MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE,

YOUTH AND SPORT OF UKRAINE

DRAGOMANOV NATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Foreign languages department

REPORT
Topic: Student Assessment in Primary School

Performed by
Polischuk Yelyzaveta Anatoliivna

Kyiv 2012
CONTEXT

Introduction...3
1.

Assessment and principal functions of assessment...4

1.1. Objectives of assessment......5
1.2. Assessment for learning....5
1.3. Assessment of learning.....7
2. Assessment principles in primary school..8

Conclusions.11
Bibliography12

INTRODUCTION

Assessment is an integral part of all teaching and learning. Although teachers are
responsible for assessing students, the students are also expected to take an active role in
this important aspect of their education.
Being a teacher, you will be required to determine how well your students are
learning, gauge their performance, and measure the appropriateness of the content and the
effectiveness of the methods and techniques utilized in your classroom. [1]
Effective assessment is a continuous process. It's not simply something that's done at
the conclusion of a unit of study or at the end of a lesson. Effective assessment and
evaluation are integrated into all aspects of the curriculum, providing both teachers and
students with relevant and useful data to gauge progress and determine the effectiveness of
materials and procedures. [2]
An assessment may be made in any subject, including specific subjects such as
social studies or chemistry, or more global skills such as writing ability that are used in
many areas of learning. Primary education is generally defined as education that takes
place in elementary school. Assessments serve many useful purposes in the field of
primary education. [3]
Not all students learn the same way, however and will therefore excel in some
assessments and perform poorly in others. Each learning assessment has distinct
advantages and disadvantages. [4]
The topic of work: Student assessment in primary school
The aim of the work: to describe the process of assessment in primary school.
The aim of the work envisages the fulfillment of the following tasks:
1. To analyze and to learn the theoretical material on the topic.
2. To characterize principles of assessment.
3. To compare principal functions of assessment in primary school.

1. Assessment And Principal Functions of Assessment

3

The term assessment derives from the Latin word assidere which means to sit
beside. In many respects that simple phrase tells us a lot about the essence of assessment
in the context of the primary school classroom. Its tone is non-threatening and affirming,
and it suggests a partnership based on mutual trust and understanding. It reminds us that
there should be a positive rather than a negative association between assessment and the
process of teaching and learning in schools
In the broadest sense assessment is concerned with childrens progress and
achievement. More specifically, classroom assessment may be defined as the process of
gathering, recording, interpreting, using and communicating information about a childs
progress and achievement during the development of knowledge, concepts, skills and
attitudes. Assessment, therefore, involves much more than testing. It is an ongoing process
that encompasses many formal and informal activities designed to monitor and improve
teaching and learning in all areas of the curriculum... [5, p.23]
Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information
about students learning. The central purpose of assessment is to provide information on
student achievement and progress and set the direction for ongoing teaching and learning.
[6, p.12]
Assessment is the process of collecting evidence of student learning in order to draw
an inference about an individuals (or a groups) current level of attainment. [7, p.1]
Two principal functions of assessment in the context of teaching and learning are
identified and used in school. These are:
Assessment for learning
Assessment for learning helps to identify the next steps needed to make progress. It
takes account of pupils strengths as well as weaknesses. Assessment for learning
essentially promotes future learning.

Assessment of learning
Assessment of learning is more associated with judgements based on scores or levels
for statutory or summative purposes. Assessment of learning describes and labels past
learning.
4

These two types of assessment activities are considered mutually exclusive in

practice. Both are essential in raising standards and should be used in all classes.
1.1.

OBJECTIVES OF ASSESSMENT

Good assessment practice in primary school will:

raise standards of attainment and behaviour, and improve pupil attitudes and
response;
enable the active involvement of pupils in their own learning by providing effective
feedback which closes the gap between present performance and future standards required;
promote pupil self-esteem through a shared understanding of the learning processes
and the routes to improvement;
build on secure teacher knowledge of the linguistic and cultural background of
pupils;
guide and support the teacher as planner, provider and evaluator;
enable the teacher to adjust teaching to take account of assessment information and
to focus on how pupils learn;
draw upon as wide a range of evidence as possible using a variety of assessment
activities;
track pupil performance and in particular identify those pupils at risk of
underachievement;
provide information which can be used by teachers and the headteacher as they plan
for individual pupils and cohorts;
provide information which can be used by parents or carers to understand their
pupils strengths, weaknesses and progress;
provide information which can be used by other interested parties;
provide information which can be used to evaluate a schools performance against
its own previous attainment over time and against national standards.
1.2.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Purposes
Assessment for learning will:
Provide insight into pupils learning for both pupils and teachers
5

