Main Kinds of Assessments

Field study 5 (Learning Assessment Strategies), course that allow student teacher to have hands-on experiences in different assessment tools used in the learning environment based on the principles of testing. The field study students also can benefit through this subject in how to select, construct and evaluating conventional, authentic and alternative assessment tools effectively and properly. It involves the different assessment and evaluation strategies and methods that can be employing during and after the discussion.

With the use of different assessment like authentic assessment, the learners will become effective performers with acquired knowledge, while the teacher will be able to measure the learners' capacity to do work and enhance her/his strategies to be an effective teacher.

There are more assessment tools that can be used especially the authentic assessment and traditional assessment. The used of authentic assessment is to engage learners to discourse social learning to involve in real-world problems and used of traditional assessment is to possess a body of knowledge and skills among the learners.

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This subject is the key to be preparing the student teacher before going the practice teacher. Through this portfolio, you will find the objective, significance of Field Study, definition of terms, the related concepts and theories, my narrative reports, presentation of outputs/task, findings conclusions and recommendations and others that will determine to what extent I achieve. I hope that through this portfolio I will find learning to become effective teacher. SIGNIFICANCE OF FIELD STUDY The significance of field study aims to help the Education Students understand how important being an effective teacher.

It help us to practice how to act like a real teacher and we will know that teaching is a strong desire to do particular kind of work that helps to mold young minds, combined with knowledge, strength, ability, skills and positive behavior. The field study can benefit the student teacher like me to acquire effective strategies and methods. Through this subject, we learn to be creativity in planning lessons to motivate and challenge pupils. This where you apply what you have learned and this is an application, an assessment of field study students as a student teacher.

Field study students will be exposed in actual teaching, where we will experience the realities in teaching profession. A kind of happiness and goal that is really wanted to be felt by the field study student like me is particularly in helping the young minds develop their skills and enhance their learning. Through this subject Field study 5 I have realized that teaching children is more than just a way of earning money. DIFENITIONS OF TERMS: 1. Assessment- on going process aims at understanding and improving student learning. 2.

Classroom Assessment- is an assessment activity conducted by individual instructor in his/her classroom. 3. Course Assessment- is an assessment activity administered in an individual course. 4. Culture Assessment- an environment in which continue improvement in which continue improvement of student learning influence by thoughtful assessment is expected and valued. 5. Outcomes- are what you want as student to know and be able to do in particular course or program. 6. Portfolio- a purposeful collection of student work showing effort, progress or achievement in one or more areas.

7. Student learning assessment- the measurement of what students know and are able to do usually express in term of progress toward and outcome or standard or mastery of an outcome or standard. 8. Student learning outcome- a clear statement describing what students expected to know and demonstrate in terms of knowledge skills and values upon completion of a course of several course or a program. CHAPTER II: Related Concepts and Theories ASSESSING AND EVALUATING STUDENT LEARNING Assessment is the process of gathering information on student learning.

Evaluation is the process of analyzing, reflecting upon and summarizing assessment information, and making judgments and or decisions based on the information collected. Reporting involves communicating the summary and interpretation of information about student learning to various audiences who require it. “Assessment and evaluation are essential components of teaching and learning in English language arts. Without an effective evaluation program it is impossible to know whether students have learned, whether teaching has been effective, or how best to address student learning needs.

The quality of the assessment and evaluation in the educational process has a profound and well-established link to student performance. Research consistently shows that regular monitoring and feedback are essential to improving student learning. What is assessed and evaluated, how it is assessed and evaluated, and how results are communicated results send clear messages to students and others about what is really valued—what is worth learning, how it should be learned, what elements of quality are most important, and how well students are expected to perform.

” Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum Although the terms assessment and evaluation are often used inter-changeably, in actuality they are two parts of the same process. Assessment is the process of gathering evidence of what the child can do. Evaluation is the process that follows this collection of data, including analysis and reflection, as well as decisions based on the data. The Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum provides a comprehensive overview of assessment techniques pertinent to English language arts.

