ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING, ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Assessment is the process of gathering information that accurately reflects how well a student is achieving the
curriculum expectations in a subject or course.
The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning. Assessment plays a critical role in teaching
and learning and should have and its goal the development of students as independent and autonomous learners.

The preposition "for" in assessment FOR learning is done to improve and ensure learning. This is referred to as
FORmative assessment, assessment that is given while the teacher is in the process of student formation (learning)
l. It ensures that learning is going on while teacher is in the process of teaching.
Teacher does not lose anything if as he/she teaches he/she checks for understanding now and then. This is to
ensure that before he/she proceeds further or comes near the end of the chapter, unit or course or grading period,
the students understood the lesson.
It will be tragic and a waste of time if teacher just proceeds with his/her teaching presuming that students
understood the lesson only to discover at the end of the unit or grading period that students after all did not
understand the lesson. So much time has already been wasted.
Besides, lack of understanding of a lesson must have been compounded because the "ABCs" of the lesson weren't
mastered and teacher already proceeded to "XYZ". Too late to discover that at the end of a unit or a grading period
the students did not learn what was expected of them.
Formative assessment also include s the pretest and the post test that a teacher gives to ensure learning.
Why the pretest? It is to find out where the student are or determine their entry knowledge or skills so teacher
knows how to adjust instruction.
Why the post test? It is to find out if the intended learning outcome has been attained after the teaching-learning
process. If not all students have attained it, then teacher has to apply an intervention or a remediation. Why do these
have to take place? To ensure learning, thus the term assessment FOR learning.

In assessment FOR Learning, teachers use assessment results to inform or adjust their teaching.
Assessment AS Learning is associated with self-assessment. As the term implies, assessment by itself is already a
form of learning for the students.
As students assess their own work (e.g. a paragraph) and/or with their peers with the use of scoring rubrics, they
learn on their own what a good paragraph is. At the same time, as they are engaged in self-assessment, they learn
about themselves as learners (e.g. paragraph writers) and become aware of how they learn. In short, in assessment
AS learning, students set their targets, actively monitor and evaluate their own learning in relation to their set
target. As a consequence, they become self-directed or independent learners.
Assessment OF Learning is usually given at the end of a unit, grading period or a term like a semester. It is
meant to assess learning for grading purpose, thus the term Assessment OF learning.