Assessing assessment

1) Understanding Assessment

Assessment and knowledge are the heart and soul of education.And education is the bedrock of society without which there is no progress.The root of the term assessment is "assidere",that means 'to set'; used in the primitive period to measure the growth in business.Apropos education,assessment is used interchangeably for evaluation.The history of this techniques is glorious and in the early societies,assessment not only indicated the educational emergence,but also the social and moral uprising.It assessed the different facets like, if the student is ready for advancement,the epicentre of his/her potential,level of competence and measure of intelligence along with social,cultural,moral and spiritual traits of the learner. Assessment is an integral part of any system if the improvement or the progress is to be made. It has different meaning in different context but educational assessment can be referred to as the learning outcome of the students in the class, outside the class and the outcome of the training programmes or the workshops conducted. Assessment can be done by an individual (self assessment), by other person and by group of the people expert in different areas of learning or administration. When we talk about assessment it should not be confined to the learning by the school or the college students but that applies to all of us irrespective of teacher or taught. The same will be discussed in the following paragraphs. But first, let us confine to the students` learning and try to understand the meaning of the word assessment in context of the education. Assessment can be defined as the process of putting on record the progress made by the individual or the class or the group of the people which is usually in measurable terms like, knowledge, skills, understanding and attitude etc. Any assessment which cannot be expressed in measurable terms may not be very effective and would not serve the purpose of giving right feedback for the improvement of a particular skill or the progress made. Even in case of the companies ,assessment is very important. Take an example where one businessman wants to set up a factory in a particular region. Then it is very important for him or his group to do preliminary survey whether that place is suitable for the kind of the factory they wish to set up. This survey prior to setting up the factory is also a kind of assessment and if can be done objectively, the businessman will be able to get a fair idea and then take a decision whether to set up the factory or not. Similarly, when somebody tries to change from one area of work to another then he/ she has to assess his/ her potential in that field and also will it be worthwhile to do better in the other field being considered to be changed to. We may take many such examples from our day to day life.
In context of the assessment of the students we have to be clear about the objectives of the assessment. There are two types of assessment one formative and the other one is summative. The formative assessment is used to understand the understanding level of the students while teaching learning process is on. This can be done at the end of topic, unit, chapter or while teaching the class. When I say teaching that means the students might have been doing individual work, group activity or the teacher might have discussed some topic and then thought of understanding whether the students have understood the content of what was taught. This can be very simple as well as little tough also. I take an example of my own class. When I had the last period in any class then it was important for me to ensure that the children who were already tired did not miss on anything discussed or done in the class. So while teaching I would speak either incomplete statement or incorrect statement and that would make me to understand who the children were listening and actively participating in the learning process or who were otherwise and then accordingly I would change my approach and the make sure that even those children who were tired also get involved in the learning process. Formative assessment can be an effective method of understanding the effect of the teaching and its outcome even while teaching. Most of the teachers plan the assessment after they have completed the topic. This is not wrong but why to wait for that long when you have freedom and the tool to know that before it was too late. The formative assessment is also said to be assessment for learning and that is why it is important that this helps the teacher and the taught both to take corrective measures at the earliest possible opportunity. The formative assessment does not help the students only but the educators as well because they also learn in the process what is the better way they should adopt to make learning a pleasure for both, students as well the educators, to me the formative assessment is wonderful way of making the learning and studies a joyful experience for the students. But for that the educators will have to work very hard even before they go their class and the pre-assessment of the knowledge level of the children is very important because based on that only they can plan their strategy of instruction and the activities. If this assessment is done properly then formative assessment will be very effective in making the things better in the class.