The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to inform teaching and to promote and encourage learning—to promote optimal individual growth. In order to provide information vital to the teachers, assessment and evaluation must be an ongoing and integral part of the teaching/learning process. It is one continuous cycle consisting of collecting data, interpreting data, reporting information, and making application to teaching.

Assessment and evaluation must be consistent with beliefs about curriculum and classroom practices, and clearly reflect the various outcomes of the Kindergarten–3 English language arts curriculum, including those areas that cannot easily be assessed with pencil and paper (e. g. , processes, attitudes, and values). The assessment/evaluation process involves the use of multiple sources of information collected in a variety of contexts. In order to make decisions about any aspect of a child’s learning, the teacher observes evidence of that learning at different times, in different contexts, and in different ways.

No one single behavior, strategy, activity, or test can provide a comprehensive picture of a child’s learning. The assessment/evaluation process recognizes learners as active partners in their own learning and in the evaluation of that learning. Students are encouraged to reflect on their own growth, considering progress, strengths and weaknesses, and goals. As teachers engage in the process of assessment and evaluation, they make a number of decisions based on their knowledge of students and how they learn, as well as the goals and expectations of the Kindergarten–3 English language arts curriculum.

This includes decisions such as the following: Which students will be assessed and why? What will be the focus of assessment? What assessment strategies will be used? In what contexts? How will the information be recorded? On the basis of the evidence collected, what patterns emerge? What is the significant evidence? What does this tell me about the child’s learning? What is the best way to report this information? Who needs to hear it? How will I use this information to inform my teaching? The assessment/evaluation process involves the use of multiple sources of information collected in a variety of contexts.

At the primary level, many teachers use observation, work samples, and self-evaluation as tools in the process of assessment and evaluation. Observation is the careful consideration and analysis of students’ behavior and performance based on a broad range of contexts. In the Kindergarten–3 English language arts curriculum, observation is the most important assessment tool teacher's use. In order to use observation effectively, teachers need to know a lot about students, language, and how students learn language, and they need to be able to interpret what they are observing.

Students demonstrate what they think, know, and can do as they engage in various classroom activities that require the application of language processes and learning strategies. Teachers can learn a great deal about students by observing them engaged in such processes as reading, writing, and interacting with others. Teachers who have not been accustomed to using observation as an assessment tool are sometimes uncertain about what they should be looking for. The key-stage and specific curriculum outcomes provide a framework for teachers to use in their observations.

They should be looking for information in a variety of areas, including the following: Assessment and Evaluation: A Decision- Making Process Attitudes Does the child approach language tasks with enthusiasm and confidence? Is the child more hesitant about some language tasks than others (e. g. , speaking in front of a large group)? Strategies To what extent does the child integrate the various cueing systems to predict, monitor, and self-correct/confirm? use a variety of strategies to construct meaning? have strategies for generating ideas for writing? have strategies for revising?

have strategies for spelling unknown words or for editing for spelling? Attention to Task/ Independence Is the child able to attend to a task for a reasonable amount of time? To what extent can he/she work independently? Interaction Does the child share ideas, opinions, and feelings? Does he/she make use of the input of others? Concepts / understandings Does the child understand such concepts as directionality, reading as a meaning making process, story structure? Planned (Formal) Observations To make classroom observation manageable and effective, teachers need to focus their observations.

Many teachers develop a systematic, rotational schedule. For example, they might decide to observe carefully one to three students per day in a variety of contexts (shared reading, independent and guided reading, writing conferences). As well, they might choose a particular focus for their observations in each of these contexts as they work through their class. For example, as a grade 1 teacher observes students during one cycle of collecting data in shared, guided, and independent reading, she chooses one-to-one matching and use of the cueing systems as the focus of her observations.

