Creating a Definition of Classroom Assessment The three concepts pertinent to classroom assessments for adult learners are: as sumptions

gleamed from statements of good practice, statements of educational obje ctives articulated in the course curriculum and outline, and a defined focus on i ntegrative skills, which applies to analyses, synthesis and evaluation, i.e., compre hension.According to Frye (2009, p.3) good assessment practice is based on at least five basic assumptions, four of which are relevant here: a) anything that can be taught or learned can be assessed; b) assess what is most important; c)every progra m and every course should be organized around clearly articulated learning goals and objectives, explicit assessment methods, and measurable outcomes; and d) an a ssessment process should be logistically feasible and practically manageable to insure that it is regular and ongoing. These precede and guide the development of curriculum, where the objective is to the development of a range of integrative abilities from a paradigm that is output-oriented, competency-based, and dedicated to continual improvement through ongoing assessment of student learning.This learner -centered program design and it represents a real world instance of the "paradig m shift" from a teacher-centered program design to a learner-centered program de sign. His table portrays , the responsibilities of students and faculty and the relationships between them. Domain Teacher-centered Learner-centered Knowledge Transmitted from instructor Constructed by students Student participation Passive Active Role of professor Leader/authority Facilitator/partner in learning Role of Assessment Few tests, mainly for grading Many tests, for ongoing feedback Emphasis Learning correct answers Developing deeper understanding Assessment method Unidimensional testing Multidimensional products Academic culture Competitive, individualistic Collaborative, supportiv e The nine principles that he alludes to incorporate the use of best practices an d increased student involvement demarcates a trend started by the use of Bloom e t al. s taxonomy of the cognitive domains. As shown below as an element of the t eaching process, assessment can be guided by shifting the paradigm and incorpora ting best practices. Best practices found on most lists are shown below: Engage students in active learning experiences Set high, meaningful expectations Provide, receive, and use regular, timely, and specific feedback Become aware of values, beliefs, preconceptions; unlearn if necessary Recognize and stretch student styles and developmental levels Seek and present real-world applications Understand and value criteria and methods for student assessment Create opportunities for student-faculty interactions Create opportunities for student-student interactions Promote student involvement through engaged time and quality effort

The levels of educational goal attainment accented by Bloomberg were: knowledge, comprehension, application, analyses, synthesis, and evaluation. Following Huit t (2004), the major theme of the taxonomy is what educators want students to know , stated as written statements of objectives, which can be arranged in a hierarchy from less to more complex. Approximated in the words of Frye(2009) they are gene ral developmental skills and abilities in the following areas: Knowledge: recall of facts, literature, patterns, processes Values: professional, ethical, social, personal Technical skills: demonstrating what students can actually do Integrative skills: demonstrating student capacity for analysis, synthesis, and evaluation Roughly translated, this would imply that the values would be demonstrated at th

e point of comprehension, while application would seem to correspond to both val ues and technical skill. 1. Lewin and Shoemaker, (1998, p. 4) argued that strong assessment systems co ntain four critical elements: a) validations reflect performance over time; b) se cured assessment incorporate the use of uniform, overt scoring systems; c) class room-embedded assessments; and d) composite records. I have been an advocate of the production and use of artifacts, such as journals that record the steps and results of lab exercises when learning the so-many procedures associated with th e mastery of the task sequences of configuring routers, switches and work statio ns in IT applications and installations. The learner is expected to produce an o ngoing documentation of the labs and other exercises such as IP addressing when designing networked environments for personal, business or educational purposes. This allows for the compilation of artifacts to substantiate any assertions rel ative to what has been or what has not been mastered by the learner, answers que stions about the values that underlie the curriculum and the learners ability to analyze, synthesize and evaluate the course material. While the focus here is d ecidedly on demonstrative skill, the learner is also required to write extensive explanation in essay form, so the articulation of the relevant knowledge sets i s evaluated at the same time. Fyre , R., Assessment and Outcomes, Center for Instructional Innovation, 2009, retrieved 10/13/2010 from http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/cii/ Huitt, W. (2004). Bloom et al. s taxonomy of the cognitive domain. Educational P sychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved 10/13/ 2010 from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/bloom.html Lewin, L., and Shoemaker, B. J., Great performances: Creating classroom-based as sessment tasks, ASCD, 1998