Assessment for, of and as Learning - Literature review Example

Assessment for, of and as Learning Name Institutional Affiliation Date Introduction Assessment in learning is the process of documenting in measurable terms the knowledge or skill that one gains through any educative prices, assessment can similarly indulge in measure of attitudes as well as the belief that one has on a certain phenomenon. In assessment learning is pit into a test, where one is assessed on the extent into which the learned materials have been grasped. Assessment is majorly applies in learning institutions from low level primary to tertiary level. Assessment makes it possible to rank different persons in their ability to interpret or learn given at a similar environment, assessment helps knowing which skill some has, as well as the capabilities people have towards certain tasks (Stiggins, 2009). This paper tackles the three main assessment question, while completely defining the processes of assessment for many learning process. Question 1. What is assessment? According to Huba et al, (2006), assessment in learning can be defined as the process of employing an empirical date on a student to be able to define programs that improve the student learning. Assessment in this definition is meant to mean any evaluative testing that is endured by the examiner to sasses the potential of the student to adopt, memorise comprehend or understand the taught subjects in any learning process (Huba et al, 2006). Defining of programs in this assessment definition is the concept of making the student or the learner be able to define certain concepts in the field learned. Huba et al, (2006) assert that assessment is similarly defined as the process I which information id gathered and discussed from multiple sources, with an aim of deep understanding what the student know, understand and how to apply such knowledge in their life processes. Assessment in learning is defined in a way to ease the way of making some criteria known, applicable and practical to learners. The process of assessment helps student as attain the learning aspects through the assessment results, since it’s in the results of the assessment that students in most circumstances use them to improve their academic performance (Huba et al, 2006). As Huba et al, (2006) chronicle, assessment is alternatively defined as the systematic basis of making inferences in the learning as well as the development of students, assessment defines, selects, designs, collects, analyses, interprets and uses the information provides to increase the student kerning and development. Assessment collects, reviews, and uses such information about education to evaluate the extent to which the student have reached academically, and how much can they apply such academic credentials in their future lives (Huba et al, 2006). Assessment for, of and as Learning i. Assessment for learning According to Stiggins (2007), assessment for learning is the process used by the teachers as a part of a learning process providing the feedback to adjust the teaching as well as the learning while adjusting the students’ academic achievement in a certain subject. In assessment for learning, students are provided with a clear learning experiences, where the formative assessment provides the students with clear new learning targets, models as well as the examples of a strong and a weak work (Stiggins, 2007). Similarly, assessment for learning involves a regular and descriptive feedback, an ability to assess oneself track a learning process while setting goals for one self. As Stiggins (2009) asserts, assessment for learning reflects view of learning, assesses the student in helping learn better, achieve better marks as well as make learning an inclusive process to learners. Assessment for learning involves both the teacher’s students and the parents in creating an evidence base for learning. The process similarly reflects on the belief that all the students can improve while including clear goals for students (Stiggins, 2007). ii. Assessment as learning According to Stiggins (2009), assessment as learning happens when the students act as their own assessors, students in assessment as learning are able to monitor their learning process while assessing their own learning. Students in assessment as learning ask questions, while using their range of strategies to make informed decisions on what they know as well as know how to apply the assessment for a new learning. Stiggins (2009) ascertains that assessment as learning encourage the students to ,be responsible in learning, making it require students to ask themselves questions about the informed learning proves. Assessment as learning makes teachers and tutors together with the student to create learning goals to make the learning process easy, while encouraging a learning growth and development. Assessment as learning similarly help in encouraging peer assessment, a self-assessment as well as an induced reflection. iii. Assessment of learning As Stiggins (2009) chronicles, assessment of learning is the process in which the assessment assists the teachers in using the evidence base of the students in learning to assess the achievement against the set outcomes, standards and additionally performance. Assess of learning is sometimes referred to as the summative assessment, since it mostly occurs at certain defined points during the student’s unit of work load, or at the end of the selected unit (Stiggins, 2009). The effectiveness of the assessment of learning hugely depends on the validity and the reliability if activities. Its effectiveness is majorly an opportunity depending on the nature and quality of the feedback. According to Stiggins (2009), assessment of learning is used to plan for future learning goals as well as the pathways for student improvement. It provides the evidence of a student and school improvement to the wider community, including the peer educators, parents, educators, fellow students as well