Josh Adam Amato

My Personal Teaching Philosophy of Assessment

Personal Philosophy Statement
My personal teaching philosophy of assessment is to create fair, reasonable and varied assessment tasks in order to
diagnose and evaluate students learning and create meaningful learning experiences that will further develop their
understandings.

How I Understand Assessment

According to Ewing (2010), assessment is a tool used in order to make judgements on students learning to direct
future learning in an appropriate direction. This statement closely reflects my own personal believe of what
assessment means and why it is such a pivotal tool for the classroom. When used effectively, assessment has the
power to personalise the learning for all the students within the classroom. The fifth standard of the Australian
Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) is Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
(AITSL, 2014). These three key aspects of assessment are all crucial to the assessment process and it is my goal as an
educator to continually work on this standard in order to provide the best education possible.
Assessment should be used to diagnose the students understandings in order to direct the future learning tasks to
alleviate any misunderstandings that were uncovered in the assessment. This in my opinion, is the most important
aspect of assessment, and the most crucial aspect to get right. In the cyclical planning process, assessment is often
regarded as the final step in the four stage process (knowledge, planning, implementation and evaluation), but in my
opinion, it would be wise to keep an open mind to
starting with assessment and evaluation (Whitton,

[This reminds me of my personal experience from my first

Barker, Nosworthy, Sinclar & Nanlohy, 2010). With AITSL

two practicums, where my mentor teacher would implement

graduate standards 5.1 (assess student learning) and 5.4

different forms of assessment in order to evaluate their level

(interpret student data) in mind, it is so important to use

of understanding. We would often sit down together after

assessment as a tool for planning future learning (AITSL,

the students have completed a summative assessment task in

2014). The information and results that can be collected

from assessment tasks can provide pivotal information
regarding the students understanding, which in turn, will
direct future learning. This again reiterates my point on
how assessment is such an essential tool in the classroom
when implemented effectively. Assessment is far too
often thought of as a review of previous learning, when it
can so easily be used as a tool for providing students with
engaging, relevant and engaging learning opportunities.

order to identify any misconceptions or weak areas. One

specific example of this would be after a mid-term
mathematics test, we marked all the papers and entered the
results from each question and for every student into an
Excel spreadsheet. We were then able to diagnose the
results from this spreadsheet and identify the areas that
needed further development and the students that were
struggling. This was then used to planning the following
mathematics lessons.]

[I was fortunate to witness my mentor

teach incorporate a wide variety of
assessment types during my recent
practicums. As the students had
completed a narrative writing

How Assessment Should Be Implemented

As Probham (2009) suggests, assessment should not always be associated
with a typical formal test, as assessment tasks can be varied in format and
whether they are taken formally or informally. It is of my own personal

assessment on the life of a convict, my

believe that assessment should be varied in order to engage the students

mentor teacher challenged me to come

and find something that they all can be confident with. Within a single

up with an idea for an assessment task

classroom there are a range of students with unique interests and abilities,

that incorporated the use of ICT. The

so it is pivotal to include a range of assessments that will allow all the

assessment task that I created for the

students to flourish.

students had them creating a fiveminute video using an iPad based on the

Not only should the assessment tasks be varied, but all forms of assessment

life of a convict. The task was open-

should be implemented within the classroom in order to fully assess the

ended as they were given the freedom

students. Diagnostic, Formative, Summative and Self-Monitored assessments

to create the video in any way they

are all unique forms of assessment that all have their own strengths.

wanted. The videos were then

Summative assessment should not be relied upon as the definitive

presented to the class where another

assessment, even though the primary purpose of the summative assessment

group would complete a peer-

is to assess students learning at the conclusion of a unit of work. The

assessment rubric based on how well

implementation of formative assessment within these units of work allows

they think the group met the

for a more comprehensive evaluation of student learning in order to make

requirements of the rubric. My mentor

further improvements. As Lyons, Ford and Slee (2014) explain, formative

teacher assisted me in creating the

rubric in order for the students to be
able to successfully assess their peers.]

assessment is form of assessment used to determine whether the students

are understanding the knowledge and if any future adjustments need to be
made.

