1. Assessment in the Context
of the New Curriculum

2. This Presentation Covers
What is classroom assessment ?
Assessment in the context of the new curriculum
A New Assessment Emphasis – Classroom Assessment
What does good classroom assessment mean? (What teachers should know in order to carry out good quality CA?)
How to implement classroom assessment? (How do we plan and deliver CA?)
How to record and mark students’ learning? (How can teacher create an effective marking system for their students in grade 1?)

3. What is Classroom Assessment?
This is any form of assessment, undertaken by the teacher with the students, related to the teaching/learning situation.
It is undertaken by engaging the students in providing evidence of learning by:
visual (writing, drawing, typing, video)
oral (verbal interactions)
actions which the teacher observes
or a combination of these
Discussion Question - can Classroom Assessment be considered the same as Continuous Assessment?

4. When Should the Teacher carry out Classroom Assessment?
All the time!
There is no specific time.
It depends on purpose.
Its purpose may be to determine actual attainment of a specific curriculum standard.
Or it may be to determine student progress towards the standard and hence their achievement, or different levels of achievement, at that point in time.
At the end of each lesson. This acts as a lesson summary
Discussion Question - When should teachers carry our classroom assessment (both formative and summative)?

5. How to develop a new vision of assessment?
Relate the evaluation to standards of achievement
Begin with what students can do, and consider their learning needs
Give students the support needed to progress
Use reports to describe students’ learning
Encourage students to take a more active role in evaluating their own progress

6. Classroom Assessment and Key Competences
The student learning within the Kuwait National Curriculum Framework is expressed in term of acquiring Key Competences. Classroom Assessment is thus providing indicators associated with progress towards achieving the Key Competences. The Key Competences are divided into 8 sections. The first 6 sections largely relate to knowledge and skills. But also of importance are those stated in sections 7 and 8, which relate to: Section 7 - Personal Development and Learning to Learn (personal attributes) Section 8 - Life and Work, Entrepreneurship, Economic and Financial Competences. (social attributes) Discussion Question – How can teachers ensure students are making progress towards achieving the full range of key competences ?

7. Classroom Assessment based on General / Specific Competences
Each subject curriculum interprets key competences in terms of General and specific competences. The curriculum standards state the specific competences in terms which can be used for student assessment.
In the curriculum, there are four dimensions of specific competences to be assessed:
the range of realities
the range of operations
the range of personal values
the range of connections
Discussion Question - how can you meaningfully express each of these dimensions so that a parent could understand?

8. Assessment in the New Curriculum
Assessment is a process to obtain a measure of attainment through which teachers seek indicators that tell them to what extent students are attaining the standards.
Assessment shows us – based on evidence - how much and how well students have achieved the specific competences stated in the prescribed Kuwait National Curriculum for a particular grade level and in a particular subject area.
Discussion Question - Does this differ from assessment in the old system?

9. Why Undertake Assessment?
Assessment is undertaken to determine student achievement against the standards indicated in the curriculum (or as performance standards at the end of grades 5, 9, 12). Students are expected to attain the curriculum standards associated with each learning unit in the curriculum. These represents the target for the teaching and learning process. The teacher (& students) need to be aware of the learning progress. Two key factors are now indicated: 1. Assessment is needed to indicate how the student is progressing. 2.Assessment is needed to determine whether the student has attained the curriculum standard(s). Discussion question - Are there really only 2 Key Factors?

10. What is a Curriculum Standard?
In the curriculum, each curriculum standard is linked to a specific competence.
The link is via suggested learning activities to be undertake by students for each specific competence/curriculum standard.
Undertaking such activities, in the estimated time span associated with the teaching, is expected to lead to the attainment of the curriculum standard.
Discussion question - Why have Curriculum Standards?

11. Attaining a Curriculum Standard
Possible factors which impact on student attainment
1. teaching time (time on task(s) - some students need more time than others)
2. teaching orientation/focus (teaching relates to the curriculum standards)
3. student engagement (student is focused on developing competences )
4. student ability (some students need more support)
teaching quality (is the support/feedback sufficient)
student motivation (this is related to student effort)

12. Three assessment components related to learning
Achievement is the progress made by a student in acquiring new skills that are reflected in improvement, in grades, in examinations.
• Attainment is reaching a certain skill level that has been set as a standard.
Progress is the gain/improvement made by students from one assessment indicator to another.
Discussion Question - Are these 3 components interrelated? If so, how?

13. Forms of Classroom Assessment
Formative classroom assessment
Assessment undertaken informally at a time and in a manner preferred by the teacher. It can be whole class related, or on an individual or groups of individuals taking place during the classroom session. It is only formative when the teacher directly utilises the feedback obtained to aid learning.
Summative classroom assessment
Assessment held at the end of a teaching period. This could be a learning unit, end of semester, end of the school year. It is assessment of the learning during the period specified.  The feedback obtained can be utilised, but this is the future which a change of context.
Discussion Question If both forms can be part of Classroom Assessment, how do they differ and which form needs to be more dominant?