Unplanned (Informal) Observations Important and relevant information can also be gathered more incidentally. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT Formative assessment or diagnostic testing is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures employed by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. [1] It typically involves qualitative feedback (rather than scores) for both student and teacher that focuses on the details of content and performance.

[2] It is commonly contrasted with summative assessment, which seeks to monitor educational outcomes, often for purposes of external accountability. [3] Definition Noting in a widely cited review that the term formative assessment "does not have a tightly defined and widely accepted meaning," Black and Wiliam operate an umbrella definition of "all those activities undertaken by teachers, and/or by students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. ".

[4] Along similar lines, Cowie and Bell[5] define formative assessment as "the process used by teachers and students to recognise and respond to student learning in order to enhance that learning, during the learning". Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, who emphasise the role students can play in producing formative assessments state that "formative assessment aids learning by generating feedback information that is of benefit to students and to teachers. Feedback on performance, in class or on assignments, enables students to restructure their understanding/skills and build more powerful ideas and capabilities.

"[6] Formative assessment is typically contrasted with summative assessment. The former supports teachers and students in decision-making during educational and learning processes, while the latter occurs at the end of a learning unit and determines if the content being taught was retained. Ainsworth p. 23 (2006)[7] Formative assessment is not distinguished by the format of assessment, but by how the information is used. The same test may act as either formative or summative. However, some methods of assessment are better suited to one or the other purpose. [8] Origin of the term

Michael Scriven coined the terms formative and summative evaluation in 1967, and emphasized their differences both in terms of the goals of the information they seek and how the information is used. [9] For Scriven, formative evaluation gathered information to assess the effectiveness of a curriculum and guide school system choices as to which curriculum to adopt and how to improve it. [8] Benjamin Bloom took up the term in 1968 in the book Learning for Mastery to consider formative assessment as a tool for improving the teaching-learning process for students.

[10] His subsequent 1971 book Handbook of Formative and Summative Evaluation, written with Thomas Hasting and George Madaus, showed how formative assessments could be linked to instructional units in a variety of content areas. [11] It is this approach that reflects the generally accepted meaning of the term today. [12] For both Scriven and Bloom, an assessment, whatever its other uses, is only formative if it is used to alter subsequent educational decisions.

[8] Subsequently, however, Black and Wiliam have suggested this definition is too restrictive, since formative assessments may be used to provide evidence that the intended course of action was indeed appropriate. They propose that: Practice in a classroom is formative to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited.

[13] Rationale and practice There are several purposes to formative assessment: to provide feedback for teachers to modify subsequent learning activities and experiences; to identify and remediate group or individual deficiencies; to move focus away from achieving grades and onto learning processes, in order to increase self efficacy and reduce the negative impact of extrinsic motivation; to improve students' metacognitive awareness of how they learn. "frequent, ongoing assessment allows both for fine-tuning of instruction and student focus on progress.

" Feedback is the central function of formative assessment. It typically involves a focus on the detailed content of what is being learnt,[2] rather than simply a test score or other measurement of how far a student is falling short of the expected standard. [6] Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, synthesising from the literature, list seven principles of good feedback practice: 1. It clarifies what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards); 2. It facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning; 3.

It provides high quality information to students about their learning; 4. It encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning; 5. It encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem; 6. It provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance; 7. It provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape teaching. [6][15] Examples of formative assessment The time between formative assessment and adjustments to learning can be a matter of seconds or a matter of months.

[8] Some examples of formative assessment are: A language teacher asks students to choose the best thesis statement from a selection; if all choose correctly she moves on; if only some do she may initiate a class discussion; if most answer incorrectly then she may review the work on thesis statements. A teacher asks her students to write down, in a brainstorm activity, all they know about how hot-air balloons work so that she can discover what students already know about the area of science she is intending to teach.

