Literature_Review_Analysing_Theories_and_Principles_of_Assessment

Enabling Learning and Assessment (EAL) Assignment Part A – Literature review analysing theories and principles of assessment Assessment can be defined as any process that provides information about the thinking, achievement and progress of students, and is carried out for many reasons including: • The determination of intended learning outcomes for the course. • The provision of feedback to learners on their learning, enabling them to improve their performance, and to provide guidance and support to learning. • Motivation of learners to undertake appropriate work • The demonstration of achievement of appropriate standards and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the teaching. It can be principally defined as summative, intended to summarise student achievement at any point in time, typically examinations, and formative, which is ongoing assessment designed to develop learning to promote further improvement. Crooks (1988) promotes summative assessment as a potent force influencing education, guiding the students to what is important to learn, affecting their motivation and their approach to study. However, Black and Wiliam (1998) in their review of research on classroom assessment and its impact, resulting in their publication ‘Inside the black box’, concluded that, when carried out effectively, informal classroom assessment with constructive feedback to the student will raise levels of attainment across the board, but high quality feedback would have most effect on the weaker learners, allowing for equality and differentiation amongst learners. Their work focuses on the “find fault and fix” approach of mastery learning, concluding that most effective teaching should be centred on the areas for improvement, and not the whole process. Essentially, one cannot do assessment without feedback, or indeed provide feedback without assessment. Effective feedback should be timely, but not so quick that learners cannot reflect on their own work, nor so late that it loses relevance., and to this end both verbal and written feedback have their place. Petty (2006) explains that teachers require feedback on their learners’ understanding to help with improving their teaching as well as developing the learners and supports the findings of Black and Wiliam (1998) concluding that formative assessment methods providing any kind of feedback as an effect size of 0.81 (Hattie). Although it is now fairly widely accepted that formative assessment and feedback is important, the development of practice in this area has been less than acceptable, with tendency still falling towards summative assessment methods. The research of Black and Wiliam (1998) however indicates that there was no evidence to suggest increasing the amount of testing would enhance learning, and every effort should be made to develop the skills of teachers in principles of formative assessment and feedback. Many researchers have emphasised the role of feedback within assessment and Sadler (1989 p119) introduced the three stage process for learning, namely: Medal: task oriented feedback Mission: how to bridge the gap between where you are and where you need to be Goal: Identifying what you are aiming for and the assessment criteria for tracking progress Sadler talked about the goal being the destination, the missions being the small steps on the journey, and the medals reward for progress along the way. However, he emphasised that whilst it is important for the teacher to give feedback it is important for the learner to develop self-assessment skills to give themselves feedback during tasks, but to be able to do this they must first agree and understand the goals. Petty argues that many learners do not understand their goals effectively, yet when they do there is a significant effect size of 0.97 (Marzano 1998). The teacher must therefore make concerted efforts to both communicate and explain the goals in order for learning to be effective. Traditionally, the role of the assessor usually falls to the lecturer/tutor. Individually, they may employ questioning strategies, such as the ‘Pose, Pause, Pounce’ approach as advocated by Petty (2006 p174). However, effective and appropriate use of involving others in the assessment practice can also enhance the learning experience, enrich the teaching experience, and reduce the marking burden placed on staff. One way of increasing the efficiency of assessment is to allow students play a role in assessing themselves or each other, by way of self-assessment, peer-assessment or group-assessment. With appropriate guidance students can play a role in summative assessment, but generally peer assessment works best in formative assessment where students give each other feedback on each other’s work. Peer assessment can deepen the student learning experience as students can learn a great deal about their own work from assessing other students’ attempts at a similar task. A good example is the Pilot and navigator approach (Petty 2006). Group assessment involves individuals working collaboratively to produce a piece of work. The advantage of group work for the assessor is often that the burden of marking many individual pieces of work is significantly reduced, whilst also building on valuable life skills such as co-operation and team-building. However, this is not without risk as identified by Rust (2001), where it is difficult to assess whether group members have contributed equally. Having identified the importance of assessment, it was Black and Wiliam who also suggested that teachers are not effective in providing quality assessment and feedback tending more towards the grading scenario. Brown (2001) also said that assessment is too often an end-product rather than on-going, and listed many different forms of assessment ranging from informal to formal, verbal and non-verbal including observation. It is often suggested that assessment falls foul of time, being the subject of last resort, and as such it needs to yield a high return in order to be efficient. It should also be noted at this point that assessment is not to be done in a vacuum, and should be used as a key part of the quality procedures in the learning environment reviewing the effectiveness of the teaching, resources and course provision, and not focussing solely on the individual learners. It is also useful to discuss learners’ progress with other lecturers to check on patterns of exceptions which may be affecting performance. Assessment and feedback are time-consuming and the use of emerging technologies can support the process. Computer-Assisted Assessment is a fast and efficient way to provide immediate feedback to the learner, and to save time on tutor marking, with many assessments being able to be delivered by computer. Assessment can be reproduced on screen as they appear on paper, with students completing their responses on the computer. Becta (2006) presents three main benefits of using computers to support assessment: • online completion of ‘traditional’ exam scripts. • Providing online tests which include the use of multimedia, simulations and ‘drag and drop’ mechanisms, and the utilisation of databases to develop random questions and assessment on-demand. • Technology in the service of learning that uses e-assessment to provide ongoing formative assessment (integrating assessment and learning content), progress tracking, goal setting, feedback to the learner and practitioner, diagnoses of understanding and levels of ability, recording of achievement and storing of evidence of varying types (for example audio and video files of practical work). The latter point has led to the rapid development of e-assessment through emerging technologies. Assessment requires learning objectives, in that you need to understand what you are actually assessing. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) is a much documented framework that helps identify and write appropriate learning outcomes, identifying three domains of educational outcomes: cognitive, psychomotor and affective. When designing and carrying out assessment it is important that both students are staff are clear on what students are expected to do, the circumstances in which they are asked to do it and how the marks are going to be awarded. One failing is that students do not always know the assessment criteria or how assessors interpret them; however students benefit enormously to know what they are aiming for, or to see where they fell short, and consequently lead to much deeper learning. Assessment should also help to improve teaching. The lecturer can utilise effective assessment through the course to devise extra learning experiences, or fine tune their course where necessary, but perhaps most importantly to support the development of Individual Learning Plans, in recognition of ‘Every Learner Matters’ and to embrace diversity, by giving equal opportunity. Reference list Becta (2006). Emerging Technologies for Learning http://partners.becta.org.uk/page_documents/research/emerging_technologies.pdf Black, P. & and Wiliam, D. (1998) Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 80 (2) p139-148 October 1998 http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan Bloom, B. (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain, London: Longmans Brown, G. (2001), Assessment: A Guide for Lecturers, LTSN Generic Centre, Assessment Series No.3. Crooks, T.J. (1988) The impact of classroom evaluation practices on students, Review of Educational Research, 58, p438-481 Marzano, R. J. (1998). A theory-based meta-analysis of research on instruction. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. Petty, G. (2006) Evidence Based Teaching; a practical approach, Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes Race, P. (2001) The Lecturers’ Toolkit, London, RoutledgeFarmer 2nd edition. Rust, C. (2001) A Briefing of Assessment of Large Groups, LTSN Generic Centre, Assessment Series 12 Sadler, D R (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science 18, p119-144.