What is assessment and how is it used in schools?

What is assessment and how is it used in schools?

Introduction

Assessment is in many respects central to the curriculum and tests and examinations provide valuable motivation for many learners as well as guidance for teachers as to how the curriculum is being interpreted. It is important that assessment is used to support the learning processes (Assessment for learning), to inform and engage pupils and their parents.

Are pupils learning enough, and learning it well in secondary school classrooms - and how can you tell? Can schools and teachers not only measure the progress made by pupils, but also identify their learning needs and respond to them? Effective assessment is needed to provide effective answers to all these critical questions.

Tests and examinations are a classic way of measuring student progress and are integral to accountability of schools and the education system. These highly visible forms of tracking progress, known as “summative assessment” are also used by parents and employers.

But this is only part of the story. To be truly effective, assessment should also be “formative” - in other words, identifying and responding to the students' learning needs. In classrooms featuring formative assessment, teachers make frequent, interactive assessments of student understanding. This enables them to adjust their teaching to meet individual student needs, and to better help all students to reach high standards. Teachers also actively involve students in the process, helping them to develop skills that enable them to learn better.

Many teachers incorporate aspects of formative assessment into their teaching, but it is less common to find it practised systematically. If formative assessment is used as a framework for teaching, teachers change the way they interact with students, how they set up learning situations and guide students toward learning goals, even how they define student success.

Several countries promote formative assessment as a fundamental approach to education reform. The OECD has studied the use of formative assessment in eight educational systems: Australia (Queensland), Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Italy, New Zealand and Scotland. The study has also brought together reviews covering English, French and German language research literature. This Policy Brief looks at the results of that study, including policy principles to address barriers to formative assessment and encourage its wider use.

Literature Review

Many researchers have pointed to the importance of assessing self-access language learning. Considerable investments are often made in setting up and maintaining self-access facilities and such investments need to be justified (Morrisson, 2006). In addition, there is an added degree of accountability required beyond that found in more mainstream learning environments, both by funding agencies who, as Morrisson points out (1999) are increasingly requiring proper assessment procedures to be in place, and also by students and parents. This is especially the case because the self-access model does not reflect standard classroom practice. Of course, assessment can also help management improve a centre (Gardner & Miller, 1999, p. 206) and allow reporting back to students. However, some feel assessment in self-access facilities ...