what is assessment?
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what is assessment?
hi all, sounds like a silly question to be asking on this forum but i can't grasp its concept. as well as its difference from evaluation. can someone explain this to me in plain terms or maybe a simple example. I've read a bunch of definitions online but none of them makes things clear.
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joshua2004
- Posts: 264
- Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:08 pm
- Location: Torreon, Mexico
Assessment and evaluation are identical and they serve many purposes.
It lets the student and you know where the student is at. Many times when you are teaching, it is impossible to know how much the student has advanced since the student is learning more than you know. This incidental learning and the specific learning you are sure they know come together on assessment.
I believe assessment should also be instructive. You can formulate questions so that the student is guided to the answer without giving it. Assessment can also provide the student with an opportunity to challenge themselves. After a month of teaching, if you provide a challenging task which a month earlier they could not attempt, you are showing the students that they do more than previously realized.
Assessment could be described as an artificial innovation because of our need to prove results. However, if you are artful, you can blend assessment into a natural part of the learning process. Keep in mind that any stress you invoke into the classroom lowers students willingness to participate and ability to perform. A particularly interesting investigation I read (it was Alfie Kohn in his book about high stakes testing or the one about competition in the classroom, I don't remember) where two demographically identical classes were give the same subject and then at the end given the same assessment but with one class weighting the final assessment high (say 60% of the grade and thus high stress) and one class weighting the same final low (say 30% and thus low stress). No surprise that the class that with the low stress performed better. I don't remember how many times the study was repeated but it makes sense and I have seen it in my classrooms. If I put a lot of stress on a test, I repeatedly see students who I know can perform better, do worse. Think about why your students don't want you to even say the word "exam." They would rather hear the word "quiz." Strange isn't it, if an exam should be meant to help them?
Lastly, assessment is also used to describe the observational data you collect from students while teaching. This can be from listening to students talk to each other or how they respond in group discussions, anything that lets you know how much the students know.
It lets the student and you know where the student is at. Many times when you are teaching, it is impossible to know how much the student has advanced since the student is learning more than you know. This incidental learning and the specific learning you are sure they know come together on assessment.
I believe assessment should also be instructive. You can formulate questions so that the student is guided to the answer without giving it. Assessment can also provide the student with an opportunity to challenge themselves. After a month of teaching, if you provide a challenging task which a month earlier they could not attempt, you are showing the students that they do more than previously realized.
Assessment could be described as an artificial innovation because of our need to prove results. However, if you are artful, you can blend assessment into a natural part of the learning process. Keep in mind that any stress you invoke into the classroom lowers students willingness to participate and ability to perform. A particularly interesting investigation I read (it was Alfie Kohn in his book about high stakes testing or the one about competition in the classroom, I don't remember) where two demographically identical classes were give the same subject and then at the end given the same assessment but with one class weighting the final assessment high (say 60% of the grade and thus high stress) and one class weighting the same final low (say 30% and thus low stress). No surprise that the class that with the low stress performed better. I don't remember how many times the study was repeated but it makes sense and I have seen it in my classrooms. If I put a lot of stress on a test, I repeatedly see students who I know can perform better, do worse. Think about why your students don't want you to even say the word "exam." They would rather hear the word "quiz." Strange isn't it, if an exam should be meant to help them?
Lastly, assessment is also used to describe the observational data you collect from students while teaching. This can be from listening to students talk to each other or how they respond in group discussions, anything that lets you know how much the students know.
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moonchild7903
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2005 2:25 pm
Unless there is some distinction made for a specific reason which I'm not aware of, I'd say that assessment and evaluation are just general terms, and essentially mean the same thing: data gathered for the purpose of making a choice or a judgement. There are an endless number of imaginable ways to gather data. If one develops a particular way of assessing X, then that can be referred to as an assessment tool.
Essays, cloze exercises, multiple choice questions, oral interviews, etc., are all specific tools used for assessment. So, for other purposes, are dates, movie reviews and test drives.
One could divide types of assessment tools into all kinds of categories, of course, which might be what moonchild7903 is referring to.
Essays, cloze exercises, multiple choice questions, oral interviews, etc., are all specific tools used for assessment. So, for other purposes, are dates, movie reviews and test drives.
One could divide types of assessment tools into all kinds of categories, of course, which might be what moonchild7903 is referring to.