make informed decisions before enrolling, to monitor and direct their own learning, and to communicate what they have learned to others, such as graduate schools, employers, or transfer institutions  (Allen, 2004).

In order to improve assessment, teacher literacy is another approached that need to be implemented. It is not only the teacher who is solely responsible to make assessment; there are various factors that may affect the assessment. The type of test or questions, classroom environment, social and cognitive issue may affect assessment scores too. For example, if a teacher wants to judge skills of high-order thinking, critical-analysis and creativity then multiple choice questions may completely pointless. So, assessment needs to be done very carefully so that there is no bias and unfairness in it (UNSW, 2011)

Use of Summative Assessment for Quality Education

The feedback I provided him was to motivate him so that he can study better and boost his self-esteem. But instead of focusing on his plus points and improving his weakness, he took it extremely serious. I explained that topic again in the class which was in contradiction to what the boy wrote in his essay assignment. His topic I explained again in the class was taken as a personal attack on his views and ideas. Though his views were very clear and straight-forward but he could not explain it orally well. It was not my intention to demotivate him but this assessment really did. I later felt sorry for that when I realized what the consequence was. The boy dropped that class immediately. He always stood first in every task assigned in any area in the class excluding my subject. This incident spoiled his 6 months until he got back in the next session.

I had discouraged him though it was not my intention. I might have ignored his verbal presentation because the motive of assessment was just to check whether students are able to make rational views. This boy could be provided with some of the positive comments even if there were few errors as students have some emotional needs too which need to be addressed. This boy worked really hard to get the material and explored hundreds of sources.

Despite making so much effort, he could not get good marks. So, in this way this assessment added troubles to the student’s future rather than making it bright. Additionally, it was totally unfair because the aim of assessment was not to judge their communication skills; this was to check whether they are growing.

Results of a survey done by William and Black (1998) showed that rote learning is promoted through classroom assessment practices instead of creative learning. It evaluates students’ memory, not knowledge. Students forget easily after the class finishes as more emphasis given to the rote learning in class evaluation techniques. Grading is focused too much whereas learning remains under-focused. Teachers use their own knowledge; they have less talk to their fellow teachers. However, fair assessment demands negotiation ( Wiliam and Black, 1998).

There are various ways that can be taken into account to make assessment fair. Firstly, teacher should have knowledge of purpose of assessment. There is always a motive of assessment. There will be bias in assessment if teacher is not trained to assess students’ academic ability so teacher should be aware of all the techniques and practices involved in classroom assessment.

Limitations of Classroom Assessment

At some specific time, one may perform very well in one area and may lack in other. Assessment is as challenging task. For instance, a boy may have mastery in football that does not necessarily contribute to any other game; he may find it troublesome to play cricket as both games require different skills. So, a teacher needs to be very careful while assessing students so that it serves its purpose of productive learning and motivation rather than demotivating the pupils.

Assessment and learning therefore can potentially improve the effectiveness of both. There are some factors associated with improving learning through assessment. (1) The provision of effective feedback to pupils (2) The active involvement of pupils in their own learning (3) Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment (4) A recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students, both of which are crucial influences on learning (5) The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to make improvements” (Wiliam and Black(1998), as cited in Surgenor).

Conclusion:

Assessment promotes learning, however, only when it is fair and transparent. There are some conditions under which assessment becomes bridge to learning. To make learning better, it is crucial to make fair judgements for which teacher-literacy may play a leading role. According to me, there are lots of factors affecting assessment, but teacher has major role to play in classroom assessment.in order to fulfil the purpose of assessment, to make a strong connection between learning and assessment, assessment must be considered a dynamic concept. Also, there is a dire need to implement the above-mentioned suggestions to establish assessment as a bridge for learning.

References:

Allen, M. J. (2004).  Assessing Academic Programs In Higher Education. Bolton : Anker Publishing  Company. Article retrieved from https://learn.nsu.edu/iea/iea/image/s3_assessing_academic_programs_in_HE.pdf on 11 November, 2018.

Gallo, M., Sheehy, D., Patton, K., & Griffin, L. (2006, October).Assessment Benefits and Barriers What Are You Committed To?  77(6)

Gardener, J. (2006). Assessment and learning. London: SAGE

Gibbs, Graham & Simpson, Claire (2005) Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (1).pp. 3-31. ISSN 1742-240X. Retrieved from https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3609/1/LATHE%201.%20Conditions%20Under%20Which%20Assessment%20Supports%20Students%27%20Learning%20Gibbs_Simpson.pdf on 5 November,2018

Guskey, T.R. (2003, February). How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning. vol. 60. Retrieved from https://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb03/vol60/num05/toc.aspx on 12th November, 2018.

Marsh, C. (2008). Becoming a Teacher: Knowledge, Skills and Issues. 4 ed. Frenchs Forest, New South Wales: Pearson Australia

McGatha, M. B.,&  Bush, W. S. (2013). Classroom Assessment In Mathematics. Los Angeles: SAGE.  

McMillan, J. H. (2013). Research on Classroom Assessment. Los Angeles: SAGE. 

Meyer,A., Rose, D. H., & Gorden, D. (2014)Universal Design for Learning: theory and practice, Wakefield MA: CAST. Retrieved from https://easternshoreudl.weebly.com/barriers-to-learning–assessments.html

Morgan, C.& Walton, A.(2002). The Interpretative nature of teachers’ assessment of students’ mathematics: Issues for equity. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 33(2), 78-110. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/749645?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents on 12 November, 2018.

Stiggins, R. J. (2011, December). Student-Centered Classroom Assessment. Retrieved from https://files.nwesd.org/depts/eadmin/Admin_Website/CIT-CL/LiteratureReference/JournalArticles/Student-Centered-Classroom-Assessment_Stiggins.pdf on 11 November, 2018. 

Surgenor, P. (2010). Effect of Assessment on Learning. Retrieved from https://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLT0031.pdf on 12 November, 2018.

UNSW (2011, June).  Assessing by Multiple choice Questions: Assessment as a Learning Toolkit. Retrieved from https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/upload-files/assess-multiple-choice-questions_1.pdf on 12 November, 2018.