1. Teaching Today: An Introduction to Education 8th edition
Part 2: Working with Students
Chapter 7: How Do We Know Students Have Learned?
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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2. The Need to Understand Assessment
Teacher make daily decisions about the progress of learners.
Teachers make daily decisions about the effectiveness of instruction.
Student achievement scores are used to inform the public about the quality of individual schools.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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3. The Need to Understand… (continued)
Student achievement scores are used to inform the public about the relative excellence of teachers.
Performance evaluations and possibly teacher employment may depend upon good assessments.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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4. Focus Questions Who decides the purpose of assessment?
Which terms are used in the assessment of student performance?
How are the results of assessment used in the instructional process?
When did the focus of assessment change?
Why did the focus of assessment change?
What are the measurement options?
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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5. The Purposes of Assessment
Determining student knowledge
Using student achievement scores to inform the public about the quality of individual schools
Using student achievement scores to inform the public about the relative excellence of those who are teaching
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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6. Purposes of Assessment (continued)
Using student achievement scores to evaluate teacher performance
Helping to identify students who might have learning difficulties
Helping to determine the value of the instructional materials
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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7. Purposes of Assessment (continued)
Informing others on the progress of a given student or a group of students
Helping make decisions about the allocation of resources
Forming the basis for grading and student evaluation
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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8. Purposes of Assessment (continued)
Affirmations of success for students
Component for the instructional process to help reshape programs
Professional growth
Identification of successful instructional approaches
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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9. Key Assessment Terms
Assessment – the purposeful collection of data from a variety of sources for the purpose of rendering a judgment.
An assessment plan - involves the identification of data sources that are relevant to a specified set of learning outcomes.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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10. Key Assessment Terms (continued)
Measurement – involves quantifying the presence or absence of a quality, trait, or attribute (Gallagher, 1998). The accuracy of this value depends upon using the right measurement tool.
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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11. Key Assessment Terms (continued)
Evaluation – interpreting the meaning of the data. It is the intellectual process of making a judgment about the value or worth of something. To make a judgment, you must have clear criteria.
Norm Referencing
Criterion Referencing
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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12. Key Assessment Terms Evaluation (continued)
Norm-referenced evaluation – an individual’s scores are compared to the scores of the appropriate reference group. A common way of establishing these norms is by reference to scores that are distributed along a bell-shaped curve.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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13. Key Assessment Terms Evaluation (continued)
Standardized tests are usually norm-referenced evaluations. When you look at these scores you should ask how was the norm group selected, how should individuals’ scores be interpreted, and when were the norms established?
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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14. Key Assessment Terms Evaluation (continued)
Criterion-referenced evaluations require judgments based on how the performance of each person compares to a standard or set of criteria rather than how their scores compared to others (Gallagher, 1998).
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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15. Key Assessment Terms (continued)
Grade – a method of communicating evaluation conclusions. Because the grading system communicates to students, parents, school board members, and the public, you must consider what your grading system is communicating and whether or not it is accurate and fair.
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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16. Assessment and Instruction
Assessments plays multiple roles in the instructional process. These include:
Placement assessment
Formative assessment
Summative assessment (Gronlund, 1998)
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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17. Assessment and Instruction (continued)
Placement assessment addresses the question “Where do I begin?” The purpose is to identify whether the students have the necessary prerequisite knowledge and skill to be successful in a given unit of study. It takes the form of a pretest and is performed prior to beginning a new unit or course of study.
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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18. Assessment and Instruction (continued)
Formative assessment takes place during an instructional sequence. The basic question asked is “Are students learning the material?” It is used to
Determine if students are making satisfactory progress, and
Modify instructional approaches
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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19. Assessment Instruction (continued)
Diagnostic assessment probes for specific causes of failure.
Summative assessment takes place at the conclusion of an instructional unit or sequence. The purposes are to determine which learners have accomplished the objectives and to provide you with information you can use to communicate to others what students have learned.
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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20. Planning for Assessment
Defining Educational Outcomes
Classifying Educational Outcomes
Developing Criteria
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21. Taxonomy
Taxonomy refers to a classification scheme. Taxonomies provide a framework for addressing a wide range of educational outcomes.
