ASSESSMENT AS

AN INTEGRAL PART
OF TEACHING
 “ I ENJOY TEACHING BUT
ASSESSING AND CORRECTING
PAPERS REDUCE MY LOVE FOR
TEACHING”
 Assessment in the Context of Teaching-Learning
In the context of teaching-learning, we can talk about diagnostic, formative and summative assessment.

◦ Diagnostic Assessment – This is a form of pre-assessment

that allows a teacher to determine individual student’s prior
knowledge including misconception before instruction. In
short, it is including misconceptions before instruction. In
short, it is primarily used to diagnose used to diagnose what
students already know and don’t yet know in order to guide
instruction. The result of diagnostic assessment also provide a
basis for comparison to determine how much learning has
taken place after the learning activity is completed. This is
usually done by giving diagnostic pretests.
◦ Formative Assessment – Formative assessment takes place during instruction (during the formative process) to
provide the teacher with information regarding how well the learning objectives of a given learning activity are
being met. In formative assessment, teacher monitor student learning to get ongoing feedback to improve their
teaching and for students to improve their learning In formative assessment, students are helped to identify their
strengths and weakness and target areas that need work. Likewise, teachers are also helped to recognize where
students are struggling and so address problems immediately. It is evidence-based improvement of on-going
teaching-learning.
◦ It is not sound to assess Learning only at the end of a unit. Many a teacher has presumed everything is clear to
students only to get frustrated at the end of the unit that a lot of things were not understood. It is like proceeding
to “XYZ” when “ABC” were not yet mastered. It is not only frustrating but also a waste of teaching – learning
time and effort.
◦ Formative assessment is referred to as assessment for learning because it is meant to ensure that learning takes
place. In the process of instruction, the teacher checks on students’ learning. If he/she discovers that concepts and
skills are not yet mastered, rights there and then, the teacher re-teaches to ensure learning. Thus, the phrase
“assessment for learning “.
◦ How do teachers do formative? Teacher can determine’
level of understanding while teaching by asking’ level of
understanding while teaching by asking students questions.
A usual question that teachers ask to find out to find out it
their students can follow the lesson is “Did you
understand?”. Class usually responds in chorus “Yes,
Ma’am” or “Yes, Sir”. A better way to check on students’
level of understanding, however, is to find out if indeed
they understood the lesson by asking them question or
using other ways of formative assessment (Chapter 9 is
devoted to ways of doing formative assessment).
◦ Summative assessment. This is used to evaluate student
learning at the end of a defined instruction period. While
formative assessment is referred to as assessment for
learning. Summative assessment is referred to as
assessment of learning.
◦ It is assessment of learning typically at the end of a
project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year,
after diagnostic assessment, teaching and formative
assessment are done. It is a picture of how much
learning took place and to what extent the learning,
chapter, unit or course outcomes were attained. The
result of summative assessments are bases for grades
and report to parents.
◦ Summative assessments are done through paper-and –pencil tests and non-paper-and-pencil tests.
You have learned how to construct paper-and-pencil tests . You have learned how to construct
paper-and-pencil tests for one semester in the first course on Assessment. In this second course on
Assessment, you will learn how to construct non-paper-and pencil tests. You will have a more
lengthy discussion on non-paper-and paper-and-pencil tests in Chapter 4.
 Traditional Assessment and Authentic Assessment
Traditional Assessment. Traditional assessment includes the paper-and-pencil tests. Paper-and-pencil tests are either
the selected-response. This was the focus of Assessment in Learning 1. See Figure below.

