Published by Melissa (1507042035)
In early childhood education, assessment is the
process of gathering information about children in
order to make decisions. Assessment is often equated with the notion of testing
to judge a
child’s abilities, but in actuality, it is a four-step cycle that helps
teachers individualize learning for every child.
Assessment has four primary purposes:
• to support learning
• to identify special needs
• to evaluate programs and monitor trends
• to respond to program and school accountability
requirements
Having a process in place for ongoing assessment
is essential, as it enables teachers to gather information about each child
in order to plan instruction and ensure that every child is making progress.
We attempts to look at the importance of classroom
assessment and evaluation advantages. A
major concern of teaching English language for teachers has been assessing and
evaluating students' progress during their courses of study as well as their
classroom achievements at the end of it. Despite the highly useful aspects of
tests such as
multiple choice test, essay
test and paragraph
reading, teachers have
not been successful
in the classroom.
Classroom assessment and evaluation are highly
concerned with qualitative judgments that are used to improve students'
knowledge and learning. Assessment and evaluation also give teachers useful
information about how to improve their teaching methods. Through using
appropriate classroom assessment strategies and techniques, teachers can
increase their students' motivation and show them how well they
have learned the
language. Evaluation goes beyond students' achievements and
language assessments to
consider all aspects of teaching
and learning, and to look at how educational
decisions can be informed by the results of alternative forms of assessment and
evaluation.
Evaluation in teaching English language is a process
of collecting, analyzing and interpreting information about
teaching and learning
in order to
make informed decisions
that enhance student achievement
and the success
of educational programs
(Rea-Dickens and Germanie, 1993; Genesee and Upshur, 1996;
O’Mally and Valdez-Pierce, 1996). Evaluation is a process that includes five
basic components:
In
classroom assessment, since
teachers themselves develop,
administer and analyze the questions, they
are more likely
to apply the
results of the assessment to
their own teaching. Therefore, it provides feedback on
the effectiveness of instruction and gives students a measure of their
progress. As Biggs (1999) maintains, two major functions can be pointed
out for classroom assessment: One is to show whether or not the learning has
been successful, and the other one is to clarify the expectations of the
teachers from the students (Dunn et al., 2004). Assessment is a process that
includes four basic components:
The
purpose of classroom
assessment and evaluation
is to give
students the opportunity to show what
they have learned
rather than catching
them out or to
show what they have not learned. Needless to say, evaluation and assessment
can focus on
different aspects of
teaching and learning: respectively textbooks and instructional
materials, student achievement, and whole programs of instruction. A primary
concern in education is whether students attain the objectives of the course of
study or curriculum scope and sequence. Objectives refer to goals of a course
of instruction whether we consider instruction as a course, a unit, or a
lesson. In Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics two
different types of objectives are distinguished:
1. General objectives, or aims,
are the underlying
reasons for or
purposes of a
course of instruction. General objectives are
also called long-term goals.
2. Specific
objectives or simply
objectives, are descriptions
of what is
to be achieved in a course. They are more detailed descriptions of exactly
what a learner is expected to be able to do at the end of a period of
instruction. This might be a single lesson, a chapter of a book, a term’s work,
and etc. A description of specific objectives which can be observed and measured
is known as behavioural objectives.
It is important
to clarify the
distinction between evaluation
and assessment. These terms are often used
interchangeably, but they
are technically different. Assessment of
an individual student’s progress
or achievement is an important component of evaluation: it is that part of
evaluation that includes the measurement and analysis of information about
student learning. The primary focus of assessment in Teaching English Language
has been language assessment and
the role of tests in
assessing students’ language skills.
Evaluation goes beyond student achievement and language assessment
to consider all aspects of teaching and learning and to look at
how educational decisions
can be made by
the results of
alternative forms of assessment.
Gensee (cited in
Carter and Nunan,
2001) believes that
another purpose of
evaluation is to guide
classroom instruction and enhance student
learning on a day-to-day
basis. Classroom assessment and
evaluation concerns:
· Suitability of general instructional goals and objectives associated
with an individual lesson or unit plans;
· Effectiveness of instructional methods, materials and activities used to attain
instructional objectives;
· Adequacy of professional resources required to deliver instruction. Classroom
assessment and evaluation under the active management of teachers can also
serve important professional development
purposes since the information
resulting from such evaluations provides teachers with valuable feedback about
their instructional effectiveness that they can use to develop and
improve their professional skills. As part of reflective teaching movement,
teachers are encouraged to conduct
research in their
own classrooms (Nunan, 1989b; A1lwright and Baily, 1991;
Richards and Lockhart, 1994); classroom assessment and evaluation is an
important part of such research.
A STRATEGY FOR CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
Gensee and Upshur (1996) argue that evaluation involve
comparison. More specifically, decisions that result from assessment are arrived
at by making comparisons between various components of instruction and the larger
instructional context (including input factors, purposes, plans, practices, and
outcomes) and then taking action to reduce mismatches between the components so
that the desired outcome or match is achieved. If there is no mismatch, then instruction
can proceed without changing anything. Another
way of viewing classroom assessment
and evaluation requires that
you look for potential problems and
decide on actions
to resolve them. Problems
take the form
of mismatches, inconsistencies between what is actually happening or is
likely to happen on the one hand and what you would like to happen on the
other. Mismatches indicate that there is a potential problem; decisions about
changes that will eliminate or reduce the problems.
EFFECTIVE EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT
To be useful and effective, evaluation and assessment requires
planning. Preparing for evaluation
should be an integral part of planning each lesson or unit as well as general
planning at the beginning of the school year or course. Instruction and evaluation
should be considered together in order to ensure that instruction provides
itself to evaluation and that the results of evaluation can direct ongoing instructional
planning. Moreover, if evaluation
is not planned along with instruction, the time required for assessment activities
will most likely not be
available. As
pointed earlier, clearly
an important focus
of classroom assessment and evaluation is student achievement.
Teachers need to know what and how much students have learned in order to
monitor the effectiveness of instruction, to plan ongoing instruction, and for accountability
purposes.
According
to Gensee and
Upshur (1996), in order to
plan and make instruction that is appropriate for
individual students or
groups of students, it is necessary to
understand the factors that influence
student performance in class. This means going beyond the assessment of
achievement. Chastain (1988) believes that teachers need to evaluate constantly
their teaching on the basis of student reaction, interest, motivation,
preparation, participation, perseverance, and achievement. The conclusions
drawn from such an evaluation constitute their main source for measuring the
effectiveness of selected learning activities. As a matter of fact, testing in
language classes is often
inadequate. The teacher
is so preoccupied with classroom
activities that he fails to maintain a comprehensive perspectives of the flow
of the language learning sequence from objectives to activities to testing.
This is the point where we
can give priority
to evaluation over tests
claiming that the
primary aim of evaluation
in the classroom
is to judge
the achievement of
both students and the
teacher. Evaluation of achievement is
the feedback that
makes improvement possible.
By means of evaluation, strengths and weaknesses are
identified. Evaluation, in this sense, is another aspect of learning, one that
enables learners to grasp what they missed previously and the teacher to comprehend
what can be done in subsequent lessons to improve learning. To do so, alternative
methods (e.g. dialogue journals, portfolio conferences, interviews and questionnaires,
observation, etc) are available for collecting useful information about
language learning and about student related factors which influence the
processes of language teaching and learning.
Genesee (cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001) is of
opinion that for tests and alternative forms of language assessment
to be useful
for classroom-based evaluation, they
should be: linked to instructional objectives and activities; designed to
optimize student performance; developmentally appropriate, relevant and interesting
to students; accurate; fair and ongoing.
References
Bridley,
G. (1998a) Outcomes- Based Assessment in Second Language Learning Programs. In
G. Brindley (ed.) Language Assessment in Action. Sydney: New south Wales Adult
Migrant Education Service.
Genesee,
F. and J. Upshur (1996) Classroom-Based Evaluation in Second Language Education.
Cambridge University Press.
O’Malley, J.
M. and L.
Valdez- Pierce (1996) Authentic Assessment
for English Language Learners:
Practical Approaches for Teachers. Reading. MA: Addison- Wesley.
Rea-Dickins.
P. (1994) Evaluation and English Language Teaching. Language Teaching 27, 71-91.
Rea-Dickins.
P. and K. Geimanie (1993) Evaluation Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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