Task 1: Diagnostic Assessment Interview

CLO 5: Describe diagnostic assessment and apply to identify students levels; distinguish and
apply different types of grading

For this task, you will need to arrange to interview your MST at a time
convenient to her. The focus of this task is to understand:
- what diagnostic assessment has taken place this school year in your class,
- who developed the diagnostic assessment (teachers, school management,
ADEC/MOE, etc.),
- how the diagnostic assessment was carried out,
- what the purpose of that diagnostic assessment was/is, and
- what decisions the teacher made as a result of the diagnostic assessment.

You need to prepare a minimum of 10 questions prior to the interview. You may
add additional questions during the interview based on your teachers responses,
i.e. to clarify answers or garner further information.

You will need to record your teachers responses use the strategy that works
best for you. If you are using a voice recording device, you MUST inform your
MST.

The interview must be typed and included in your Portfolio.

You may develop your own questions specific to your context, however the
following may give you some ideas.

Example Interview Questions

1. What diagnostic assessment has taken place this semester?
2. When did this occur?
3. What types of assessments were conducted? (written, oral, practical, etc.)
4. Who developed these assessments?
5. Who conducted the assessments? (Classroom teacher, Arabic teacher, classroom assistant, etc.)
6. Were the assessments completed by students individually?
7. What information did you hope to get from the assessments?
8. What decisions did you make based on the assessments?
9. How did you group your students? (same/different academic levels, friendship groups, similar
interests, etc.)
10. Do the groups change for different learning subjects/topics?

After the Task - Reflection

Reflect on the interview and the information gained about diagnostic assessment
from your MST. Consider how/why you would implement diagnostic assessment in a
UAE primary classroom in the future. Explain how this practice will affect student
learning in a primary class.
 Interview Q/A

Hi good morning Ms. Dibsi, today is Sunday October 22, 2017. I am going to ask you
10 to 15 questions about the diagnostic assessment. It's will take us from 30 to 40
minutes. Thank you for allowing me to use the recorder.

To start with,
1- What types of diagnostic assessment you are planning to apply this semester,

and when?

We just completed assessment week and this will form our baseline assessment. For

literacy, we just did a reading and writing exams that came from England.

2- Are there any other types you used before that you didn't mention?

Ongoing assessment can and should happen on a daily basis. Like: questioning,

worksheet, quizzes, solving problem on their white boards. You will quickly know your

class and their needs.

3- Who usually develops these assessments?

We usually use past SATS papers for maths and English. These are available online free.

4- Who conducted the assessment? (classroom teacher, Arabic teacher, classroom

assistant).

Classroom teacher always conducts the assessments so that the children feel comfortable.

5- Do you apply these assessments for the whole class or certain students?

Whole class assessments.

6- What kind of information you hope to get from such assessments?

 We need to know where the children are now and how to raise their levels. We can also

see where the gaps in their learning are so that we can address these issues.

7- What decisions you usually make after getting the results?

Assessment informs planning.ALWAYS!

8- Do you show the scores to the students and parents?

I always tell the students how they did, children have to be a part of their own learning

plan. I also tell the parents so that they can work with their child at home if they need to.

9- What type of assessments you prefer more, formative, summative, or

diagnostic assessments?

All of them have value and are useful for different reasons.

10- Which type is more helpful and give accurate results?

The diagnostic tests give an accurate picture of the childs ability.

Thank you Ms. Dibsi for your time. I know that you are super busy. But, can I come back to

you for questions or more clarification?

Yes, any time.

Reflection

Discussion

After interviewing my MST, I found out that she implements many types of

diagnostic assessments with her class. Assessments like: SATs exams and ongoing

assessment such as: worksheet, questioning, and quizzes. According, to her those

assessments must be done by the whole class, and must be conducted by the teacher

classroom. Because, the students will be more comfortable. Furthermore, she believes

that all types of assessment (diagnostic, formative, and summative) are important, and

they can provide the teacher with valuable information, about the students' current

performance and their area of development.

Implementing in the UAE Primary classroom

In my opinion, implementing diagnostic assessments in UAE primary schools

will be useful. Because it's can be conduct in the middle of the semester. So, it will

give the teacher a general insight, if the students achieved the learning objective or

not. That how the teacher will know if she/he need to reteach or continue. In addition,

because the variety of these assessment, the teachers have many options, and no need

to stick with one type only; unlike with the summative assessment, where the teacher

must give a final exam at the end of the year.

Analysis

Diagnostic assessment informs the teacher with the students' strengths and

weakness (Sun & Suzuki, 2013). They also stated that it's provide the teacher with

information about the students understanding of the explained subject.