Selected- Constructed-
response Type response type

Paper-and-
pencil test
(Traditional
Assessment)
◦ Traditional Assessment

Selected response Constructed-

type response type

Alternate response(T-
Short answer
F, Yes-No;

Multiple choice Essay

Matching type Problem solving

◦ Authentic assessment. The term authentic assessment was
coined by Grant Wiggins (1993) a leading proponent of
reform in testing Assessment is termed authentic because
students’ knowledge and skill are assessed in a context that
approximates the real world or real life as closely as
possible. The assessment requires student performance that
models realistic encourages in life in contrast to taking a
written test or writing an essay. That is why authentic
assessment is likewise called performance assessment,
Authentic assessment is also known as non-traditional
assessment and alternative assessment. It is referred to as
alternative assessment because it offers students more
choices than just taking a paper-and-pencil test like
multiple choice or an essay.
◦ The word alternative implies that there is another way of assessing learning other than the traditional or paper-
pencil test that we have been used to.

◦ Authentic assessment can be in the form of students’ performance to display skills learned, mastery of a process
or procedure or in the form a product or concrete output. Some examples of performance are: a student is able to
dance tango, to dribble the ball to send an email, to send an email, to give a report in class using PowerPoint, to
set up an experiment, to lobby at the Municipal Council. Authentic assessment can be done also by assessing the
product of students’ learning such as a haiku composed, a pair of pants sewn, journal entries, writing samples, art
work, a research paper written, a videotaped interview; a capstone project. Through capstone projects student
explore issues they are passionate about and work toward finding solution to problems. Watch the video;

◦ Httls://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/power-performance-assessments-video.

◦ We ‘ll have more of authentic assessment in Chapter 4.

 Norn and criterion-referenced assessment
◦ Criterion-referenced assessment. In criterion-referenced assessment we compare a student’s performance
against a criterion of success which is the predetermined standard. With criterion-referenced tests, each student’s
performance is compared directly to the standard, without considering how order students performed in the
assessment. Criterion-referenced assessment often use “cut scores” to place students into categories such as
“basic” “proficient”, and “advanced.” Here is an example. The teacher’s intended learning outcomes is “to spell
at least eighteen out of twenty words correctly”.

◦ Student A is able to spell twenty (20) words correctly, Student B, eighteen (18) words and Student C ten words
(10). It is obvious that only Students A and B were able to realize the predetermined standard as stated in the
intended learning outcomes, “spell at least 18 out of 20 words correctly correctly .” The performance (score) of
each student is compared against a standard set by the teacher. It is not compared against the performance of the
other students.
◦ Norm-referenced assessment. In norm-referenced assessment we compare a student’s performance with the
performance of other students the norm group, not against a predetermined standard. The composition of the norm
group depends on the assessment. An example is comparing the performance of seventh grades in Reading in a
particular school system to the performance of nation-wide group of seventh graders in Reading.
◦ Norm-referenced scores are generally reported as a percentile ranking. There used to be a Notional College
Entrance Examination (NCEE) in the Philippines from 1973 unit its abolition in 1994 where students were given
percentile ranks. A student who got a 99th percentile rank in the NCEE means that he belonged to the upper 1% and
surpassed 99% of the NCEE examinees. A high school who got a 75% percentile rank means he belong to upper
25% and was above 75% of the examinees.
◦ The meaning of a norm-referenced score is derived from a comparison of students’ against other students scores
(as stated in the scores of the norm group) while the meaning of a criterion-referenced score is derived from
comparing students’ scores with established criterion of success. The norm-referenced score will not tell you
whether a students met, exceeded, or fell short of the standard of proficiency. It is the criterion-referenced score
that will tell you whether or not whether or not a student met the established standard of success or proficiency.
Contextualized and Decontextualized Assessment

◦ Contextualized assessment. In contextualized assessment, the focus is on the students’ construction of

functioning knowledge. It is the students’ performance in their application of knowledge and skills in the real
work context of the discipline area. Contextualized assessment makes use of performance-based tasks which are
authentic in nature. They reflect “real-life” (i.e., outside of the classroom) tasks and require students to utilize
higher order thinking skills (Crotty, 1994; Leon & Elias, 1998) to fulfill on demand duties and tasks.