 Promote success for all

Support the target-setting process
Enable continuous reflection on what pupils know now and what they need to
know next
Measure what is valued
Promote immediate intervention and link judgements to learning intentions
Raise standards by taking pupils to the edges of their capability
Implications for teaching
The teacher will:
o Provide continuous oral and written feedback which identifies strengths and the
o
o
o
o
o

next step for improvement

Promote pupil involvement in self assessment
Act on insights gained to inform curricular targets
Plan against what children know/can do/understand
Make standards and objectives explicit to pupils
Promote inclusion by attending to all pupils learning needs, particularly for

pupils who are at risk of underachievement

o Engage pupils in rich questioning allowing wait time (time to think)
o Build in time for focused observation of teacher-directed and child-initiated
activity
Impact on learning and the learner
The pupil will:
Know what to do to improve
Know what standards are required
Know what has been achieved against known success criteria and what to do
next
Gain confidence, motivation and self-esteem as a learner
Increase their awareness and understanding of their own learning style(s) and
of how they learn best
Improve their own self-evaluation skills
Make progress
1.3. ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
Purposes
Assessment of learning will:

 Provide a summary judgement about what has been learned at a specific point
in time
Establish national benchmarks about what children can do and about school

performance
Show what pupils can do without support
Inform the target setting process
Hold the school to public account
Promote subsequent intervention(s)

Implications for teaching

The teacher will:
o Provide a periodic summary through teacher assessment and tests
o Identify gaps in pupils knowledge and understanding
o Identify weaknesses in the taught curriculum and in specific areas of learning
through analysis of performance which guide future planning
o Implement strategies to accelerate progress to meet local and national
expectations (narrowing the gap)
o Mark and measure against scores and levels
Impact on learning and the learner
The pupil will:
Be able to gauge own performance in comparison to others and against
previous performance
Be able to measure own performance against externally agreed criteria and
standards
Have a measure of performance at specific milestones in life
Know what standards and expectations are required [8].
2. Assessment Principles in Primary School
Different scientists distinguishe various principles of assessment. The most common
in primary school are such principles:

Assessment should be relevant.

Assessment needs to provide information about students knowledge, skills and
understandings of the learning. That is, it needs to be directly linked to the syllabus
standards.
7

 Assessment should be appropriate.

Assessment needs to provide information about the particular kind of learning in
which we are interested. This means that we need to use a variety of assessment methods
because not all methods are capable of providing information about all kinds of learning.
For example, some kinds of learning are best assessed by observing students; some by
having students complete projects or make products and others by having students
complete paper and pen tasks.
Conclusions about student achievement in an area of learning are valid only when the
assessment method we use is appropriate and measures what it is supposed to measure.

Assessment should be fair.

Assessment needs to provide opportunities for every student to demonstrate what
they know, understand and can do. Assessment must be based on a belief that all learners
are on a path of development and that every learner is capable of making progress.
Students bring a diversity of cultural knowledge, experience, language proficiency and
background, and ability to the classroom. They should not be advantaged or disadvantaged
by life experiences, abilities, or gender differences that are not relevant to the knowledge,
skills and understandings that the assessment is intended to address. Students have the
right to know what is assessed, how it is assessed and the worth of the assessment.
Assessment will be fair or equitable only if it is free from bias or favouritism.

Assessment should be accurate.

Assessment needs to provide evidence that accurately reflects an individual students
knowledge, skills and understandings. That is, assessments need to be reliable or
dependable in that they consistently measure a students knowledge, skills and
understandings. (This means that we need to use a variety of assessment strategies to give
students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning in a range of contexts and to
make sure that the inferences we draw about a students level of attainment are not
influenced by the choice of a specific assessment task). Assessment also needs to be
objective so that if a second person assesses a students work, they will come to the same
conclusion as the first person.
8

