Abstract
In this article the literature of classroom different assessment is reviewed. Several studies show firm evidence that innovations designed to strengthen the frequent feedback that students receive about their learning yield substantial learning gains. The perceptions of students and their role in self-assessment are considered alongside analysis of the strategies used by teachers and the formative strategies incorporated in such systemic approaches as mastery learning.
Assessing students' progress is as necessary as planning engaging activities or building lessons around core themes. Without assessment teachers have no way of knowing what types of help their students need, and assessing students can also gauge their progress through a course of study. This is true in ESL classrooms as well as in single-language settings. There are a wide range of options for ESL educators to choose from when assessing their students' grasp of the English language. Diagnostic assessment is often undertaken at the beginning of a unit of study to assess the skills, abilities, interests, experiences, levels of achievement or difficulties of an individual student or a whole class. Diagnostic assessment is intended to improve the learner's experience and their level of achievement. However, diagnostic assessment looks backwards rather than forwards. It assesses what the learner already knows and/or the nature of difficulties that the learner might have, which, if undiagnosed, might limit their engagement in new learning. It is often used before teaching or when a problem arises.
Summative assessment assists you to make judgments about student achievement at certain relevant points in the learning process or unit of study (e.g. end of course, project, semester, unit, year) can be used formally to measure the level of achievement of learning outcomes (e.g. tests, labs, assignments, projects, presentations etc.) can also be used to judge programme, teaching and/or unit of study effectiveness (that is as a form of evaluation).
Formative assessment is the practice of building a cumulative record of student achievement usually takes place during day to day learning experiences and involves ongoing, informal observations throughout the term, course, semester or unit of study is used to monitor students' ongoing progress and to provide immediate and meaningful feedback assists teachers in modifying or extending their programmes or adapting their learning and teaching methods is very applicable and helpful during early group work processes.
Informal assessment involves systematically observing and monitoring students during in class learning and teaching experiences interacting with students to gain a deeper knowledge of what they know, understand and can do circulating the classroom and posing questions, guiding investigations, motivating and quizzing students providing opportunities for students to present or report upon their learning and teaching experiences collecting, analyzing, and providing feedback on in and out of class work samples (e.g. how their group work projects are progressing).
Formal assessment involves the use of specific assessment strategies to determine the degree to which students have achieved the learning outcomes assessment strategies including: essays, exams, reports, projects, presentations, performances, laboratories or workshops, resource development, artwork, creative design tasks, quizzes and tests, journal writing, portfolio individual and/or collaborative tasks that usually attract a mark.
Peer assessment is becoming increasingly widespread in higher education as educators seek to diversify assessment methods and engage students in the assessment process. In simple terms, peer assessment refers to students assessing their peers' work and providing grades and/or feedback. There are a range of terms to describe the process, such as, peer tutoring, peer instruction, peer assisted learning, and so on. Topping (1998) defines peer assessment as, 'an arrangement in which individuals consider the amount, level, value, worth, quality, or success of the products or outcomes of learning of peers of similar status' (Topping 1998: 250).
Kollar and Fischer (2010) contend that peer assessment is 'an important component' of 'a more participatory culture of learning' aiding 'the design of learning environments', as well as being, 'fundamentally a collaborative activity that occurs between at least two peers'. Facilitating students to partake in some form of assessment interaction alters the balance of power and encourages some control over their own learning, where, as Vickerman (2009) notes, peer interaction of any form engages students in the development of their own learning, not only academically, but cognitively and emotionally.
Researchers make a variety of claims about self-assessment and the central role it plays in learning and academic achievement. Many of the claims are related to learner autonomy, including increases in metacognitive engagement. Similarly, our focus on selfassessment reflects our interest in academic self-regulation, or the ways in which goalsetting, planning, self-judgment and self-reaction can promote achievement (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001). Studies of selfevaluation, or the correlation between self- and teacher ratings, are reviewed. Studies of the effectiveness of self-assessment, in contrast, are scarce. Stallings and Tascione (1996) employed student self-assessment in high school and college mathematics classes and found, among other things, that most of the students checked their work more readily than students in previous classes who were not exposed to self-assessment practices. In a survey of undergraduates who had engaged in self- and peer assessment, Hanrahan and Isaacs (2001) report that students see benefits of, as well as difficulties with, self- and peer assessment. Benefits included gaining a better understanding of grading, developing critical thinking, developing empathy with lecturers and becoming motivated to do better work in order to impress one's peers. Some students reported difficulties with self- and peer assessment when they were 'not sure of standards' (p. 59). Taken together, the studies by Stallings and Tascione, and Hanrahan and Isaacs provide support for the hypothesis that self-assessment can promote the kinds of behaviors typical of self-regulated learners. However, not enough is known about what students actually do, think and feel when they are asked to selfassess, to enable researchers to construct a useful theory of self-assessment or to determine the most effective approaches to self-assessment in the classroom. Because, as Brookhart (2003) notes, 'student perceptions are inextricably tied to the classroom assessment experience and ultimately the meaning and use of the information it affords', more evidence of how students perceive of and use self-assessment is needed.
