 What are the 3 purposes of assessment?

3 Purposes of Assessment
1. Assessment for Learning.
Assessment for learning occurs throughout the learning process. It is designed to
make each student’s understanding visible, so that teachers can decide what they can
do to help students progress. Students learn in individual and idiosyncratic ways, yet, at
the same time, there are predictable patterns of connections and preconceptions that
some students may experience as they move along the continuum from emergent to
proficient.
In assessment for learning, teachers use assessment as an investigative tool to
find out as much as they can about what their students know and can do, and what
confusions, preconceptions, or gaps they might have. The wide variety of information
that teachers collect about their students’ learning processes provides the basis for
determining what they need to do next to move student learning forward. It provides
the basis for providing descriptive feedback for students and deciding on groupings,
instructional strategies, and resources.

2. Assessment as Learning.
Assessment as learning focusses on students and emphasizes assessment as a
process of metacognition (knowledge of one’s own thought processes) for students.
Assessment as learning emerges from the idea that learning is not just a matter of
transferring ideas from someone who is knowledgeable to someone who is not, but is
an active process of cognitive restructuring that occurs when individuals interact with
new ideas. Within this view of learning, students are the critical connectors between
assessment and learning.
For students to be actively engaged in creating their own understanding, they
must learn to be critical assessors who make sense of information, relate it to prior
knowledge, and use it for new learning. This is the regulatory process in metacognition;
that is, students become adept at personally monitoring what they are learning, and use
what they discover from the monitoring to adjust, adaptations, and even major changes
in their thinking.
Assessment as learning is based in research about how learning happens, and is
characterized by students reflecting on their own learning and adjusting so that they
achieve deeper understanding.

3. Assessment of Learning.
Assessment of learning refers to strategies designed to confirm what students
know, demonstrate whether or not they have met curriculum outcomes or the goals of
their individualized programs, or to certify proficiency and make decisions about
students’ future programs or placements. It is designed to provide evidence of
 achievement to parents, other educators, the students themselves, and sometimes to
outside groups (e.g., employers, other educational institutions).
Assessment of learning is the assessment that becomes public and results in
statements or symbols about how well students are learning. It often contributes to
pivotal decisions that will affect students’ futures. It is important, then, that the
underlying logic and measurement of assessment of learning be credible and defensible.

 What are the 8 principles of effective assessment?

8 Principles of Effective Assessment
There are eight main key concepts, functions and fundamental principles of assessment
in learning and development which you have to consider as an assessor. These are ethics,
fairness, sufficiency, currency, authenticity, reliability, validity, and learning domains.
1. Ethical Assessment - Assessment tasks and marking criteria should focus on the
intended learning outcomes for the programme or unit. The assessment scheme
should allow students to demonstrate their achievement of all the intended learning
outcomes by the end of the programme. Students should be informed in advance
about the assessment tasks, marking scheme and marking criteria for their
programme units. Students should be helped to understand the requirements of
assessment, e.g. through guidance, discussion with tutors, model answers or peer
assessment.
2. Fairness Principle - Assessment decisions should be based on the assessment
criteria. They should be fair and not based on personal opinion or any other
characteristics, such as dislike or appearance. Practitioners should not be penalising
learners for not providing evidence outside the assessment criteria's scope.
3. Sufficiency Principle - This principle emphasises the need for assessments to provide
enough evidence to make valid and reliable judgments about a learner's
competence or performance.
4. Currency Principle - Evidence should be dated and recent as much as possible to an
assessment date. Many organisations and awarding bodies have their own
timescales when it comes to accepting old evidence. Some have an allowance of up
to a year, while others might be a bit longer.
5. Authentic Principle - Ensuring that the evidence submitted fully belongs to the
learners is important. Unfortunately, due to the availability of information on the
world wide web, and busy lifestyles, there is a temptation to buy or copy and paste
other people's work. There are even websites offering coursework for sale.
6. Reliability Principle - Reliability refers to whether an assessment instrument gives
the same results each time it is used in the same setting with the same type of
 subjects. Reliability essentially means consistent or dependable results. Reliability is
a part of the assessment of validity.
7. Validity Principle - The assessment process has to be fit for purpose and reflect fully
what is being measured. In other words, it assesses whether an assessment truly
captures the knowledge, skills, or abilities that it is designed to evaluate. This
principle is essential because if an assessment lacks validity, its results may not
accurately reflect a learner's true capabilities.
8. Learning Domains Principles - These principles provide a framework for
practitioners to assess and evaluate the progress and achievements of learners
effectively. One important aspect of assessment is understanding how the learning
domain principles affect practice.

