Dtlls_Assessment_for_Learning

University of Warwick Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector Year 1 Assignment 3: Assessment As a teacher it is essential that we understand what it is our students have learned from our teaching. If our students have learned nothing then no teaching has taken place. It is not always easy to establish whether or not learning has taken place and if it was a result of our teaching. “Assessment makes teaching into teaching” (Atherton 2009). To enable us to do this we have a variety of different assessment methods available which I am going to explore in this assignment. Assessment has several different purposes. It can be used as a way of measuring or grading a student as well as providing evidence to the effectiveness of the course. Ecclestone (1996) points out that “assessment requires two things: evidence and a standard or scale” (Gray, Griffin, Nasta 2005). With my students I not only continually assess them in the form of exam style questions but ultimately they are graded by the examining body. This in itself may appear to be very limiting as it is dependent upon the student’s ability to perform well in an exam. Unfortunately the examining accountancy bodies are still restricted to this type of assessment although the Association of Accounting Technicians is working hard to establish a more realistic method of assessment that reflects a “working” scenario. The AAT have set standards that have to be achieved before a student can move up to the next level. This can be quite limiting in my view. A student may get ‘stuck’ on one small part of the syllabus or one unit of the qualification which may then stop them from actually completing the course. Some students suffer from exam nerves which may stop them from completing the qualification when actually they are very good accountants. When students show an interest in a particular course we can carry out an initial assessment being the first stage of the assessment process. This allows us to establish whether or not a student is suitable to attend the course we are offering. It can also be used to highlight the different needs of the learners on each course and can help us “balance” our teaching to accommodate the different learning styles. A learner profile can be obtained and used as a tool by the teacher to ensure that all participants on the course receive an appropriate level of teaching that accommodates their needs. The next form of assessment is more difficult to quantify as it is subjective and dependent upon the teachers ability to interpret what is happening in the class room. Formative assessment is on-going, all of the time. Its purpose is to provide on-going feedback on what students are learning (Petty 1998). “This is used throughout the course to form judgements on whether, and to what extent, learning has been successful: and to pinpoint difficulties so that remedial action can be taken.” (Petty 1998). It is generally informal and used as a way of getting feedback and being able to make suggestions for improvements. It can provide a vital aid to teachers in assessing their day to day teaching and assisting them in planning for the future. It can also provide constructive feedback to students providing them with direction and motivation. The purpose of formative assessment is to “identify achievement and areas for further work” for students and for teachers “to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching to date and to focus on future plans” (Atherton 2009). I tend to start my class off with a small five or ten minute quiz. This can take the form of question being read out by myself or multiple choice questions on the interactive white board (IWB) or similar activities on the IWB (appendix A). This enables me to gain an understanding of who has managed to retain the information given in the previous session and it helps me to make the decision as to what area of the syllabus need to be reinforced. It also assists in planning for future courses as I can adapt my course materials to accommodate any problem areas faced by students. This assists me in the continual improvement of my teaching. It is also very effective at motivating the students and identifying which students need further assistance. Summative assessment takes place at the end of a course, topic or academic year. It is often used to grade students. It varies from course to course. It can also be used to determine the overall effectiveness of the teaching and learning. The majority of my teaching focuses on this summative assessment. I have to ensure that my students are ready to take the AAT examinations and have all the information and assistance they need in order to pass them. In some respects this limits the delivery of my teaching. I am constantly focusing on the final summative assessments as opposed to the skills required to do well at their jobs. There are various other forms of assessment such as criterion-referenced, diagnostic, ipsative, peer and self assessment. For the purpose of this assignment it is relevant to focus on norm-referenced assessment. This is the type of assessment that the AAT use. It grades the candidates against all the members of a specific population or an agreed level of performance determined by those setting the exam. The AAT use the population of students sitting the exam, worldwide, to ‘normalise’ their results. Therefore if all candidates found the exam very difficult and marks were particularly low the grades would be lifted to ensure that the same number of candidates pass compared to the previous year. This is relevant where it is difficult to determine that the exam paper is written to the same standard as previous years and assumes that candidates are of the same standard year to year. This method of assessment is only relevant to large national examinations. This may appear to be fair but I have to question the validity of such assessment. This form of assessment may accommodate the fall in standards achieved from secondary education and the actual standard of the qualification may fall year on year. It relies too heavily on the normal distribution curve and the assumption that a small percentage of students get above 60% and a small percentage fail where as the majority of students obtain average marks between 40% and 60%. The key concepts for assessment are validity and reliability. The validity of an assessment measures how effective the assessment is at measuring what it is supposed to be measured (Reece & Walker 2000). The assessment has to be appropriate to the course and its objectives. This is relatively easy for accounting tutors as we have