Assessment

Anthony Williams Module 2 Task 1 Introduction In this essay I intend to write about assessment, how I assess, the validity and reliability of my assessments, to analyse theories of assessment and teaching, and the significance of equality diversity issues for the assessment of learning. I am a tutor working within the directorate for explorers; I work across two sections within the department, commercial catering and institutional catering, my background is that of a head chef for many years in industry; I see my role now as a tutor to pass on the knowledge I have gained over those years to my ever growing group of students whether they are budding chefs or cooks in a care home or school, I hold workshops at college and in the workplace, and assessment is a big part of my job. Assessment is a measure of learning at a given point in time. Formal and informal assessment of students is a large part of a tutor’s work particularly those working within the Directorate for employers or in work based learning. Assessment for learning: This is the process of seeking and also interpreting evidence for use by students and their tutors to decide where the learners are within their learning and where they need to go and the best way to get there, after an initial assessment, that includes a brief one to one discussion a “Can you' Can’t you” questionnaire followed by a skill scan, I have recently added a general observation of the student, a formative assessment to find out ‘where the student is’ in terms of is he or she on the right course, and how he or she will progress and at what speed' After all every student is different and has different needs. A first practical observation and assessment can be really helpful to teaching and learning because it provides me the tutor with the essential information that I need to assess exactly where the student is at this stage of his or her career or training, this use of informal assessment gives me the chance for discussion with the student and to interact with them and put them at ease, whilst observing them, I give them a brief question and answer session and obtain feedback all at he same time, this informal assessment is my way of obtaining information, once this has taken place I have a much stronger idea of the students educational needs and ability. Assessment of learning: I usually carry out a periodic assessment at the end of each unit to check that they are learning. This is a summative assessment that usually compares the students achievement by matching it against a set criteria, I go through the log book with the student and discuss with them how or how not the criteria has or has not been met, this process usually occurs towards or at the end of each unit, the student also benefits from assessment, knowing his or her progress of learning and what areas they need to improve this is part of the benefit of assessment. Many theories exist about how students learn or how various assessment strategies or methods measure what the student has learned, so I am going to analyse some of these theories. I have read certain criticism of the assessment process “The third issue concerns the reliability of competence –based assessment, although, on the surface, performance criteria can be spelled out in detail, assessors’ interpretation of such criteria can vary. Systems of internal and external verification do of course help to minimize such variation but as Wolf (1993: 17) points out: the (assessment) process is complex, incremental, and above all, judgemental. The performance observed directly, or in the form of artefacts – is intrinsically variable: one person’s piano piece, one person’s essay, is by definition not exactly the same as another’s and cannot be fitted mechanistically to either a written list of criteria or an exemplar. (Armitage, 2007, p154 Teaching and training in post compulsory education) This brings into questioning my quality assurance process, the fact that we as a team meet on a regular basis to have standardisation meetings, when we discuss maintaining and improving standards, where we obtain feedback from other tutors, and that we have standard internal documentation and work packs, I believe demonstrates an awareness and establishes and also maintains quality, we also have interim sampling from the internal verifier, this is where an internal verifier will be in attendance whilst I am visiting a student in the workplace, he will give me verbal feedback on-site and written more formal feedback afterwards. There are also internal quality checks and audits throughout the term, I suppose the term I am looking for is validity and this is how I know that my assessments are valid. “Validity,in terms of assessment, is how well the test measures what it is supposed to measure. A paper and pencil test has low validity when assessing a student’s ability to carry out a psychomotor skill but can have a high validity in assessing if a learner knows how to complete it. A valid test is one, which assesses a representative sample of the content. A valid assessment must also assess a sample of the abilities that are required in the curriculum. T he questions must not only test the knowledge levels but also the comprehension, application and psychomotor skills; a cross section of the abilities that are required.” (Reece & Walker, Teaching, training and learning a practical guide, sixth edition revised 2007,p329) There are three main theories of education. Behaviourism, cognitivism and humanism. Behaviorism is a teacher led approach i.e. the teacher is in control and the advantage of this is that the objective is clear, highly specific and measurable where on the other hand the humanistic approach is founded upon the theory that learning is individual and that the teacher is more of a facilitator, humanism is more student centred a theory based on the approach that you do not need to tell the students anything, you simply just ask them the right questions and they will find out the rest for themselves. Cognitivism however is purely an academic approach based upon the theory that one builds on the student’s existing knowledge developing the student’s thinking i.e. with regards to assessment you would have problem solving exercises, verbal or written question and answer sessions. So how do we choose, how do I know which is the best method for me and most importantly for my students. “ It is also possible to link the three models with student learning styles. Honey and Mumford (1986) describe four learning styles as theorist, activist pragmatist and reflecavtist. They also provide a questionnaire so that that individuals can find out there own preferred style.” (Reece & Walker, Teaching, training and learning a practical guide, sixth edition revised 2007,p95) In my role as an assessor I can link all of these to the varying forms of assessment that I undertake whether that be informal assessment when I obtain information from the student in the form of observation discussion or question and answer or a more formal, professional discussion, practical or written assessment. As I stayed earlier every student is different and has different needs and every tutor should understand the Equality and diversity issues for the assessment of learning and how equality diversity and innovative teaching and leaning can go hand in hand, and should perhaps review the questioning techniques and maybe increase the time they wait for a response to a question. This could be particularly useful when teaching students for whom English is a second language, and this is something that every tutor should be aware of due to the increase in numbers of ethnic minority students wanting to partake in our courses. There could also be a cause for concern of inequality for students with low expectation levels who can feel excluded end even try to hide the difficulties they experience, and an assessment of the learner may draw out additional needs such has help with dyslexia, the work packs that I use with my students have numeracy literacy and IT contained within them and this embedded approach can in my opinion increase motivation for all learners by using the main subject as the key focus and can indeed also support the students for whom English is a second language by including them within the main curriculum area and helping them develop their language skills at the same time. Effective differentiation requires regular assessment for learning and must therefore take into account the different backgrounds of the students and the individual needs of learners. To summarise I believe I have demonstrated my understanding of the principles and applications of informal and formal assessment assessment and their roles within the process, and also explained the ever growing importance of equality and diversity issues. Referencing list: |Armitage,A. Bryant,R. Dunnill,R. Flanagan,K. Hayes,D. Hudson,A. Kent,J. Lawes,S. Renwick,M.(2007) Teaching and Training in | |Post-Compulsory Education. Third Edition. Open University Press. | |Reece,I. And Walker,S.(2007) Teaching,training & learning a practical guide. | |Sixth edition Revised. Business Education Publishers. |