MODULE 2

BASIC
CONCEPTS IN
ASSESSMENT
Prepared by:
FERNANDO R. SEQUETE JR.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
1. define the terms: assessment, evaluation, measurement, test, testing,
formative assessment, placement assessment, diagnostic assessment,
summative assessment, traditional assessment, portfolio assessment,
performance assessment;
2. discriminate the different purposes of assessment;
3. differentiate the different types of assessment;
4. identify and discuss the general principles of assessment;
5. discuss the different guidelines for effective student assessment; and
6. differentiate norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced
interpretation.
INTRODUCTION
•Assessment of Learning focuses on the development and
utilization of assessment tools to improve the teaching-
learning process.
•It emphasizes on the use of testing for measuring
knowledge, comprehension and other thinking skills.
•We need to find out if the learners are actually learning
as a result of teaching…change of behavior.
•Assessment is a means of finding out what learning is
taking place.
There is a lot of debate about how to assess learning, and especially about
how to evaluate performance. The assessment itself can be done in
different ways:
1. Ask the learner to recall facts or principles (Ex: What is ‘x’?).
2. Ask the learner to apply given or recalled facts or principles (Ex: How
does ‘x’ help you solve this problem?).
3. Ask the learner to select and apply facts and principles to solve a given
problem (Ex: What do you know that will help you solve this problem?).
4. Ask the learner to formulate and solve his or her own problem by
selecting, generating, and applying facts and principles (Ex: What do I
see as the pro as the problem here and how can I reach a satisfying
solution?).
5. Ask the learner to perform tasks that shows mastery of the learning
outcomes.
•Learners should be actively involved in both the
development of learning objectives, and as much as
possible in their own assessment.
•In many education systems, assessment is used as a tool
for ‘sorting’ students for selection process (progression to a
higher level of education, higher rewards, among others).
•Assessment where students are compared with each other
is known as norm-referencing.
•Assessment of learners in relation to a particular target or
level of performance is called criterion-referencing.
DIFFERENT TERMINOLOGIES: ASSESSMENT,
TESTING, MEASUREMENT, & EVALUATION
•The term ASSESSMENT refers to the different components and activities of
different schools.
•An assessment can be used to student learning and in comparing student
learning with the learning goals of an academic program.
•Assessment is defined as an act or process of collecting and interpreting
information about student learning.
•A systematic process of gathering, interpreting, and using this information
about student learning.
•It emphasizes on individual student or groups of individuals and on the
academic program of a certain educational institution.
•There are different purposes of assessment such as:
to provide feedback to students and to serve as
diagnostic tool for instruction.
•For this purpose, assessment usually answers the
questions, “Was the instruction effective?” and
“Did the students achieve the intended learning
outcomes?”
•Assessment is a general term that includes different
ways that the teachers used to gather information in
the classroom.
•The most common for assessment is giving a test.
•Since test is a form of assessment, hence, it also answers the
question, “how does individual student perform?”
•Test is formal and systematic instrument, usually paper and pencil
procedure designed to assess the quality, ability, skill or
knowledge of the students by giving a set of question in uniform
manner.
•Testing is one of the different methods used to measure the level
of performance or achievement of the learners.
•Also, it refers to the administration, scoring, and interpretation of
the procedures designed to get information about the extent of
the performance of the students.
•Measurement is a process of quantifying or assigning number
to the individual’s intelligence, personality, attitudes and values,
and achievement of the students.
•Express the assessment data in terms of numerical values and
answer the question, “how much?”

