What is Assessment?
Assessment can be defined as the systematic and ongoing method of gathering, analysing and using information from measured outcomes to improve student learning in terms of knowledge acquired, understanding developed, and skills and competencies gained (O'Farrell, n.d.). It also involves providing feedback to learners and should be part of the learning process.
In the Early Years Classroom it is the process of observing what children know, what they can do and the things they are interested in. Teachers can then use this knowledge to inform future planning and plan experiences that provide opportunities for learners to grown in all areas of development.
Education Queensland (n.d) describe tell us that assessment:
In the Early Years Classroom it is the process of observing what children know, what they can do and the things they are interested in. Teachers can then use this knowledge to inform future planning and plan experiences that provide opportunities for learners to grown in all areas of development.
Education Queensland (n.d) describe tell us that assessment:
- is a part of planning;
- focuses on how students learn;
- is essential to classroom practice;
- is a key professional tool;
- is sensitive and constructive;
- fosters motivation;
- promotes understanding of goals and criteria;
- helps learners know how to improve;
- develops the capacity for self-assessment;
- recognises all educational achievement.
What is the Purpose of Assessment
Education Queensland (n.d) describe tell us that assessment:
Furthermore assessment can:
- promote, assist and improve student learning
- inform programs of teaching and learning
- provide data that can be communicated to a range of people about the progress and achievements of individual students or groups of students
Furthermore assessment can:
- Help teachers to find out where the students is as so that they can start at an appropriate place, finding out how this particular group of students best learn.
- To provide learners with feedback on how they are progressing through the learning process. Explicit feedback from the teacher can provide information on what the student is doing that is effective and the next step in the learning process.
- Provide data such as. Are the students achieving a standard appropriate to their learning ability? What is the next step in their learning? What can be done to support them? What do they need to be doing for themselves? (CQUniversity, 2013)
Types of Assessment
Formative Assessment—occurs when the primary purpose of the activity is to ascertain how students are progressing with their learning, when the information is then used to adjust the learning journey to help students achieve better outcomes.
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Summative Assessment—occurs when the data and information gathered through the assessment process is used to indicate the standard or level of achievement that a student has reached at a particular point in time. It is usually related to reporting and certification.
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Diagnostic Assessment—can be viewed as a kind of formative assessment, and is used to determine the nature of student learning problems or needs to then be able to provide the appropriate feedback or intervention
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Authentic Assessment
McMillan (2004) tells us that, “Authentic Assessment involves the direct examination of a student’s ability to use knowledge to perform a task that is like what is encountered in real life or in the real world. Authenticity is judged in the nature of the task completed and in the context of the task”. This form of assessment is so effective because it provides children with opportunities to demonstrate their skills in the environment which they are most comfortable thus resulting in a greater chance of success.
As children apply their knowledge and skills in real world situations it promotes and supports the development of deeper levels of understanding.
As children apply their knowledge and skills in real world situations it promotes and supports the development of deeper levels of understanding.
What does Authentic assessment look like?
Teachers and students collect evidence of student development over time in learning journals or portfolios. Such Authentic assessment samples include:
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Above: A short video showing what authentic assessment looks like in an early years classroom.
(Brady & Kennedy, 2012) |
Common misunderstanding about assessment
Assessment for learning & the EYLF
Assessment for children’s learning refers to the process of gathering and analysing information as evidence about what children know, can do and understand. It is part of an ongoing cycle that includes planning, documenting and evaluating children’s learning.
It is important because it enables educators in partnership with families, children and other professionals to:
Other Key Points in the EYLF Belonging, Becoming & Being (DEEWR, 2009) document which link the practice of documenting using portfolios as an effective assessment strategy include:
Educators use a variety of strategies to collect, document, organise, synthesise and interpret the information that they gather to assess children’s learning. They search for appropriate ways to collect rich and meaningful information that depicts children’s learning in context, describes their progress and identifies their strengths, skills and understandings. More recent approaches to assessment also examine the learning strategies that children use and reflect ways in which learning is co-constructed through interactions between the educator and each child. Used effectively, these approaches to assessment become powerful ways to make the process of learning visible to children and their families, educators and other professionals.
