Techniques and Tools Of School Based Assessment

 

Tools and Techniques of Assessment

(School Based Assessment)

By : Tariq Ahmad Malik             

Tariq Ahmad Malik

                       Master, HS Hardu Chanam

Ph:7006121241.Email:taraiq@gmail.com

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Introduction: In this lecture we will be dealing with the main techniques and tools of assessment .Next we will turn to subsidiary assessment techniques. Finally we will try to examine which tools are  the most relevant to the given techniques for achieving better results

Main Techniques of assessment

·       Self Assessment : It is the assessment of the child by himself. We allow him to know his abilities, weaknesses, areas of interest, and level of progress. The child provides the feedback to the teacher by himself.

·       Peer Assessment: In this assessment two classmates are encouraged to discuss with each other about their strengths and weaknesses. They provide feedback to each other.

·       Group Assessment : The children are allowed to work on some project and share their responsibility as per their capacities. They learn from one another ,guide one another, provide feedback to one another, and enhance their levels of learning

 

Subsidiary assessment Techniques:

1.    Class test/Examination

 

Ø Diagnostic assessment: Before starting the new course the teacher assess the previous knowledge, learning, capabilities, weaknesses etc. and makes the diagnose of his class so as to work out which method of teaching he should go with.

Ø Prognostic assessment: After knowing the learning levels, and the aptitude of the children the teacher formulates what pedagogy suits best for them in the future course of action.

Ø Formative Assessment: The assessment made by the teacher during every day teaching-learning process in order to receive feedback and modify the teaching pedagogy accordingly. It is process oriented. It is simply assessment for learning.

Ø Summative Assessment: The assessment made by the end of the course to judge the performance of the students. It passes value judgment and is expressed in grades and scores. Thus Summative assessment is purely Product oriented.

2.    Observation:   The teacher observes the students throughout the school hours .He observes their activities in the classroom as well as outsides the classroom, in the play field, morning assembly etc. He observes their attitudes, aptitudes, behaviors etc. observation could be planned, structured, participant in nature, or it can be unplanned, artificial, and non-participant in nature.

3.    Self-Reporting: we provide the students opportunities to express their feeling with regards to various issues related to them. The children do easily express their feelings, interests, learning levels, weaknesses etc. For this item the teacher either comes with surveys or frames questionnaires or organizes the interviews.

Ø Survey: the teacher frames many question about the issues related to the students, and seeks on spot responses from them

Ø Questionaire: The teachers frames questions and seeks written responses from students

Ø Interviews: The teacher does also plan interviews to know the learning levels of the students. He may have structured interview where in the questions are already framed, or he may ask questions out of his own choice.

4.    Anecdotal Records: Short account of some episode in which a child showed some particular behavior e.g.: courage, fear, wit and wisdom etc. shall find a special place in the recordings of the teacher. The child must be encouraged those positive traits, and provided feedback for negative traits.

5.    Debates/Oral Presentations: These help us to know about the communication skills and performing art expertise of the children. It gives us the insight of their expertise at arranging, analyzing, and synthesizing the ideas regarding an event.

6.    Project/Group work: Sometimes we frame groups of the children and assign them some group activity. The teacher can observe the children displaying many positive attributes e.g. leadership qualities, skill acquiring, working as a team, solving problems together etc.

7.    Assignments/Homework: Assignments and homework help the students work out different aspects of their learning.They develop the traits like remembering, comprehension,   applicability, analyses ,evaluation and creation .The teacher can get to know the learning capacities of his children quite easily after using this valuable technique.

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 Assessment Tools

In order to know whether or not the students are showing progress in their learning of various competencies .The teacher may use some handy tools which will give him an instant overview of his students’ capabilities. Some of these tools are:

1. Checklists: A checklist is a very simple tool with a teacher to assess the progress of his students. The teacher frames some questions about the desired competencies and asks the students to fill the checklist on the spot.

 

 

 

 

           Checklist Exemplar

S.NO	Item	Responses
1	Can you read the text easily?	Yes/No
2	Have you understood the content?	Yes/No
3	Can you write answers to all the questions?	Yes/No
4	Can you write the summary of the lesson?	Yes/No
5	Can you discuss the lesson before the class?	Yes/No
6	How should the teacher act in the class?	Strict/Friendly

 

2.Rating scale: We sometimes use 5-point rating scale to assess the progress of our students. In this tool we assign every competency a specific value and express the students’ progress accordingly.

E.g.:(1= Poor,2= weak,3=good,4=very good,5= Excellent).

                    Rating Scale Exemplar

Rate your competencies as per the rating Scale

S.No	Item		Rating
1	What do you think about your reading?		5
2	How do you rate your comprehension?		4
3	How are you at applying your knowledge?		2
4	How good you are in games?		3
5	How are you at helping the needy?	3

 

3. Rubrics: We use rubrics to indicate with clarity the achievement criteria across all components of students’ learning pursuits.

 

Rubrics Exemplar

Item	Average	Good	Very Good
Content	I am very slow at ready the content.	I manage to read all the content with my efforts.	I do read all content without much effort.
Comprehension	I understand very little of the content.	I understand the concepts after reading many times.	I do easily understand and analyse ever concept.
Grammar	I am very confused about grammar	I don’t have too much problem with grammar.	I am well versed with grammar.

 

Conclusion:  After having learnt school based assessment minutely as an assessment for learning, we are now all set to implement the concept at school level. We hope it will usher a new dawn in our teaching-learning process.

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