Examples:
a) Renzel got 23 correct answers out of 25 items in Mathematics
test.
b) Princess Mae got 95% in her English first grading periodic
test.
c) Ronnick’s score 88% in his laboratory test in Biology.
•Evaluation refers to the process of judging the quality of
what is good and what is desirable.
• It is a comparison of data to a set of standard or learning
criteria for the purpose of judging the worth or quality.
•Example, in judging the quality of an essay written by the
students about their opinion regarding the recent state of
the nation address of Pres. Duterte, evaluation occurs after
the assessment data has been collected and synthesized
because it is only in this time where teacher is in the
position to make judgement about the performance of the
students.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES
NATURE OF ASSESSMENT
1. Maximum Performance – it is used to determine what
individuals can do when performing at their best. Examples of
instruments using maximum performance are aptitude tests
and achievement tests.
2. Typical Performance – it is used to determine what individuals
will do under natural conditions. Examples of instruments using
typical performance are attitude, interest, and personality
inventories, observational techniques and peer appraisal.
FORMAT OF ASSESSMENT
1. Fixed-choice Test – an assessment used to measure
knowledge and skills effectively and efficiently. Standard
multiple-choice test is an example of instrument used in
fixed-choice test.
2. Complex-performance Assessment – an assessment
procedure used to measure the performance of the
learner in contexts and on problems valued in their own
right. Examples of instruments used in complex-
performance assessments are hands-on laboratory
experiment, projects, essays, oral presentation.
ROLE OF ASSESSMENT IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION
•According to Swearingen (2002) and Kellough (1999), Teaching
and Learning are reciprocal processes that depend on and affect
one another.
•Assessment enhances learning in the instructional processes if the
result provides feedbacks to both students and teachers.
•The information obtained from the assessment is used to evaluate
the teaching methodologies and strategies of the teacher and used
to make teaching decisions.
•When planning assessment, it should start when teacher plans his
instruction – when writing learning outcomes up to the time when
the teacher assesses the extent of achieving the learning outcomes.
•Teachers made decisions from the beginning of instruction up to
the end of instruction.
•There are four roles of assessment used in the instructional
process.

Beginning of Instruction
✓Placement Assessment according to Gronlund, Linn, and Miller
(2009) is concerned with the entry performance. The purpose of
placement assessment is to determine the prerequisite skills,
degree of mastery of the course objectives and the best mode of
learning.
During Instruction
•The main concern of a classroom teacher is to monitor the
learning progress of the students.
•Teacher should assess whether students achieved the intended
learning outcomes set for a particular lesson.
•The teacher should provide a feedback to reinforce learning.
•Garnison & Ehringhaus (2007), stressed in their paper
“Formative and Summative Assessment in the Classroom,” that
feedback provides students with an understanding of what
they are doing well, links to classroom learning, and gives
specific input on how to reach the next step in learning
progression.
During Instruction
✓Formative Assessment is a type of assessment used to monitor
the learning progress of the students during instruction. The
purposes of the formative assessment are the following:
a) To provide immediate feedback to both student and teacher
regarding the success and failures of learning;
b) To identify the learning errors that need correction;
c) To provide teachers with information on how to modify
instruction; and
d) To improve learning and instruction.
During Instruction
✓Diagnostic Assessment is a type of assessment given at the
beginning of instruction or during instruction.
✓It aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
students regarding the topics to be discussed. The purposes of
diagnostic assessment are:
a) To determine the level of competence of the students;
b) To identify the students who already have knowledge about
the lesson;
c) To determine the causes of learning problems that cannot be
revealed by formative assessment; and
d) To formulate a plan for remedial action.
End of Instruction
✓Summative Assessment is a type of assessment usually given
at the end of a course or unit. The purposes of summative
assessment are:
a) To determine the extent to which the instructional objectives
have been met;
b) To certify student mastery of the intended learning outcomes
as well as use it for assigning grades;
c) To provide information for judging appropriateness of the
instructional objectives; and
d) To determine the effectiveness of instruction.
METHODS OF INTERPRETING THE RESULTS

1. Norm-referenced Interpretation – it is used to describe

student performance according to relative position in
some known group. In this method of interpretation it is
assumed that the level of performance of students will
not vary much from one class to another class.

Example: ranks 5th in a classroom group of 40

METHODS OF INTERPRETING THE RESULTS

2. Criterion-referenced Interpretation – it is used to describe

student performance according to a specified domain of
clearly defined learning tasks. This method of interpretation
is used when the teacher wants to determine how well the
students have learned specific knowledge or skills in a certain
course or subject matter.

Examples: divide three-digit whole numbers correctly and

accurately; multiply binomial terms correctly.
OTHER TYPES OF TEST

Non-standardized Test versus Standardized Test

1. Non-standardized test is a type of test
developed by the classroom teachers.
2. Standardized test is a type of test developed by
test specialists. It is administered, scored and
interpreted using a certain standard condition.
OTHER TYPES OF TEST

Objective Test versus Subjective Test

1. Objective test is a type of test in which two or more
evaluators give an examinee the same score.
2. Subjective test is a type of test in which the scores
are influenced by the judgement of the evaluators,
meaning there is no one correct answer.
OTHER TYPES OF TEST
Supply Test versus Fixed-response Test
1. Supply test is a type of test that requires the examinees
to supply an answer, such as an essay test item or
completion or short answer test item.
2. Fixed-response test is a type of test that requires the
examinees to select an answer from a given option such
as multiple-choice test, matching type of test, or
true/false test.
OTHER TYPES OF TEST

