The document discusses the significance of student assessment in fostering a positive classroom environment, emphasizing the need for teachers to self-assess their assessment strategies. It outlines various types of assessments—formative, summative, and alternative—detailing their roles, benefits, and real-life applications, while highlighting how formative and alternative assessments can engage students more effectively than summative assessments. Additionally, it emphasizes best practices for implementing these assessments to enhance student learning and motivation.

1. Student Assessment and Positive Classroom
Environment
University of the People
EDUC 5240
Dr. Francis
August 5, 2020
Vinsensius Felix Putra Andy Liman
Nauteia Brass
Frederick Ofori

2. Introduction
The centrality of student assessment in teaching and learning cannot be overemphasised. It has the
potential of creating and maintaining a positive classroom environment if aptly and effectively used by the
teacher. For this reason, it is crucial for the teacher to self-assess his assessment types and strategies in the
classroom to ensure he/ she is always on track. All the different types of assessment are tools that offer a
variety of ways to measure student understanding (Edutopia 2008) and it is the teacher’s sole
responsibility to know the one to use at every level of the teaching and learning process. Furthermore,
Berry (2008, p. 6) affirms that “assessment for learning involves social interaction between teacher and
student and among students, who have a shared vision of learning.” The fact that assessment is an
interaction, also implies that the teacher, especially the new one, is the coordinator of the interaction and
should therefore know the best practices that will make the interaction as effective as possible.

3. Definition of Assessment
Assessments provide information from the students that helps them understand their knowledge,
skills, and abilities as well as individual strengths and weaknesses ( Berry, 2008). Berry, also stated
that assessment should be a natural part of the teaching and learning process to help gain a
comprehensive picture of how students best learn.
Huba et at. (2000) as cited in Westminster College (n.d) defines assessment as the process of
gathering and discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to develop a deep
understanding
of what students know, understand, and can do with their knowledge as a result of their
educational experiences.
This definition considers all the types of assessment that will be discussed
in this writing: Formative, Summative and Alternative assessments.

4. Importance of Assessment
● According to Edutopia (2008), assessments in education are extremely important as it determines
whether or not the goals of education are being met.
● “Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs,
curriculum, and, in some cases, funding. Assessment inspires us to ask these hard questions: "Are
we teaching what we think we are teaching?" "Are students learning what they are supposed to be
learning?" "Is there a way to teach the subject
better, thereby promoting better learning?"
( Edutopia, 2008, para. 10)

5. Types of Student Assessment

6. 1. Formative Assessment
2. Summative Assessment
3. Alternative Assessment

7. Formative Assessment
● It is the use of various approaches to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension,
learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course (Great Schools
Partnership, 2014)
● It is also a process of “discovering what students know while they are still in the process of
learning it (Thomas, 2019, para.1)
● The essence of formative assessment is therefore to collect
elaborate data that will be useful to ameliorate instruction
and student learning while it is still happening
(The Glossary of Education Reform, 2014).
● It is low stakes: it has low or no point value (Eberly Center, n.d)

8. This type of assessment goes beyond just using graded tests and assignments to evaluate student’s
achievement. It involves the teacher engaging students in activities that will help him get feedback to
make him enhance his teaching and students’ learning. These include approaches like (Eber Center,
n.d & Thomas, 2019):
● Students drawing a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
● Students submitting one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lesson
● The teacher asking students during the lessons, if they understand aspect of the class
● Self-assessment: this is to get students to spot their own weakness and strength in a particular
lesson.
● Interview assessments: It is a form of casual chat between the teacher and individual students to
get them to tell the teacher what they know or not know about a lesson.
● Entry and exit slips: slips given to students at the beginning or end of a class to find out what the
remember about a lesson.

