Student Assessment Blended with teaching and learning Pervasive in student life No can escape it whether one likes or not Inevitable enemy Various forms.

Student Assessment Blended with teaching and learning Pervasive in student life No can escape it whether one likes or not Inevitable enemy Various forms uniform purpose Earlier it used to come at the end, now a days comes at the

beginning, during and end

The course

1.Concepts: Measurement, Assessment, Evaluation

2.Purposes and functions3.Forms: Tests, Examination, Continuous Assessment, National Assessment, National Examination

4. Use of results5. Issues6. The way forwards

Concepts Measurement, Assessment, Evaluation

Interchangeable or distinct?

Measurement

Collecting information on the frequency or extent of learning.

Assigning numbers to the result of test or other type of assessment in accordance with rules.

Obtaining numerical description of the degree to which a student possesses a particular characteristics.

Answers the question " how much has the individual achieved ?"

Assessment

The tools to measure how well a student has achieved the learning outcomes.

A general/broad term which involve full range procedures used to obtain information about students' learning for value judgments concerning learning process.

The procedures of collecting information on the process of students learning.

Answers the question " how well the individual performs?"

Evaluation

Determining what the collected information means to the students/ teachers/ curriculum.

Determining the worth of an activity, performance or outputs.

Making a judgment about the degree of merit or worth of the information collected.

It is what we do with the assessment material we collected through the projects.

Answers the question " how worthy is the performance or tasks in relation to curriculum?”

Assessment, Measurement, Evaluation

Assessment

Measurement throughTesting Devices

Measurement throughNon testing devices

EvaluationDetermining Value

Conceptualizing Assessment

Any procedures/activities designed to: Find out how far curricular aims and objectives

have been met. Examine the outputs, outcomes and impacts that

have been produced. Examine effectiveness of procedures and

delivery. Make a judgment about the degree of merit of the

information obtained.

To define more specifically, It denotes any activities/procedures of assessing how

far learning outcomes in respect to knowledge, concepts, skills, interests, attitudes, appreciation and values have been developed in the learners at given grades/levels.

Any activities/procedures to collect information on the progress of students' learning of scholastic and non-scholastic behavior.

A process/activity of obtaining information that is used to:

- Make educational decisions about students. Give feedback to students about their progress,

strengths, and weakness. Judge instructional effectiveness and curricular

adequacy. Inform policy. Any practice of collecting evidence of student learning

in terms of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes through different means e.g. observation, written tests, practical tasks performed etc.

Purpose of Assessment

For students to: Understand their strengths and weakness in learning Understand what they should try to achieve next and

how best they might do this. Improve their learning based on feedback from

teachers and other assessors.

Purpose of Assessment

For teachers/schools to: Describe student learning. Diagnose the strengths and weakness of their

students. Identify learning problems. Provide feedback and specific advice to students so

that they know how to improve their learning and to plan for further teaching.(Identify ZOPD & Provide Scaffolding).

Provide guidance for students in selecting further course of study or in deciding vocational options.

Purpose of Assessment

For Teachers/ Schools to: Review and improve their learning objectives,

expectation of students, curriculum design and contents, strategies and activities so that they better suited to the needs of their students to enhance learning and teaching effectiveness.

Motivate students by providing goals/targets by clarifying tasks and by letting students/teachers know how they are progressing.

Purpose of Assessment

For Teachers/ Schools to: Certifying that individuals have reached certain level

of competence. Select students for the next level of education and for

the job.

Scope of Assessment

Measure mental competencies: recognition, recall, problem solving, critical interpretation, and evaluative judgment,

Measure manual and mental skills, Measure possession of information knowledge Measure attitudinal and behavioral changes occurred

during given the period of course

Shifts in Assessment ConceptsEarlier Concepts Modern Concepts

Test/examination oriented

Emphasis on summative assessment

Formative and summative assessment as the means of evaluation

Emphasis on learning product Stress on both process and product.