A science supervisor looks at the previous year's student test results to help plan teacher workshops during the summer vacation, to address areas of weakness in student performance. [8] Evidence Meta-analysis of studies into formative assessment have indicated significant learning gains where formative assessment is used, across all content areas, knowledge and skill types, and levels of education. [4] Educational researcher Robert J. Marzano states: Recall the finding from Black and Wiliam’s (1998) synthesis of more than 250 studies that formative

assessments, as opposed to summative ones, produce the more powerful effect on student learning. In his review of the research, Terrance Crooks (1988) reports that effects sizes for summative assessments are consistently lower than effect sizes for formative assessments. In short, it is formative assessment that has a strong research base supporting its impact on learning. [16]:9 Researchers have concluded that standards-based assessments are an effective way to “prescribe instruction and to ensure that no child is left behind”.

[16]:13 The strongest evidence of improved learning gains comes from short-cycle (over seconds or minutes within a single lesson) formative assessment, and medium to long-term assessment where assessment is used to change the teacher's regular classroom practice. [8] In K–12 Formative assessment is more valuable for day-to-day teaching when it is used to adapt the teaching to meet students’ needs. Formative assessment helps teachers to monitor their students’ progress and to modify the instruction accordingly. It also helps students to monitor their own progress as they get feedback from their peers and the teacher.

Students also find opportunity to revise and refine their thinking by means of formative assessment. Formative assessment is also called as educative assessment and classroom assessment. Methods There are many ways to integrate formative assessment into K–12 classrooms. Although the key concepts of formative assessment such as constant feedback, modifying the instruction, and information about students' progress do not vary among different disciplines or levels, the methods or strategies may differ. For example, researchers developed generative activities (Stroup et al. , 2004)[17] and model-eliciting activities (Lesh et al.

, 2000)[18] that can be used as formative assessment tools in mathematics and science classrooms. Others developed strategies computer-supported collaborative learning environments (Wang et al. , 2004b). [19] More information about implication of formative assessment in specific areas is given below. Purpose Formative assessment, or diagnostic testing as the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards argues, serves to create effective teaching curricula and classroom-specific evaluations. [20] By focusing on student-centered activities, a student is able to relate the material to his

life and experiences. The students is encouraged to think critically and develop analytically skills. This type of testing allows for a teacher's lesson plan to be clear, creative, and reflective of the curriculum (T. P Scot et al. , 2009). [21] Based on the Appalachian Education Laboratory (AEL), diagnostic testing emphasizes effective teaching practices while "considering learners' experiences and their unique conceptions" (T. P Scot et al. , 2009). [22] Furthermore, it provides the framework for "efficient retrieval and application"(T. P Scot et al. , 2009).

[22] by urging students to take charge of their education. The implications of this type of testing,is developing a knowledgeable student with deep understanding of the information and then be able to account for a students' comprehension on a subject. SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT Summative assessment (or summative evaluation) refers to the assessment of the learning and summarizes the development of learners at a particular time. After a period of work, e. g. a unit for two weeks, the learner sits for a test and then the teacher marks the test and assigns a score. The test aims to summarize learning up to that point.

The test may also be used for diagnostic assessment to identify any weaknesses and then build on that using formative assessment. Summative assessment is commonly used to refer to assessment of educational faculty by their respective supervisor. It is imposed onto the faculty member, and uniformly applied, with the object of measuring all teachers on the same criteria to determine the level of their performance. It is meant to meet the school or district's needs for teacher accountability and looks to provide remediation for sub-standard performance and also provides grounds for dismissal if necessary.

The evaluation usually takes the shape of a form, and consists of check lists and occasionally narratives. Areas evaluated include classroom climate, instruction, professionalism, and planning and preparation. [1] Summative assessment is characterized as assessment of learning and is contrasted with formative assessment, which is assessment for learning. This is taught in many educational programs in the United States. It provides information on the product's efficacy (its ability to do what it was designed to do). It examines, for example, "did the learners learn what they were supposed to learn after using the instructional module?

