Assessment....What is important?

Assessing what we know about our students is an interesting task. There are many compelling conversations around this. One analogy is...

'weighing the pig never made it heavier'

Ian J Seath describes this in his blog post here. He  discusses recording data with the importance of analysing information to gain insight.

Another argument may be that sometimes students show signs of stress when they are being assessed and they can let their nerves overwhelm them and not perform as well as they are able. It is important that what we are assessing is a true indication of what skills students actually have. Therefore one measure of this isn't always accurate.

Working in a collaborative space where more than one teacher is able to have input into a students' learning is valuable in that conversations of a particular child's overall abilities are shared. During the last 3 years of working collaboratively we have had conversations of students progress and how they perform better for some teachers than others. Students within our learning space have also shared personal reflections regarding that they learn or enjoy learning from some teachers more than others. This is not necessarily linked to a particular subject area. Alongside this there are obvious 'aha' moments a child will experience after something actually clicks.

I believe the key is to ensure that what we assess is going to be used effectively and to make sure the students see the value in what we are doing as opposed to finding it an intimidating, stressful or even daunting process. Ian Seath also states what he considers to be the 3 golden rules of Measurement:

 1. No measurement without recording

2. No recording without analysis

3. No analysis without action

 Jo Boaler, author of “Mathematical Mindsets“ shares her thoughts on Assessment. She considers that grading decreases learning it doesn't increase it. It reflects a fixed mindset. A better way might be diagnostic feedback where a teacher can determine students' individual strengths, weaknesses, knowledge and skills prior to instruction. She views intrinsic motivation as being the central focus, and this definitely resonates with me.