Culminating Views on Assessment

Barnes, N. & Gillis, A. (2015). Assessment360: A promising assessment technique for preservice teacher education. The Teacher Educator, 50 , p. 288-304. https://doi.org/10.1080/08878730.2015.1071904 Chowdhury, F. (2018). Application of rubrics in the classroom: A vital tool for improvement in assessment, feedback, and learning. International Education Studies, 12 (1), 61-68. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v12n1p61 Fives, H., Barnes, N., Dacey, C., & Gillis, A. (2016). Assessment assessment texts: Where is planning? The Teacher Educator, 51 , p. 70-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/08878730.2015.1107442 Gillis, A. (2019). Reconceptualizing participation grading as skill building. Teaching Sociology, 47 (1), 10-21. https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0092055X18798006   Guskey, T. (2009). Practical solutions for serious problems in standards-based grading . Corwin Press.   Kamariah, A., Husain, D., Atmowardoyo, H., & Salija, K. (2018). Developing authentic-based instruct...

The productivity of assessment is largely based on student engagement and motivation. The inferences students draw about themselves based on their interpretation of their own assessment results are as important in determining their school success as are the instructional decisions made by their teachers based on their interpretation of those results (Stiggins, 2014). Motivation is so deeply tied to achievement. As motivation wanes so does achievement (Stiggins, 2008). Learners’ own interpretation of assessments and their results influences their confidence and willingness to continue in the learning process. Teachers need to know how to use the assessment process and its results to help students believe that success is within reach if they keep trying (Stiggins, 2014). The assessment process should encourage students to keep learning and it should generate hope and sustained effort for all students (Stiggins, 2008). Student engagement should be considered in the assessment process to...

Rubrics are a useful grading tool that can add reliability, validity, and transparency to the assessment process (Chowdhury, 2019). They also help to decrease subjectivity and convey expectations. Students can benefit from rubrics by understanding what level of what is considered good, very good, excellent, or bad. It can help give clear understanding of what is expected of them and improve their work to enhance their learning. Teachers can use the rubrics to provide informative and timely feedback. Rubrics help maintain grading consistency and fair assessment across graders and across students. Most importantly, rubrics can help foster student learning and self-assessment. Studies have shown that students who use rubrics have greater satisfaction in their learning and deeper understanding of content (Chowdhury, 2019). Rubric from (Chowdhury, 2019) Students are required to write an essay on the topic “Today the education quality is not as good as it was 5 years back”. The ...

Portfolios can be an effective tool that enables students to collect their work and assess their own work according to a set of criteria (Saeed et al., 2018). This self-assessment can improve their performance and products to help them meet the established criteria. Throughout the portfolio creation and collection process, students are taking ownership of their learning which can create learner autonomy (Lam, 2018). This can help build students’ confidence, motivation, and agency in their learning development. It also encourages students to clarify objectives and set new learning objectives (Shatri & Zabeli, 2018). Recording achievements can support the self-assessment process through a practical approach. Portfolios can contain reflective activities, writing prompts, journals, and so much more (Shatri & Zabeli, 2018). Students should understand the objective for the portfolio, should have the opportunity to create a definition of quality work, receive feedback, and have the ...

Student self-assessment is the process by which a learner collects information about themselves and reflects on their own learning (Shatri & Zabeli, 2018). The student assesses their personal progress in their own knowledge, skills, processes, or attitudes. Students assessing themselves can become more self-directed in the learning process and develop a better understanding of learning goals, assessment criteria, and feedback that assists them in their future learning (Lam, 2016). Research suggests that this type of reflection results in deeper, more conceptual understandings of content and deeper learning. Students should be as involved as possible with the assessment process because it helps them develop new perspectives, greater cognitive flexibility, and increased and more sophisticated knowledge (Barnes & Gillis, 2015). Stiggins suggests that students may be more important than adults in the assessment process because their motivation determines much of what and how they...

Effort grades are given for various aspects of the learning process and are used differently almost from teacher to teacher. Effort grades may be due to perceived participation, certain behaviors, homework completion, and so on. Typically, these behaviors do not factor into academic content mastery. There is a time and place for effort grades, however. Many school subjects, such as drama, physical education, band, or public speaking, require student participation for full learning (Wormeli, 2018). When this is the case, if we believe that a particular subject participation is gradable, then the standard of excellence for participation must be agreed upon. This might include willingness to participate, attentiveness, relevance and accuracy of comments, and use of proper resources. Teachers should create rubrics, checklists, or scales to help make expectations clear for reporting purposes. Academic success and effort, behavior, and attendance are very highly correlated (Wormeli, 2018)....

Different types of assessment have their place in meeting different types of learning objectives. To attain a balance in assessments, assessment practices need to rely on an ongoing variety of quality assessments that are used strategically to keep students believing in themselves (Stiggins, 2008). Assessments should cover as little as possible to ensure a more reliable result. The more purposes a single assessment aims to serve, the more each purpose will be compromised, and the overall product will be less than optimal for each intended use (Pellegrino, 2014). Focused, specific, and clear assessments in a variety of forms, overall, are best for student learning. Assessments that demonstrate student process are also best for student learning and for best understanding of what students know. Math tends to have more objective right-wrong-type answers, however a question asking students to explain their process or their thinking can be beneficial to them in their learning. It can also ...

Assessment is defined as the process of gathering evidence of student achievement to inform instructional decisions (Stiggins, 2018). Properly conceived, designed, and implemented assessment can serve as a positive influence on attaining learning goals for students (Pellegrino, 2014). Assessments should faithfully represent the standards and should model good teaching and learning practice. They should also provide clues as to why students think the way they do and show how they learn as well as their reasons for misunderstandings. The teacher can use this evidence to understand where a student has gaps and how their instruction needs to be adjusted. Effective assessments should be designed to serve a specific predetermined purpose, should arise from a specific predetermined definition of success, and be built of high-quality elements to yield dependable results (Stiggins, 2008). To determine the type of assessment used, the teacher should work to align all steps of the assessment pr...