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Tanya Valencic

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EDFD Assessment task 2: ESSAY

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3. Assessment and Reporting for Learning:

SHOULD TEACHERS STILL BE USING TESTS IN SCHOOL, OR ARE THERE MORE
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF ASSESSING STUDENTS LEARNING?


Should teachers still be using tests in school, or are there more effective ways of
assessing students learning? This is a question that the writer is constantly challenged with
whilst working in the professional field and learning about primary school teaching.
Throughout this essay the writer will talk about more effective ways of monitoring
students learning, drawing on both professional experiences as well as utilising a range of
resources to support her point. As Callingham (2010) has stated assessment is arguably
the most powerful element in teaching and learning. Quality assessment can provide
information to students, teachers, parents and systems in effective and useful ways (p.
41). Throughout this essay the writer will argue why observation and appraising students
work samples, homework and portfolios are considered valuable ways of assessing
students learning. It will also point out the negative aspects of conducting tests on
students and how it can be a superficial way of assessing learning.

When observing students you are assessing them in their natural state, whilst they are
participating and engaging in a lesson as opposed to assessing their potential from the
results of an artificially composed test worksheet made specifically for assessment
purposes. According to Airasian (As cited in Westwood, 2008), planned observation
represents a very important and natural means of classroom assessment (p 73).
Throughout the writers recent professional experience she was able to witness and
participate in observing students for assessment. Whilst taking lessons she was instructed
by her associate teacher to take anecdotal observation notes. After writing these notes, on
reflection she was then able to see the progress of each student and was able to pin point
what they did and did not understand. This helped the writer create future individualised
lessons according to the areas where the student or students needed growth or
challenging in. Observations are often more useful than formal testing because they can
be carried out unobtrusively and they yield information that more useful testing
FOCUS AREA 5.1:
The following
sections show my
understanding of
assessment
strategies to
assess student
learning.
Tanya Valencic
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EDFD Assessment task 2: ESSAY

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instruments cannot obtain (Westwood, 2008, p. 73). The writer found that students were
more at ease when being observed as many were engrossed in their work and even
unaware that they were being watched. The writer was able to see the students
misconceptions with a maths task where they were asked to create one dollar using a
collection of coins. Some students who seemed to understand during the lesson struggled
when given the task, which enabled the writer to assess their current knowledge and
where they needed extra work on. Westwood (2008) also points out how observation is
important for assessing physical and social skills, work habits, attitudes, interests, and self-
management (p. 74). There are many things you are unable to assess via a test, as listed
above, whereas observation provides much more in-depth information than testing.

Westwood (2008, p. 75) points out that when assessing students you should include
work samples, homework and portfolios as a means of assessment as these can give a deep
understanding of the accuracy and quality of work the student is accomplishing. They can
also provide an insight to the consistency of the work they are producing. During the
writers professional experience it was noticed that the way in which students homework
was assessed enabled the teacher to understand more of what the student was capable of
and also where their interests lay. If given a task or topic a student was interested in she
would see the level of work they were able to achieve and then be able to request that
same level for all work given. If they werent interested in a topic they would provide
mediocre work and the teacher was then able to refer back to previous work and remind
the student of the quality of work they are able and expected to achieve, giving them
confidence and challenging them to do more. By assessing students work samples,
homework or portfolios you are able to assess more in depth information on the students
learning than results from a test as even Hill (2011) states using samples of childrens
writing, teachers can assess childrens knowledge of content, genre, as well as letters,
words and grammatical constructions (p. 178). The writer agrees with Hill (2011, p. 178)
that by using valid assessment rather than assessment consisting of tests the teacher is
able to get information that provides meaningful information for future teaching. Portfolios
are an ongoing assessment that shows the development of a students learning. It takes
time to make a portfolio and expression of student learning that provides a window into
Tanya Valencic
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EDFD Assessment task 2: ESSAY

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the students thinking (Westwood, 2008, p. 13). The writer was able to see students;
preparing their portfolios for parent-teacher-student interviews where the student was to
describe to their parents what they had learnt throughout the year and they could even
see the progress they had made, giving them confidence and a sense of pride all of which
are qualities of achievement.

Heldsinger and Humphry (2010, p. 1) talk about how in Australia large scale testing has
now become more common due to the demands from the Australian government to have
access to consistent and comparable information on the performance of schools. Although
the writer believes that testing can sometimes provide a wide breath of data, she believes
it does not truly assess the students effectively. Snow and Van Hemel (as cited in Hill,
2011) agree that narrowly based standardised English tests may seriously under-represent
the childrens language capacities (p. 177). Throughout the writers professional
experience it was observed how students behaved in a classroom setting where results
from a test were being handed out back to students in the upper primary levels. The writer
was able to see how many students who either achieved high or low marks were put in an
uncomfortable state when asked by their peers how they did on the test. As Godinho and
Wilson (2005) point out there can be potentially harmful effects that comparative tests
have on students as they can develop low self-esteem and may develop feelings of failure
when comparing results (p. 4-5). Stiggins (as cited in Callingham, 2010) argues that the
large scale testing was designed to raise students learning outcomes, however the
promise of improved outcomes from changed assessment practices has not been achieved
on a large scale (p. 39). The writer agrees with Godinho and Wilson (2005) as they point
out that some assessment strategies (such as testing) have been branded as
inappropriate, incomplete and having undesirable effects (p. 4). From the writers
professional experience it has been seen that testing as an assessment does not provide
quality information on the students learning, yes it may be a quick and easy way to show
results, but most students have a range of strengths and weaknesses, which cannot be
reflected in a single score often associated with tests (Lesh & Lamon, as cited in
Westwood, 2008, p. 4).


FOCUS AREA 5.5:
This section here
demonstrates my
knowledge of
reporting on
student
achievement,
through use of
student portfolios
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EDFD Assessment task 2: ESSAY

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Assessment is regarded as more than the task or method used to collect data about
students. It includes the process of drawing inferences from the data collected and acting
upon those judgements in effective ways (Callingham, p. 39). When looking at this
description of assessment by Callingham it would be hard to be able to improve students
learning after looking at results from a test. Teachers would find it more beneficial to either
observe students, or assess their work samples, homework or portfolios as it gives a more
in-depth look into the misconceptions or understandings that the students have on a
particular topic, theme or problem. Some people may believe that tests can identify and
measure all important learning objectives, and that they are therefore a valid tool. But
throughout this essay the author has clearly demonstrated that tests do not give a teacher
as much insight as observation and assessment of students work samples, homework or
portfolios would give.














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EDFD Assessment task 2: ESSAY

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References
Callingham, R. (2010, August). Mathematics assessment in primary classrooms: Making it
count. Paper presented at Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne, Australia.
Retrieved from
http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=research_c
onference.

Godinho, S. & Wilson, J. (2005). Portfolios for a purpose. In T. Hay, & J. Moss (Eds.),
Portfolios, performance and authenticity (pp. 1-24). Frenchs Forest, Australia:
Pearson Education Australia.

Heldsinger, S., & Humphry, S. (2010). Using the method of pairwise comparison to obtain
reliable teacher assessments. Australian Educational Researcher (Australian
Association For Research In Education), 37(2), 1-19. Retrieved from
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ907914.pdf.


Hill, S. (2011). Towards ecologically valid assessment in early literacy. Early Child
Development and Care, 181(2), 165-180. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2011.536638.

Westwood, P. (2008). What teachers need to know about teaching methods. Camberwell,
Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd.

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