Assessment of Student's Learning: Analytical Review

Although there is a taken-for-granted view of what assessment of students does, there tend to be few definitions of this notion of assessment.

Charles Sturt University (2011) defines it simply as:

The determination of a student's level of mastery of a subject.

The QEPSE-Leonardo (2011) Glossary states:

Assessment of student learning is the process of evaluating the extent to which participants in education have developed their knowledge, understanding and abilities.

Bewertung von schulischen Lernerfolgen: Der Prozess, den Umfang zu bewerten, innerhalb dessen Bildungsteilnehmer ihre Kenntnisse, ihr Verständnis und ihre Fähigkeiten entwickelt haben.

The UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2006) in its Code of Practice state:

In higher education, 'assessment' describes any processes that appraise an individual's knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills. There are many different forms of assessment, serving a variety of purposes. These include: promoting student learning by providing the student with feedback, normally to help improve his/her performance; valuating student knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills; providing a mark or grade that enables a student's performance to be established. The mark or grade may also be used to make progress decisions; enabling the public (including employers), and higher education providers, to know that an individual has attained an appropriate level of achievement that reflects the academic standards set by the awarding institution and agreed UK norms, including the frameworks for higher education qualifications. This may include demonstrating fitness to practise or meeting other professional requirements.

UMIST (2001) notes:

Assessment: a generic term for a set of processes that measure the outcomes of students’learning, in terms of knowledge acquired, understanding developed and skills gained.

Walvoord and Anderson, (1998, p. 2):

define assessment as the systematic gathering and analyzing of information to improve student learning.

T. Dary Erwin (1991, p. 14) wrote:

Assessment is defined as the systematic basis for making inferences about the learning and development of students. More specifically, assessment is the process of defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information to increase students’ learning and development.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) (2009) states:

Assessment for Learning has been defined by Black and Wiliam as ‘all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by their students which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged’ (SQA, 2009, p. 4).

Wojtczak (2002) defines assessment of students in the context of medical education as follows:

Assessment: A system of evaluation of professional accomplishments using defined criteria and usually including an attempt at measurement either by grading on a rough scale or by assigning numerical value. The purpose of assessment in an educational context is to make a judgment about the level of skills or knowledge, to measure improvement over time, to evaluate strengths and weaknesses, to rank students for selection or exclusion, or to motivate. Assessment should be as objective and reproducible as possible. A reliable test should produce the same or similar scores on two or more occasions or if given by two or more assessors. The validity of a test is determined by the extent to which it measures whatever it sets out to measure. One can distinguish three types of assessment: Formative assessment, Summative assessment, Criterion-referenced assessment.

Sources:

Charles Sturt University, Division of Student Administration, 2011, Glossary of Terms, available at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/student-admin/glossary.htm accessed 31 January 2011.

Erwin, T.D., 1991, Assessing Student Learning and Development, Jossey-Bass.

QEPSE-Leonardo, 2011, Glossary, available at http://www.qepse.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=41, accessed 5 March 2011.

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), 2006, Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education, Section 6: Assessment of students, Second Edition September 2006, available at http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeOfPractice/section6/COP_AOS.pdf, accessed 2 February 2011.

Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), 2009, Guide to Assessment, November 2009 edition, Glasgow, Scottish Qualifications Authority, available athttp://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/GuideToAssessment.pdf, accessed 3 February 2011.

University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), 2001, Annex 1: Glossary, UM/DG/005 http://www2.umist.ac.uk/staff/talsc/TaLSC/quality/dg005%20_glossary.pdf, posted 30/08/01. No longer at this address, 2 February 2011. UMIST merged with the Victoria University of Manchester to form the University of Manchester on 22 October 2004.

Walfoord, B. and Anderson, V.J., 1988, Effective Grading (Jossey Bass).

Wojtczak, A., 2002, Glossary of Medical Education Terms, http://www.iime.org/glossary.htm, December, 2000, Revised February 2002, accessed 2 February 2011.