Philosophy of Assessment

Brittanni Ruck-Jessome

Measurement & Evaluation

March 1st, 2018

Assessment is an important part of teaching that helps to further the learning process of

students and allows teachers to monitor student progress in order to best tailor their lessons to

meet the needs of every student. Effective teaching includes assessment for, of and as learning.

Assessment for learning is formative and provides teachers with information that will drive their

teaching to come, while assessment of learning is what we think of assessment in the traditional

sense or summative assessment. Assessment as learning occurs when students are able to be the

directors of their own learning. I believe that assessment in the classroom must present itself in

these three forms, teachers must assess students in a variety of ways and students must receive

feedback from the teacher in order to enhance learning.

In order to receive the most amount of information on students, assessment should be for,

of and as learning. In terms of assessment for learning, students should be provided with a wide

range of descriptive feedback. Dr. Anne Davies states that “descriptive feedback gives

information that enables the learner to adjust what he or she is doing in order to improve”

(Davies, 2011, p.2). While grades can be a motivator for students, in many cases descriptive

feedback is much more valuable to student learning than a grade. Kohn argues that “students

often just turn to the grade and ignore the comment, but when there’s only a comment, they read

it” (Kohn, 2011). Formative assessment has an important place in the classroom and drives

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student learning and progress. In my first practicum, I implemented formative assessment every

day. I would continually observe students as they worked, and this gave me the feedback I

needed to see what exactly I would need to focus on in the next lesson.

I believe that students should receive as much feedback as possible, to help further their

learning. Providing students with only a mark and no feedback won’t let them know where they

went wrong or what they need to improve on, “for most students, especially those who struggle,

the 57 percent does not tell them what they did well and what they need to do differently.

Motivation is built upon a foundation of understanding what needs to be done and believing that

one has those competencies and skills” (Herbst & Davies, 2014, p. 28). Feedback comes in many

forms. Feedback can be given in the form of comments on an assignment or test, through a

conversation with a student in a teacher-student conference, peer assessment and many other

ways as well.

Assessment should not only include mid or end of the unit tests but be used every day as

a tool to drive student learning. It is important that students are given many opportunities to

show evidence of their learning because each student will not show learning in the exact same

way. Because of how different each student is, assessment must also take these differences into

account, “evaluation must be equitable- that is, all students, regardless of how they learn, show

learning, or how much they struggle (or not), must have the same opportunities to show proof of

learning” (Herbst & Davies, 2014, p 57). I believe that it is very important to ensure that students

know the criteria for how they will be assessed. Involving students in creating their own criteria

for assessment is much more effective than creating the criteria yourself without any feedback

from the students; “when teachers impose the criteria, no matter how clear, it is not as effective

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as when students help set the criteria in their own words” (Davies, 2011, p.58). For example, a

teacher may help students develop rubric for a math or science project.

Overall, I believe that assessment is a very important tool in the learning process of

students when done correctly. It is important that students are provided with feedback in order to

guide their learning. Assessment must be for, of and as learning and by assessing students in a

variety of ways they have multiple opportunities to show evidence of their learning. Involving

students in creating the criteria for assessment ensures that students are the directors of their own

learning. Although I don’t have a large amount of experience in the classroom, I will continue to

learn about how to best assess students as I continue into my second practicum.

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Bibliography

Davies, A. (2011). Making Classroom Assessment Work. Canada: Building Connections

Publishing Inc.

Herbst, S., Davies, A. (2014). A Fresh Look at Grading and Reporting in High Schools. Canada:

Building Connections Publishing Inc.

Kohn, A. (2011). The Case Against Grades. Educational Leadership, 8-16. Retrieved from:

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=11f0bd2d-522f-4980-ac28-

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