(Identify ZOPD & Scaffolds)

Assessment of learning Assessment for learning

Assessments of students' mastery over subject content knowledge and skills

Assessments of students' generic skills-especially higher order thinking skills.

Grading students in terms of standards they attained

Providing constructive feedback to enhance students learning

No/limited teachers feed back provided

Transmission of knowledge through talking drilling as classroom activities.

Making students aware of learning objectives and pick up teachers' feedback for continuous learning

Assessment for What ?

Forms of Assessment

Tests Examination National Assessment Continuous Assessment National Examination

Tests

An assessment of students' achievement in a course which is associated with testing and teaching.

An assessment designed to provide an accurate standardized measurement of certain abilities or skills without influencing teacher or students and without creating any tension in the students.

Term, Trimester, Half Yearly, Unit, Class …

Examination

An assessment of students' achievement in a course of study

where the syllabus is based on course objectives, where external control is included, where the

result contributes to pass / fail decision, and where this takes place at the end of a course of

teaching. Annual, semester,…

National Assessment (NASA in Nepal) An exercise of designed to describe the level of

achievements of a system, not of individual Provides feed back to the system Monitor learning achievement in a given interval of time Learning achievement is described in terms of knowledge,

skills, attitude, behavior, competencies as defined by curriculum and goals.

Obtains general standards of achievements in education system: all areas of curriculum, essential skills, tasks, competencies

Continuous Assessment

“Continuous assessment is assessment of an individual throughout a course of instruction”. It gives teachers direct, immediate and continuous feedback on students learning. Effective classroom assessment acknowledges diverse nature of students’ learning, provides information for continuous improvement in instruction

Class work, project work, practical work, home work, presentation, performance, continuous tests…

National/Public Level Examinations Typically summative and administered by external agency outside the school.Test items covers across the curricula that are uniformed regardless of type of schools, students and location.Normally uniformed and standardized on large scale base (uniform routine, test items, annually results)Emphasis on written tests. Little or no room for practical tests.Examined by external examiners leading to award grade or marks.Result of individual students, schools, districts is made public.May may not be relationship between internal and external exams.Mandatory for all students and schools.Certification and selection purpose.

Functions of public examinationsSelection: To select the students for the next level of education on merit basis.Certification:To provide information on the level of competence/achievement the students reached/achieved. (Certifying the level of performance/competencies, skills)Control: To tailor the content and spirit of curriculum to national goals and teaching to national curriculum. To promote national homogeneity in educational standards and practice.Motivation: To provide clear goals to strive for, a sense of purpose, tangible incentives and rewards.Monitoring and accountability: To gauge changes in achieved educational standards.To hold teachers and schools for their students achievement (Ranking schools on the basis of performances)To provide feedback for schools and teachers.

Characteristics of good public examinationFitness for purpose: Acceptance by teachers and students that the exams are according to the syllabus and the score is valid and reliable. Equity, integrity and public confidence: The conduct of public exam is deemed fair and gains high level of acceptance. Assurance of no unfair advantage to particular candidate over others. Efficiency and cost effectiveness. Transparency Beneficial effect on classroom practice: Promote good teaching learning. Provide systematic feedback of information to teachers.

Positive consequences of public examinations Promotes accountability: Encourage schools and

teachers to do better for students performance. Compels teachers to cover course contents so that all

students learns every contents. Aligns instruction with curriculum: Ensures that

all students have the same level of mastery over the same contents knowledge, skills, attitude, and concepts.

Provides motivation to students to learn more (incentives to students).

Creates competitive environment among schools. Provides criteria for measuring school progress. Provide feedback to schools and teachers.

Use of Assessment Results

Backward looking purpose

Control:Control of curriculum and its delivery in schools Motivation:Motivation for schools, teachers and students- a

stimuli, guidance, a goal for students providing them with evidence of achievement to date.

Diagnosis: Provides teacher with feedback about the effectiveness of their teaching and students’ strengths/ weakness

Monitoring & Accountability: Provides administrators with feedback about the appropriateness of the curriculum they devise and the extent to which the curriculum objectives are being achieved.

