TEACHING OF
ENGLISH 2
FOUR
ELEMENTS
OF
ASSESSMENT
1
LECTURE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this lecture students should be able to:
analyse the purpose of formative, summative, diagnostic,
baseline, authentic and performance-based assessment,
distinguish the assessment forms according to purposes of
assessment, where assessment can be of, for and as learning,
discuss the roles of teacher in the assessment process
[Source: Du Toit, ER, Louw, LP &
Jacobs, L (eds). 2016. HELP I’m a student teacher!
1. PURPOSE OF
ASSESSMENT
Why am I doing this assessment?
Why do I need to implement assessment?
What kind of information do I want to elicit from
the assessment?
Forms of assessment with a different purpose:
Formative assessment
Summative assessment
Self-assessment
Baseline Assessment
Diagnostic assessment
Authentic assessment
Performance based assessment
1. ASSESSEMENT FOR LEARNING & OF
LEARNING
Formative Assessment Summative Assessment
(Assessment for Learning) (Assessment of Learning)
• Purpose: To improve learning and achievement • Purpose: To measure or audit attainment
• Carried out while learning is in progress—day to day, minute by • Carried out from time to time to create snapshots of what has
minute. happened.
• Focused on the learning process and the learning progress. • Focused on the products of learning.
• Viewed as an integral part of the teaching-learning process. • Viewed as something separate, an activity performed after the
teaching-learning cycle.
• Collaborative—Teachers and students know where they are • Teacher directed—Teachers assign what the students must do
headed, understand the learning needs, and use assessment and then evaluate how well they complete the assignment.
information as feedback to guide and adapt what they do to
meet those needs.
• Fluid—An ongoing process influenced by student need and • Rigid—An unchanging measure of what the student achieved.
teacher feedback.
• Teachers and students adopt the role of intentional learners. • Teachers adopt the role of auditors and students assume the
role of the audited.
• Teachers and students use the evidence they gather to make • Teachers use the results to make final "success or failure"
adjustments for continuous improvement. decisions about a relatively fixed set of instructional activities.
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1. ASSESSMENT AS
LEARNING
Aka Self-assessment
Learners assess their own work by means of an assessment tool
Learners reflect on their learning
Introspect on how they learn and how they could improve it
Reflect on their own thinking that was involved in completing assessment
tasks
Metacognitive process (Metacognition: thinking about one’s thought
processes)
Benefits:
Fosters responsibility for learning
Assists in monitoring learning
Provides feedforward
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1. BASELINE ASSESSMENT
“….essentially a means of collecting information about a child’s development or attainment
at the point at which they enter a new setting or grade. These assessments are carried out
in a variety of different ways ..” https://www.twinkl.co.za/teaching-wiki/baseline-assessment
When:
At the beginning of a period of study
At transition points such as a change of curriculum, change of course, a new school, a
new year
After gaps in learning
Why:
Show a student’s starting point
Influence teachers’ expectations
Support goal setting
Help teachers and students find out what the student already knows and can do and then
help the teacher make decisions about what the best next steps might be. (Cambridge
University Press and Assessment. Five Basics of Baseline Assessment. Available:
https://www.cem.org/blog/five-basics-of-baseline-assessment
1. DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT
Using multiple measures and reports to identify student strengths and needs in
specific skill-areas
E.g., Classroom observation and recording of language behaviour; Diagnostic test of
speaking;
Give a ‘snapshot’ of or diagnose knowledge to screen students
Purpose
Guides academic, curricular, and instructional decisions because there is a better
understanding of what a student does or does not know in relation to specific learning
goals.
Informs teaching and assessment
Illuminate Education. 2022. Diagnostic Assessment as a tool for identifying learner
needs. Available
https://www.illuminateed.com/blog/2020/11/diagnostic-assessment/ Accessed 01
April 2022
1. AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
Require students to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful
application of essential knowledge and skills
Students thoughtfully apply their acquired skills to a new situation or
environment.
Realistic
E.g. Learners analyse an advertisement to uncover different persuasion
techniques vs. writing a test on different persuasion techniques; Teaching a
lesson during school visit
Top Hat. 2022. Authentic Assessment. Available
https://tophat.com/glossary/a/authentic-assessment/ Accessed 01 April 2022.
2. MEASUREMENT
“… the process of assigning a[n] [objective
score that represents the degree
to which some trait, characteristic, or behaviour
is associated with a person” (McMillan,1997).
Gathering information about learner
performance
A variety of techniques and tools that are
designed to assign a score that represents the
degree of a predefined trait an
individual possesses
2.MEASUREMENT
INSTRUMENTS & TOOLS
ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Completion items Checklist
Short answer questions Memorandum
Matching items Rating scale
Binary items Rubric
Multiple choice items
Essay items
3. EVALUATION
“Evaluation adds the ingredient of value judgement to assessment. It is concerned
with the application of its findings and implies some judgement of the effectiveness,
social utility or desirability of a product, process or progress in terms of carefully
defined and agreed upon objectives or values. Evaluation often includes
recommendations for constructive action. Thus, evaluation is a qualitative measure
of the prevailing situation. It calls for evidence of effectiveness, suitability, or
goodness of the programme”
https://www.academia.edu/34793647/Measurement_and_Evaluation_in_Education_P
DE_105_UNIT_ONE_THE_CONCEPTS_OF_TEST_MEASUREMENT_ASSESSMENT_AND_EV
ALUATION_IN_EDUCATION
E.g., 65% of learners achieved below the pass mark of 50% for English in Test 1
◦ What does this tell us about the quality of teaching, learning and assessment?
◦ What are the implications of these results for passing or failing the term/grade
etc.?
◦ What recommendations should be made?
◦ What adjustments to teaching and learning should be made?
3. EVALUATION
FORMATIVE EVALUATION SUMMATIVE EVALUATION
Involves judgements about the quality of Provides a summary of student
instruction and assessment as they occur
achievement after an instructional
feedback enables instructors to modify process is completed.
instructional activities midstream in light
of their effectiveness, impact, and value. Given at the end of a unit or course of
identifies strengths and weaknesses to provide instruction to determine whether
feedback for improvement of teaching and students’ grades make them eligible
learning to pass or be promoted
Allows for revision of instructional materials,
Judgements of achievement of goal or
update measurements instruments etc. during
the course overall objective of the
Its ultimate goal is usually to help students
unit/course/programme
perform well at the end of a programme. Asks how did you do ultimately?
ROLES OF A TEACHER IN THE
ASSESSMENT PROCESS
A teacher plays different roles in the process of assessment. These are covered in the self-
study slides on the roles of an educator.
Teacher as:
1. Examiner
2. Moderator
3. Marker
4. Analyst
5. Researcher
6. Mediator
7. Remediator
8. Monitor
SEPARATE
CLASSES
1. Design a mind map that you think comprehensively
represents the essential features/elements (terminologies)
associated with classroom-based assessment.
1. Indicate the interrelatedness of some of these features in
the mind map.
2. Choose a structure/skill from the CAPS English Home
Language FET curriculum and
1. Design three assessment tasks each representing:
1. Assessment of learning,
2. Assessment for learning and
3. Assessment as learning.
2. Justify why your assessment tasks qualify under the three
assessments.
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