Assessment strategies:
The efficient way to check student’s in-depth understanding of the learned knowledge in the classroom is to use an extensive range of assessment techniques catered for diverse learners (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson & Wiliam, 2005).
Few of the strategies are described below:
Assessment for learning: Assessment is carried out alongside learning, not as an ‘after learning’ event (James, 2009, as cited in Department of Education and Training, 2011, p. 7). Ensure that continuous assessment is integrated into the lesson plans as research indicates that using ‘assessment for learning’ improves student achievement (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson & Wiliam, 2005).
Observation: One way of collecting assessment data is to informally observe students. To do this, a teacher makes notes as teacher observes students demonstrating their understanding or their use of a skill (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). This is done unobtrusively as students engage in classroom activities. Observation is the corner stone of assessment (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 177) as it provides information about all behaviours. Teacher can record student’s progress in the formative assessment techniques and grading sheet (see Appendix 1). The effective strategies for teacher observation are shown in (see Appendix 2).
Self-assessment and peer-assessment: Brady (2006, as cited in Brady and Kennedy, 2010, p. 183) promote that teaching and learning should be participative, collaborative, and facilitate the construction of personal meaning such as self-assessment and peer-assessment. Self-assessment fosters learning by enabling students to monitor their own performance (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 183) and take responsibility for their own learning. In self-assessment technique, students are given comprehensive questions to guide them in their self-appraisal (Appendix 2a; Appendix 2b).
Peer-assessment encourages critical appraisal of work of the others and provides the peer assessor with a useful model to improve their own work. Peer-assessment provides students wide range of feedback on their work and assists students in learning collaborative and interpersonal skills (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 183).
Homework tasks that focus on higher order thinking skills based on constructivist learning theories, discovery and problem-based approaches, promote active learning and derive promising results (O'Donnell et al., 2011, p. 68). Hence, it is beneficial to include the homework encompassing different cognitive objectives to cater for diverse learners. Homework can help students develop good study, organisational and time management skills. These are the essential skills to build the characteristics of lifelong learning and thrive in the competitive real-world (O'Donnell et al., 2011, p. 68). Homework helps to create disciplined mind, practise and revise the concepts at their own pace and thus deepening the knowledge and causing improved scholastic achievements (Marzano, 2007, p. 65). "The difference between school and life is, in school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson" (Bodett, n.d.). The self-discipline students develop through the homework, learning and assessment tasks is a key to reach the most difficult life goals efficiently and is the foundation for the positive growth and success (Essential Life Skills.net, n.d.).
Small group assessment activities: Encourage small group activities to induce excitement and create mild competition within the groups. Good and Brophy (2003, as cited in Marzano, 2007, p. 103) advocate that mild competition can enhance student’s engagement and enrich their learning.
Diagnostic tests: Educational psychologist David Ausubel declared that the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows (Ausubel, 1968, as cited in Department of Education and Training, 2011, p. 1). Hence, it is beneficial to incorporate diagnostic tests to evaluate student’s current knowledge by utilising the online interactive tools or class wiki (Appendix 3).
Quizzes and forced-choice tests enable students recall knowledge and demonstrate comprehension in distinguishing between different choices (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 178). Example quizzes are shown in Appendix 4; Appendix 4a.
Matching tests enable teachers to assess student’s understanding of related concepts (Alexander, 2006). Other benefits include the efficiency by which a series of premises ‘fits’ a series of responses and therefore the speed with which questions can be answered, and the ease and objectivity of marking (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 53).
Binary tests provide a direct measure of student’s declarative knowledge. These test items help students to improve their learning confidence as they can answer many questions in a short period (McMillan, 2004).
Multiple-choice tests: The benefits of multiple-choice tests include the board coverage of content the test can assess, the availability of diagnostic information from incorrect alternatives and quick marking (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 178). Students understand that the way to prepare for multiple-choice items is to read and reread the learning material to focus on recognition (Levin et al., 2002). This assists students to improve their reading comprehension skills.
Cloze tests are used to assess student’s knowledge, comprehension and the ability to understand written material. The cloze procedures force students to look for context clues and make reasonable inferences (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 54). This helps students to develop logical reasoning and critical thinking skills.
Short-answer responses demonstrate student’s in-depth knowledge, understanding and written communication skills (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 179). They are easier to develop. Further benefits include the capacity to assess a wide range of content knowledge, the reduced likelihood of guessing and high reliability of marking (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 52).
The concept maps (see Appendix 5a; Appendix 5b) assist students in demonstrating a more integrated understanding of a subject matter, and enable them to relate new knowledge with their prior knowledge and frame mental representations logically. They help them in structuring their knowledge efficiently and provide teachers with valuable information about students understanding of the topic (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 56). This strategy assists students to retain the information longer (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).
Bloom’s taxonomy sequences of questions (Appendix 6) can be used to assess how students are developing higher order thinking skills and the content knowledge.
Habits of mind: It is imperative to evaluate student’s habits of mind as it shows students self-confidence on their learning.