9. Real-Life Examples of Formative Assessment
1. In teacher A’s Grade 9 Literature class he gives every student slips to write briefly what
they understood or did not about the lesson. From their responses, he realised that about
half of the class did not grasp the concept about how to include literary devices in essays.
Based on this, he used a different approach to explain the concept again to his students in
their next class and at the end, the new explanation worked for the students.
1. A 3rd grade teacher started a reading lesson by letting students know they would be detectives
gathering evidence to identify the more "needy" character, Charlotte or Wilbur, in the book
Charlotte's Web. Students wrote down their evidence on their iPads through a shared Google
document. They discussed their ideas and debated their positions, while also posing clarifying
questions to one another. The teacher made note of the key points of conversations she
observed and recorded these in a Venn diagram. The lesson ended with students performing a
"quick write" in their journals about their concluding opinion and evidence to support the
opinion. At the end, the teacher gathered a wealth of information from which to understand her
students' learning and to develop and design the next reading lesson (Kalinich, 2014, para. 4)

10. Summative Assessment
● It is used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the
conclusion of a defined instructional period—at the end of a project, unit, course, semester,
program, or school year. (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2013).
● Standardised tests like SAT and ACT which are used for college
admissions are also types of summative assessment.
● The goal of this assessment is to evaluate student learning by
comparing their performance to a standard grade. Additionally,
it is used to determine whether and to what degree students
have learned the material they have been taught.
● It is considered as high-stakes: it has a high point value
(Top Hat, n.d).

11. Real-Life Example of Summative Assessment
In most teacher-centered education systems like the Cambridge International
Education, summative assessment is the main form of assessment. There are end of
lesson assignments, quizzes or tests at the end of particular periods of the term,
midterm tests and end of term exams. All these tests and examinations are graded
and intended to evaluate the students’ comprehension of what has been previously
taught. In my current school which is Cambridge, students take a minimum of two
tests every term and then at the end of the term they do their terminal
examinations. They are given a terminal report of their academic performance based
on the tests and examination; 40% is allotted to the two tests and 60% to the exams.
With this type of assessment, the student is only considered as excelling
academically at the end of term. This however, may not be a good proof that a
student is academically excellent because some of them only learn or get serious
with their academic work during tests or exams.

12. Alternative assessment
● As the name suggests, it is an alternative form of assessment
to the traditional one that only evaluates students’ ability to
recall and reproduce the same knowledge acquired.
● The alternative assessment measures students’ ability or
proficiency in applying the knowledge received (fraction4kids.com, n.d).
● The main purpose of this assessment is to bring out the student’s
analytical ability and also foster hands-on or experiential learning.
● The types of alternative assessment include: designated projects, portfolios, event task,
presentations and observations.

13. Real-Life Experience of Alternative Assessment
● In Science classes especially, this assessment can be effectively used. In
Grades 7 and 8 Science classes in a Cambridge school, students were
asked to do a project work on how sound is produced.
● This enabled the students to practice what they learnt and as
Cambridge University Press (2018) adduces, this will make the learning
easier for the students.

14. Similarities between the three assessment models.
● The clear connection between the formative, summative and alternative approaches to assessment is
that they all aim to assess the knowledge of the student.
❖ The formative approach assesses the knowledge of the student over a period of time.
❖ The summative assesses the knowledge of the student at fixed times (fixed dates for exams)
❖ The alternative assesses knowledge by making the student apply the knowledge.
● They all seek to enhance the learning of the student in various ways.
❖ The formative enhances the student’s learning in a successive process while the summative
seeks to improve the student’s learning at the end of a particular lesson.

15. Disparity between the three models of assessment
1. Both the formative and alternative methods assess the student during
the learning while the summative only evaluates the student at the end of the
learning. Black (n.d) as cited in The Glossary of Educational Reform (2014)
puts it:“When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When
customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.”
● Thus, both the formative and alternative approaches are more effective
in creating a positive classroom environment in the sense that the teacher is able to instantly assess the
students’ comprehension of what is being taught in order to help them grasp it if they do not, or proceed
if they do.
● When students feel part of the learning process like this and are able to understand the lessons ,they
show more interest in the learning, which discourages disruptive behaviour that create a negative
classroom atmosphere. (The Glossary of Educational Reform, 2014).