" In a sense, it does not bother to assess "how they did," but more importantly, by looking at how the learners performed, it provides information as to whether the product teaches what it is supposed to teach. Summative assessments are cumulative evaluations used to measure student growth after instruction and are generally given at the end of a course in order to determine whether long term learning goals have been met. Summative assessments are not like formative assessments, which are designed to provide the immediate, explicit feedback useful for helping teacher and student during the learning process.

High quality summative information can shape how teachers organize their curricula or what courses schools offer their students. 1 Although there are many types of summative assessments, the most common examples include: State-mandated assessments District benchmark or interim assessments End-of-unit or -chapter tests End-of-term or -semester exams Scores that are used for accountability for schools (AYP) and students (report card grades)2 According to the North Carolina Public Schools, summative assessments are often created in the following formats: Selected response items Multiple choice

True/false Matching Short answer Fill in the blank One or two sentence response Extended written response Performance assessment3 The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction explains that information collected from summative assessments “is evaluative and is used to categorize students so performance among students can be compared. Table of Specifications What is a Table of Specifications? A Table of Specifications is a two-way chart which describes the topics to be covered by a test and the number of items or points which will be associated with each topic.

The purpose of a Table of Specifications is to identify the achievement domains being measured and to ensure that a fair and representative sample of questions appear on the test. Teachers cannot measure every topic or objective and cannot ask every question they might wish to ask. A Table of Specifications allows the teacher to construct a test which focuses on the key areas and weights those different areas based on their importance. A Table of Specifications provides the teacher with evidence that a test has content validity, that it covers what should be covered. Designing a Table of Specifications

Tables of Specification typically are designed based on the list of course objectives, the topics covered in class, the amount of time spent on those topics, textbook chapter topics, and the emphasis and space provided in the text. In some cases a great weight will be assigned to a concept that is extremely important, even if relatively little class time was spent on the topic. Three steps are involved in creating a Table of Specifications: 1) choosing the measurement goals and domain to be covered, 2) breaking the domain into key or fairly independent parts- concepts, terms, procedures, applications, and 3) constructing the table.

Teachers have already made decisions (or the district has decided for them) about the broad areas that should be taught, so the choice of what broad domains a test should cover has usually already been made. A bit trickier is to outline the subject matter into smaller components, but most teachers have already had to design teaching plans, strategies, and schedules based on an outline of content. Lists of classroom objectives, district curriculum guidelines, and textbook sections, and keywords are other commonly used sources for identifying categories for Tables of Specification.

When actually constructing the table, teachers may only wish to use a simple structure, as with the first example above, or they may be interested in greater detail about the types of items, the cognitive levels for items, the best mix of objectively scored items, open-ended and constructed-response items, and so on, with even more guidance than is provided in the second example. How can the use of a Table of Specifications benefit your students, including those with special needs? A Table of Specifications benefits students in two ways.

First, it improves the validity of teacher-made tests. Second, it can improve student learning as well. A Table of Specifications helps to ensure that there is a match between what is taught and what is tested. Classroom assessment should be driven by classroom teaching which itself is driven by course goals and objectives. In the chain below, Tables of Specifications provide the link between teaching and testing. Objectives Teaching Testing Tables of Specifications can help students at all ability levels learn better.

By providing the table to students during instruction, students can recognize the main ideas, key skills, and the relationships among concepts more easily. The Table of Specifications can act in the same way as a concept map to analyze content areas. Teachers can even collaborate with students on the construction of the Table of Specifications- what are the main ideas and topics, what emphasis should be placed on each topic, what should be on the test? Open discussion and negotiation of these issues can encourage higher levels of understanding while also modeling good learning and study skills.

