Purposes of Classroom Assessment by Dr.Shazia Zamir

1. PURPOSES OF CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT
BY
DR.SHAZIA ZAMIR

2. Classroom Assessment
• Is an ongoing process through which teachers and students interact to
promote greater learning.
• The assessment process emphasizes data collection of student
performance to diagnose learning problems, monitor progress, and give
feedback for improvement.
• Involves using multiple methods in order to obtain student information
through a variety of assessment strategies.

3. Characteristics of Classroom Assessment
• Learner-Centered- its focus is on observing and improving learning
• Teacher-Directed- the individual teacher decides what to assess, how to
assess and how to respond to the information gained through the
assessment
• Mutually Beneficial- students reinforce course content and strengthen their
self-assessment skills
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4. Characteristics of Classroom Assessment
• Formative- its purpose is to improve the quality of student learning ,not
to provide evidence for evaluating or grading students; it provides
information on what, how much , and how well students are learning.
• Context – Specific – the assessment technique is chosen to fit the
subject matter and the needs of the particular class
• Ongoing – the creation and maintenance of a classroom “feedback
loop”

5. Evaluation
Evaluation is a systematic process of collecting, analyzing and
interpreting information to determine the extent to which
pupils could achieve instructional objectives.

6. Formative Assessment/Evaluation
• is used to monitor students progress during instruction
• Purpose – to make judgments about individual student
achievement and assign grades
• Example : quizzes, tests, term papers, lab reports, homework,
monitor body language and facial expressions, Classroom
Assessment Techniques. etc

7. Process Evaluation
Process evaluation helps to build an understanding of the mechanisms
at play in successful programs so that they can be reused and
developed for other contexts. Process evaluation is also helpful when a
program fails to achieve its goals for some or all of the target
population.
The program evaluation process goes through four phases — planning,
implementation, completion, and dissemination and reporting — that
complement the phases of program development and implementation.

8. Summative Assessment/Evaluation
• Comprehensive, typically given at the end of a program and provide for
accountability (burns)
• Purpose – to inform teaching and improve learning used as “feedback
devices”
• Examples – pose questions, listen to students questions, Final Term
Exams and comments,

9. PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
• Informs and guides teaching and learning
A good classroom assessment plan gathers evidence of student learning that
informs teachers instructional decisions. It provides teachers with information about
what students know and can do to plan effective instruction. Teachers also need to
know what the student misunderstands and where the misconceptions lie.
• Planning and conduction of instruction.
‘Students need frequent opportunities to reflect on where their learning is at and what
needs to be done to achieve their learning goals. When students are actively involved in
assessing their own next learning steps and creating goals to accomplish them, they make
major advances in directing their learning and what they understand about themselves as
learners.

10. PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
• Placing Pupils
Grades provide summary information to parents, teachers and schools’ administration
, about student’s placing.
• Providing feedback and incentives
Effective assessment provides feedback and incentives to students that what they
know and don’t know about a subject. If done well, the feedback provided to students
will indicate to them how to improve their performance. Assessments must clearly
match the content, the nature of thinking, and the skills taught in a class. Through
feedback from instructors, students become aware of their strengths and challenges
with respect to course learning outcomes.

11. PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
• Diagnosing pupil’s problems and disabilities
A pre-test or needs assessment informs instructors what students know and do not know at the
outset, setting the direction of a course. If done well, the information garnered will highlight the
gap between existing knowledge and a desired outcome. Accomplished instructors find out
what students already know, and use the prior knowledge as a stepping off place to develop
new understanding. The same is true for data obtained through assessment done during
instruction.
• Judging and grading academic learning and progress
What and how students learn depends to a major extent on how they think they will be
assessed. Assessment practices must send the right signals to students about what to study,
how to study, and the relative time to spend on concepts and skills in a course. Accomplished
faculty communicate clearly what students need to know and be able to do, both through a
clearly articulated syllabus, and by choosing assessments carefully in order to direct student
energies.

12. Purposes of Classroom Assessment
• It is used to motivate students
• It provides opportunities to remedy mistakes
• It indicates readiness for progression
• Assessment serves as a diagnostic tool
• Assessment enables grading and degree classification
• Assessment works as a performance indicator for students
• It is used as a performance indicator for teacher
• Assessment is also a performance indicator for institution
• Assessment facilitates learning in the one way or the other
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13. Classroom Assessment: Why, What, How and
When
• Assessment is today's means of modifying tomorrow's instruction. It is an
integral part of teaching learning process. It is widely accepted that
effectiveness of teaching learning process is directly influenced by
assessment. Hamidi (2010) developed a framework to answer the Why;
What, How and When to assess. This is helpful in understanding the true
purposes of this concept.
• Why to Assess: Teachers have clear goals for instruction and they assess to
ensure that these goals have been or are being met. If objectives are the
destination, instruction is the path to it then assessment is a tool to keep
the efforts on track and to ensure that the path is right.

14. • What to Assess: Teachers cannot assess whatever they
themselves like. In classroom assessment, teachers are supposed
to assess students' current abilities in a given skill or task. The
teacher can assess students’ knowledge, skills or behavior related
to a particular field.
• Who to Assess: Teachers should treat students as 'real learners',
not as course or unit coverers. They should also predict that some
students are more active and some are less active; some are quick
at learning and some are slow at it. Therefore, classroom
assessment calls for a prior realistic appraisal of the individuals
teachers are going to asses.

15. • How to Assess: Teachers employ different instruments, formal or
informal, to assess their students.. They can adjust the assessment
types to what they are going to assess.
• When to Assess: There is a strong agreement of educationists that
assessment is interwoven into instruction. Teachers continue to
assess the students learning throughout the process of teaching.
They particularly do formal assessments when they are going to
make instructional decisions at the formative and summative levels,
even if those decisions are small.
• How much to Assess: There is no benchmark to weigh the degree to
which a teacher should assess students. It is generally agreed that as
students differ in ability, learning styles, interests and needs etc so
assessment should be limited to every individual's needs, ability and
knowledge. Teachers’ careful and wise judgment in this regard can
prevent teachers from over assessment or underassessment.

16. Purposes of Classroom Assessment
Assessment does more than allocate a grade or degree classification to
students – it plays an important role in focusing their attention and, as
Sainsbury & Walker (2007) observe, actually drives their learning. Gibbs
(2003) states that assessment has 6 main purposes:
1.Capturing student time and attention.
2.Generating appropriate student learning activity.
3.Providing timely feedback which students pay attention to helping students
to internalize the discipline’s standards and notions of equality
5.Generating marks or grades which distinguish between students or enable
pass/fail decisions to be made.
6. Providing evidence for other outside the course to enable them to judge
the appropriateness of standards on the course.

17. Purposes of Classroom assessment
• Establishing classroom equilibrium
• Planning and conducting instruction
• Placing pupils
• Providing feedback and incentives
• Diagnosing pupils problems and disabilities
• Judging and grading academic learning and progress

18. A Set of Guiding Principles
• Assessment require clear thinking and effective communication- Those
who develop and use high quality assessments must share a highly
refined focus.
• Classroom assessment is the key- Teachers direct the assessments that
determine what students learn and how those students feel about the
learning.
• Students are assessment users- Students are the most important users of
assessment results.

19. • Clear and appropriate targets are essential- The quality of
any assessment depends first and foremost on the clarity
and appropriateness of our definition of the achievement
targets to be assessed.
• High quality assessment is a must- High quality assessment
is essential in all assessment contacts.
• Clear targets
• Focused purpose
• Proper method
• Sound sampling

20. THANK YOU