Reporting on school effectiveness

Use of Assessment Results

Forward looking purpose Selection:To select students for further education on

the basis of quantified measures of a student’s knowledge, skills and attitude is approved as some guarantee of competence in him/ her to perform the tasks demanded by the further education he/ she goes on or the job/ profession he/she takes up.

Certification: Serves as the evidence that students have reached certain level of achievements (Skills, knowledge, attitude)

Negative consequences Produces negative wash back effects Encourages to more recalling facts, root memorization (lower ordered cognitive thinking), imitating readymade answers. Orients towards more academic content (know facts but lacks life skills, how to do). Promotes malpractices and cheating. Induces psychological and behavioral problems. Promotes inequity and disparity.

Issues: Related to Teaching Learning Practice Producing negative backwash effect (Teaching to test, learning

to pass):influence of testing on teaching and learning Teaching of contents given in textbooks Transmission, delivery and drilling constitute major classroom

activities Foster rote learning, reproduction of bookish and factual

knowledge Reliance on model answers, guess papers or guides as the

short cut to learning Make selective to students, teachers which narrows

curriculum( Focus on certain texts/paragraphs that answer the particular questions)

Issues: Related to Assessment Practice

Schooling has been a means of only the passing exam with good marks and good names to schools.

Passing exam becomes a question of prestige Only the paper pencil test has been serving as the sole means

of assessment. Examiners hardly follow any instructions for marking papers Inconsistencies in marking and scoring persists

Marking of answer copies has not been considered as

professional activity by teachers. A culture of malpractice and cheating in different forms is

rampant during exams.

Issues: Related to Assessment Practice No correlation between the score of practical/internal and

external/theoretical exam. Little consideration to the practice of collecting evidence of student

learning in terms of knowledge, skills, values, attitudes through observation and other means while carrying out tasks, tests, examinations, interactions etc.

Heavily reliance on written exams ignoring other alternative forms of assessments such as project work, portfolios, observations, tests, inquiry,

Concept of CAS/ LPP aborted (having confined only to the policy papers and official directives) before coming into real practice at schools due to the lack of physical, human resource, technical infrastructures.

Scientific norms have yet to be developed for the location of exam centers for SLC exam.

Issues: Related to Test Items Little coverage of the curriculum and contents (Particularly in

school based exams) Measure mostly the lower order cognitive ability Clarity of intent of the item is yet to be ensured. Effort has yet to be made to establish item banking at any level Teacher training has given little consideration to test item

construction and standardized exam management. Research and innovation is hardly carried out regarding test items,

item analysis, exam management etc. Alternative testing devices are yet to be developed and introduced in

assessment system for any level. Alternative test item are yet to be developed and introduced for the

assessment.

Distribution of test Items by level of Skills/ ability

Highest Level Least common

Lowest Level Most Common

Evaluation

Synthesis

Analysis

Application

Comprehension

Knowledge

The Way Forwards Some policies and modalities of conducting both the internal and

external examinations would need to be framed. There may be a gap of at least one month in both types of

assessment and examination so that students get proper feedback to improve upon their learning.

Internal formative assessment will help students to prepare well for the external examination as well as encourage them to demonstrate their latent potentials. They would get confidence and teaching and learning would improve.

Both types of evaluation must assess students’ understanding and comprehension and questions must challenge their creativity and imagination. Students must be allowed to prepare their answers from more than one text book and markers must get comprehensive guidelines in this regard.

The Way ForwardsThe joint internal and external assessment may also help in curbing mal practices to great extent because students would be better prepared for the external public examination. It would however need some kind of harmony between the two types of papers. For internal assessment a joint invigilation by school and appointed representative of the exam boards would ensure fairness and address issues of validity and reliability in setting papers and marking them.Introducing test items based on open texts may be one option.External exam ( Public) can be confined to some subjects only

The End

Thanks for

Your Patience

Nepalese Practice on Assessment

Current Practice: SLC, achievement test, dist/sch level tests, CAS

Provision under SSR: NEB