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT Authentic assessment is the measurement of "intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful,"[1] as compared to multiple choice standardized tests. [2] Authentic assessment can be devised by the teacher, or in collaboration with the student by engaging student voice. When applying authentic assessment to student learning and achievement, a teacher applies criteria related to “construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and the value of achievement beyond the school. ” [3] About

Authentic assessment reflects educational policy research that recommends a "high priority on strategies that research has already shown to increase student learning. "[4] Authentic assessment tends to focus on contextualised tasks, enabling students to demonstrate their competency in a more 'authentic' setting. Examples of authentic assessment categories include: performance of the skills, or demonstrating use of a particular knowledge simulations and role plays studio portfolios, strategically selecting items According to Ormiston, "Authentic learning mirrors the tasks and problem solving that are required in the reality outside of school".

[5] This framework for assessment begins the same way curriculum design begins, with the question: What should students be able to do? [6] Once the instructor answers that question, they can then devise a rubric to evaluate how well a student demonstrates the ability to complete the task. Because most authentic assessments require a judgement of the degree of quality, they tend toward the subjective end of the assessment scale. Rubrics are an "attempt to make subjective measurements as objective, clear, consistent, and as defensible as possible by explicitly defining the criteria on which performance or achievement should be judged.

"[7] Authentic vs. Traditional Traditionally, assessment follows curriculum. Authentic assessment is an example of "backwards design" because the curriculum follows from the assessment. [8] Case Studies One case study was presented by Edutopia’s Schools That Work series on New York based institution, School of the Future. This school stresses the process of authentically assessing students rather than focusing solely on test results or term papers.

[9] The school measures the full range of student ability through formative assessments, presentations, exhibitions, and tests that focus on authentic tasks to assess students' skills and knowledge as they relate to real-world endeavors and skills such as effective group communication and presentation. 98% of students at this school go on to college after graduating. [10] Classroom Implementation Teachers from The School of The Future in New York utilize authentic assessment in their school and recommend that other teachers can do the same by following the guidelines outlined below: Write the assessment before the lesson plan

Outline learning standards on rubrics to help to ensure rigor Warm students up to learning with notecard exercises each morning Use in-class pop quizzes to assess student understanding and inform teaching Give qualitative feedback Ask students to reflect and assess themselves Use online or traditional tools to track a student’s work quality over time Goals A goal of authentic assessment is to determine if student knowledge can be applied outside of the classroom. This means that a physics assessment should involve doing physics by performing experiments and solving problems the same way that a real-life physicist would.

An authentic history assessment requires students to ask questions, do independent research, and formulate answers to their questions, just like a real-life historian does. [12] What else is authentic assessment meant to do? It engages students and is based in content or media in which the students actually have a genuine interest. It asks students to synthesize information and use critical-thinking skills. It is a learning experience in and of itself. It measures not just what students remember but how they think. It helps students understand where they are academically and helps teachers know how to best teach them.

Traditional Assessment Traditional assessments are the type of assessments that people most often think of when they hear the word "test" or "exam. " The most common form of a traditional assessment is a multiple choice test. Most people are quick to assume that traditional assessment is boring and too standardized. Like all other methods of assessment, traditional assessment has strengths and weaknesses. Traditional assessments generally have high practicality because they take little time to administer and score. The questions are generally objective and there is only one correct response.

There is not a lot of room for bias in the grading of traditional assessments. Traditional assessments can be completed within a class period and can be handed back to the students promptly. Traditional assessment methods have drawbacks as well. The questions are written in a decontextualized format. Therefore, it is not an authentic assessment. Decontextualized test items can be difficult for students. If the test is in the form of multiple choice, it is difficult to develop a test that is reliable and has high validity. The teacher has to be very attentive to the questions asked and in the choices given.

In order for the test to have high validity, there has to be reasonable destractors among the choices. Traditional assessment does not allow the students to express themselves or be creative. It tends to focus on the grade or correct answer. While it seems that the weaknesses of traditional assessment outweigh the strengths. Traditional assessment methods can be effective in many classrooms. The high practicality of traditional assessments is appealing to teachers. It is important to consider the goal of an assessment and then determine which method would be best employed.