Methods of Assessment and Monitoring
The aim of this essay is to describe and analyse various methods of monitoring and assessing pupils' learning and progress. A number of methods of assessing, monitoring, giving feedback and evaluating progress will be discussed. Secondary data will give an insight into strategies and related studies giving an overall perspective. Primary data will be used to look at the different strategies in action, reflecting and evaluating on their usage. Research for this study with regard to primary data was obtained while on placement at school X and Y and secondary data comes from a variety of reference sources.
'Assessment in education is the process of gathering, interpreting, recording and using information about pupils' responses to an educational task.' (British Educational Research Association 1992: 2)
Students are continually assessed through their school careers by a wide range of strategies. Assessment has many different guises and purposes and the emphasis on these has changed through the course of educational history. Recent approaches have begun to attempt to focus on more formative assessment approaches, assessment that is utilised in learning (Sorenson 2000: 123).
The growth of public testing has its origins in the 19th century, 'As John Roach has observed, 'Public examinations were one of the great discoveries of the nineteenth century Englishmen'. This discovery rested in large on the belief that, competitive, open and increasingly written examinations would eventually remove the undesirable consequences of unregulated favouritism, and would, if universally extended, have a salutary influence on society generally.' (MacLeod, 1982: 1). Underpinning the increase in public testing was the growing desire for social justice and the ever increasing need for trained professionals in a developing society (Black 2003:69).
Following on from its initiation in the 19th century the latter part of the 20th century saw rapid and successive developments in the testing procedure. The 1988 Education Act and the development of the National Curriculum were the major influence on modern methods and procedures. The dual examination system that had been in place since the 1950's with GCE and CSE examinations was turned into a single system in 1988 with the GCSE examination. In addition to the GCSE examination at 16 the National Curriculum brought in force external summative assessments at 7, 11 and 14 also. Research into assessment by Black and William (1998b) found that, 'emphasis given to summative assessments in schools may have been unintentionally counter-productive for pupils, and made it harder for teachers to raise standards.' Their judgement on extensive testing was that it 'takes teachers away from formative work' and 'encourages rote and superficial learning'. They concluded that greater learning was achieved by quality formative assessment in the classroom allowing adaptation to pupil's needs and a good standard of feedback to the pupils.
Assessment and Monitoring in Practice
In order to fully support learning assessment needs to be a continuous process in the classroom this is generally informal and formative in nature. 'Much of the work that teachers set in their classes can be seen as providing formative assessment opportunities.' (Taber 2003: 36)
The National framework for science categorises assessment into three levels: 'short term, medium term and long term' (DfES 0136/2002). Short-term assessment is informal and takes place on a regular basis within lessons this type of assessment is not one which requires recording. Medium term assessment involves the use of tasks and activities to be marked and to gather new information regarding pupil progress and allowing for new target setting. Long-term assessment is of a summative nature and involves reviewing overall progress and attainment. This type of assessment occurs at the end of each Key Stage where pupil's attainment is checked against level descriptions.
In practice while on placement at school X a formative assessment approach was used in the form of a pre-test (Appendix 1) to begin a Year 9 module on Inheritance and Health, as suggested by Wragg (2001) to, 'assess what pupils already know'. This diagnostic approach was a valuable tool in assessing pupil's level of knowledge, diagnosing any misconceptions and informing for future lesson planning to avoid repetitive work and allow for a means to build up new concepts. The lesson began with the pre-test, pupils being asked to complete as much of the worksheet as possible, pupils were then brought around the front to discuss answers and ideas related to the questions. A mind map was used to organise pupils ideas onto the board, open questioning was used additionally to the questions on the worksheet to gain as much information about student's knowledge as possible and allow all pupils to be included in a discussion around the subject. This questioning session also provided a good opportunity to deal with any misconceptions pupils had previously formulated on the topic. Taber (2003) considered this type of diagnostic assessment as a means by which, 'teachers scaffold learning by highlighting relevant prior learning and helping learners reorganise it into the most suitable configuration for facilitating new learning'. Thus it provides a means by which individual progression can be attenuated and organisation for learning and differentiation can be ascertained.