It is recognized that the main goal of professional higher education is to help students develop into "reflective practitioners" who are able to reflect critically upon their own professional practice.
Students in modern organizations must be able to analyze information, to improve their problem-solving skills and communication and to reflect on their own role in the learning process.
The need for lifelong learning in modern society will increase. It is more and more realized that the acquisition of knowledge and skills cannot be restricted to the phase of initial education; rather, it has to be a process continuing throughout one's entire working life. Traditional testing methods do not fit such goals as lifelong learning, reflective thinking, being critical, evaluates oneself, problem solving, etcetera.
Alternatives in assessment have received much attention in the last decade and several forms of more authentic assessment have been introduced in higher education. The skill of self-, peer - and со-assessment is very important in the development of lifelong learning and the development into autonomous individuals. Assessment procedures should not only serve as tool for crediting students with recognized certificates. Such procedures should also be used to monitor the progress and to direct students, if needed, to remedial learning activities. Research (Beckwith, 1991) showed that the nature of assessment tasks influences the approaches to learning which students adopt. The existing assessment approaches can have effects contrary to those desired.
The use of self-, peer- and со-assessment in higher education related to the first research question will be described as follows.
Self-assessment refers to the involvement of learners in making judgments about their own learning, particularly about their achievements and the outcomes of their learning.
Self-assessment is not a new technique, but a way of increasing the role of students as active participants in their own learning, and is mostly used for formative assessment in order to foster reflection on one's own learning processes and results.
Several studies obviously show that the ability of students to rate themselves improves in the light of feedback or development over time. Moreover, students' interpretations are not just dependent on the form of the assessment process, but on how these tasks are embedded within the total context of the subject and within their total experience of educational life.
In educational practice, we see that different instruments are used for selfassessment. Harrington (1995) used three different self-assessments. One is simply alisting of abilities with definitions and directions to indicate those areas you feel are your best or strongest. A second approach is to apply a Likert scale to a group of designated abilities ("in comparison to others of the same age, my art ability is excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor"). Another approach is, for each ability, to provide different examples of the ability's applications on which individuals rate their performance level from high to low, and subsequently these are summed to obtain a total score. The self-assessment forms Harrington described are cheaper and less time intrusive than traditional ways Ofassessing students.
Self-assessment is also important for successful language learning. McNamara and Deane (1995) designed a variety of activities that foster self-assessment. Three of them are: writing letters to the teacher, keeping a daily language learning log, and preparing an English portfolio. These activities can help students to identify their strengths and weaknesses in English, to document their progress and to identify effective language learning strategies and materials. They also become aware of the language learning contexts that works best for them and to establish goals for future independent learning. The idea of self-assessment for use in portfolio is described by
Generally, next to addressing the instruments used for self-assessment, the content could be addressed. At the content level, it is striking that self-assessments are mostly used to foster skills and abilities, next to knowledge and that assessments are used in a formative or diagnostic way. Since self-assessment is required to integrate into the students' problem solving process, faculties have found that students show increasing understanding of inter-relationships of ability, content, and context. Students take responsibility for their learning as a dynamic, continuing process. They gradually internalize their practice of both problem solving and self-assessment abilities.
Overall, it can be concluded that research reports positive findings concerning the use of self-assessment in educational practice. Students in higher education are well able to self-assess accurately, and this ability improves with feedback and development over time. Moreover, students who engage in self-assessment tend to score higher on tests. Self-assessment, used in most cases to promote the learning of skills and abilities, leads to more reflection on one's own work, higher quality of products, responsibility of one's own learning and increased understanding of problem-solving.
References:
- Angelo T. A., Cross K. P. 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass; San Francisco: 2003. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for Teachers.
- Assessment Reform Group 2002, Assessment for Learning: 10 principles research based principles to guide classroom practice, UK
- Healey, M Reflections on engaging students in the process and product of strategy development for learning, teaching, and assessment: 2011
- Topping , Classroom Assessment 1998, 250
- Hanrahan and Isaacs Peer assessement, 2001
- Zimmerman & Schunk, Self -assessement, 2001