ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Assessment of learning refers to strategies designed to confirm what learners know, demonstrate whether or not they have met curriculum outcomes or the goals of their individualised programs, or to certify proficiency and make a decision about learners’ future programmes or placements. It is designed to provide evidence of achievement to parents, other educators, the learners themselves and sometimes to outside groups (e.g. employers, other education institutions).

According to Linn and Gronlund (2000:55), assessment of learning is the assessment that becomes public and results in statements or symbols of how well learners are learning. It often contributes to pivotal decisions that will affect learners’ futures. It is important that the underlying logic and measurement of assessment of learning be credible and defensible.

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4.7.1 Teachers’ roles in assessment of learning

Effective assessment of learning requires that teachers provide the following, as recommended by Linn and Gronlund (2000:56):

• A rationale for undertaking a particular assessment of learning at a particular point in time

• Clear descriptions of the intended learning

• Processes that make it possible for learners to demonstrate their competence and skill

• A range of alternative mechanisms for assessing the same outcomes

• Public and defensible reference points for making judgements

• Transport approaches to interpretation

• Descriptions of the assessment process

• Strategies for recourse in the event of disagreement about the decisions. With the help of their teachers, learners can look forward to assessment of learning tasks as occasions to show their competence, as well as the depth and breadth of their learning.

4.7.2 Planning assessment of learning

The purpose of assessment of learning is to measure, certify and report the level of learners’ learning, so that reasonable decisions can be made about them. There are many potential users of the information as indicated by Marzano (2000:59):

• teachers (who can use the information to communicate with parents about their children’s proficiency and progress)

• parents and learners (who can use the results for making education and vocational decisions)

• potential employers and post-secondary institutions (who can use the information to make decisions about hiring or acceptance)

• principals, district or divisional administrators and teachers (who can use the information to review and revise programming).

Assessment of learning requires the collection and interpretation of information on learners’ accomplishments in important curricular areas in ways that represent the nature and complexity of the intended learning.

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Because genuine learning for understanding is much more than just recognition or recall of facts or algorithms, assessment of learning tasks need to enable learners to show the complexity of their understanding. Learners need to be able to apply key concepts, knowledge, skills and attitudes in ways that are authentic and consistent with current thinking in the knowledge domain.

4.7.3 Assessment of learning methods

In the assessment of learning, the methods chosen need to address the intended curriculum outcomes and the continuum of learning that is required to reach the outcomes. The methods must allow all learners to show their understanding and produce sufficient information to support credible and defensible statements about the nature and quality of their learning, so that others can use the results in appropriate ways. According to Marzano (2000:59), assessment of learning methods include not only tests and examinations, but also a rich variety of products and a demonstration of learning: portfolios, exhibitions, performances, presentations, multimedia projects and a variety of their of other written, oral and visual methods. Assessment of learning needs to be very carefully constructed so that the information on which decisions are made is of the highest quality.

Assessment of learning is designed to be summative and to produce defensible and accurate descriptions of learners’ competence in relation to defined outcomes and, occasionally, in relation to other learners and assessment results. Certification of learners’ proficiency should be based on a rigorous, reliable, valid and equitable process of assessment and evaluation.

4.7.4 Characteristics of assessment of learning

ARG (1999:10) identifies the following characteristics:

- Assessment of learning comes at the end of learning.

- Assessment of learning aims to assess knowledge and understanding at a given point in time.

- Assessment of learning is static and one way the teachers or examiner casually judge the learner.

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- Assessment of learning follows a set of pre-defined questions.

- Assessment of learning can be used by teachers within and outside their school.

- Tests and examinations are marked outside the school.

4.7.5 Advantages and disadvantages of assessment of learning

The following are the advantages of assessment of learning as stated by ARG (1999:13):

- In the assessment of learning teachers are able to communicate effectively with learners.

- It calls for teachers to understand and be able to articulate the nature of the progress being aimed at.

- Assessment of learning calls for teachers to be skilled at using a range of methods to assess learners’ learning.

- Assessment of learning calls for learners to be actively engaged in monitoring their own progress.

- Assessment of learning calls for teachers to adopt manageable recording procedures that enable them to keep track of every learner’s learning, without feeling obliged to record everything.

The following are the disadvantages of the assessment of learning:

- There is a lack of effective communication between teachers and learners. - It does not call for the articulation of the progress aimed at.

- It does not call for teachers to be skilled at using a range of methods to assess learners’ learning.

- There is an inactive engagement of learners in monitoring their own progress.

- Recording procedures are not followed that enable teachers to keep track of every learner’s learning without feeling obliged to record everything.

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The following are the strategies of assessment of learning as stated by Marzano (2000:59):

- In assessment of learning, the methods chosen need to address the intended curriculum outcomes and the continuum of learning that is required to reach the outcomes.

- In assessment of learning, methods must allow all learners to show their understanding and produce sufficient information to support credible and defensible statements about the nature or quality of their learning.

- Assessment of learning comes at the end of a learning cycle; feedback to learners has a less obvious effect on learners learning than assessment as learning.

- Learners rely on their marks and on teachers’ comments as indicators of their level of success, and to make decisions about their future learning endeavours.