 What is the primary focus of assessment of learning?

Primary Focus of Assessment of Learning
 The primary purpose of assessment is to improve students’ learning and teachers’
teaching as both respond to the information it provides.
 The primary purpose of assessment is to improve students' learning and teachers'
teaching as both respond to the information it provides.
 Key Characteristics are:
 Occurs after learning has taken place.
 Focuses on evaluating the outcomes of learning.
 Results are used for assigning grades and making high-stakes decisions.
 Provides a snapshot of a student's overall achievement.

 What are the tools of assessment?

Tools of Assessment
1. Observation. It is a visual method of gathering information on activities: of what
happens, what your object of study does or how it behaves. From the earliest history of
scientific activity, has been the methods of inquiry. Is the active acquisition of
information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses.
methods in research entail the observation and description of a subject's behaviour. to
Gardner (1975) is the selection, recording and encoding of that set of behaviours and
settings concerning organism "in situ' which are consistent with empirical aims".
2. Checklist. It is a simple device consisting of a prepared list of items which are thought by
the researcher to be relevant to the problem being studied. A checklist is a selected list
of words, phrases, or sentences following which an observer records a check (to denote
 the presence or absence of whatever being observed. When we want to assess whether
some traits are present or absent in the behaviour of an individual, we can use check list
method. This consists of several statements on various traits of personality. The
statement which applies to the individuals is checked. Thus, responses to the checklist
items are a matter of 'fact, not of 'judgment. The checklist is an important tool in
gathering facts for surveys, that is for checking of library, laboratory, game facilities,
school building, textbooks, surveys, that is for checking of library, laboratory
procedures, etc. checklist are sometimes used in the form of a questionnaire.
3. Portfolios. Student may be collected from the time that students enter a program until
they graduate or may be collected for narrower time frames. Students are responsible
for gathering the information that the faculty want them to gather. Among the types of
materials contained in a portfolio may be: research papers, essays, drafts of written
material leading to a final product, laboratory research, videotapes of performances,
exhibits of creative work, and examinations. A valuable of student portfolios is the
reflective essay, in which the student reflects upon her or his growth in or creative
efforts and draws about his or her strengths and at the time the portfolio is compiled. To
save valuable space, many are now gathered. The primary drawback of the portfolio is
that it takes time for faculty to review. The primary is that it can be designed to
represent a broad view of student academic, one that also contains some depth.
4. Rating Scale. Rating scale is one of the scaling techniques applied to the procedures for
attempting to determine measures of subjective abstract concepts. It gives an idea of
the personality of an individual as the observer judge the behaviour of a person includes
a limited number of aspects of a thing or of traits.
5. Questionnaires. It is defined as tool of evaluation that consists a set of questions or
other types of prompts that aims to collect from a respondent. These typically are a mix
of questions and questions; long form questions offer the ability for the to elaborate on
their thoughts. Questionnaires were in 1838 by the Statistical Society of London.

 Differentiate assessment of learning vs. assessment for learning.

Assessment of Leaning Assessment for Learning

 often referred to as summative  also known as formative assessment, is
assessment, is used to measure the an ongoing process that takes place
extent to which students have achieved during the learning experience.
specific learning outcomes or standards.  It is focused on providing feedback to
 It typically occurs at the end of a learning both students and teachers to improve
period, such as a unit, grade, semester, or learning outcomes.
course.  Formative assessments are used to
 The primary purpose of summative monitor student progress, identify areas
assessment is to assign grades or where students may be struggling, and
evaluate the overall achievement of guide instructional adjustments.
 students.  The goal is to enhance learning and guide
 Examples of summative assessments the teaching process rather than
include final exams, standardized tests, assigning grades.
and end-of-year projects.