as the outside groups. Assessment of leering helps in a transparent interpretation across the audiences. Question 2, Formative Assessment According to Popham (2008), formative assessment ids the use of an assessment to assess the feedback of the student drug the course of the learning. Formative assessment helps student gain knowledge and concept of the coursework while grasping key credentials at certain intervals of their course work, as opposed to the summative assessment which assesses student at the end of the course work. Information or the feedback gained by the teachers by the students helps the teachers in adjusting the ways in which the students can deliver the instructions given. For instance, a teacher can use different techniques to teach the students as well as evaluate them occasionally to hep them grasp the key aspects in their learning (Popham, 2008). The process helps the student lead in improved success. Popham (2008) chronicles that formative assessment helps in activating the loopholes that students encounter when going through their learning. The main aim of a teacher condu8cting a formative assessment to students is to provide a certain feedback to their students while similarly offering an educative guidance to the, on the key steps to learning process. The process of formative evaluation helps the student close the gap between their current and their desired states. Formative assessment makes the teacher be able to induce an ongoing and evidence base assessment to the student, to help them attain knowledge of that the course work entails at certain milestones (Popham, 2008). Formative assessment is process meaning it happens entirely through the learning process, and that the students engage in such assessment to gauge their progress on grasping or understanding the coursework. Elements of formative assessment. According to Hattie and Temperley (2007), there are four elements if formative assessment, these are; identifying the gap, learning progressions, student involvement and lastly feedback. i. Identifying the gaps. The gap in assessment learning refers to the difference, or the gap between what the student knows and what the student needs to know, or what student has to know. The gap mostly occurs when the student has either not yet covered the provided course work, or has completed the coursework but has not fully understood the concepts, in identifying the gaps element of formative assessment, the teacher helps identify the levels of students knowledge on the coursework, while making a comparison judgement not of how far they are gone in the entire coursework (Hattie & Temperley, 2007). Identifying the gaps involves a collaborative measure between the teacher and the learner to identify major the learning goals as well the outcomes and the criteria for achieving these goals. ii. Feedback. Feedback is simply a rich conversation between the learner and the teacher. The feedback helped the teacher in assessing the students identify in the current status of learning. The feedback similarly sets the specific steps that the teacher can impose on the learner so as for them to improve. A teacher feedback to the student assists them constructively in timing of their timetable learning, as well as in advancing their learning process. The feedback must include a criterion of hoe the student should employ their time in achieving their goals in leanings (Hattie & Temperley, 2007). A student feedback to the teacher similarly can alert them in the needs to change or modify the necessary instructional approaches. iii. Learning progressions. Learning progression element of formative assessment is used by the teacher to the learner by breaking the student goals into smaller learning sub goals. This smaller subtotals are simpler tit e student to be achieved compared to the bigger and ambiguous goals. The sub goals help the learner concentrate more on the smaller achievements which collectively would contribute to the larger goals (Fisher & Frey, 2007). The teacher identifies the learner location academically to set smaller goals which are easy to achieve, while work with them to achieve the larger goals. iv. Involving students, in making decisions about their open learning as the self-assessment. This move helps students engage in a reflector activities and help them build their, metacognitive skills. There is a profound motivation in students who involved by the teachers in planning for their learning process, it helps the students have some sense of security in their learning success. This element helps boost the student self-esteem, when students are involved in a more self-assessment as well as when the teachers involve them in planning for their goals (Fisher & Frey, 2007). It helps them understand how to improve. Benefits of formative assessment According to Fisher and Frey (2007), fformative assessment is process that educators came with to accelerate the way students can achieve high grades and induce learning. The process helps students in performing on standards based school tests. The main benefit of formative assessment is majorly in the classroom, to the learners. Formative assessment in classroom helps the students guide the instruction as well as authentically determine the student, while offering many advantages, far beyond the test scores. Formative assessment practises in classroom have the ability to increase the student learning process (Fisher & Frey, 2007). Some of the distinctive benefits of formative assessment are; i. Timeliness of the learner results enabling teachers to adjust the set instructions more quickly while leaning in the process. ii. The students frequently assessed through formative process are regularly the ones who benefit from the process. iii. Student can use the results to adjust as well as improve on their learning. iv. The process allows the learner and the educator to form a detailed thoughtful of the student abilities. v. The process can be used to inform the remediation, the re