Cel IT™
Exploratory Learning Environments
Problems with Assessment
| Assessment: Assessment of learner progress is valued and relied on. Teachers are able to collect a wide range of assessment data during the teaching and learning process and are able to assess a wide range of outcomes that can be assessed through pen and paper tests. They can also construct authentic assessment involving the demonstration of outcomes through real life situations or simulations. Although there is summative assessment for reporting purposes, greater emphasis is placed on the use of assessment to inform teaching and learning. (ACT Department of Education and Training 1994 English Curriculum Framework) When assessment criteria predetermine the learning outcomes, students' learning needs are also predetermined, this process alienates students from their sociacultural context which shapes them and from which they derive their identity and their sense of their own value. |
| The problem: Our present system of assessment is obsessed with methods of measuring knowledge and presenting the results as 'truths' about learner learning. However, these measures are limited and do not measure anything that represent actuality. Rather, the issue that I seek to put forward is that assessment is generating an illusion. Assessment for Learning is not the same as Assessment of Learning. Should there be a difference? |
| My contention: Is that the product is not sufficient evidence of the quality of thinking processes that produced it. Assessment in this context, (Assessment of Learning) supposes some systematic procedure, which if followed guarantees that 'evidence' or 'data' gathered will hit upon the 'truth' about learner learning. It is my belief that exploratory learning environments encourage learners to reflect on the process of learning as well as their own product of that process. Assessment, rather than be "direct" measures of learners' product to meet a perceived demand, facilitate conditions for learners to satisfy the demand as an investment in their own learning. The objective is for the learner is to create their own reality - assessment for learning rather than the illusion of reality - assessment of learning. Significant advantages can be canined when assessment is not limited to a measure of a 'product' (e.g. an examination) but is based in pedagogy enable critical negotiation. |
|
Assessment of Outcomes
- Curriculum Framework 1999
|
Assessment in practice
|
|
The primary purpose of assessment is to enhance learning. Assessment for Learning. |
Assessment for Learning provides evidence of learner achievement of the goals of the course and acknowledges that assessment should occur as a regular part of teaching and learning and that the information gained from assessment activities can be used to shape the teaching and learning process. |
| Another purpose is to enable the reporting of learners' achievement. Assessment of Learning. | Assessment of Learning measures what learners know and can do and is assessment for accountability purposes, to determine a learner's level of performance on a specific task or at the conclusion of a unit of teaching and learning by gathering a wide range of data to assess a wider range of outcomes thata can be assessed through pen and paper tests. (ACT BSSS Secretariat Assessment Goals Criteria). |
| Assessment should provide valid information on the actual ideas, processes, products and values expected of learners | Assessment or summative judgements about learners' achievement on a outcome (know and can do) should be based on assessment information about the outcome in its fullest sense, rather than only some parts of its, a proxy for or a rote manifestataion of it. Assessing learners' knowledge of particular facts, concepts or skills are often used as a replacement for assessment the actual achievement of the outcomes. If learners are to create their own reality, then it is inequitable to restrict assessment procedures to the production of 'products'. |
| Assessment should be demonstrably fair to all learners and not discriminate on grounds that are irrelevant to the achievement of the outcome. | Assessment should be sensitive and responsive to differences among learners so that they are able to demonstrate an understanding of an outcome. But there is discrimination when there is nothing inclusive about apparently succeeding but not understanding or learning much. Fair assessment, presently demands learners to be assessed on the same tasks and judgements about their learning does allow for flexibility of contexts which are familiar and helpful some some learners and unfamiliar and unhelpful to others. |
|
Assessment criteria should be explicit so that the basis for judgment is clear, public and inclusive of cultures.. |
Assessment criteria that is explicit provides opportunities for learners to reflect on their learning and suggests directions for future learning. If assessment criteria is not specific, learners do not know what they need to do in order to 'produce' a high quality product. If assessment tasks are based on real-world contexts and embedded in recurrent learning, then the learning environment allows learners to incorporate prior learning with new learning and thus provide teachers with the opportunity to assess when learning is meaningful and relevant to the learners, in other words learners create their own reality. |