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Assessment
The purposes of assessment 
Within the educational system everyone has a stake in the outcomes of schooling: students, parents, business and industry, government and society. Each group for different reasons feels the need to beaware of the progress that is being made in students’ learning. Assessment is the means by which thislearning can be monitored and improved (Brady & Kennedy: 2009). Therefore each group has its ownviews on the purpose of assessment, so as to answer their questions and fulfil their needs.Eisner (2001) has put forward, what he believes to be the five major purposes of assessment. The first being, to describe the ‘Educational Health’ of the country. This purpose can be seen as the governments’main aim in assessments. As the expenditure of education represents a significant proportion of thegovernment’s budget, they wish to monitor this closely (Brady & Kennedy: 2009). This requires testing,and examining the students nationally, collating the national information and determining how wellAustralian students are performing compared with the rest of the world. Thus providing grounds for further decisions on expenditure of education depending on results.The second purpose is to direct students along certain pathways (i.e. preparing them for specific jobs).This purpose can be implied, as business and industry supported. The owners of business and industryare interested in what graduating students can contribute directly to their economic activities. “They areconcerned with knowledge and skills that can be applied immediately to specific work requirements”(Brady & Kennedy: 2009, pg 5). This requires assessments to identify students with strengths in certainskills, as well as providing opportunities to be ranked or streamed. This leads to identification of students’ potential for further education and recommendations to the appropriate facilities (i.e. Tafe, techschools, university or specialist colleges).The third purpose of assessment is to provide feedback to teachers, parents, students and the communityabout the student’s work and progress. Parents and the greater community want to know how their children and the youth of our society are performing at school. “Celebrating student achievement is akey to further success of students at school. By providing feedback and celebrating student achievement,we encourage, and build the self esteem of our students, supporting and empowering them to achievefurther” (personal communication, E. Heyman practising high school teacher, March 7, 2009).The fourth purpose is to determine whether a KLA/topic outcome has been achieved. In an educationalsense this is the main purpose of assessment, as the ultimate goal of education is to encourage andfacilitate learning. To do this we must know where students are at, in order to take them further (Masters& Forster: 2000).The last major purpose is to indicate how effective a unit/ program has been. This purpose is teacher orientated, it looks at teacher evaluation and whether the unit/ program was satisfactory or whether itneeds modifying to better suit students’ needs. A teacher should always be constantly assessing andadapting teaching strategies and content, to information obtained through; students’ results, observationsof students and feedback from unit lessons (Brady & Scully: 2005).
 
The principles of assessment 
1.
Assessments should facilitate learning, looking at both the process and the product of theassignment.
Assessment should encourage the desire to learn within students. An assessment should beused as a teaching tool in itself to teach children how to learn. We are only now just beginning to realisehow assessments themselves, can help students to learn and that it is important to acknowledge both the process and the product of work (Broadfoot: 1991).2.
Assessments should refer to criteria that are explicit
. Communication of assessment criteria is a vitalcomponent to the students’ understanding and to the successful completion of the assessment accordingto the teachers’ set standards. Therefore regular and explicit clarification of the assessment criteria isrequired for each assessment (Fair Test: 2007).
 
3.
Assessments should provide more than one opportunity for students to meet requirements andshould be predominantly informal.
The primary purpose of assessments is to support, improvement inlearning. Therefore there should be numerous opportunities for students to display their knowledge, asvarious factors can influence student performance when being assessed (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing &Le Cornu: 2007). Assessments should also be predominately informal so that student learning is natural(pressure free) and used to inform teachers, in order to prepare further lessons. (Brady & Scully: 2005).4.
Assessments should enable self and collaborative assessment
. Self and collaborative assessment is animportant tool in enhanced teaching and improved learning, as it gives students opportunities to producework that leads to deeper development of their knowledge, skills and understanding (Board of Studies NSW: 2006).
 
