Fundamentals of Assessment in Education

The Fundamentals of ASSESSMENT in Education

Assessment & Constructive Alignment

Analysing & Evaluating assessment data

What is assessment, etc.?

Types of assessment

Assessment instruments

How does assessment relate to testing, measurement, and evaluation?

How can assessment be categorised?

How LO, T&L activities & assessment are said to be constructively aligned?

What are the instruments to do assessment?

How to analyse and evaluate assessment data?

Uses of assessment results

Credit

Assoc. Prof. Dr Nurulhuda Abd Rahman

What do you do with assessment results?

2021 NURULHUDA A.R.

Assessment, Testing, Measurement, & Evaluation

Definitions and relationship

TESTING

MEASUREMENT

The process of collecting data or information on what students know and/or able to do by giving a test in a fairly controlled situation so as to assist in decision making

The process of applying a standard scale or a measuring tool to an object, event or situation (the process of converting data into numerals)

Assessment

The process of COLLECTING DATA or information on what students know, able to do and/or their values/dispositions with a PURPOSE so as to assist in DECISION MAKING

rELATIONSHIP

EVALUATION

How does the four concepts relate to each other?

The process of comparing data to a set of criteria and a standard for the purpose of judging the worth or quality

Relationship between assessment, testing, measurement, & evaluation

Assessment is the process of collecting data/information to assist in decision making. Testing is an assessment method that uses a test to collect data. Measurement quantifies and standardises the collected data. Evaluation is the process of judging the quality of the collected data either the standardised quantitative data from measurement (e.g. data from testing) or any data collected directly from assessment (e.g. data from verbal questioning). After the data was evaluated the process goes back to assessment whereby an informed decision can now be made.

according to the purpose of assessment

Types of Assessment

formative assessment

summative assessment

assessment of learning

assessment for learning

assessment as learning

written reports

performance

testing

metacognition

Q&A

diagnostic

presentation

reflection

alternative category

according to the format of assessment

Types of Assessment

alternative assessment

traditional assessment

pERFORMANCE test

paper & pencil test

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

project work

playing An instrument

teaching practice

concert

examination

Quiz

process

product

oral test

Note: If the PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT tasks are similar to or closely resemble tasks that are performed in the context of the related profession, then it is also known as authentic assessment.

Constructive Alignment between LO, T&L activities, and Assessment

"Develop a lesson plan that is based on the STEM approach for the topic Specific Heat Capacity"

Learning outcome

By producing a lesson plan, the teacher can determine whether students are able to achieve the LO and at the same time, doing the lesson plan assists students in attaining the LO.

By lecturing interactively, students gain knowledge on the concept of the STEM approach, and by having a hands-on activity developing the lesson plan, students are guided towards achievening the LO.

constructive alignment

"Interactive lecture on the STEM approach and developing a STEM approach lesson plan"

"A lesson plan that is based on the STEM approach"

T&L activities

assessment

example

Constructive Alignment between LO, T&L activities, and Assessment

"Experiment to determine the relationship between the pressure of gas with fixed mass enclosed in a container and its volume"

Learning outcome

By producing a lab report, the teacher is able to determine whether students know what is involved in experimenting and with the added observation during the experiment, the teacher can also assess the process of experimenting

By doing an experiment, students learn by doing and is aligned to the intended LO

constructive alignment

"Doing an experiment to determine the relation between pressure of gas with fixed mass enclosed in a container and its volume"

"A lab report based on the experiment done and/or An observation on the process of doing the experiment"

assessment

T&L activities

Assessment Instruments

test

Usually refers to a collection of written items that have correct answers or a set of instructions for performance tests

checklist

An assessment tool that shows the presence or the absence of certain attributes

rating scale

An assessment tool that shows the level of quality or frequency of the attributes

rubric

An assessment tool that has descriptions for each of the level of frequency or quality.

rubric

Quantitative data analyses

Analysing assessment data

variability

descriptive analyses

standard deviation

range

central tendency

quartile

frequency/percentage

uses min & max values

mean, median, mode

exclude min & max values

percentage

counts

uses all data

Qualitative

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Analysing assessment data

Content analysis: Analysis of content in written responses, presentations, interview, audio and video recording by categorising, summarising and tabulating data.

EVALUATING ASSESSMENT DATA

Compare measured data to a standard

e.g 80-100% is an excellent performance

Compare collected data to a set of criteria

e.g. 1: compare qualitative data to a set of criteria in a rubric e.g. 2: compare students verbal answers to what the teacher has in mind

Uses of assessment results

references

Feedback: Informing and judging students' past performance Feedforward: Informing and focusing on students development in the future

"Dump the Past, Embrace the Future, and Lead the Way to Change" (Hirsch, 2017)

inform outcome attainment

feedback & feedforward FOR learners

feedback & feedforward for lesson delivery

feedback & feedforward For schools

Inform teachers and parents the performance of each student in the class

Inform students about their performance, strengths, weaknesses and feedforwards inform actions to be taken to improve overall learning

Inform teachers on the effectiveness of the delivery methods, the appropriateness of the assesment method and learning outcomes and what needs to done to improve

Inform administrator on the competency of teachers, adequacy of povisions of facilities/infrastructure/ teacher development program, etc.

References

• Biggs, J.B. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Open University Press/Society for Research into Higher Education. (Second edition)
• Hirsch, J. (2017) The Feedback Fix: Dump the Past, Embrace the Future, and Lead the Way to Change. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers