Principles_&_Practices_of_Assessment

Principles & Practices of Assessment There are many different methods of assessment making sure you use the correct methods are very important, by knowing your learners and always taking into account any special needs and requirements they may have will have a big impact on the methods you will use, all assessments will usually follow the assessment cycle The cycle will continue until all aspects of the qualifications have successfully been achieved by the learner. Types of assessment appropriate to teaching and learning may consist of observations. Learners when studying and training in a vocational area will be observed on a daily basis from the smallest achievement to the more significant levels. When keeping a track on student’s ongoing development, observations will be a continuous part of a learner’s journey throughout their learning programme. Students can quickly become comfortable with their learning environment and are blissfully unaware of the visual checks that are taking place on all aspects of their daily activates and routines. Observations can be unobtrusive which will not interfere with how learners perform, this can give the tutor observing a realistic result and can make all the difference between a learner being able to show how they can achieve or not. By watching learners demonstrate their practical skills and developing their personal maturity i.e. how they interact with others, how they conduct themselves to maintaining their personal hygiene and appearance can and does give an excellent insight into each student’s capabilities and growth and will also highlight areas where support is needed. Observations can cover different aspects of a qualification at the same time making this a holistic approach. When teaching questions can be incorporated into sessions and can be a key technique for assessing, questions relevant to students work will simulate thinking and give learners the opportunities to explain their understanding and knowledge on what they are doing and why. Knowing your learners will enable you to pitch questions at a suitable level for them, questions can be written or oral and depending on the student may require a short or long answer; question should be open which will call for something more than a yes no answer therefore this method can demonstrate a learners knowledge, if students show that they are struggling with answering a question it may be that the question needs to be rephrased, at times poor answers can be the result of poor questions. Providing a multiple choice questionnaires can prove to be an effective method of gathering a better understanding of learner’s knowledge it is easy to mark and can prove to be valid and reliable, one major disadvantage with multiple choice is that learners are able to make a lucky guess which will reduce both validity and reliability by having a extensive understanding of your learners will give tutors an advantage if this is the case. When teaching learners with learning disabilities test papers can prove a valuable way of measuring learner’s progress, when carried out in a way that does not put pressure on the student. For some learners the word test can cause limitations on results some may become anxious this could affect their performance, by making test time a fun time this activity can deliver strong results. For students test can consist of them matching pictures to words, crossword puzzles to word search games and multiple answer questions papers, all will be relevant to learners work and the criteria that has to be covered, this method of assessment can make learning more enjoyable student tend to be relaxed making them less anxious when it comes to sharing their knowledge and understanding on the work they do and what it is expected. For tutors tests can in many forms provide a wealth of information as well as give an insight in to another dimension to learner’s behaviour. A test is a systematic procedure for measuring a sample of a student’s behaviour. Reece, I and Walker (2007: 44)