access to many past exam papers which provides us with a great deal of material to use when assessing the progress of our students. We can be assured that the materials we use are valid and reliable as the source is the examining body. The reliability of the assessment refers to the extent to which it consistently measures what it is supposed to measure. Again by using materials provided by or endorsed by the AAT I can be sure that this is the case. I was particularly interested in incorporating an assessment OF learning as well as an assessment FOR learning. Black & Wiliams (1988) make a sound argument for integrating formative assessment at the heart of teaching. Their belief that the classroom can been seen as a ‘black box’ with certain inputs from teachers, students and resources which lead to outputs such as knowledge, good test results and satisfied teachers, all as a result of what is happening inside the ‘box’. Certainly in accounting we need to ensure that all the elements we put into the ‘box’ give the desired result, exam success. We have to ensure our students have the skills to pass exams. As we teachers we need to be sure that our assessment techniques effectively highlight that learning has taken place. It is often difficult to assess whether or not all our learners are learning. It is too late to wait until the final assessment, the exam, to measure what learning has taken place, if any. While considering how to approach the assessment of the foundation group it became obvious that “Where possible they should incorporate written, practical and oral techniques that enable adequate and fair profile of competence to be established” (Walkin 2002). This is quite alien to the accounting profession. Historically any assessment of accounting skills has been restricted to written exam style question, leaving little scope to develop the group of students or to aid those students who find written work particularly difficult. In my experience the younger students are able to explain things to one another in a very effective manner, perhaps because they often speak a different ‘language’ to us' I wanted to bring a different style to the way in which students understanding can be measured. I wanted to move away from the exam style questions and promote some discussion within the group and identify some worthy techniques for remembering what can often be a very dry subject. These students have no real work experience and therefore cannot relate what they are learning to a work situation. I was aware that the assessment had to be valid and was to be reliable in measuring what needs to be measured. I decided to take an exam style question but break it down into small sections that can be completed by different groups of students and then passed on to the next group (Appendix B). The tasks they would be carrying out would be measureable in terms of accounting skills but would also encourage group discussion while developing the affective domain associate with group work. The activity went very well. I was able to assess each groups work at the end of each stage. Once the first task of the memo was completed it was passed to the next group to answer. A discussion took place as to the quality of the memo. Each group would ‘mark’ the memo against preset criteria, set by the students and in line with what the examiner would be looking for. The next task was completed, answering the request of the memo. I asked the groups to answer what had been asked and not what the model memo was asking for. I did this to help the students understand the importance of being clear when requesting financial information. This was completed and passed onto the next group. This continued until all the tasks were finished, marked and returned to the original group. I was pleasantly surprised at the discussions that followed. Even the most reluctant members of the class were eager to get their point across. I steered the group into making positive remarks and helped them identify what they could take away from the lesson. Unfortunately some members of the group did not engage fully with the task and only engaged when pushed by myself. Those that willingly engaged enjoyed the activity and felt they had benefited from it. At the end of the session I handed out a model answer (appendix C). The students were surprised to see how short the memorandums were and realised that they had tried to over complicate the answers. It was a useful exercise and one that I would use again. Several of the students felt they could confidently answer a similar question in and exam situation, “we learn best by doing” (Petty 1998). The activity I tested reinforces that teaching accounting can be more interactive and that we can make good use to the exam style questions. I am not convinced that a similar exercise would work at the technician level. The questions become far more involved and complicated at technician level and I feel it could not be broken down into manageable chunks. As teachers we need to continually review what we do and look at ways of improving our teaching. We cannot afford to simply dismiss an idea because it sounds foolish to us, let our students decide. We should not be afraid to explore different methods of obtaining information regarding our students. It is vital that we constantly assess where they are and how we can move them forward. It is too late a week before the exams to realise that one of our student has failed to grasp what it is they need to pass their exam, we have a responsibility to them to continually monitor their progress and how we choose to do this is a constantly moving target. Bibliography Black, P. J. and Wiliam, D. (1998b). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol 80, No.2. [online] October 1998. Available at: www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm [Accessed 15.06.2010] Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, the classification of educational goals – Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York. (McKay) Petty, G. (1998). A Practical Guide. Teaching Today. 2nd Edition. (Stanley Thornes (Publishers) Ltd.) Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. The 10 Principles: Assessment for Learning. (Online) (updated 18 Jun 2007).Available at: www.qca.org.uk/qca 4336.aspx [Accessed 15.06.2010] Reece I & Walker S. Teaching, Training and Learning a Practical Guide 5th Edition. – 2003 (British Education Publishers Ltd) Rogers, J. (2001). Adults Learning. 4th Edition. Suffolk UK. (St. Edmundsbury Press Ltd.) Walklin, L. (2002). Teaching and Learning in Further and Adult Education. 2nd Edition. Cheltenham UK. (Nelson Thornes Ltd.)