Education of the republic of uzbekistan national university of uzbekistan named after mirzo ulugbek

CHAPTER 2. CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

2.1.A strategy for classroom assessment and evaluation

There goes a common saying, “Practice makes a man perfect.” The pearls of wisdom coming from our ancestors indeed hold a significant relevance in every field, particularly in the area of academics. Without practice, it is indeed not possible to achieve perfection in any field that you pursue. 

The Assessment gives you the opportunity to develop your skills in your field of interest. By exploring your strengths and weaknesses, you get an idea of what works best for you and hence can strive towards perfecting your skills in the necessary field. 

Thus, today, we will be discussing the importance of Assessment with a variety of assessment methods in the classroom and its impact on the teaching-learning process.

There is a growing trend for searching online assessment help by the academicians. Both the teachers and the students understand the need for assessment help in the present day. 

To define Assessment in education, it helps the students in focusing on their ability to evaluate themselves, to make judgments and assess their performance and take measures or steps to improve upon it. 

It makes use of authentic assessment methods. A lot of opportunities are offered to the students to develop their skills in the best way possible through both summative Assessment and formative Assessment. The importance and benefits of Assessment for learning are enormous. 

Exams and essays are, in reality, a form of Assessment. It is a critical step in the process of learning. Whatever goals or learning objectives have been set for the course, the Assessment helps in realizing whether those have been established and achieved or not. 

Assessment is similar to a learning objective, and students should be aware of conducting it after completion of every lesson. It affects education in many spheres like grades, placements, curriculum, and school funding and instructional requirements as well.

It is impossible to escape the clutches of assignment if at all you want to do that. A student undertaking study in any field has to go through an assessment in one way or the other. Even the teaching staff goes through assessments now and then. 

Assessment is required by every one of us because it becomes a significant determinant of what, when, and how we learn things. Hence getting the proper Assessment is required by both the students as well as the teachers.

There is an importance of Assessment in the teaching-learning process. Assessment in education has an impact on every sphere of academics. Thus, be it students or teachers, the importance of Assessment in education is quite remarkable. Here are some of the effects of Assessment elaborated thoroughly 

Assessment in education is a significant component of learning because it helps the students learn and explore the very best of their abilities. If students can analyze their performance in the class, understand their strengths and weaknesses, then they can quickly determine whether or not they can understand the course material. 

It positively motivates them, inspiring them to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves and achieve perfection in their field. Knowing their performance in the courses leads to a form of self-evaluation, which might then enable them to work even harder, thereby considerably improving the quality and the level of their performance.

Just as Assessment help the students, it helps the teachers as well. By frequently assessing the performance of students, it helps them determine whether their teaching has been effective in creating an impact on the students or not. 

An assessment also allows the teachers to understand the performance of their students. It helps them in ensuring that the students are learning relevant topics which they are supposed to. Assessment enables the teacher to help the students to reach the course’s objectives.

Assessments for students can be conducted through three distinct modes. Each of these methods helps in enhancing the student’s knowledge and improving them precisely. Now, a classroom assessment can be categorized as Assessment for learning, Assessment of learning, and Assessment as learning. Let’s know each of them thoroughly to get an efficient idea regarding the role of Assessment in education.While nobody in this world is perfect, assessment in education makes sure to deliver the students to the closest point near perfection. Exact accuracy cannot be achieved easily, and assessment is a way to reach that. The repeated analysis will lead the student to develop his skills continuously, leading to a polished understanding and skills for the course that he pursues. Hence, to tweak the golden saying a little, it can be said that “Assessment makes a man perfect.”

Gensee and Upshur (1996) state that classroom assessment and evaluation is concerned primarily with improving instruction so that student learning is enhanced. Classroom teachers in educational system, more than anyone else, are actively and continuously involved in assessment and evaluation. Students can also be active participants in assessing their own achievements and in planning how they will study and learn the second language.

The context of classroom assessment and evaluation can be summarized in the Figure 1.

As a rule of thumb, (a practical method of measuring based on experience) any instruction onsists of three components; The purposes identify the objectives of instruction- the “WHY”. The plans describe the means of attaining those objectives- the “HOW”. And practices are what actually takes place in the classroom- the “WHAT”. Gensee and Upshur (1996) also discuss other factors which, strictly speaking, are not part of classroom instruction themselves, nevertheless, can have a significant effect on second language teaching and learning. They refer to these additional factors as “input factors.” Thus, we can say that classroom assessment and instruction has four aspects (purposes, plans, practices, and input factors) which will be dealt with one by one as follows:

Instructional objectives: are identified as the goals that one, as a teacher, aims at while teaching. On the one hand, they provide direction for planning appropriate instruction, and, on the other hand, they provide a basis for determining whether one has achieved what one has set out to accomplish- they provide criteria for assessing the outcomes of one's teaching.

When identifying objectives to use in classroom assessment and evaluation, it is important to use those objectives that best describe what one, as an individual teacher, wants to accomplish. Different kinds of objectives guide classroom instruction;

1) language, 2) strategic, 3) socioaffective, 4) philosophical, and 5) method or process. Language objectives refer to language skills that learners are expected to acquire in the classroom. Objectives that are oncerned with strategies for communicating, learning, and critical thinking are referred to as "strategic objectives".⁷

Learning process are “conscious processes and techniques that facilitate the comprehension, acquisition, and retention of new skills and concepts” (Chamot and O’Malley 1987). According to Chamot and O’Malley, these may include metacognitive strategies (such as selective attention), cognitive strategies (such as summarizing and elaboration), or socioaffective strategies (such as questioning for clarification).

Socio affective objectives refer to changes in learner’s attitudes or social behaviors’ that result from classroom instruction (e.g. changes in attitudes toward the target language, the target language group, or the learner’s first language group). These objectives can be an important part of a second language teaching. In most cases, however, they are secondary to language learning objectives. Gensee (1996) deals with philosophical objectives as changes in attitudes, values, or beliefs of a more general nature than those associated with socioaffective objectives. And, finally, method or process objectives refer to methods, processes, experiences, materials, activities, or other aspects of instruction.

They may also refer to opportunities or experiences that learners are expected to have in the course of instruction. Gensee and Upshr (1996), however, state that not all of these objectives are equally useful for classroom instruction. They believe philosophical objectives, for example, are minimally useful, and objectives of the method are useful for evaluating only one component of instruction- the evaluation component. Strategic objectives help in understanding student's performances in class thus, play an important role in instructional planning.

They are, however, secondary to language acquisition; in other words, the effective deployment of certain strategies should lead to enhanced second language attainment and usage. Clearly, language objectives are fundamental to second language evaluation and are the focus of our attention. Teachers must be able to distinguish among these objectives so that they understand how each can or can not be used in planning more effective classroom assessment and evaluation in educational system.