This week my tutor gave the class a task to explore pedagogical theories of assessment and is what way they could be implemented in education and digital assessment. Furthermore, this topic will demonstrate the notion in which an individual is able to understand the concept behind digital assessment, how these assessments are limited in its uses and what the process of making a digital assessment is.
Pedagogical theories?
Pedagogical Theories postulate how things should be taught and/or how one can bring someone to learn. These are often based on learning theory which helps understand how an individual learns (Brodie and Irving, 2007).
Assessments and the many forms it is used in
The process of making a judgement or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully
The purpose of most forms of assessment in education should be to inform people of how much progress a student is making. Assessment can take many different forms and does not need to be limited to tests and exams. There are many types of assessments in which the educator can measure the progression of an individual’s learning.
Formative assessment
Formative assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. It does not contribute to the final mark given for the module; instead it contributes to learning through providing feedback. It should indicate what is good about a piece of work and why this is good; it should also indicate what is not so good and how the work could be improved. Effective formative feedback will affect what the student and the teacher does next (Brodie and Irving, 2007).
Summative assessment
Summative assessment demonstrates the extent of a learner’s success in meeting the assessment criteria used to gauge the intended learning outcomes of a module or programme, and which contributes to the final mark given for the module. It is normally, though not always, used at the end of a unit of teaching. Summative assessment is used to quantify achievement, to reward achievement, to provide data for selection (to the next stage in education or to employment). For all these reasons the validity and reliability of summative assessment are of the greatest importance. Summative assessment can provide information that has formative/diagnostic value (Brodie and Irving, 2007).
‘Authentic’ or work-integrated assessment
‘Authentic’ or work-integrated assessment is an assessment where the tasks and conditions are more closely aligned to what you would experience within employment. This form of assessment is designed to develop students skills and competencies alongside academic development.
Diagnostic assessment
Like formative assessment, diagnostic assessment is intended to improve the learner’s experience and their level of achievement. However, diagnostic assessment looks backwards rather than forwards. It assesses what the learner already knows and/or the nature of difficulties that the learner might have, which, if undiagnosed, might limit their engagement in new learning. It is often used before teaching or when a problem arises.
Dynamic assessment
Dynamic assessment measures what the student achieves when given some teaching in an unfamiliar topic or field. An example might be assessment of how much Swedish is learnt in a short block of teaching to students who have no prior knowledge of the language. It can be useful to assess potential for specific learning in the absence of relevant prior attainment, or to assess general learning potential for students who have a particularly disadvantaged background. It is often used in advance of the main body of teaching.
Synoptic assessment
Synoptic assessment encourages students to combine elements of their learning from different parts of a programme and to show their accumulated knowledge and understanding of a topic or subject area. A synoptic assessment normally enables students to show their ability to integrate and apply their skills, knowledge and understanding with breadth and depth in the subject. It can help to test a student’s capability of applying the knowledge and understanding gained in one part of a programme to increase their understanding in other parts of the programme, or across the programme as a whole. Synoptic assessment can be part of other forms of assessment.
Criterion referenced assessment
Each student’s achievement is judged against specific criteria. In principle no account is taken of how other students have performed. In practice, normative thinking can affect judgements of whether or not a specific criterion has been met. Reliability and validity should be assured through processes such as moderation, trial marking, and the collation of exemplars.
Ipsative assessment
This is assessment against the student’s own previous standards. It can measure how well a particular task has been undertaken against the student’s average attainment, against their best work, or against their most recent piece of work. Ipsative assessment tends to correlate with effort, to promote effort-based attributions of success, and to enhance motivation to learn.
Understanding key concepts behind digital assessment
What better way to understand this concept of digital assessment is by looking at what we use today, this is the modern day form of digital assessment I use this to upload my assignments on, for my tutor to receive my work also they are able to assess me work and give me productive feedback.
Some departments have standardised the way formal assessment is handled in all their module sites. Each module site has a specific ‘Assessment’ content area linked from the left menu. Within this content area are links to departmental processes, such as the Exceptional Circumstances for Assessment procedure, a description of the assignment, the tool for submission and a discussion board for posting assignment-related queries (Assessment of research and development organisations, 2012).
Process of making digital assessments
An example of making a digital assessment was with our tutor where we used a creative way of learning by using a digital form of assessment to teach the class. The tutor used activities on an electronic board where the class were engaged in leaning via a quiz. Software that was used was Kahoot and Socrative, these are game based interactive tools which used images of the subject being taught, for example matching the flags/images to the correct answer.
Firstly we were given a link to the game, in this case Kahoot. The teacher had this set up prior and the class was given a code to access the game, which was match the name of a country with the right flag. The aim of the game was to match up the pairs correctly and do it in the fastest time to achieve the highest score. At the end of the game, the tutor revealed the leader board on who came in what position.
A teacher could use this in an education content by using it as a homework activity for a student’s progress. Due to the competitive nature of the game, students would engage more and would want to learn because of its fun aspect. The teacher would benefit from these types of software because it allows the tutor to be in charge of what of what of what is being taught and track the progression of the class students. Furthermore, by looking at the pupil holistically the educator can see how the student put what they learn into practice and also the tutor would monitor the students leaning and if they need to alter the content based on the students leaning capabilities.
Limitations of digital assessment
Digital assessment is the online submission of work by students, which is subsequently assessed by teaching staff with opportunities for formal feedback. Assessment provides a way for measuring understanding or attainment against learning outcomes, offering a way for both lecturers and students to judge performance. This makes assessment distinctive from student work.
Online assessment has digital approaches as core components of formal submission, marking, feedback or assignment-handling processes.
Consider where learning technology may enhance an assessment-feedback cycle
Formative assessment refers to tasks which students receive feedback that informs their future work in the module and sumative assessment refers to the credit-bearing assignment tasks usually occurring at the end of discrete blocks of study.
reference list
Brodie, P. and Irving, K. (2007). Assessment in work‐based learning: investigating a pedagogical approach to enhance student learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(1), pp.11-19.
Best practices in assessment of research and development organizations. (2012). Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Brodie, P. and Irving, K. (2007). Assessment in work‐based learning: investigating a pedagogical approach to enhance student learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(1), pp.11-19.
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