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Assessment Glossary
Assessment in education is the process of gathering, interpreting, and sometimes recording and using information about students' responses to an educational task in order to provide the next learning step. Assessment is primarily concerned with providing teachers and/or students with feedback information. (Harlen, Gipps, Broadfoot Nutthal, 1994).
Research evidence shows strong connections between teachers providing clear goals for learning and giving feedback linked to criteria with student motivation and improvement.
Student achievement is raised when teachers have high, attainable expectations focused on learning. The commitment generated through setting goals and developing criteria, in collaboration with students, is the glue that holds teaching and learning teams together (Curriculum Update, Issue 47, August 2001)
Achievement objective
An objective describes the scope and parameters for learning, and identifies the particular skills, knowledge and understanding to be developed, in each strand of each discipline.
Assessment activity/task
A set of instructions for students, usually designed by the teacher, to effectively allow students to demonstrate the knowledge, skill and understanding they have acquired, usually as a direct result of classroom instruction and participation.
Assessment tools Assessment tools are resources to support teachers and students with their learning. These include:
- the New Zealand curriculum exemplars
- professional development programmes in assessment (for example, AtoL, online support)
- Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs) – are an online collection of materials for maths, science and English designed to assess achievement through learning programmes that reflect the curriculum at levels 2–5
- National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) tasks
- Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) literacy and numeracy tools
- Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading (STAR)
- Performance Achievement Tests (PAT); Essential Skills Test (EST)
- School Entry Assessment (SEA) – are designed to assess emerging concepts about print, numeracy, and spoken language and are performance-based
- Running records
- National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)
Conferencing Conferencing describes the process of providing one-to-one feedback and feed-forward to students, through in-class dialogue, in order to affirm achievement and provide next steps for learning.
Diagnostic assessment
Diagnostic assessment provides information for teachers on what or how students are achieving at a particular time. Diagnostic tools give detailed information about students' learning needs; and prompt reflection on appropriate teaching strategies to meet these. Diagnostic assessment also informs future programme planning, and gives valuable information to teachers on how they may scaffold the learning to meet the individual learning needs of students.
Exemplars These are samples of authentic student work, often annotated, to illustrate levels of achievement. These could be examples of written work, or designed tasks, art works, or recordings of dance, drama, or musical works.
Formative assessment
Formative assessment refers to all those assessment activities undertaken by teachers, and by the students themselves, which provide information, to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessments become formative when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet the needs of students
Feedback / Feed forward
Specific, constructive feedback about learning, as it is unfolding, is one of the most powerful influences on student achievement. Positive feedback celebrates success, and help keep students motivated, whilst constructive feedback highlight important aspects to focus on. Feed-forward provides an outline of the steps to be taken (scaffolding) towards achievement. Feedback/feed-forward includes all dialogue to support learning in both formal and informal situations.
Formative assessment is used for setting personal goals.
Askew and Lodge (2000) view formative assessment as the combination of three dynamic and interactive processes:
- Instruction or direct teaching (the 'gift').
- Construction or dialogue between teacher and student ('ping pong').
- Co-construction or free flowing dialogues between teachers and students together and separately ('loops').
It is widely and empirically argued that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement.
Learning intention Learning intentions describe the knowledge, skill, understanding(s) and/or attitudes/values that are designed to develop an aspect of the curriculum. They are usually negotiated with students and expressed in a lesson or series of lessons. Learning intentions are expressed in language that students understand and support them in understanding what they are supposed to be doing and why. Ideally students will put learning intentions into their own words.
Learning intentions are also referred to as intended learning outcomes and usually are preceded by the stem: Students will . . . (description of intended learning). They may also be written in the first person by a student: I am learning to ... (description of intended learning).
Portfolio
A systematic and organised collection of student work that exhibits to others, direct evidence of a student's efforts, achievements, and progress over a period of time. The portfolio should involve the student selection of its contents and include information about the performance/achievement criteria and evidence of student self-evaluation. It should include representative work, providing a basis for evaluation of the student's progress.
Self-assessment A process in which a student engages in a systematic review of their progress and achievement, usually for the purpose of improvement. It may involve comparison with an exemplar, success criteria, or other criteria. It may also involve critiquing one's own work or a description of the achievement obtained.
Success criteria Success criteria (learning outcomes/indicators) describe what students have learnt or how students are aiming to achieve a learning goal (in relation to a learning intention). The purpose of success criteria is to ensure students understand the teacher's criteria for making judgements about their work. Success criteria are always richly contextualised. If they have been involved in the creation of success criteria students are more likely to take more ownership for their learning, be self-evaluative as they are working, and questioning about the assessed work as it evolves. Measuring whether a single learning intention has been met (whether it has become an outcome) may involve co-constructing several success criteria.
Success criteria are usually preceded by the stem:
I will know I have achieved this when... (description of criteria for achievement).
Summative assessment
This is an evaluation made by the teacher at the conclusion of a unit of work, instruction, or assessment activity to assess student skills, knowledge, and understandings at that particular point in time, or the validity of an assessment task.
This is used for the reporting of aggregated data.
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