14. How to carry out Classroom Assessment?
Three important approaches are proposed:
1. (i) Interacting with students when the students are writing, etc.
- The formative assessment approach
(ii) Marking students work afterwards - The summative approach
(i) Asking question/listening to student(s) - The formative assessment
(ii) The summative approach is unlikely involves students in a ‘viva’
(i) Simply observing what students do The formative assessment
(ii) No summative equivalent.
Discussion Question - Are all the formative approaches really feasible?

15. Advantages of Successful Classroom Assessment
It can provide useful and important information to the teacher (and student).
It can be used to motivate students to learn (increase their effort).
Advantage of Formative Classroom Assessment
It allows the teacher to take immediate remedial action i.e. enables formative assessment whereby the teacher obtains an indicator from the assessment and takes appropriate action.
It can guide the pace of teaching to meet students’ needs.
Discussion Question - Do you agree with the above assertions?

16. Formative assessment = Assessment for learning
Helps teachers to have a clear picture of the abilities and needs of their learners
Is done for the purpose of measuring what the learners can and cannot do during the learning process It
is on-going
is tied to learning outcomes
provides information that help decisions about planning and instruction
allows teachers to provide immediate, effective feedback that guides learning

17. Summative assessment = Assessment of learning
Measures the learners’ abilities to meet outcomes after learning. It
is tied to learning outcomes
occurs at the end of a learning unit or cycle
is used to evaluate whether learners have achieved the standards and to what degree
is used to make decisions about learners’ next placement

18. When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative
When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative. When the guests taste the soup, that's summative. (Robert Stake)

19. Planning the assessment
With
what?
How much?
Why?
What?
How?
Focus specific
competences/meet the standards
Select the learning content
Undertake learning activities
Analyse resources
Set assessment

20. The Five dimensions of a good assessment :

21. Planning the assessment techniques Assessment matrix
Standard
observation
quiz
Oral presentation
Self-assessment
Project
Practice
Drawing
1.1 x
1.2
2.1
2.2
2.3
3.1

22. A new marking system for CA
Change of focus: from summative to formative assessment
Standard-based assessment
The marking system will convert results of continuous classroom assessment into a simpler form of quantitative measurement
Assessment and marking should be friendly to students

24. Marking system – total points
Based on the results of the continuous classroom assessment, a student can accumulate:
a total of 50 points for each period
40 points derived from formative assessment and
10 points based on summative assessment.
The ratio between summative and formative assessment is ¼.

25. Formative assessment (40 points for each academic period)
Summative assessment (10 points for each academic period)
How to assess?
Feedback & further actions
-Applying it whenever the teacher decides it is necessary.
-Focusing on the development of specific competences along a “period”.
-Assessing the achievement of specific competences by means of : (i) students’ oral interaction, (ii) small assignments/tasks on paper, and (iii) student’s general behavior and attitudes.
-observation, oral interactions, presentations etc.
- Smiley faces will be used to report student results.
-Student results should be systematically recorded in a competence-centered portfolio to: (a) track learning progress; (b) correct deficiencies in concept understanding; and (c) prevent school failure.
-Applying it at the end of a learning unit/semester.
-Focusing on specific competences achieved by the end of a learning unit.
-Using pencil and paper tests, as well as projects and portfolios as the most common instrument for summative assessment.
-Summative assessment is corroborated with formative assessment to develop individualized plans for remedial instruction, special programs for advanced students and/or tailored support for improvement in specific competences.

26. The curriculum standard – basis for levels and descriptors
Standard 2.3: The student is able to determine and compare lengths using non-standard measure units.
Levels
(Rating scale)
Descriptors (Criterion A,B,C)
Very well done
Compare the lengths of three objects or drawings that cannot be superposed through estimation
Identify and express on an increasing or decreasing scale the position of at least four objects whose lengths have been ordered
Well done
Compare the lengths of two drawings that cannot be superposed through estimation
Express the ordering of the lengths of three objects/drawings using words such as: the longest, the shortest, the tallest, etc.
Satisfactorily done
A. Compare the lengths of two objects through superposition or juxtaposition.
B. Express the comparison of the lengths of two objects/ drawings using words such as: longer, shorter, thicker, thinner, taller, etc.

27. Tasks for different levels of attaining the curriculum standard
Circle the longest in each case.

28. How to mark based on descriptors?
1 point
2 points
3 points
The student correctly solved only one task.
The student correctly solved only two tasks.
The student correctly solved tasks a, b and c.

29. The curriculum standard – basis for levels and descriptors (An example)

30. Recording students’ results
Students’ results should be systematically recorded in order to:
Track the learning progress
Correct deficiencies in conceptual understanding
Prevent school failure
A basis for appropriate feedback given by he teacher to students

31. THE END
I hope this was useful