Educational taxonomies emphasize three domains of learning: the cognitive domain, the affective domain, and the psychomotor domain.
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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22. Bloom’s Taxonomy – Cognitive Domain
Knowledge – recall of specific items of information (memory level)
Comprehension – requires the learner to recall specific information and also reflect on their grasp of its meaning by interpreting, translating, or extrapolating
Application – the ability to not only understand but also to know how and when to use the information to solve problems
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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23. Bloom’s Taxonomy (continued)
Analysis – the ability to break complex information down into parts and to understand how the parts are related or organized
Synthesis – the cognitive processes usually associated with creativity; reverse of analysis
Evaluation – the act of judging something against a set of criteria
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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24. Krathwohl’s Taxonomy – affective domain
Receiving – showing awareness
Responding – making a response
Valuing – expressing interest
Organization – integrating personal beliefs and attitudes to establish a hierarchy
Characterization – making a commitment
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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25. Developing Criteria Are the important outcomes assessed?
Are the assessment procedures appropriate for the nature of the outcomes – are they valid?
Are there sufficient samples of behavior to allow for a fair judgment?
Do the measurement tools meet adequate technical standards?
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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26. Developing Criteria (continued)
Is the assessment appropriate for the developmental level of the learner?
Are the assessment procedures free from bias?
How are the results of the assessment interpreted and used?
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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27. Measurement Options
Selected response measures – include those tests that require individuals to choose, or select, a response from those provided
Two-response test items – allow individuals to select from two possible answers, one of which is correct
Multiple-choice items – provides a stem and three or more answer choices
Matching items – one list of questions; one list of answers
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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28. Measurement Options (continued)
Free-response measures – require learners to generate responses of their own rather than select responses from a list of provided alternatives. The most common type of free-response test is the essay.
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Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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29. Measurement Options (continued)
Performance assessment – attempts to assess the performance of students on a realistic or “authentic” task.
Learner portfolios – a purposeful collection of artifacts and performances related to a learner’s effort, progress, or achievement.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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30. Summary
All teachers need to understand assessment and assessment alternatives.
Assessment results enable teachers to change instructional practices to lead to higher levels of learner motivation and achievement.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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31. Summary (continued)
Assessment refers to collected data that shows what an individual has learned.
Measurement refers to the process of quantifying an attribute or quality.
Evaluation is the process of making a judgment about the data.
Grades are the evaluation results.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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32. Summary (continued)
Two basic orientations are used in making evaluation decisions:
Norm-referenced approaches, comparing scores of individual learners with those of a group with similar characteristics, or
Criterion-referenced approaches, comparing scores of an individual learner against a standard or set of criteria.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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33. Summary (continued)
Placement assessment helps to determine an appropriate beginning point for instruction.
Formative assessment collects data to indicate how well learners are learning new material.
Summative assessment provide data to indicate knowledge and skills learned at the end of the term.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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34. Summary (continued) - Defining intended outcome goals
Planning for assessment involves
- Defining intended outcome goals
Classifying educational outcomes
Developing criteria to use to make judgments related to the adequacy of the learners’ level of achievement
The plan should provide adequate samplings and bias-free procedures.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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35. Summary (continued)
Selected-response measures require learners to choose answers from among several choices – true/false, multiple choice, and matching.
Free-response measures require students to generate answers – essay tests, short-answer tests, and oral tests.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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36. Summary (continued)
Performance assessments require learners to apply new learning and is variously termed authentic assessment, direct assessment, and product assessment. You may use checklists, or rubrics to gather data.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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37. Summary (continued)
A learner portfolio is a purposeful collection of products and performances related to the learners’ efforts, progress, or achievement. It is useful to document growth over time.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
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38. Reflection
Reflect on your test-tasking experiences: Which type of test causes you the most anxiety? Why? Which type of test are you most comfortable answering? Why?
List the main ideas and information you have learned in this chapter that will help you to construct/select better assessments, and detail how they will help you.
Teaching Today, 8e
Armstrong, Henson and Savage
Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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