Reflection activities: Examples of reflection activities are shown in Appendix 7a; Appendix 7b.
Criteria and Rubric: Assessment expert’s state that “to evaluate student’s performance, explicitly defined performance criteria help to make what is a subjective process clear, consistent, and defensible” (Arter & McTighe, 2001).
Few things to consider when preparing the assessment criteria sheet or criteria-based rubric:
The checklists for preparing quality assessment tasks are shown in Appendix 10.
References:
Alexander, P.A. (2006). Psychology in learning and instruction. Columbus, OH: Pearson Education.
Arter, J., & McTighe, J. (2001). Scoring rubrics in the classroom: Using performance criteria for assessing and improving student performance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Bodett, T. (n.d.). 15 Life lessons they don't teach you in school. Retrieved from
http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/lifelessons.html
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2010). Curriculum construction (4th ed.). Frenches Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson.
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2012). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Department of Education and Training. (2011). Teaching and learning. Retrieved from
http://www.learningplace.com.au/uploads/documents/store/doc_750_3009_Dimensions_of_teaching_and_learning.pdf
Essential Life Skills.net. (n.d.). Self-discipline is the foundation for success. Retrieved from
http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/self-discipline.html
Kruse, D. (2012). Assessment strategies for the inquiry classroom. Carlton, Australia: Curriculum press.
Leahy, S., Lyon, C., Thompson, M., & Wiliam, D. (2005). Assessment minute, day by day. Educational Leadership. Retrieved from Central Queensland University EDVT10020 - Assessment & reporting in Sec-VET week 1 study material.
Levin, E., & Tempone, I. (2002). Providing guidelines for first-year assessment tasks as a means of developing core graduate attributes: nurturing or spoon feeding, lifelong learning conference. Retrieved from CQU online library.
Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2nd ed.). Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.
Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria: ASCD
McMillan, J. H. (2004). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective instruction. Pears Education Inc.
O'Donnell, A.M., Dobozy, E., Bartlett, B., Bryer, F., Reeve, J., & Smith, J.K. (2011). Educational psychology (1st ed.). Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia.
The efficient way to check student’s in-depth understanding of the learned knowledge in the classroom is to use an extensive range of assessment techniques catered for diverse learners (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson & Wiliam, 2005).
Few of the strategies are described below:
Assessment for learning: Assessment is carried out alongside learning, not as an ‘after learning’ event (James, 2009, as cited in Department of Education and Training, 2011, p. 7). Ensure that continuous assessment is integrated into the lesson plans as research indicates that using ‘assessment for learning’ improves student achievement (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson & Wiliam, 2005).
Observation: One way of collecting assessment data is to informally observe students. To do this, a teacher makes notes as teacher observes students demonstrating their understanding or their use of a skill (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). This is done unobtrusively as students engage in classroom activities. Observation is the corner stone of assessment (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 177) as it provides information about all behaviours. Teacher can record student’s progress in the formative assessment techniques and grading sheet (see Appendix 1). The effective strategies for teacher observation are shown in (see Appendix 2).
Self-assessment and peer-assessment: Brady (2006, as cited in Brady and Kennedy, 2010, p. 183) promote that teaching and learning should be participative, collaborative, and facilitate the construction of personal meaning such as self-assessment and peer-assessment. Self-assessment fosters learning by enabling students to monitor their own performance (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 183) and take responsibility for their own learning. In self-assessment technique, students are given comprehensive questions to guide them in their self-appraisal (Appendix 2a; Appendix 2b).
Peer-assessment encourages critical appraisal of work of the others and provides the peer assessor with a useful model to improve their own work. Peer-assessment provides students wide range of feedback on their work and assists students in learning collaborative and interpersonal skills (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 183).
Homework tasks that focus on higher order thinking skills based on constructivist learning theories, discovery and problem-based approaches, promote active learning and derive promising results (O'Donnell et al., 2011, p. 68). Hence, it is beneficial to include the homework encompassing different cognitive objectives to cater for diverse learners. Homework can help students develop good study, organisational and time management skills. These are the essential skills to build the characteristics of lifelong learning and thrive in the competitive real-world (O'Donnell et al., 2011, p. 68). Homework helps to create disciplined mind, practise and revise the concepts at their own pace and thus deepening the knowledge and causing improved scholastic achievements (Marzano, 2007, p. 65). "The difference between school and life is, in school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson" (Bodett, n.d.). The self-discipline students develop through the homework, learning and assessment tasks is a key to reach the most difficult life goals efficiently and is the foundation for the positive growth and success (Essential Life Skills.net, n.d.).
Small group assessment activities: Encourage small group activities to induce excitement and create mild competition within the groups. Good and Brophy (2003, as cited in Marzano, 2007, p. 103) advocate that mild competition can enhance student’s engagement and enrich their learning.
Diagnostic tests: Educational psychologist David Ausubel declared that the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows (Ausubel, 1968, as cited in Department of Education and Training, 2011, p. 1). Hence, it is beneficial to incorporate diagnostic tests to evaluate student’s current knowledge by utilising the online interactive tools or class wiki (Appendix 3).