16. ● However, the summative approach allows the teacher to evaluate the
students at the end of a whole lesson (which may take days) in order to
know whether the students understood the concepts taught.
● The teacher might not know whether the students were following
what he was teaching or not.
● In this case, students who do understand the lesson will lose interest
in it and will begin to engage in disruptive behaviours.
(The Glossary of Educational Reform, 2014).

17. 2. Moreover, the formative and alternative approaches, in most cases do not require the teacher to
give students grades after the assessment, unlike the summative which mostly leaves the students
with just grades.
● In a formative approach the teacher can use exit slips to get students to write what they want
improved in their classes.
● This will make the students realise that the teacher is concerned about their progress, which will
motivate them to learn more.
● With the alternative assessment also, students can just receive a written or verbal feedback
about a project work they did.
● The teacher can always find positive ways to present the feedback in order not to demotivate the
student.
● On the contrary, in a summative assessment, the teacher has no choice than to put the worst
grade (sometime without feedback) on the student’s paper after a test or examination.

18. ● According to Watson (2019), “grades demotivate, while narrative feedback helpfully focuses
students on useful strategies for improvement.”
● Furthermore, Watson reports the finding of a research about students’ reaction to grading and
feedback and the following are some of the responses:
“Grades did not enhance academic motivation.”
“Grades promoted anxiety, a sense of hopelessness, social comparison, as well as a fear of failure.”
“In contrast, narrative evaluations supported basic psychological needs and enhanced motivation.”
● Fearful and hopeless students can never find the classroom a safe place to learn.
● A positive classroom, in recent times has been greatly associated with students learning in a safe
environment (Parrett et al., n.d).

19. ● Sieberer-Nagler (2015) also avers that a positive classroom
environment is one that is free of anxiety and demotivation.
● Consequently, summative assessment is inappropriate for a positive
classroom environment if its main focus is grading students.

20. 3. Another significant difference between the formative, alternative and summative
methods of assessment is their level of student engagement.
● With activities like students drawing a concept map in class to represent their
understanding of a topic and writing on slips about what they understand or not
understand, one can realise that formative assessment involves activities that engage
the students during classes.
● In alternative assessment also, activities like presentations and practical or project
work during classes greatly engage the students.
● Sieberer-Nagler (2015, p. 168) argues that “effective teachers utilize instructional
strategies that engage students repeatedly throughout the entire lesson.”
● When students are engaged, they will not have enough time to disrupt classes.

21. ● The essence of having a positive classroom environment is for learning to be effective and
both formative and alternative assessments possess the quality for this.
● On the other hand, summative assessment is far from engaging students in activities during
the class.
● Tests and examinations are mostly taken at the end of a term or at times when classes are
not going on.
● With less student engagement is more disruption and more negative classroom
environment.

22. Best Practices and Sample Assessments

23. Best Practices of Formative Assessments
NWEA, 2016

24. Best Practices of Formative Assessments
1. Clarifying learning
a. Showing the learning goals at the
beginning of each lesson.
b. Rationale: reminds students what they
need to achieve in each lesson
c. Purpose: target focus; shows what goal
achievement looks like
2. Eliciting evidence (of learning)
a. A student behavior that shows they
achieve the learning goals
b. Initiated by the teacher, done by the
students
c. Must be directly related to the learning
goals
(NWEA, 2016)
NWEA,
2016

25. Best Practices of Formative Assessments
3. Providing Feedback
a. Immediate, constructive, providing
suggestions for future work and
specific to the assessment
b. Purpose: motivation through
knowledge of results. Students are
more motivated when they know their
progress of learning
4. Activating Learners
a. Students monitoring their own
progress and their peers’.
b. Purpose: Promoting growth mindset
because students find a learning
method that suits them generally or
for a particular subject. NWEA,
2016

