Kurebwa mercy thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for doctor of philosophy

2.4 RATIONALE FOR ASSESSMENT

“Assessment enhances learning, provides feedback about learner progress, builds confidence and self esteem, and develops skills in evaluation”. Unfortunately research shows that high quality formative assessment is relatively rare in classrooms and most teachers do not engage well in such assessment (Fair Test, 2007). They go on to say, formative assessment facilitates improved instructional practices, identifies gaps in the curriculum and contributes to increased learner performance. Black & William (1998:10), define formative assessment as, “All those activities undertaken by the teacher, and or their learners which provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities in which they are gauged.”

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  Diagnoses of the strengths and weaknesses of individual learners.
  
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  Diagnoses of class and group needs.
  
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  Grouping learners for instruction within or across classes.
  
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  Identifying and selecting learners who are in need of special services.
  
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  Assigning grades on report cards.
  
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  Evaluating the effectiveness of their instructional effort.
  
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  Communicating instructional objectives or achievement expectations.
  
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  Communicating social or inter- personal expectations.
  
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  Controlling learner behaviours and motivation, and
  
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  Enhancing test-taking skills.
  

Gipps & Stobart (1993) identify six uses of assessment below:

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  Screening: this refers to the process of testing groups of learners, normally at primary level, to identify individuals who are in need of special help.
  
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  Diagnosis: this involves the use of tests to identify children’s strengths and (more usual) weaknesses.
  
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  Record-keeping: test scores and teacher assessments are put into learner records to then help in the transfer process from one school level to the next.
  
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  Feedback: results provide feedback about the progress of individual learners and the teacher’s success. On the other hand, results of classes can provide information to the school administration about the progress and success across the school, and school results can be used by outsiders to ‘evaluate’ schools and teachers.
  
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  Certification: a learner is provided with a qualification that signifies that he or she has reached a certain level of competence or knowledge.
  
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  Selection: learners are selected into different institutions for further and higher education. They can also be allocated to different streams or sets within institutions.
  

The primary purpose of learner assessment is to support this learning, (Cameron et al. 1998: 6) hence the need for teachers to understand assessment processes. The introduction to Primary School Curriculum (1999) strongly supports that assessment contributes significantly to teaching/learning and states that,

Assessment is central to the process of teaching and learning. It is used to monitor learning process and to ascertain achievement in each area of the curriculum. Through assessment the teacher constructs a comprehensive picture of the short term and long-term needs of the child and plans future work accordingly. Assessment is also used to identify children with specific learning difficulties so that the nature of the support and assistance they need can be ascertained, and appropriate programmes put in place to enable them to cope with particular difficulties they are encountering.

Assessment assists the communication about children’s progress and development between teacher and child, between teacher and parent and between teacher and teacher (Primary Teacher Curriculum, 1999; 17)

Classroom assessment informs teachers how effectively they are teaching and learner show effectively they are learning. Through classroom assessment, teachers get continual feedback on whether and how well learners are learning what teachers hope they are teaching. And learners are required, through a variety of classroom assessment exercises to monitor their learning, to reflect on it, and to take corrective action while there is still time left in the semester (Cross, 1998: 6).

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  Superficial rote learning often takes place, with classroom assessment based on the recall of details of knowledge which learners soon forget.
  
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  Teachers fail to review the forms of assessment used, do not discuss assessment practices with other teachers and rarely reflect on what is being assessed.
  
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  There is an over-emphasis on grading and an under emphasis on learning.
  
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  There is a tendency to use normative rather than criterion referenced assessment systems.
  
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  Teachers emphasize competition through their assessment method rather than personal achievement and performance.
  
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  Assessment methods tend to reinforce perception of failure among the less able leading to de-motivation and loss of confidence in their ability to learn.
  
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  Dominance in external summative testing is still the norm.
  

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   Effective learning. Effective learning is diminishing because testing encourages rote and superficial learning; assessment methods are not critically reviewed among teachers in schools, and the quantity and presentation of work are emphasised at the neglect of its quality.
   
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   Negative impact. This is exacerbated by the over emphasis on rewarding grades and under the provision of useful advice, reinforces a lack of emphasis on the role of learning
   
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   Managerial role. The managerial roles tend to dominate rather than relating assessment to learning. Often teachers can predict their learners’ likely performance on external test, usually because their own assessment regimes closely imitate these but are less aware of learners’ needs Butt (2010:8).
   

In countries such as United States educational assessment practices still reflect for the most part the legacy of the past: the purposes are narrow and the methods used generate limited data. The assumptions and theories of learning are implicit; examinees submit to the process without active and equal participation (e.g. critique, reflection, self-reflection), and secrecy, reward, and punishment remain key concepts.