The five Learning Outcomes in this Framework, as outlined later, provide early childhood educators with key reference points against which children’s progress can be identified, documented and communicated to families, other early childhood professionals and educators in schools. Over time educators can reflect on how children have developed, how they have engaged with increasingly complex ideas and participated in increasingly sophisticated learning experiences.
Ongoing assessment processes that include a diverse array of methods capture and validate the different pathways that children take toward achieving these outcomes. Such processes do not focus exclusively on the endpoints of children’s learning; they give equal consideration to the ‘distance-travelled’ by individual children and recognise and celebrate not only the giant leaps that children take in their learning but the small steps as well.
All children demonstrate their learning in different ways. Approaches to assessment that are culturally and linguistically relevant and responsive to the physicial and intellectual capabilities of each child will acknowledge each child’s abilities and strengths, and allow them to demonstrate competence.
Including children, families and other professionals in the development and implementation of relevant and appropriate assessment processes allows for new understandings to emerge that are not possible if educators rely solely on their own strategies and perspectives.
Developing inclusive assessment practices with children and their families demonstrates respect for diversity, helps educators make better sense of what they have observed and supports learning for both children and adults.
Assessment, when undertaken in collaboration with families, can assist families to support children’s learning and empower them to act on behalf of their children beyond the early childhood setting. When children are included in the assessment process they can develop an understanding of themselves as learners and an understanding of how they learn best.
Belonging, Becoming & Being (DEEWR, 2009)
It is important because it enables educators in partnership with families, children and other professionals to:
- plan effectively for children’s current and future learning
- communicate about children’s learning and progress
- determine the extent to which all children are progressing toward realising learning outcomes and if not, what might be impeding their progress
- identify children who may need additional support in order to achieve particular learning outcomes, providing that support or assisting families to access specialist help
- evaluate the effectiveness of learning opportunities, environments and experiences offered and the approaches taken to enable children’s learning
- reflect on pedagogy that will suit this context and these children.
Other Key Points in the EYLF Belonging, Becoming & Being (DEEWR, 2009) document which link the practice of documenting using portfolios as an effective assessment strategy include:
Educators use a variety of strategies to collect, document, organise, synthesise and interpret the information that they gather to assess children’s learning. They search for appropriate ways to collect rich and meaningful information that depicts children’s learning in context, describes their progress and identifies their strengths, skills and understandings. More recent approaches to assessment also examine the learning strategies that children use and reflect ways in which learning is co-constructed through interactions between the educator and each child. Used effectively, these approaches to assessment become powerful ways to make the process of learning visible to children and their families, educators and other professionals.
The five Learning Outcomes in this Framework, as outlined later, provide early childhood educators with key reference points against which children’s progress can be identified, documented and communicated to families, other early childhood professionals and educators in schools. Over time educators can reflect on how children have developed, how they have engaged with increasingly complex ideas and participated in increasingly sophisticated learning experiences.
Ongoing assessment processes that include a diverse array of methods capture and validate the different pathways that children take toward achieving these outcomes. Such processes do not focus exclusively on the endpoints of children’s learning; they give equal consideration to the ‘distance-travelled’ by individual children and recognise and celebrate not only the giant leaps that children take in their learning but the small steps as well.
All children demonstrate their learning in different ways. Approaches to assessment that are culturally and linguistically relevant and responsive to the physicial and intellectual capabilities of each child will acknowledge each child’s abilities and strengths, and allow them to demonstrate competence.
Including children, families and other professionals in the development and implementation of relevant and appropriate assessment processes allows for new understandings to emerge that are not possible if educators rely solely on their own strategies and perspectives.
Developing inclusive assessment practices with children and their families demonstrates respect for diversity, helps educators make better sense of what they have observed and supports learning for both children and adults.
Assessment, when undertaken in collaboration with families, can assist families to support children’s learning and empower them to act on behalf of their children beyond the early childhood setting. When children are included in the assessment process they can develop an understanding of themselves as learners and an understanding of how they learn best.
Belonging, Becoming & Being (DEEWR, 2009)