The aim of this essay is to describe and analyse various methods of monitoring and assessing pupils' learning and progress. A number of methods of assessing, monitoring, giving feedback and evaluating progress will be discussed. Secondary data will give an insight into strategies and related studies giving an overall perspective. Primary data will be used to look at the different strategies in action, reflecting and evaluating on their usage. Research for this study with regard to primary data was obtained while on placement at school X and Y and secondary data comes from a variety of reference sources.
'Assessment in education is the process of gathering, interpreting, recording and using information about pupils' responses to an educational task.' (British Educational Research Association 1992: 2)
Students are continually assessed through their school careers by a wide range of strategies. Assessment has many different guises and purposes and the emphasis on these has changed through the course of educational history. Recent approaches have begun to attempt to focus on more formative assessment approaches, assessment that is utilised in learning (Sorenson 2000: 123).
The growth of public testing has its origins in the 19th century, 'As John Roach has observed, 'Public examinations were one of the great discoveries of the nineteenth century Englishmen'. This discovery rested in large on the belief that, competitive, open and increasingly written examinations would eventually remove the undesirable consequences of unregulated favouritism, and would, if universally extended, have a salutary influence on society generally.' (MacLeod, 1982: 1). Underpinning the increase in public testing was the growing desire for social justice and the ever increasing need for trained professionals in a developing society (Black 2003:69).
Following on from its initiation in the 19th century the latter part of the 20th century saw rapid and successive developments in the testing procedure. The 1988 Education Act and the development of the National Curriculum were the major influence on modern methods and procedures. The dual examination system that had been in place since the 1950's with GCE and CSE examinations was turned into a single system in 1988 with the GCSE examination. In addition to the GCSE examination at 16 the National Curriculum brought in force external summative assessments at 7, 11 and 14 also. Research into assessment by Black and William (1998b) found that, 'emphasis given to summative assessments in schools may have been unintentionally counter-productive for pupils, and made it harder for teachers to raise standards.' Their judgement on extensive testing was that it 'takes teachers away from formative work' and 'encourages rote and superficial learning'. They concluded that greater learning was achieved by quality formative assessment in the classroom allowing adaptation to pupil's needs and a good standard of feedback to the pupils.
Assessment and Monitoring in Practice
In order to fully support learning assessment needs to be a continuous process in the classroom this is generally informal and formative in nature. 'Much of the work that teachers set in their classes can be seen as providing formative assessment opportunities.' (Taber 2003: 36)
The National framework for science categorises assessment into three levels: 'short term, medium term and long term' (DfES 0136/2002). Short-term assessment is informal and takes place on a regular basis within lessons this type of assessment is not one which requires recording. Medium term assessment involves the use of tasks and activities to be marked and to gather new information regarding pupil progress and allowing for new target setting. Long-term assessment is of a summative nature and involves reviewing overall progress and attainment. This type of assessment occurs at the end of each Key Stage where pupil's attainment is checked against level descriptions.
In practice while on placement at school X a formative assessment approach was used in the form of a pre-test (Appendix 1) to begin a Year 9 module on Inheritance and Health, as suggested by Wragg (2001) to, 'assess what pupils already know'. This diagnostic approach was a valuable tool in assessing pupil's level of knowledge, diagnosing any misconceptions and informing for future lesson planning to avoid repetitive work and allow for a means to build up new concepts. The lesson began with the pre-test, pupils being asked to complete as much of the worksheet as possible, pupils were then brought around the front to discuss answers and ideas related to the questions. A mind map was used to organise pupils ideas onto the board, open questioning was used additionally to the questions on the worksheet to gain as much information about student's knowledge as possible and allow all pupils to be included in a discussion around the subject. This questioning session also provided a good opportunity to deal with any misconceptions pupils had previously formulated on the topic. Taber (2003) considered this type of diagnostic assessment as a means by which, 'teachers scaffold learning by highlighting relevant prior learning and helping learners reorganise it into the most suitable configuration for facilitating new learning'. Thus it provides a means by which individual progression can be attenuated and organisation for learning and differentiation can be ascertained.
