AS4ODFL (PAC) Changes to assessment approach

Purpose: to reflect on your own approach to assessment and how it has changed.

In this activity you will meet and discuss with other participants online, after you have read the definitions on the forms of assessment.

Please post your views by clicking the reply button below, in response to the questions:

  • In the last two years have you changed your approaches to assessment?
    • If not, what have your challenges been?
    • If so how has it changed and why?
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Yes I have put in alot of effort in doing away with the traditional.assessment of Writting test.I have develop assessments that will make student own thei learning and not teacher centered.I have create a space for student to participate in hands on activity and express themselve freely in presentations,shot drama and hands on activity.So that student get to use the digital and devices to learn rather than bound to a confined room.

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All my assessments have been theory based in the last two years of teaching. May be I was teaching in an overcrowding classroom with a very tight schedule that left me little time to think ahead and plan in advance. I did not even have the facility and the avenue to do practical lessons and assessments. I now realize that, with the method of delivery being changed, I have to adapt to the changes in assessment. The assessment in a LMS is more interactive for the student in learning as it automatically provides feedback for the student to identify mistakes and correct themselves. However, there may be an hinderance in conducting practical lessons.

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I do combine the first 2 as of "Assessment for learning and Assessment as Learning."This is to improve students learning.
As for these 2 Assessment, Assessment for learning is when i use the evidence about students knowledge, skills and understanding to inform my teaching as it refers to as formative.
So far, i haven’t change anything yet when preparing and giving an Assessment. Due to facility and even it depends entirely on students learning environment on which this pandemic had disturbed alot and causes the learning won’t flow well.

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These two years of the covid-19 pandemic have also impacted the teaching practices in Vanuatu. In fact, teachers have to switch from classroom teaching to e-learning by the implementation of Moodle platforms. And this transition allowed teachers to change and improve their methods of learning such as assessment. Moodle quizz, for example, provides feedback and can be set up to enable all students, no matter their situation and environment, to do the test.

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Yes we are changing slowly. Some of our teachers do not have formal qualifications to teach but have had several years of experience. Many of our teachers pick up new things really quickly and implement them but others are slower. For those that are slower it can be that they don’t fully understand the benefit to the students or have been using assessment of learning for a long time and it is easier to continue to do what you know. We have also been impacted by Covid and have missed 2 of our scheduled teacher training blocks, so we haven’t been able to reinforce the concept as well as we would like. The other challenge we face is trying to find teachers that have enough knowledge to teach. We seem to be continually training new staff with the basics while trying to maintain the teachers who are teaching at a higher level of competence.

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For me, the same form of assessment is still used the most. In fact I didn’t experience any major challenge however for some learners I could see they can do better and I was wondering how. In the last few months we started to access the TVET online toolkit and have learnt a lot through the available resources (Toolkits) which I believe the knowledge learnt will be contributing to our future learning improvement.

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Yes During the last two years i have change my approaches to assessment for learning
The reason is participants did not have time to have practical session
Changing the form of assessment allowed enough time for practical session to enable participant gaining more knowledge and skills on the subject.

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A lot have changed. Before I attended a Competence Based Training and Assessment training, I always had Examinations in my mind. Most of the ‘tests’ that mattered towards certification were those done at the end of the learning period, say a Semester or term. From the training, I have appreciated the need for assessment for, of and as learning. Now I integrate all types of assessments, and deliberately give my learners feedback about the assessed skills. That helps them improve their skills so that they can demonstrate competencies.

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Yes it really changed in the last two years due to covid. We were reaching out to our students through worksheets only as online lessons were not possible due to unavilibility of devices with students. We were only able to capture our teachings through open book assessment but it was not reliable as they got assisted by their family members. I think we only had assessment of learning. However we teachers communicated online and had our normal meetings, discussions and briefings.

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the three types of Assessment on learning are the best and it has not changed for us, assessment for learning comes first, secondly Assessment as learning and lastly Assessment of learning which is working quite good for us.

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My teaching approach has changed, I tend to concentrate on 'assessment as learning. I guess time brings with it new terms. We assume students have gone through the learning stages with their contents of learning. We now concentrate on our learning outcomes. What we teach (discussion, activities etc) should build students learning ability for the form of assessment we require ‘assessment as learning’. At the end of teaching and learning, we finally come to the ‘assessment as learning’ by giving out Examination questions, or other forms of assessment to see if our ‘learning outcome’ is achieved.

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For me, in past 2 years despite the pandemic, the same form of assessment is still being used t. I did not experience any major challenge however for some students were not coming for virtual zoom conference during lock down and doing formative was biggest challenge to me.

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Yes i did changed my approaches to assessment but with classroom and students challenges. Students become addicted to getting a written test as assessment and when a presentation or poster or even debate is used, they are very shy. they are very afraid to openly and freely express their ideas. Classes time (1 hour) becomes another challenge. Planning extra lessons is also challenging.

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There have been considerable changes to the assessment practices in Pacific Island countries. Formerly, more emphasis is placed on taking test and examinations (Assessment of Learning) but now the trend had also considers the importance of both Assessment of Learning and Assessment as Learning. There have been a lot of consideration for Assessment for Learning as it assist students in their learning through formative assessment practices such as continuous assessments and so forth. Lately, the mode of Assessment as Learning had placed a lot of emphasis on individual learning by students. Due to the COVID19 pandemic a lot more emphasis is geared towards online learning and individual learning. The latter had been the recent trend of change and had seen more focus on individual learning.

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During covid lockdown, assessment approaches have been the same using assessment of learning and assessment for learning and minimum assessment as Learning. Appling more hands-on, practical assessment methods is something I will need to get the teachers to work on, as it will really accommodate for the different learning styles and each individual competency.

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Such interesting responses, colleagues. As your facilitator please allow me to make a few points and ask some questions:
You have picked up on the idea that traditional assessment is mostly assessment of learning. Assessment for and assessment as learning take teaching and learning to a deeper level. You may want to read the definitions again.
What does it mean for our understanding of formative and summative assessment if we integrate different forms of assessment, in activity-based teaching? You will explore this more a bit later.
Such an interesting point about students being shy, and needing to adjust to new forms of assessment.
Also, the time and effort it takes to design different assessments.
What does this mean for teachers supporting students, students supporting each other, and teachers supporting each other?

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Approaches to assessment in the past years had changed a lot due to the changes in the curriculums or teaching materials along with the changes in the learning environment standards. Attending other trainings on assessment also determine these changes in the past few years.

I can see some interesting issues coming up in your responses. I am glad to see you are beginning to respond to each other too. As a facilitator let me challenge you to read one other post from this stream. Do you agree or disagree with what is said? Reply to the post directly, in a constructive and careful way.

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Also as facilitator, let me comment, and ask a few questions of my own:

  1. I see interesting differences in how and when different forms of assessment are used and integrated. What do you think the purpose of each type of assessment is? Does that affect when it is used?
  2. The integration of feedback into assessment is important to encourage students to think more deeply, to participate and to solve problems. Do you agree?
  3. Feedback supports students but it also guides teaching. It is a two-way street.
  4. There is often pressure from the education system to focus more on assessment of learning through tests and exams. Can integration of different kinds of assessment in activity-based teaching and learning help us to address this problem?
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