WEEK 5

TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

 ASSESSING, TESTING, AND TEACHING

 
    People  might  be   tempted  to  think  of  them  as  synonymous  terms,  but  they  are  not.  A  test  is  an instrument  or  procedure designed  to  elicit  performance  from learners  with  the  purpose of  measuring  their  attainment  of  specified criteria (formal assessment).  Tests can be useful devices among other procedures and tasks designed to assess students (Brown, 2001). Assessment encompasses a much wider domain than tests. Whenever as student responds to a question, offers a comment, or tries  out a  new  word or  structure,  the  teacher makes  assessment  of the student’ s performance (informal assessment),(Brown, 2001). 

      Teachers  and  other  education  professional  spend a  lot  of  time  testing,  evaluating  and assessing  students. Sometimes  it  is   to  measure  the  students’ abilities to  see  if  they  can  enter a  course  or  institution.  Sometimes it is to see how well they are getting on.  Sometimes it is because the students themselves want a qualification. Sometimes  this  assessment  is  formal  and  public , and  sometimes it is  informal  and  takes  place  in  day- to –day  lessons (Harmer, 2007).

     There is to differentiate between summative and formative assessment. Summative  assessment (formal assessment), as the  name suggests, is  the  kind of  measurement  that  takes place to  round  things  off  or  make a  one-off measurement. Such  tests  include  the  end-of-year tests  that  students  take or  the  big  public  exams  which  many  students  enter for . Formative  assessment (informal assessment), on the  other hand,  relates  to  the  kind of  feedback  teachers  give  students  as a course is  progressing  and  which,  as  a result  may  help  them  to improve their  performance (Harmer, 2007).

ASSESSMENT CONSTRUCTS

Informal                                    Formal

Formative                                 Summative

Process                                      Product

(Brown, 2001)

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT OPTIONS

    In  recent   years  language  teachers  have  stepped up  efforts to  develop non-test  assessment  options  that  are  nevertheless  carefully designed and  that  adhere to  the criteria  for  adequate assessment.  Sometimes  such  innovations  are  referred  to  as  alternative  assessment, if  only  to  distinguish them from traditional  formal  tests. Among which self- and peer-assessments, journals, conferences, portfolios, and cooperative test construction can be found.  

1.       Self- and peer-assessments

a.       Oral production

b.      Listening comprehension

c.       Writing

d.      Reading

2.       Journals

3.       Conferences

4.       Portfolios

5.       Cooperative test construction (Brown, 2001)    

Best regards, 

Fernando Minda