Assessment in Classroom Curriculum

Written Assignment

The Role of Assessment in Guiding Decisions

Unit 4

EDUC 5440 – Assessment and Evaluation

Dr. Ann Bingham

07/13/2022
 Assessment in Classroom Curriculum

This article is examining the addressing the question how assessment is used to guide the

curricular decisions in schools. First is a look at assessment in my pre – service training

conducted many years back and the second part addresses the impact of assessment of

curriculum decision making.

My preservice training was rooted in the traditional goal-oriented curriculum which was

all about the content and set standards determined by teacher awarded ratings and score and the

focus of the student learning being recall and knowledge recognition. However, that was quite a

while ago. The upgrading for teacher training currently undertaking, have the backward, from

expected outcomes to the instructional activities, approach with its focus on student needs and

interests. As the institution is an inclusive one, the curriculum is differentiated to serve all

students individually to meet their learning goals.

Philosophy

It is difficult to articulate one philosophy in the matrix curriculum, (Doll 1993, as in Belbase,

2011), where the diversity that individual students bring to class is met at their knowledge level

and varying philosophies that influence own’s learning. The philosophies as analyzed in Belbase

S., (2011) include the perennialism and essentialism in which curriculum information flow is

one-way, teacher to student, the progressivism and reconstructionism that involve students

dealing with and resolving real life social and other problems, and the extentialism and post-

modernism that have the students’ will to engage in own learning.

Curriculum

This differentiated curriculum enables educators to use different approaches to plan, implement

and assess learning instructions, activities, and outcomes, and most importantly allows

understanding of invisible but important aspects of the students’ learning process namely, the

“cognitive development, creative expressions, and personal growth” (Shubert. 1985, p. 26-27, as

in Belbase, 2011), that are part of the learning progress.

The education curriculum of the classroom emulates the “cloud curriculum” (Belbase,

2011), in which the students together with the teachers, are part of the social community that

freely participates in selecting the curriculum through democratic practices, like discussions and

analyses of classroom learning instructions, activities and assessments (including instructor),

personal reflections illustrated in journal and portfolio writings, and collaboration and social

engagements on online media platforms and other technology applications, like WhatsApp and

emails.

Assessments

Student assessments are one instrument that enables educators to motivate, students into creative,

independent productive learning. This is made feasible through assessment activities,

categorized into three roles: the assessment as an integrated part of curriculum practice,

continuous assessment with results used to improve student learning, and the provision of

constructive feedback that shall encourage deeper and further student learning.
 In the classroom curriculum, instructors establish learning environments in which

assessment is an essential part of the teaching-learning process that becomes a comfortable and

regular classroom activity so that students do not feel threatened when it is implemented. The

assessments include classroom discussions, in small groups and as a class, open question and

answers online forum. This provides more realistic results than would otherwise be full of fear

and animosity when assessments are scheduled seldomly.

Utilization of Assessments in Curriculum Decision-making

Knowing the students

Assessments may include pre-assessment (for learning) used to inform instructors of their

students’ prior experiences knowledge, skills, strengths, and weaknesses, provide information

useful in the planning instruction stage. Knowledge of student needs may save time and

resources wastage in teaching what is already known and vise versa. Another assessment

strategy, peer marking (Leahy et. al. 2005, as on Wiliam 2014), is a good one to unveil student

misconceptions, which the instructor can privately correct with the student concerned.

Provide Feedback

Continuous assessments (as learning), on-going during the learning, inform of students’ progress

and challenges met, information useful for adjusting and reviewing learning instruction. In these

formative assessments, feedback by way of queries, questions, and illustrations or modelling, is

availed students as the learning progresses to encourage, motivate, and guide students into

deeper and creative learning. Important to note that as much as feedback needs to be positive and
constructive, (Mikre, 2011). the assessment tasks need to be practically challenging to the

students, (Brousseau, 1997, as in Wiliam 2014).

Curriculum Reforms

Evaluating assessments (of learning) inform all stakeholders of what students have and have not

achieved or learned, and the following may apply:

 To the administrators and teachers, determine whether the curriculum needs adjustments,

review, or reforms to achieve its objectives. (A Guide to Curriculum Development: Purposes,

Practices, Procedures, n.d.)

 To the school, the evaluation results, especially for candidate and special needs students, are

also used to politically or economically situate the schools, whether schools remain open or

not, the need for state or federal government to intervene, should overall performance not

meet the standard mark.

Socioeconomic effect on Participants

To students and teachers, the results go to determining either the fate of students’ future

placement, the instructor’s employment status, and/or adjustments, if any, to future classroom

curriculum.

Conclusion

To improve and encourage integrated assessment curriculum that transitions from traditional

oriented curriculum to the flexibly creative “cloud” curriculum, as it embeds student cognitive
learning and provides constructive progress for both teacher and students, the best practices are

to adopt assessment as a curriculum component in the daily operations of classroom learning.

References

A Guide to Curriculum Development: Purposes, Practices, Procedures (n.d.)

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SDE/Health-Education/curguide_generic.pdf

Belbase, S. (2011, October 8). Philosophical foundations for curriculum decision, a reflective

analysis. Univeristy of Wyoming, pp 1-20. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED524740.pdf

Mikre, F. (2011). Review Article: The roles of assessment in curriculum practice and

enhancement

of learning. Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 5. Pdf.

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ejesc/article/download/65376/53069

Wiliam D., (2014 April). Formative assessment and contingency in the regulation of learning

processes, American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia,

PA,

https://essaydocs.org/formative-assessment-and-contingency-in-the-regulation-of-

lear.html