Assessment as a tool to support learning

According to Boud (2007) indicate that assessment frames what students do and helps
teachers to know whether students have mastered what they are supposed to learn based
on the learning outcomes.

In the prespective of Carless (2007) argues that assessment promotes learning and
requires students to receive appropriate feedback which could be used into future work.

we may also say that the assessment facilitate learning and measuring achievements,
nevertheless the assessment can bring comparison between students and can be used to
support and enhance learning when it becomes a process of dialogue, comprehension
and improvement rather than focusing on results.

When a teacher use Assessment effectively, can be a highly impactful teaching tool,
acting as a bridge between where a student currently is in their learning and
achievement and where they want to get to. In this case the Teachers also need to
consider where the learner is now, and how far they may be from reaching the intended
outcomes. By doing so it will provide both students and teachers with a shared
understanding of what they can already do and where there may be gaps in their
learning.

Concluding, I will say that teachers must think about how the learner can achieve their
aims, and what steps they need to take to get there. Through this collection of evidence,
educators can be responsive and reactive, adapting their high-quality teaching to best
suit learners’ needs.

Going futher it is possible to see and understand that the assessment is not only about
student and teachers, but also the parents are included, because whenever the
assessment brings a good feedback as well as a bad feedback it automatically affect
them posetively and negatively. Finally we can say that Assessment is pedagogical
instrument for measuring and promoting deep learning.

Challenge of using assessment to support learning

Looking at the Teaching Process, it is clear that Assessment and feedback are vital
elements to drive student skills development, engagement, and success. Well-facilitated
assessment and feedback provide faculties with ample learning analytics to make data
driven decisions, at the same time allowing students to reflect on their own learning and
improve their performance. moreover drive an assessment can bring lots of challenge
for the teacher as well as the students because the classroom is composed by students
with diferente levels. In this case the teacher must pay attention in areas such as:

 Aligning Assessment with Teaching and Learning;

When we talk about aligning assessment with teaching and leaarning we refer the
organization of the teaching and learning context such that the outcomes indicate the
kind of understanding required from students, and that the learning activities achieve
those understandings. In this case the teacher should also ensure that the assessment
tasks tell students what activities are required of them and how well the outcomes have
been achieved.

 Methods of Assessment;

The mothods that can be used to assess students are:

Group-based Assessment: This assessment approach assists in the development of

important competencies such as collaborative learning, teamwork skills and learning to
work with diverse groups, interpersonal communication, feedback, and facilitation
skills.

Peer Assessment and Self-assessment: Peer assessment utilises cooperative learning

exercises intending to develop students with lower competence through the assistance of
more skilful peers within the zone of proximal development while Self-assessment
allows students to understand and judge their learning and identify their contribution to
the given tasks.

Oral Presentation Assessment: the oral assessment is highly personalised and arguments
and cannot be presented without knowing the topic and planning it accurately, both of
which encourage students to become more interested in their studies.

Assessment Criteria and Grading Descriptors

Clear assessment criteria provide guidance, greater objectivity in marking, and more
efficient communicating of feedback, contributing significantly to student learning, and
also explained to students so that they clearly understand how their performance is
going to be measured as this will help them to prepare their work accordingly. The
question arises as to how they should be designed and who should be involved.
Bloxham et al. (2011). This means that the depth of knowledge and the cognitive level
of the tasks should match and the scores obtained reflect the actual performance.