Quizzes and forced-choice tests enable students recall knowledge and demonstrate comprehension in distinguishing between different choices (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 178). Example quizzes are shown in Appendix 4; Appendix 4a.
Matching tests enable teachers to assess student’s understanding of related concepts (Alexander, 2006). Other benefits include the efficiency by which a series of premises ‘fits’ a series of responses and therefore the speed with which questions can be answered, and the ease and objectivity of marking (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 53).
Binary tests provide a direct measure of student’s declarative knowledge. These test items help students to improve their learning confidence as they can answer many questions in a short period (McMillan, 2004).
Multiple-choice tests: The benefits of multiple-choice tests include the board coverage of content the test can assess, the availability of diagnostic information from incorrect alternatives and quick marking (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 178). Students understand that the way to prepare for multiple-choice items is to read and reread the learning material to focus on recognition (Levin et al., 2002). This assists students to improve their reading comprehension skills.
Cloze tests are used to assess student’s knowledge, comprehension and the ability to understand written material. The cloze procedures force students to look for context clues and make reasonable inferences (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 54). This helps students to develop logical reasoning and critical thinking skills.
Short-answer responses demonstrate student’s in-depth knowledge, understanding and written communication skills (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p. 179). They are easier to develop. Further benefits include the capacity to assess a wide range of content knowledge, the reduced likelihood of guessing and high reliability of marking (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 52).
The concept maps (see Appendix 5a; Appendix 5b) assist students in demonstrating a more integrated understanding of a subject matter, and enable them to relate new knowledge with their prior knowledge and frame mental representations logically. They help them in structuring their knowledge efficiently and provide teachers with valuable information about students understanding of the topic (Brady & Kennedy, 2012, p. 56). This strategy assists students to retain the information longer (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).
Bloom’s taxonomy sequences of questions (Appendix 6) can be used to assess how students are developing higher order thinking skills and the content knowledge.
Habits of mind: It is imperative to evaluate student’s habits of mind as it shows students self-confidence on their learning.
Reflection activities: Examples of reflection activities are shown in Appendix 7a; Appendix 7b.
Criteria and Rubric: Assessment expert’s state that “to evaluate student’s performance, explicitly defined performance criteria help to make what is a subjective process clear, consistent, and defensible” (Arter & McTighe, 2001).
Few things to consider when preparing the assessment criteria sheet or criteria-based rubric:
- Design the criteria sheet as per the curriculum expectations. An example 5 point A-E scale rubric is shown in Appendix 8.
- Write in student-friendly language.
- Make sure that it is easy to understand.
- Clearly articulate relevant knowledge, understanding, skills and processes required to complete the task.
- Focus on important aspects of performance.
- Use appropriate and manageable number of criteria for the learners.
- Provide clear descriptions of all levels of performance for students to use to self-assess and for the teacher and peers to use when providing feedback.
- Ensure that the qualitative differences are clearly visible in the performance descriptors (see Appendix 9).
- Warrant that the descriptions of the criteria are directly observable.
- The descriptors should have a positive focus, to reflect what has been achieved at each level rather than what has not (Kruse, 2012, p. 54).
- The type of rating must match with purpose and meets the QSA assessment guidelines.
The checklists for preparing quality assessment tasks are shown in Appendix 10.
References:
Alexander, P.A. (2006). Psychology in learning and instruction. Columbus, OH: Pearson Education.
Arter, J., & McTighe, J. (2001). Scoring rubrics in the classroom: Using performance criteria for assessing and improving student performance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Bodett, T. (n.d.). 15 Life lessons they don't teach you in school. Retrieved from
http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/lifelessons.html
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2010). Curriculum construction (4th ed.). Frenches Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson.
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2012). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Department of Education and Training. (2011). Teaching and learning. Retrieved from
http://www.learningplace.com.au/uploads/documents/store/doc_750_3009_Dimensions_of_teaching_and_learning.pdf
Essential Life Skills.net. (n.d.). Self-discipline is the foundation for success. Retrieved from
http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/self-discipline.html
Kruse, D. (2012). Assessment strategies for the inquiry classroom. Carlton, Australia: Curriculum press.
Leahy, S., Lyon, C., Thompson, M., & Wiliam, D. (2005). Assessment minute, day by day. Educational Leadership. Retrieved from Central Queensland University EDVT10020 - Assessment & reporting in Sec-VET week 1 study material.
Levin, E., & Tempone, I. (2002). Providing guidelines for first-year assessment tasks as a means of developing core graduate attributes: nurturing or spoon feeding, lifelong learning conference. Retrieved from CQU online library.
Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2nd ed.). Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.
Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria: ASCD
McMillan, J. H. (2004). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective instruction. Pears Education Inc.
O'Donnell, A.M., Dobozy, E., Bartlett, B., Bryer, F., Reeve, J., & Smith, J.K. (2011). Educational psychology (1st ed.). Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia.