EDU431 Short Notes

Lecture 1: Concept of Assessment

Topic no 1: Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation

In this topic, we will discuss about the three main concepts of educational testing and measurement i.e. measurement, assessment and evaluation and the difference about them At the end of this topic, students will be able to explain

Q1. What are educational measurement, assessment and evaluation?

2. Difference among educational measurement, assessment and evaluation

1. Measurement

Measurement is the process by which the attributes or dimensions of some object (both physical and abstract) are quantified. The tools used for this purpose may include test, observation, checklist, homework, portfolios, project etc. (the process of changing the person's ability into numbers is measurement). Measurement can be easily understood if we use this word to measure height and distance because these things are physical present in their existence so height can easily be measured by scale. But in the field of education, our variable are not physical and cannot be directly measured e.g. attitude, behavior, and achievement etc. these all are abstract, so there measurement is relatively difficult than those who have physical existence. The tool used for measuring the abstract variables cannot measure exactly like scale (thermometer). So in this whole course, whenever the measurement word is used it means that tool which will be used for measuring student abilities and then converts it in numerical form.

2. Assessment

It means appraisal of something to improve quality of teaching and learning process for deciding what more can be done to improve the teaching, learning and outcomes.

3. Evaluation

Evaluation is process of making a value judgment against intended learning outcomes and behavior, to decide quality and extent of learning. Evaluation is always related to your purpose, you aligned your purpose of teaching with what students achieved at the end, with their quality and quantity of learning

Let’s take an example

In classroom situation, as a teacher, when you teach a chapter or unit to a class, first you made the objectives, either you will make it yourself as a teacher or you take it from curriculum document of the particular subject. Objectives are also written at the start of the chapter or book which shows that at the end of the unit what student will be able to do this, that is also referred as Student learning outcomes. So these SLOs can be checked by two aspects i. assessment ii. Evaluation. When you, as a teacher reflect on your teaching on daily basis that what you teach yesterday was a good way to teach or not, what i taught was the students need, did they understand what i teach, and then you can decide changing which things can cause the improvement in the learning process of students. This is ASSESSMENT. In the end of assessment, opinion is not about the individual, it is about the process from which the students or individuals are passing for the betterment of that process. Evaluation is that when the learning process is complete and you want to see what are your targets or objectives and how much my students achieved those objectives , then tools are made and measures comes from that tell that how much your student learn and what is the quality of their learning.

Difference in measurement, assessment and evaluation

These terms are not different words for same concept but a process serving as prerequisite to each other and having unique purpose. Every mechanism or process start with the measurement In the field of education, measurement generate tools i.e. Test, Observation, Quiz, Checklist, Homework, Portfolios. They can give information about student learning. The information we got from the tool is MEASUREMENT Now if that measurement is used for the process of making teaching learning process better than it is ASSESSMENT e.g. if i want to decide that the procedure or way i adopted for student learning i.e. books, activities, field experience is good for their learning and they are according to the needs of student, then it is ASSESSMENT And if from these measure i decide that either their learning is getting better or not or how much student learned what i taught them and what is the quality or standard of that learning, then it is

Assessment and Evaluation don‘t exist in hierarchy; they both are parallel and different in purpose. Measurement is the source to move towards assessment and evaluation because it provides base and evidence to quantify teaching learning process. The quantified number has no meaning until we do assessment or evaluation. Assessment purpose is to make teaching learning process better so that student learning improve and measurement purpose is to align the learning with purpose.

Topic 2: Classroom Assessment

In this topic students will learn

1. Ways to classify the classroom assessment
2. Types of assessment in each classification

Concept of Classroom Assessment

The process of gathering, recording, interpreting, using and communicating information about a child's progress and achievement during the development of knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes. When we are teaching in a classroom, we are doing four things i. Developing students‘ knowledge ii. Improving their concepts iii. Teaching the skills iv. Making their attitudes. And while doing so, we collect information about the development of these things, and then we record it, interpret it and use it to communicate about the learning progress of students. This procedure is called classroom assessment

Classification of Assessment

Assessment can be classified in four ways

1. Nature of Assessment
2. Format of Assessment
3. Use in classroom instruction