26. Formative Assessment: Samples of Best Practices
1. Clarifying learning: Group discussions about the learning goals that have
been presented by the teacher (NWEA, 2016)
a. Groups can roleplay what students who have achieved the learning goals look like
b. Discuss what thinking skills are needed to achieve the learning goals
c. Opportunity to ask questions to the teacher
2. Eliciting evidence: Quiz, games, in-class questions (Learning goal example:
students are able to analyze the causes of circulatory system diseases -
eighth grade) (NWEA, 2016)
a. Quiz & games: Kahoot about the causes of heart diseases
b. In-class questions: teacher tells a story about a person’s lifestyle that leads to a heart
disease. Students are asked to explain how the lifestyle leads to the heart disease. The
teacher provides adequate wait-time, and randomly chooses a student from the roster to
answer the question. All students must be prepared to answer.
c. Both methods listed above will prove useful for teachers to measure the students’ levels of
understanding

27. Formative Assessment: Samples of Best Practices
3. Providing Feedback (Example case: formative quiz)
a. Immediate: The teacher grades the quiz the same night and returns the grades and
feedback to the students the next day
b. Constructive: provides suggestions, and specific to the assessment. Example feedback
from teachers:
i. “Well done (constructive) on listing all the heart diseases that were discussed in
class (specific). Next time, please make sure to provide a more-detailed
explanation about the causes of the diseases instead of simply listing them in
one or two words (provides suggestions).”
ii. “Your lab report was a good attempt (constructive). To save time and prevent
miscalculation, you can use Microsoft Excel to calculate average values for your
data analysis section (provides suggestion). I enjoyed reading the extensive
research you have done on your background/introduction section (constructive,
specific)

28. Formative Assessment: Samples of Best Practices
4. Activating Learners (in-class examples)
a. Self-evaluation: feeling feedback box on each worksheet for students to indicate their
own mastery of the learning goals.
b. Peer evaluation: students answer task questions separately, then discussing their
answers with their peers.
(NWEA, 2016)

29. Summative Assessment Best Practices
(Yourdictionary, n.d.)

30. Summative Assessment Best Practices
1. Authentic: practice real-world skills; assessment is contextualized and
personalized to the students’ lives
a. Assessments become enjoyable and less fearsome to the students
2. Reliable: assessments can be used in various classroom settings and
student groups of the same grade level and produce similar results.
a. Requires quantitative analysis methods
b. Purpose: filter out biased and unchallenging questions.
3. Sufficient frequency: assessments are not too often and not too sparse.
a. Positive mindset of assessments
b. Test fatigue: results do not reflect learning
(Yourdictionary, n.d.)

31. Summative Assessment Best Practices
4. Valid: assessment is directly related to learning goals
a. Example of invalid assessment: if the learning goal is to identify heart diseases and
one question of the assessment is “which of the following is a neurodegenerative
disorder?”
b. Purpose: students are motivated when they know the answers; prevents confusion
5. Various: different formats of assessment throughout each unit
a. Purpose: accommodate all types of learners.
(Yourdictionary, n.d.)

32. Summative Assessment Sample: Socratic
Discussion
Students are split into groups and do presentation of their positions about a certain topic. Other
groups and the teacher challenge the presenters with questions and the presenters defend
themselves (Yourdictionary, n.d.)
This form of assessment is:
1. Authentic: students are allowed to present their argument through their own examples and
readings.
2. Reliable: repeatable with different classroom settings.
3. Sufficient frequency and volume: cannot be done too often as it requires a lot of
preparation, but can be done once in a while. The depth of the discussion is also adjusted to
the abilities of the students.
4. Valid: it is only valid if the discussion topic is related to the learning goals.
5. Various: provides variety of opportunities for each individual student to use their dominant
intelligences.

33. Summative Assessment Sample: Portfolio
A collection of student work collected by the students throughout a certain unit or
any appropriate period of learning. These records are kept by the teacher and
returned at the end of a unit of learning or the term (Yourdictionary, n.d.).
This form of assessment is:
1. Authentic and various: students are allowed to choose what assignments they
are most proud of into the portfolio as individuals.
2. Reliable: can be used with any kind of class in any level
3. Sufficient frequency and volume: no pressure; students add into their portfolios
in their own time. Teachers just remind the students every now and then to do
so.
4. Valid: the things inserted into the portfolio is student work throughout the
learning process. Therefore, its contents are directly related to the learning