Individual Test versus Group Test

1. Individual test is a type of test administered to
student on a one-on-one basis using oral
questioning.
2. Group test is a type of test administered to a
group of individuals or group of students.
OTHER TYPES OF TEST

Mastery Test versus Survey Test

1. Mastery test is a type of achievement test that measures
the degree of mastery of a limited set of learning
outcomes using criterion-reference to interpret result.
2. Survey test is a type of test that measures students’
general achievement over a broad range of learning
outcomes using norm-reference to interpret the result.
OTHER TYPES OF TEST
Speed Test versus Power Test
1. Speed test is designed to measure number of items an
individual can complete over a certain of time.
2. Power test is designed to measure the level of
performance rather than speed of response. It contains
test items that are arranged according to increasing
degree of difficulty.
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Traditional Assessment - it is a type of assessment in which
the students choose their answer from a given list of choices. In
traditional assessment, students are expected to recognize that
there is only one correct answer or best answer for the question
asked.

Examples: multiple choice test, standard true/false test,

matching type test, and fill-in-the-blank test
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Alternative Assessment – students create an original
response to answer a certain question. Students respond to
a question using their own ideas, in their own words.

Examples: short-answer questions, essays, oral

presentations, exhibitions, demonstrations, performance
assessment, and portfolios; teacher observation and student
self-assessment.
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Components of Alternative Assessment
a) Assessment is based on authentic tasks that demonstrate
students’ ability to accomplish communication goals.
b) The teacher and students focus on communication, not on
right and wrong answers.
c) Students help the teacher to set the criteria for successful
completion of communication tasks.
d) Students have opportunities to assess themselves and
their peers.
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Performance-based Assessment
•Students are asked to perform real-world tasks that
demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge
and skills.
•It is a direct measure of student performance.
•It focus on processes and rationales; there is no single correct
answer.
•The teacher is an important collaborator in creating tasks, as
well as in developing guidelines for scoring and interpretation.
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Portfolio Assessment
•Systematic, longitudinal collection of student work
created in response to specific, known instructional
objectives and evaluated in relation to the same criteria
(Ferenz, K., 2001).
•Portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that
exhibits the student’s efforts, progress and achievements
in one or more areas over a period of time.
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Contextualized Assessment
•The focus is on the students’ construction of functioning knowledge
and the students’ performance in application of knowledge in the
real work context of the discipline area.
•It uses performance-based tasks which are authentic in nature.
•It measures skills and knowledge in dealing with specific
situations or perform specific tasks which the students have
identified as important and meaningful to them.
•Application of the skills and knowledge must be in the context of
the real world as possible.
MODES OF ASSESSMENT
Decontextualized Assessment
•It includes written exams and term papers which
are suitable for assessing declarative knowledge.
•Do not necessarily have a direct connection to a
real-life context (Biggs, 2011).
•It focuses on declarative knowledge and/or
procedural knowledge in artificial situations
detached from the real work context.
THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT IN LEARNING
Assessment is used for various purposes:
a) Assessment FOR learning: where assessment helps teachers gain insight
into what students understand in order to plan and guide instruction
and provide helpful feedback to students.
b) Assessment AS learning: where students develop an awareness of how
they learn and use that awareness to adjust and advance their
learning, taking an increased responsibility for their learning.
c) Assessment OF learning: where assessment informs students, teachers
and parents, as well as the broader educational community, of
achievement at a certain point in time in order to celebrate success,
plan interventions and support continued progress.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE STUDENT
ASSESSMENT
Gronlund (1998) provided the general guidelines for using
student assessment effectively:
1) Effective assessment requires a clear concept of all intended
learning outcomes.
2) Effective assessment requires that a variety of assessment
procedures should be used.
3) Effective assessment requires that the instructional relevance of
the procedure should be considered.
4) Effective assessment requires an adequate sample of student
performance.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE STUDENT
ASSESSMENT
Gronlund (1998) provided the general guidelines for using student
assessment effectively:
5) Effective assessment requires that the procedures must be fair to
everyone.
6) Effective assessment requires specifications of criteria for judging
successful performance.
7) Effective performance requires feedback to students emphasizing
strengths of performance and weaknesses to be corrected.
8) Effective assessment must be supported by comprehensive grading
and reporting system.