Assessment will be fair to all students if it is based on reliable, accurate and

defensible measures.
Assessment should provide useful information.
The focus of assessment is to establish where students are in their learning. This
information can be used for both summative purposes (the assessment of learning), such as
the awarding of a grade, or formative purposes to feed directly into the teaching and
learning cycle (assessment for learning). Assessment information that is useful for
formative purposes needs to focus in part on the depth of a students understanding, not
just on the accumulation of knowledge. That is, it needs to focus on a students conceptual
understandings. Assessment tasks which focus on Intellectual Quality, including deep
knowledge and understanding and higher order thinking, and which provide elements of
Quality Learning Environment such as explicit criteria and high expectations, assist in
informing ongoing teaching and learning.
Assessment of this kind identifies strengths and weaknesses, and provides detailed
diagnostic information about how students are thinking. The collection of evidence of this
kind may require opportunities for students to explain in their own words or pictures their
understandings of the material they are learning.
Assessment should be integrated into the teaching and learning cycle.
Assessment needs to be an ongoing, integral part of the teaching and learning cycle.
It must allow teachers and students themselves to monitor learning. From the teacher
perspective, it provides the evidence to guide the next steps in teaching and learning. From
the student perspective, it provides the opportunity to reflect on and review progress, and
can provide the motivation and direction for further learning.
Assessment should draw on a wide range of evidence.
Assessment needs to draw on a wide range of evidence. A complete picture of student
achievement in an area of learning depends on evidence that is sampled from the full range
of knowledge, skills and understandings that make up the area of learning. An assessment
program that consistently addresses only some outcomes will provide incomplete feedback
to the teacher and student, and can potentially distort teaching and learning.
Assessment should be manageable.

Assessment needs to be efficient, manageable and convenient. It needs to be

incorporated easily into usual classroom activities and it needs to be capable of providing
information that justifies the time spent. [7, p.2-3]

CONCLUSIONS
Assessment is an integral part of all teaching and learning. Although teachers are
responsible for assessing students, the students are also expected to take an active role in
this important aspect of their education.
There are some reasons why assessment might occur:
helping teachers determine students strengths and weaknesses as a basis for
their future tuition;
10

 reporting on students achievements towards the end of periods of education

which may influence their paths through the system;
judging the effectiveness of teachers and schools;
tracking how the whole school system has been performing over time; and
making comparisons between different groups within the system and between
the system and those of other countries.
There are two principal functions of assessment in the context of teaching and
learning in school, assessment for learning and assessment of learning.
The information we gain from assessment for learning should be used to shape our
future teaching and learning processes.
The information we gain from assessment of learning can be used for reporting.
The use of these two functions of assessment highlights and emphasises the
contribution that assessment can make to the day-to-day process of teaching and learning,
while giving due weight to its role in helping to create a cumulative record of childrens
progress and attainment.
Every teacher is commited to providing fair, valid and reliable assessment, both
formative and summative, Learning and Teaching Assessment Strategy these are basic
principles of assessment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Nada Jamal. Primary Grade Assessment Techniques [ ] // eHow.com.
:

http://www.ehow.com/info_8194369_primary-grade-assessment-

techniques.html#ixzz21vnB82Gc
2. Assessment vs. Evaluation: Tips & Advice for Teachers (Grades K-12) [
]

//

TeacherVision.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/assessment/newteacher/48353.html#ixzz21w1G9IJZ

11

3. S. Herlihy. The Importance of Assessment in Primary Education [ ] //

eHow.com.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5393043_importance-

assessment-primary-education.html
4. Michael Monet. Advantages & Disadvantages of Learning Assessments [
]

//

eHow.com.

http://www.ehow.com

/info_8686332_advantages-disadvantages-learning-assessments.html#ixzz21w3IrrF4
5. Assessment in Primary Schools // National Council for Curriculum And Assessment. FEBRUARY

2004.

P.23.

http://www.ncca.ie/uploadedfiles/Publications/AssessPrim.pdf
6. Principles for assessment and reporting in NSW government schools [
] // Curriculum Support for Primary Teachers. - 2007. - 2. P. 12.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.

nsw.gov.au/consistent_teacher/index.htm
7. Principles of Assessment and Reporting in NSW Public Schools [ ] //
NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & TRAINING. - State of New South Wales
through the NSW Department of Education and Training. 2008. - August 2008. P. 1-3.
8.

http://www.curriculumsupport.

education.nsw.gov.au/timetoteach/policy_doc/principles_ar.pdf
Assessment Policy [ ] // CROCKHAM HILL C. E. PRIMARY
SCHOOL.

kent.sch.uk/information/policies/assessment_policy.pdf

12

http://www.crockhamhill.