5.
Assessments should provide opportunities to work together and negotiate required tasks
. Studentinput and teamwork are vital components of the classroom. Student input provides new points of ideasand creates a sense of ownership of the students’ education, creating higher morale and greater enthusiasm towards the assessment. Peer collaboration (teamwork) creates internal scaffolding withinthe students’ learning context allowing students to learn from one another. The importance of providingopportunities for students to work together and negotiate required tasks is highlighted by theincorporation of this principle in the Tasmanian Department of Educations’ ‘Assessment Principles’(2008).6.
Assessments should be sensitive to gender, culture, linguistic, physical disability, socioeconomicstatus and geographical locations by using a range of assessment strategies addressing differentlearning methods.
It is against the law to discriminate against people on the basis of various factorsincluding gender, race and religion. Therefore assessments need to be sensitive to all thesedisadvantaged groups. This can be achieved through a range of assessment strategies which address thedifferent learning methods of humans. Since the primary purpose of assessment is to improve student performance and an excellent assessment is based on an understanding of how students learn,assessment requires the use of a variety of strategies (NSW Department of Education & Training:2008).7.A
ssessments should be formative, continuous and diagnostic
. Assessment works best when it isongoing rather than episodic. All assessment methods should allow students to receive feedback on their learning and performance so assessment serves as a developmental activity aimed at improving studentlearning. Assessment should also provide students and staff with opportunities to reflect on both their  practice and their learning overall (Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority: 2007).
 
The practice of assessment 
“Assessments should facilitate learning, looking at both the process and the product of the assignment.”
HSIE
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CCS3.1 Explains the significance of particular people, groups, places, actions and eventsin the past in developing Australian identities and heritage.
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CCS2.1 Describes events and actions related to the British colonisation of Australia andassesses changes and consequences.
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CUS1.4 Describes the cultural, linguistic and religious practises of their family, their community and other communities.For a Stage 3 class learning about ‘Change and Continuity’, the topic of study could be ‘The Gold Rush’looking at the various events and migrants that came to Australia and shaped the nation. Within thistopic assessment strategies such as ‘checklists’ and ‘rating scales’ can be effectively used in conjunction,with an assignment activity such as role play to facilitate learning, as well as looking at both the processand the product of the assignment. Here the students are required to produce a product both verbally andkinaesthetically. Through the use of ‘checklists’ and ‘rating scales’ the teacher can assess the role play production, to determine the students’ understanding of the topic. To produce an effective assignment,the students would be required to research and learn large amounts of information on the gold rush topicto understand, and create their final product. Therefore the ‘checklists’ and ‘rating scales’ wouldfacilitate learning, and would assess the assignment from the beginning of production, looking at boththe process and the final product of the assignment.In terms of a Stage 2 class looking at ‘Change and Continuity’, the topic of study would be ‘The FirstFleet, and the colonisation of Australia’. In this topic the use of the assessment strategy ‘projects’ would be an obvious choice for an assignment. Similar to the use of checklists and rating scales in combinationwith role play in Stage 3, the use of a ‘research project’ would facilitate learning as well as looking at both the process and product of the assignment as it requires the same ‘backstage’ work as a role playexcept that the ‘research project’ would be produced in a written format.Lastly a Stage 1 class within the HSIE KLA could be learning about ‘Cultures’, and more specificallywithin this strand, they could be looking at the ‘cultural, linguistic and religious’ differences betweenthemselves and the rest of their classmates. Using the assessment strategy of ‘concept maps’ in additionto the teaching method of ‘collaborative discussion’, students and the teacher can discuss research andshare information with each other about their culture. Students can then collate and display their knowledge in a simple and neatly structured pro forma concept map. If the teacher deems the conceptmap to be too complex for their class, the use of a simple table can be substituted. Through the use of this assessment strategy, learning is facilitated and the appreciation of the process of learning as well asthe product is taken into account.
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Christopher Peters

who is the author of this??????

reply03 / 17 / 2012
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