◦ A student may have mastered the rules of subject-verb agreement, gets a perfect score in a multiple choice test
on subject-verb agreement but when he/she delivers a speech in real life, fails to observe subject-verb agreement
rules.
◦ Decontextualized assessment. On the other hand, decontextualized assessment includes written exams which are suitable for
assessing declaration knowledge, and 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.
Both contextualized and decontextualized learning and assessment have their role in evaluation learning outcomes. In practice,
Biggs and Tang claim (2011) decontextualized assessment has been overemphasized compared to the place declarative
knowledge has in the curriculum. Both declaration knowledge and real-life application of that knowledge must be assessed
appropriately. A common mistake is to assess only the lead-in declarative knowledge, not the functional knowledge that
emerges from it (Biggs and Tany, 2011)
 Establishing High Quality Assessment
◦ Quality assessment are in accordance with contemporary view of active learning and motivation. This means
that learners discover and construct meaning; set, plan and work to realize their goals; associate and link new
information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways; think critically and creativity: develop self-
monitoring skills; have positive expectations for learning and confidence in their skills; are enthusiastically and
internally motivated to learn; what they learn to real-world situations; and communicate effectively .”(Santrock,
2009)
◦ The message is clear. High quality assessment involve learners in the assessment process begging with the
setting of goals, monitoring of their learning and in building self-confidence because learners are intrinsically
motivated to learn. High quality assessments are not just a meaningless reproduction of knowledge learned but
linking information to other bits of information meaningfully while thinking critically and creatively to apply
what learn to real-world situations. In short, High quality assessments are contextualized, not decontextualized.
◦ Assessment of high quality is valid. Assessment is valid if it measures what it is supposed to measure, i.e., how well the
learning outcomes have been attained. A teacher must be true to his/her intended learning outcomes have been attained. A
teacher must be true to his/her intended learning outcome/s. The idea of the alignment of intended learning outcomes,
teaching-learning activities and assessment and assessment is what John Biggs (2003)called constructive alignment, the
essence of outcomes-based education.
◦ Assessment of high quality is reliable. Assessment is reliable when the test produces consistent scores. If you give a test-
retest in Math and find out that those who got high scores in the first take also got high scores in the second take of the same
test and those who got low scores in the first take scored high in the re-take, then the assessment is not reliable.
◦ Assessment of high quality is fair. It is fair if it assesses what it is supposed to be assessed as stated in the learning outcome which is
expected to have been taught. This is the principle of constructive alignment in action. Obviously, assessing learners, on something
they not been taught is unfair.

◦ Assessment is also unfair if it is biased against subgroups of students. Examples are: 1) When negative stereotypes of particular
subgroups are included in the test. An example is when the test item portrays males in high-paying and prestigious jobs and females in
low-paying and less prestigious jobs; 2) When assessment unfairly penalizes a student based on the students’ ethnicity, socio-economic
status, gender, religion and disability (Hargis, 2006). For examples, when a teacher decides to see how well students can
collaboratively solve problems which requires students to work together synchronously online where only affluent students who can
afford to have laptops and internet connectivity can participate while students from the lower economics status will be deprived of the
collaborative solving.
Current Trends in Assessment
Here are current trends in assessment cited by Santrock (2009)

1. Using at least some performance-based assessment – This means that the use of objective tests such as
alternate response, multiple choice and matching type is no longer adequate. According to Carol
Schneider, President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, employers say our
world “is not a multiple-choice world…Don’t send us graduates who only know how to solve multiple-
choice problems, “Instead.” Schneider continues, "employers are asking for what educators call a
modern liberal education, more big-picture thinking,…but with more real-world application.”
This does not mean that we have to set aside the use of objective tests in assessment. Not at all.
Objective tests(traditional assessment) complement performance-based assessment. But the use of
objectives alone won’t suffice.
2. Examining higher-level cognitive skills and emphasizing integrated rather than isolated skills-These
higher-level cognitive skills include problem-solving, critical thinking. Decision-making drawing of
inferences, strategic thinking. Decision-making, drawing of inferences, strategic thinking. That is why it is
not enough to make use of objective tests that assess simple recall.