teaching as well as an instructional strategy. The Impacts of Formative Assessment to the Learners. According to Beach and Friedrich (2006) formative assessment is highly impactful to students, and other learners who in most cases use the process to improve their academic credentials. The following are three impacts that the formative assessment is helpful to students. i. Formative assessment allows learners to adapt to the instructions based on results, while making the relevant modifications and improvements to improve an immediate benefits to them. The process can be done in two different ways, first being conducting a quick questions session to poll the learners. The quick questions helps the students refresh and apply what they have learned in the recent past (Beach & Friedrich, 2006). Secondly, longer formative tests are prepared to hep students adapt to the learning by assessing themselves. ii. Formative assessment gives the learners the evidence of the present progress in their learning process. This move helps them adjust and manage their own education learning, the learners can easily track their progress in relation to their set goals. This assessment helps the students acquire the metacognitive ability to assess their learning, making them simply think about their thinking capabilities (Beach & Friedrich, 2006). The assessment make the students set goals which they need to achieve after their set time elapses. iii. Formative assessment helps the student in getting a constant feedback from their teachers on their potential in learning. This move hells the students be part of the learning environment where they can indulge in self-assessment means, helping them understand their own thought process. Teachers can have the student’s feedback to motivate them and tend to correct any wrong going in the learning process (Beach & Friedrich, 2006). Hence, the formative assessment is quite positively impactful to the students. Question 3. Formative assessment in practice and the implications for teachers According to Ainsworth and Viegut (2006), teachers are the core motivators in formative assessment. Teachers provide the required feedback to the learners on the progress they are making on the learning coursework. Teachers similarly provide a feedback to the learners on what the learner entails to do, so as to involve themselves fully in fulfilling their goals. Teachers help the students set the goals they need in their learning process, by simply dividing the larger goals to smaller ones, ones which the learners can well manage to work on fulfilling. As teacher, several strategies can be employed to make the formative assessment more important as well as influential to the learners (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2006). The following are three strategies that teacher scan apple in the formative assessment to improve the meaning process of learners. i. On the fly assessment. This is an assessment strategy occurring spontaneously during the course of a lesson. A teacher during class work can occasionally ask questions to assess the potential of the students, while correcting where they go wrong. ii. Planned for interaction. This is an assessment where the teacher can induce a student thinking during the class or coursework. This can be done by the teacher giving the learners some tasks to accomplish towards the end of the lesson. iii. Curriculum emended assessments. These are the tests that are emended in the curriculum to help the learners adopt the leaning process. An example are exercises found at the end of every chapter or subtopic in mist school textbooks. As Ainsworth and Viegut (2006) asserts, the following are some of the possible challenges to the formative assessment. a. some learners, teachers and even parents don’t see the need for a formative assessment b. formative assessment may be time consuming c. some teachers lack the guidance on how to use the formative assessment efficiently and effectively d. Formative assessment may involve too much data tracking. Conclusion. Assessment is the process of getting the feedback on a student ability to understand the process of learning and the concepts of the process. Assessment is in many instances used for, as and of learning. Formative assessment, also known as the assessment for learning is the process of learning which incapacitate the assessment entirely through the learning process, at certain intervals, as opposed to summative assessment which only happens at the end of coursework. There are four elements of formative assessment, namely; feedback, identifying the gaps, involving students and the learning progressions. Teachers take a core role in the formative assessment to leathers, which is of more benefit to their learning process. References Ainsworth, L., & Viegut, D. (2006). Common formative assessments. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Beach, R., & Friedrich, T. (2006). Response to writing, Handbook of writing research (pp. 222–234). New York: Guilford Press. Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2007). Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for your classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD Hattie, J., & Temperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. Huba, Fred. Erwin and Allen (2006). What is assessment? Retrieved from http://web2.uconn.edu/assessment/what/index.html on 25th August 2016 at 1233 hours. Popham, W. J. (2008). Transformative assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Stiggins, R., (2007). Assessment through the student’s eye. Educational leadership May 2007, Vol. 64 Issue 8, p22-26, 5p. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/ctz7vb on 25th august 2016 1322 hours. Stiggins, R., (2009). Five assessment myths and their consequences. Education Week, v27, n8, p28-29 Oct 2007. Retrieved from http://www.ewcupdate.com/userfiles/assessmentnetwork_net/file/Five%20Assessment%20Myths%20Stiggins.pdf on 25th august 2016 at 1329 hours Read More