34. Alternative Assessment Best Practices
1. Broader area of assessment than formative and summative.
Alternative assessments can be used as formative and summative
assessments.
2. Make sure that the method of choice of the alternative assessment is
actually alternative, and not simply test-taking.
3. Make a rubric for each alternative assessment.
a. Students need to know the rubric so that they know the targets of each aspect of the
assessment
b. Serve as a guide for teachers to grade assessments
On this note, both portfolios and discussions are alternative assessments
(Rousseau, 2018)

35. Alternative Assessment Sample: Website and Blog
Students are asked to make a website or write a blog as learning journals throughout the year.
Teachers grade their websites/blogs throughout the learning and provide an overall score at the
end of the term using a rubric that students are aware of before starting the website/blog.
This form of assessment is both formative and summative.
1. As formative assessment
a. Teachers should give immediate feedback for every entry.
b. Teachers can see what the students have learned and if they have achieved the learning goals.
c. Students can read and evaluate each other’s blogs.
2. As summative assessment
a. Authentic and various: students have limitless capabilities to design and write in whatever way they desire.
b. Reliable: can be used for any kind of student in the correct level.
c. Sufficient frequency and volume: similar to portfolios, students have no pressure to write an entry.
d. Valid: the website/blog are related to their learning goals.
(Rousseau, 2018)

36. Importance of Teacher Self Assessment
Having discussed the importance of assessment in student achievement and in creating and
maintaining
a positive classroom environment, it is very necessary for the teacher to also do some self-assessment
that will enable him to improve his general performance and interactions with students.
● According to Lit (2008) it is important for teachers to self assess in the classroom environment
in order to evaluate their performance. When teachers fail to self evaluate, they will teach
concepts the same way and use the same exercises again and again.
● When learning becomes monotonous in the classroom, students’ interest in learning becomes
low and this creates a negative classroom environment.
● When teachers begin the evaluation process, they will see areas in which they can improve and
determine how to become a more effective.

37. Importance of Teacher Self Assessment... Continued
● Teacher self assessment helps to create a positive classroom environment by allowing teachers
to reflect on their teaching skills as well as classroom management.
● It helps teachers learn how to properly adjust teaching strategies, maintain order, effectively
teach discipline, and evaluate their personal level of professionalism when it comes to
completing lesson plans.
(Lit, 2008)
● With this, the teacher’s skills are improved, resulting in very effective teaching and learning in
general.
● As long as teaching and learning are effective, the teacher has
succeeded in creating and maintaining a positive classroom
atmosphere.

38. References
Berry, R. (2008). Assessment for learning. Retrieved from eBook Central (accessed through LIRN)
Cambridge University Press (2018). Practical work: The benefits, challenges and solutions. Educational Resources for
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ence%20activities.
Edutopia (2008).What Are Some Types of Assessment? Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-
description
Edutopia (2008). Why Is Assessment Important? Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-importance
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39. Lit. (2008, November 18). The Importance of Teacher Self-Assessment: The First Step in Implementing A Teacher
Improvement Plan. Retrieved from https://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-methods-tips/15761-importance-of-
teacher-self-assessment
NWEA. (2016, March). 4 Formative Assessment Practices that Make a Difference in Classrooms. Retrieved from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED567811.pdf
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from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1087130.pdf
Rousseau, P. (2018). Best Practices in Alternative Assessments. Retrieved from Ryerson University:
https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/learning-teaching/teaching-resources/assessment/alternative-assessments.pdf
The Glossary of Educational Reform (n.d). Summative Assessment https://www.edglossary.org/summative-assessment/
The Glossary of Educational Reform (2014). Classroom Management. https://www.edglossary.org/classroom-management/

40. Thomas (2019). 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/7-
smart-fast-ways-do-formative-assessment
Top Hat (n.d). What is Summative Assessment? https://tophat.com/glossary/s/summative-assessment/
Watson (2019). True/False: Grades Motivate Students to Study Better. Learning and the Brain.
https://www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/true-false-grades-motivate-students-to-study-better/
Yourdictionary. (n.d.). Effective Summative Assessment Examples for Classrooms. Retrieved from Yourdictionary:
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/effective-summative-assessment-examples-for-classrooms.html