3. Using multiple assessment methods-To assessment students, a currents trend is to use multiple methods-
from multiple choice test essay, an interview, a project, a portfolio to self-evaluation. Again it is
emphasized that we have not to do away with objective tests that measure simple recall. Theses tests that
require simple recall complement authentic assessment tools.

4. Having high performance standards including world-class standards for interpreting assessment result –
Let us set standard high. Research says ”one’s level of performance is lower than one’s level of aspiration.”
It is therefore sound to challenge students to meet high performance standards.
5. Involving student in all aspects of assessment – It works if the students are involved from the setting of
expected targets to be demonstrated after instruction to checking on their progress in the course of the
teaching-learning process and to finally determine the extent to which they realize expected targets.

6. Making standards and criteria public rather than private and secretive – (Santrock, 2009)Mc Tighe (2013)
says “the evaluative criteria (such as rubrics) are presented and explained at the beginning. Models of
excellence, aligned to the criteria, are shown to provide a clear ‘picture of desired performance. This may
eliminate students fear or unwelcoming attitude toward assessment.

7. Using computers as part of assessment – with computers, a bank of questions can be created which makes it
possible for each student to be presented with different questions but are of equivalent standard. With
computerized making, immediate feedback may be given to students. Recording of assessment results and
their statistical analysis are likewise facilitated with computer.
QUIZ # 1

1. If a teacher gives a diagnostic test,. What does she want to know?

a. Learner’s readiness for the lesson
b. Parts of the lesson that the learners don’t understanding while teaching-learning is in progress.
c. What grade/mark to give the learners
d. What assignment to give for lesson mastery
2. Teacher is surprised to find out lack of lesson mastery at the end of a Chapter. Which type of assessment/s did
she fail to do?
a. Diagnostic assessment
b. Formative assessment
c. Summative assessment
d. Formative and summative assessment
3. On which types of assessment are grades based?
e. Diagnostic assessment
f. Formative assessment
g. Summative assessment
h. Formative and summative assessment
4. Which statement on assessment is Correct?
a. Diagnostic and formative assessments when done well lead to favorable’ summative assessment results.
b. Good diagnostics and formative assessment do not necessarily lead to good summative assessment results.
c. Diagnostic, formative and summative assessments are independent of one another.
d. Between diagnostic and formative assessment, only formative assessment has an influence on summative
assessment result.
5. Which tests are said to be decontextualized?
e. Simple recall tests
f. Tests that measures HOTS
g. Performance tests
h. Simulation tests
6. Which test item belongs to a contextualized test?
a. What is assessment?
b. Formulate a test items that is aligned with this learning outcomes: Design an experiment to determine the
effect of detergent on plants.
c. Why was the turtle mad at the monkey?
d. What are the characteristics of a quality assessment?
7. In which assessment are you engaged if you want to know if learners have realized intended learning
outcomes?
e. Criterion-referenced assessment
f. Norm-references assessment
g. Contextualized assessment
h. Decontextualized assessment
8. In which assessment do you compare the performance of a student with that of others?
a. Criterion-referenced assessment
b. Norm-referenced assessment
c. Contextualized assessment
d. Decontextualized assessment
9. The following are current trends in assessment EXCEPT__________.
e. Clarifying with students intended learning outcomes expected to be achieved
f. Teacher sharing Scoring Rubric with students only during summative assessment
g. Making use of a combination of written objective tests and performance tests
h. Engaging students in the self-assessment process
10. Ideally, in which part of the lesson are students engaged?
I. At the beginning of the lesson to set targets
II. During the lesson to determine progress
III. At the end of the lesson to reflect on their learning

a. I,II and III

b. II and III
c. I and II
d. I and III
11. In a parents-teaching conference, a parents raised a complaint of her daughter who did not know how
she was graded because teachers did that present the scoring rubric. Teacher explained to the parent that
she does not make scoring rubric public. Is the teacher right?
a. Yes, she is.
b. No, she isn’t.
c. Yes, if the class is unruly
d. D. No, she isn’t right, if the class is behaved.