Assessment of Students and Environments

Assessment of Students and Environments

Dr. Marisa SilverLaos Inclusive Education Project

Definition of Assessment

• Any measurement of student ability or learning, formal or informal.

• Tell me about how student learning or ability is measured in the Laos Education System.

Types of Assessments

• Literacy• Math• IQ (Intelligence Quotient)• Social Skills Inventory• ASQ-3 for early childhood developmental

milestones

Summative

• Assessment of learning• Generally taken by students at the end of a unit

or semester to demonstrate the "sum" of what they have or have not learned.

• Summative assessment methods are the most traditional way of evaluating student work.

• "Good summative assessments--tests and other graded evaluations--must be demonstrably reliable, valid, and free of bias" (Angelo and Cross, 1993).

Examples of Summative Assessment

• With your partner, list 5 examples of summative assessments that you have had during your own schooling career.

Formative Assessment

• Assessment for learning• Taken frequently to provide information and

feedback that will help improve both:

– the quality of student learning – the quality of the teaching

Provides Feedback to the Learner

• Provides information on what an individual student needs– To practice– To have re-taught– To learn next

Next Step Learning

Teachers as Scientists, or Gardeners?

Pea Plants

• Scientists might be interested in just measuring how a particular gardening method affected the heights of the plants.

• Gardeners constantly adjust watering, plant food, pest control, and the trellis itself to meet the needs of each individual plant.

Garden AnalogyIf we think of our children as plants …

Summative assessment of the plants is the process of simply measuring them. It might be interesting to compare and analyze measurements but, in themselves, these do not affect the growth of the plants.

Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the equivalent of feeding and watering the plants appropriate to their needs - directly affecting their growth.

Assessment FOR Learning

1. Teachers value and believe in students.2. Sharing learning goals with the students.3. Involving students in self-assessment.4. Providing feedback that helps students

recognize their next steps and how to take them.

5. Being confident that every student can improve.

6. Providing students with examples of what we expect from them.

Common Literacy Assessments

• Fluency• Comprehension• Phonics

Malleable Intelligence

• Practices of formative assessment are most effective when we examine intelligence as something that can be changed.

• Psychologists now recognize that intelligence is not fixed. It is malleable. It can be changed with effort and experience.

Fixed Mindset

• Learners who believe that intelligence is fixed tend to put in less effort into their schooling

• They tend to see effort as a problem- having to put in effort means that you are less intelligent because learning should be easy.

• When students with a fixed view encounter something they do not immediately understand, they believe that they are incapable of learning it and put in less effort.

Growth Mindset

• When students are taught that intelligence can be changed, they see the connection between effort and hard work.

• These students have more positive attitudes• Greater enjoyment of school work• Stronger learning goals

Examples of Student Growth and Goals

Math

Summative vs. Formative Assessment in the Learning Environment

• A tendency for teachers to assess quantity and presentation of work rather than quality of learning.

• Greater attention given to marking and grading, much of it tending to lower self esteem of students, rather than providing advice for improvement.

• A strong emphasis on comparing students with each other, which demoralizes the less successful learners rather than identifying individual progress.

Self-evaluation

Where would you place your assessment practice on thefollowing continuum?

The main focus is on:

Quantity of work/Presentation Quality of learning

Marking/Grading

Comparing students

Advice for improvement

Identifying individual

progress

Formative Assessment in Action

• Fluency is measured at the beginning of the year, measuring words per minute

• Teachers re-assess students every month to measure progress

• Teachers meet to discuss the data and make changes to instruction

• Teachers re-assess students to see if there was any change in student ability

Comparing Data Over Time

Highest Need Learners Get Most Resources

Examples of Changes

• New reading groups• Different techniques• New reading levels• More time with teachers• Extra tutoring

Implications for Practice

• Share learning goals with students.

• Involve students in self-assessment.

• Provide feedback that helps students recognize their next steps and how to take them.

• Be confident that every student can improve.

Closing Thoughts

• In what ways can students change their abilities?

• How can teachers help students to change their abilities?

• Write down 2 questions you have about the assessment process in education.