Notes: Assessment and Evaluation | Child Development and Pedagogy for CTET Preparation - CTET & State TET PDF Download

Every learning experience should be accompanied by an assessment process. Effective assessment informs us about the level and breadth of learning achieved. It also identifies areas for improvement. Without evaluation, learners may continue to make mistakes. Although assessment parameters may vary across different domains, the ultimate goal remains improvement.

Evaluation Criteria

Learning has been defined as an act of acquiring new, modifying, and reinforcing existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences, which may lead to potential changes in generating new information, and changing attitudes or behaviors related to the type and range of experiences.

It is important to evaluate learning, particularly in education, to ensure that learning has actually been achieved.

Evaluation

Education is a continuously changing process and thus needs continuous evaluation. Measurement is a precondition for evaluation. Measurement is quantitative and objective, while evaluation is qualitative and subjective. Therefore, while measurement aims only at ascertaining quantity, evaluation aims at identifying and correcting weaknesses discovered.

Evaluation is largely based on educational objectives and the learning experience. This can be represented as the Triangle of Evaluation:

Differences between Assessment and Evaluation

• Assessment: The process of objectively understanding the state or condition of a thing by observation and measurement. For instance, assessment of teaching means measuring its effectiveness.
• Evaluation: The process of observing and measuring a thing for the purpose of judging it and determining its value, either by comparison to similar things or to a standard. Evaluation of teaching means passing judgment on the teaching as part of an administrative process.
• Formative Assessment: Conducted by tests, assignments, projects, and observations to gauge the effectiveness of teaching activities. It provides feedback to learners about their performance.
• Summative Assessment: Measurement aimed at determining overall learning outcomes. Summative assessment is what is commonly referred to as evaluation.

How to Evaluate?

Generally, two methods of evaluation have been used in education: norm-referenced evaluation and criterion-referenced evaluation.

1. Norm-Referenced Evaluation:
   • Refers to standardized tests designed to compare and rank test takers in relation to one another.
   • Norm-referenced tests compare scores against a statistically selected group of test takers of the same age or grade level.
   • These tests involve questions in multiple-choice format used in competitive examinations.
2. Criterion-Referenced Evaluation:
   • Measures student performance against fixed criteria or learning standards.
   • Criteria are concise descriptions of what students are expected to know and do at specific stages of their education.
   • These tests are extensively used in school education to evaluate whether students have learned specific knowledge or acquired particular skills.

Reasons for Evaluation

• Ensuring Learning has Taken Place: Assessment should provide information about the levels of understanding that students are reaching. Frequent feedback to learners helps them monitor their learning and evaluate their strategies.
• Ensuring Teacher’s Effectiveness: Effective teaching starts with setting student learning objectives. Teachers must assess students based on these objectives rather than arbitrary standards.
• Creating a Quality Learning Environment: A quality learning environment is:
  • Learner-Centered: It pays attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring.
  • Knowledge-Centered: It focuses on helping students become knowledgeable and understanding.
  • Assessment-Centered: Provides opportunities for feedback and revision that match students’ learning goals.
  • Community-Centered: Includes the classroom, school, and larger community, fostering connections between students, teachers, and administrators.

Types of Assessment in Education

There are three main types of assessment commonly used in school education. These are as follows:

1. Formative Assessment

• Definition: Formative assessment occurs over the short term, as learners are in the process of making meaning of new content and integrating it into what they already know.
• Characteristics:
  • Feedback to the learner is quick, enabling learners to change their behaviors and understanding.
  • It also allows teachers to rethink their instructional strategies, activities, and content based on student understanding and performance.
  • The teacher’s role here is akin to that of a coach.
  • Formative assessment can be informal (like observing learner's work) or formal (like a written test). It is the most powerful type of assessment for improving student understanding and performance.

2. Portfolio Assessment (Interim Assessment)

• Definition: Portfolio assessment takes place occasionally over a longer time period.
• Characteristics:
  • Feedback to the learner is more formal, using assessment tools such as projects, written assignments, and tests.
  • Learners should be given opportunities to re-demonstrate their understanding once they have understood and acted upon the feedback.
  • Interim assessments help teachers identify gaps between students’ understanding and their instruction.
  • Teachers should address these gaps before moving on or by incorporating solutions into upcoming instructions and activities.

3. Summative Assessment

• Definition: Summative assessment takes place at the end of a large period of learning, such as the end of a term or year.
• Characteristics:
  • Results are primarily used by teachers and schools to identify strengths and weaknesses in curriculum and instruction, with improvements affecting the next year's/term's students.
  • Feedback to the student is usually limited and there is no opportunity for reassessment.
  • Summative assessment tends to have the least impact on improving an individual student's understanding or performance.
  • Students/parents can use the results to understand where the student's performance lies compared to a standard or group of students.

Distinction Between Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning

• Assessment for Learning (Formative Assessment): The process of looking for and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there.
• Assessment of Learning (Summative Assessment): Occurs when teachers use evidence of students’ learning to make judgments on students' achievement against goals and standards.
• Assessment as Learning (Feedback to Learners): Use of tasks or activities that help students use assessment to improve their own learning. Self and peer assessments allow students to reflect on their learning and make adjustments to achieve deeper understanding..