Purpose of Assessment Essay Example for Free

Purpose of sagaciousness EssayThe radical answer of mind is for the learner to provide evidence of eruditeness by demonstrating the understanding of content and effect of study outcomes. This gives an insight of their strengths and beas of development. Whereas for teacher, it provides a moment to review their assessment strategies in terms of effectiveness and assist progression by giving constructive feedback. It also informs the curriculum board, managers, and relevant staff to evaluate encyclopaedism programmes for any improvements.Learners be assessed through various stages of learning journey by using variety of methods and strategies. They are usually assessed formatively before or during the course and summatively near or the end of it. Formative assessment provides a continuous source of information about students progress, improvement and problems encountered in the learning process. It could be an Initial Assessment to determine prior knowledge or Diagnostic Assessment to find areas of development and strengths. Feedback is an integral distinguish of it.(NCFOT, 1999) said it occurs when teachers feed information back to the students in ways that enable the student to learn better, or when students can engage in a similar, egotism-reflective process(Principle 4). It has also been supported by several educationists such(prenominal) as Scales (2008 p. 179), Black and William (1998 17) and Reece and Walker (2007 p. 325). Formative assessments are not graded which allows flexibility to modify and queue up the teaching practices and reflect the needs and progress of learners as well as motivating them. However, formative assessment in its purist form is seldom used (Brookhart, 1999).I feel that teachers should be given training to as how and when to employ it successfully. There are variety of methods by which students are assessed formatively such as Accreditation of prior learning (APL), Observation, Oral Questioning, Discussion, Role p lay, Case study, Essays, Projects, Assignments, MCQs etc. which when used in combination has proven effective in measuring a variety of complex learning outcomes (Reece and Walker, 2007, p. 326) It is useful for development of Cognitive, Psychomotor and affectional Domains of learning as explained in Blooms Taxonomy and could assess higher order skills of these domains.Some teachers are predominantly concerned with cognitive learning with some use of psychomotor skills but affective learning can be a useful tool in changing attitudes i. e. gender, culture etc. notwithstanding if its not a requirement of a course. Summative Assessment happens at the end of the course, unit etc. and is for grading and decision purpose. It is used for informing employers, institutions etc. about learners boilersuit performance. It does not however, give information about detailed abilities of learner and there is no feedback so it is debated for its stark(a) reliability and validity.(Scales, 2008 a nd Rust, 2002). Learners are assessed summatively mostly by Examination, Assignments, Portfolios, and Essays. They develop the skill levels of cognitive and psychomotor domains depending on how efficaciously they are set out and the type of course. MCQs and Viva for instance can provide better reporting of syllabus as well as assessment of deeper knowledge whereas essays does not serve the same purpose but assess higher levels of cognitive domain i. e. synthesis and evaluation. Feedback is an important element of assessment and is immediately related to motivation.In order to accelerate learning process it has to be timely, positive and constructive. Maslows hierarchy makes us think about the total experience.. From physiological factors. to relationships (do we give positive regard and development feedback? ) to egoism needs (Im no good ), his hierarchy provides a useful device to uphold us understand learning and motivation(Scales, 2008 p. 72). We need to keep records to tr ack and monitor the progress of our learners. They are more different types of internal, external and formal and informal records.Internal records include mark books, matrix, learner progress sheets/ reviews and results of gibe tests. In ESOL, we keep records of Initial interview, Initial assessment, spiky profile, ILPs, Diagnostic assessment, Formative assessment, observation reports, feedback reports, peer/self assessments and Summative assessments to assess the progress of learners and efficacy of programme and teaching. The external records include all the evidence in form of written work or internal verification to sent to external bodies i. e. exam board, auditing bodies, different educational organisations, support staff, etc.