 The other form of the assessment is summative assessment which has been in the practice for quite long. Most of the people know it by the name of terminal examination, half yearly examination or the annual examination. We have been following the process of the summative assessment and are very much used to the same and that is the reason some educators are taking even the formative assessment in the same way. Not only the educators even the board has also projected formative assessment almost in the same manner. As per the board`s guidelines the four formative assessments are to be conducted during the year and the achievement of the students in the same is reflected in the progress report card. I differ on this point and fell that the formative assessment should be the tool in the hand of the teachers to improve the leaning level on daily basis, weekly basis or monthly basis whatever is the requirement. A teacher assesses the students on daily basis while interacting with them in the class and let this assessment be used for the purpose of improving the instructional methodology or the activities or any other way of doing better. Some children can do better with little efforts while the others may require consistent efforts on the part of the teacher as well as the students. So the formative assessment should be left for the purpose of the improvement of different areas of the children`s personality and this should be continuous and not ones or twice in or two months. The summative assessment can be used for the information of the parents and other people that after a particular period and sincere efforts of both the educators and the learners this is the level of the learning. This may be a kind of certification of the learning achievement level of the students and further course of action can be decided based on that. The formative assessment is very important because that gives many opportunities for the improvement while summative assessment gives the final verdict. Formative assessment gives complete liberty to improve while summative assessment gives limited opportunity to improve the lack of learning level. Robert Stake has very well differentiated between the formative and summative assessment. He says that when the cook tastes the soup this may be called formative assessment and when the guests taste the same that may be called as the summative assessment. This should also be remembered that the formative assessment is for the learning and the summative assessment is of the learning. I think this explains the difference between the two so clearly in the context of education.
The summative assessment is also important because that makes the parents and other people to understand the strengths and weak area s of the child and accordingly the strength of the children can be exploited for the benefit of the children and also the society. We can work more on the strengths and that will automatically take care of the other areas of the weakness. The assessment can be of two types objective as well subjective and they both are important, the objective type assessment is usually closed ended and the children do not get much opportunity to express or showcase their creative thinking. Subjective assessment gives more freedom to the students to express themselves and do not restrict them to some expected answers only. These assessments can further be classified as formal and informal assessments. The formative assessment can be both formal as well informal while summative assessments are usually formal. Formal assessment may include written tests, structured quiz etc. while informal assessment is bit casual and may include the observation, checklist and inventories etc. Formal and informal assessment both are important if understood and taken in the right spirit because if there is trust between the teacher and the taught then even informal assessment is also taken very seriously and that will help the learning of the students . This is absolutely true that the purpose of the assessment formative or summative is to improve the learning level and not to label the child intelligent or otherwise. The assessment is the tool which helps everyone to diagnose and improve the areas where there is need. Assessment should be considered as to be the phobia or some stressful exercise but should be enjoyed both by the educators and the learners. This should be enjoyed as to be the integral part of the teaching learning process and not as something different which may is done in isolation.
But to make to be so the educators must be very careful while designing the assessment tolls. They should be very clear of the objectives to be achieved and the learner should also know beforehand what is expected of them after the completion of a particular topic. The learner should be made aware that by this exercise their listening or reading skills will improve. They should whether they are going to be taught for the knowledge, application, skill or application. I f they know all this they will be bettered prepared for the learning and the assessment process. Not only this but the educators must be very clear about the reliability and the validity of the assessment. Reliability means that there is consistency in the assessment. A reliable assessment means the assessment consistently achieves the same result for the same level of the children. Reliability of the assessment is very important if the faith of the learner and other stakeholders is to be maintains. An unreliable assessment shall destroy the whole concept of teaching learning process.
Similarly the validity of the assessment is also very important. Validity of the assessment means that the assessment tests the same what it is intended to assess. For example a question can be framed which will assess the writing skill of the children but if the this has not been worded carefully then it might confuse the child and the assessment may not give the correct result what it was intended for. The assessment related to practical skills cannot be assessed by the written test only and for that practical situation will have to create.
 In the end I would like to submit that the assessment process is equally important as the teaching learning process, rather is the integral part of teaching learning process so the testers have got to be properly trained so that they do not compromise on the validity and the reliability of the assessment. Central board of secondary education have come out with very good textual materials in the name of teachers manual but a lot more is to be done for making the learning of the children a joyful exercise and not a cause of stress of completing the project or any other work given by the teachers.

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