The Many Forms of Assessment

In my opinion there is no denying the power of formative assessment in

[I can remember many instances of both

the classroom; the ability to assess the students as they are learning a

formative and summative assessments on

new topic in order to evaluate the students current level of

my most recent practicum. Most of the

understanding is so useful for an educator. This ability to adapt the

time I only noticed summative

learning activities or even teaching pedagogy means that the students

assessments being used in the class,

are going to have more opportunities to improve their understanding

however I can remember my mentor

(Lyons, Ford & Slee, 2014). Black and Wiliam (2001) report on research

teacher asking me to create a formative

that has been conducted into the effects of formative assessment on

assessment for Geography. The students

students. Research has indicated that formative assessment improves

were looking at Australias connection

the attainment level of low achieving students (Black & Wiliam, 2001).

with other countries in the world. I

Formative assessment allows educators the opportunity to act on the

created a short formative assessment

AITSL standard 5.2, which reads, provide feedback to students on their

that asked the students open-ended

learning (AITSL, 2014). Hattie and Timperley (2007) outline the

questions to evaluate how the students

importance of providing students with constructive feedback in order

were thinking about certain aspects of

for them to improve. Feedback, whether it be regarding the work that

the topic.]

they have completed or their understanding, allows students the

opportunity to reflect and thus make the necessary adjustments to improve (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). I believe it is
important to utilise feedback within the classroom as it is always useful for the students to hear your opinion on how
they are doing, remembering that feedback doesn't always have to be associated with negative feedback.

This is not to say that one form of assessment is stronger than another, but rather, all forms of assessment should be
used in conjunction with one another to improve student learning. For example, a diagnostic assessment could be
used before a unit of work has begun to gain an understanding of the different levels of knowledge amongst the
class. A formative assessment can be used half-way through the unit to determine how the individual students are
progressing and what needs to be adapted. Finally, the summative assessment would be used to evaluate the
students learning at the conclusion of the unit to see what the students have learnt.

Potential Downfalls of Assessment

This however can lead to my major concern with assessment, and that is that teachers are far too often teaching the
students to answer the questions on the test. It is so important in my opinion that assessment be thought of more
than purely teaching the students to be prepared for a particular assessment. Rather than taking this easy approach
of teaching students the answers to the questions from the test, assessment is about providing students with the
skills and understandings so that they will be able to answer any question. Much like the well know saying, give a
man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Learning is much more
effective when students are taught the underlying concepts and understandings in order for them to construct their
own knowledge. An alternative method to counteract this way of thinking is to incorporate the backward design
model. In the backward design model, rather than creating the lesson first and adding the assessment as an after
thought, the desired goals and outcomes should be the first thing that are considered (Wiggins, 2001). This will
ensure that all teaching is then directed towards the target and thus the content that is taught is meaningful and
relevant for the assessment.

Authentic Assessment
I personally am a huge believer in implementing inquiry learning within the classroom in order to allow the students
opportunities to take control of their own learning in order to make personal connections with what they are
learning. Inquiry learning allows students this ability to become independent learners in addition to providing them
with skills that they will make use of in the real world (Gordon, n.d.). Authentic Learning and assessment therefore
are crucial in todays classroom as they provide students with the ability to demonstrate their understanding of reallife tasks (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013). The implementation of authentic learning and assessment within the
classroom allows students to create a connection between what they are doing within the classroom, to how they
can use that information outside of the classroom. Thus, making the experience more enjoyable and relevant to the
students once they make this connection.

The Ethical Considerations of Assessment

Much like every other aspect of teaching, there are codes of conduct and ethical implication that need to be
considered with assessment and student learning. Within the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young
Australians (MDEGYA) there are two educational goals for educators to meet, one of those being, promote equity
and excellence in schooling (DEEWR, 2011). As an educator it is so important to meet this education goal as all
students must feel as if they are in a safe environment where everyone is treated equally. As a graduate teacher I
understand that I need to adhere to the code of ethics and conduct as provided by the Department of Education. It
will be my goal throughout my teaching career to not only meet, but have a deep understanding of these codes. As
Forster (2012) explains, educators have moral responsibility given the position that they are in, and these codes of
ethics and conduct outline the values that all educators must abide by in order to uphold the reputation of the
teaching profession. These values are represented in AITSL standard 7.1 whereby educators must meet professional
ethics and responsibilities (AITSL, 2014).

The Future of My Personal Teaching Philosophy of Assessment

As I only meet the graduate teacher strands for the AITSL standards, I know that I have much to work on in order to
become the best teacher that I can become. As my experience with assessment is limited I also understand that
through time these initial thoughts and beliefs may change and develop over time.