Critical Review no.

2
Rachel Seager (a1606818)
Assessment Issues and the School Curriculum
From: Curriculum Construction: 4th edition, Chapter 12.
By Laurie Brady & Kerry Kennedy.
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This article looks at what assessment is and also considers a variety of different assessment
strategies that can e used in the classroom. The article states that! "assessment involves
gathering! inter#reting and descriing information aout student achievement. $uch information
may not necessarily rely on tests! measurements or scores! and may relate to descri#tions of any
as#ect of the teaching% learning #rocess."
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This idea of assessment not &ust eing summative
tasks is interesting and #erha#s not considered enough. 'hilst ( was at school there was such an
em#hasis on doing well in a test or assessment in order to get a good grade that at times ( lost
sight of how what ( am learning is actually a##lied to real life situations and rather ( was fi)ated on
the #rocess alone. This is #erha#s the wrong way to go aout it as summative assessment alone
does not have the ca#acity to test every as#ect of the unit in a real life situation and #erha#s
teachers need to e more aware of how the student is doing overall in every as#ect of the class
and not &ust in the tests. This statement is a very good idea however! using only formative
assessment would raise *uestions on the validity of the assessment. ( elieve that the article is
saying to use a comination of oth formative and summative assessments in order to est
assess each student and that each ty#e should e e*ually considered in the assessment #rocess.
( strongly agree with this idea and think that it needs to e considered more.
The article also discusses different assessment strategies. +ne such strategy is self assessment
and #eer assessment. ,R-(T .niversity 2//0! #g.1 1 states!" $elf and 2eer assessment are key
strategies to involve students in taking more res#onsiility for their own learning."
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This conce#t is
something that could e *uite useful es#ecially in the music classroom where #erformance is such
a ig as#ect. (ncluding #eer and self assessment could e used as a really good motivating tool
for the students and may encourage them to work harder to receive good feedack from their
#eers. $elf and 2eer assessment could e a good form of formative assessment and therefore
reinforces the idea that a comination of oth summative and formative assessment should e
used in order to ma)imise students success and understanding of a unit.
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Brady. L & Kennedy. K. ,2/1/1. 4ssessment (ssues and the $chool Curriculum.
Curriculum Construction ,##. 15261051.4ustralia. 2earson.
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Brady. L & Kennedy. K. ,2/1/1. 4ssessment (ssues and the $chool Curriculum.
Curriculum Construction ,##. 15261051.4ustralia. 2earson.
3
Self and Peer Assessment (2008). Retrieved April 7,
2014, from http http://mams.rmit.edu.au/71ra0kio8!"".pdf