Key Concepts and Principles of Assessment
The assessments have a main role in learning and development. There are two main types: Formative Assessment and Summative Assessment. Formative Assessment tracks the learner’s progress, and Summative Assessment assesses the learner’s achievement.
The Key Concepts and Principles of Assessment [1]
- Authentic: Being the learner’s own work.
- Equality: A state of fair treatment that is the right of all the students regardless of differences in, for example, culture, ability, gender race, religion, wealth, sexual orientation, or any other group characteristic
- Reliable: Consistently achieves the same results with different assessors and the same (or similar) group of students.
- Sufficient: Enough evidence as specified in Evidence Requirements or Assessment Strategy.
- Valid: Relevant to the standards/criteria against which the candidate is being assessed.
- Fair: Ensuring that everyone has an equal chance of getting an objective and accurate assessment.
- Transparency: The assessor understands the assessment and learners’ requirements.
Assessor Responsibilities [1]
The following are Assessor Responsibilities - Understanding and applying the standards and requirements they are working to:
- Planning assessments to meet course syllabus requirements
- Communicating assessment requirements to students
- Carrying out assessments
- Making assessment decisions
- Providing feedback to students
- Taking part in standardization processes
- Taking part in continuing professional development
Key Factors for Planning the Assessment [1]
The following key factors for planning the assessments:
- Standards/criteria to be used
- Choice of assessment methods
- Location and resources
- Time and duration of the assessment
- Specific students’ needs and any support required
- How to manage the assessment process
- Recording assessment processes and decisions
- Feedback to the students
- Building the assessment strategy
The benefits of involving students in the assessment process [1]
- Transparency – student understanding the standards/criteria they are being assessed against and how assessment decisions are made
- Efficiency – students identifying and providing evidence themselves, others, for example, expert witnesses providing evidence process
The following points are important in the assessment planning [1]
- Assessment arrangements may need to be adapted to meet the student of determination needs.
- Feedback to the learner assists transparency of the assessment process and assists students’ progression.
- Continuing professional development in the assessment process
- Keeping up with changes in technology, working practices, and standards.
Bibliography
[1] "Unit 301 Understanding the Principles and Practices of Assessment," Level 3 & 4 Awards & Certificates in Assessment and Quality Assurance, [Online].
About the Author
Samar Mouti isa program leader ofthe IT Department at Khawarizmi International College, Abu Dhabi, UAE.Her research interest includes Artificial Intelligence techniques, Natural Language Processing, Expert Systems, and Neural Networks.
FAQs
There are eight main key concepts, functions and fundamental principles of assessment in learning and development which you have to consider as an assessor. These are ethics, fairness, sufficiency, currency, authenticity, reliability, validity, and learning domains.
What are the 7 principles of assessment? ›
They introduced the seven principles of good assessment and feedback, namely help learners understand what good looks like, support the personalised needs of learners, foster active learning, develop autonomous learners, manage staff and learner workload effectively, foster a motivated learning community, and promote ...
What are the 4 principles of assessment? ›
There are four Principles of Assessment – Reliability, Fairness, Flexibility and Validity.
What is the main concept of assessment? ›
Assessment is used to understand the state or condition of learning. An instructor assesses learning through both observation and measurement in an attempt to better understand students' learning in a course.
What are the keys of assessment? ›
MSEd Course Insight: 5 Keys to Quality Assessments
- Clear Purpose. The assessor must begin with a clear picture of why he or she is conducting the assessment. ...
- Clear Learning Targets. ...
- Sound Assessment Design. ...
- Effective Communication of Results. ...
- Student Involvement in the Assessment Process.
Principles of Assessment. There are eight main key concepts, functions and fundamental principles of assessment in learning and development which you have to consider as an assessor. These are ethics, fairness, sufficiency, currency, authenticity, reliability, validity, and learning domains.
What are the five key concepts ideas and Principles important points of assessment? ›
The principles of assessment are that assessment is Valid, Authentic, Current, Sufficient and Reliable – known as VACSR. Reliable- the work is consistent across all learners, over time and at the required level.
What are the 4 C's of assessment? ›
The 4Cs - Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity - support and integrate assessment strategies into teaching and learning systems.
What are the 5 elements of the assessment? ›
The five elements:
- Provide accessible and actionable information that supports further learning.
- Be understood, embraced, and valued by students as authentic and worthwhile.
- Align with curriculum and instruction to support knowledge transfer.
- Create opportunities to build strong identities.
- Promote equity.
We have distilled this theory down into the four pillars of great assessment: purpose, validity, reliability and value. The Four Pillars of Assessment resource guide will provide you with a strong understanding of what underpins each pillar and how it supports great assessment.
The concepts and principles of assessment refer to the fundamental ideas and values that guide the assessment process. Some of the key concepts involve measuring a learner's knowledge, understanding, skills, and standard of learning, as well as the various types of assessments that can be used.
What are the concepts and techniques of assessment? ›
There are seven techniques that can be used, the assessment of performance, attitude assessment, written assessment, project assessment, product assessment, the use of portfolios and self-assessment. Performance appraisal is an appraisal done by observing the activities of learners in doing something.
What is the main focus of assessment? ›
The main purpose of assessment is to help to identify gaps in student's learning and what remedial measures should appropriate to reducing the learning gaps of the students that are needed to be taken for continuing or improving their learning.
What are the three key ideas about assessment? ›
There are three key elements of Assessment for Learning: assess, diagnose, and remediate. But it shouldn't stop there. The three key elements of Assessment for Learning are cyclical. After completing the last remediation step, you can assess the pupil again to determine if they have understood the concept.
What are the key factors of assessment? ›
Before you start (re)designing your assignments and assessments, here are the five key factors for your consideration:
- Learning outcomes and objectives.
- High-stake and low-stake assessments.
- Workload for you and your students.
- Feedback and rubrics.
- Delivery mode.
Benefits of testing the four skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking)
What are the key 7 components of an assessment tool? ›
In accordance with the AQTF Essential Standards for Registration, an assessment tool includes the following components: ▪ The learning or competency unit(s) to be assessed; ▪ The target group, context and conditions for the assessment; ▪ The tasks to be administered to the candidate; ▪ An outline of the evidence to be ...
What are the 8 Principles of impact assessment? ›
There are eight leading principles that govern the entire EIA process, namely participation, transparency, security, accountability, credibility, cost efficiency, flexibility and practicality. In the EIA procedure the following features are observed: 1) The EIA process is informative, not regulatory.
What are the 7 requirements of effective feedback? ›
In this short article, author and former teacher Grant Wiggins says that helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent.
What is the golden rule of assessment? ›
The five golden rules presented in this article are: (1) choose the suitable types of language assessment tasks; (2) recognise the two types of assessment interpretations; (3) consider and apply basic classical test theory for analysis of the assessment of learning; (4) develop well-defined assessment criteria and ...
