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Assessment and Teaching

There are as many ways for students to demonstrate what they've learned as there are
courses, majors, and departments or programs. The type of assessment that makes the
most sense in a particular circumstance has partly to do with the type of department or
program in question and partly to do with the level at which the assessment is taking
place. For example, while language departments could assess student learning in a
wide range of ways other than nationally standardized language exams, such
standardized exams make sense for language departments in ways they simply don't
for other types of Colorado College departments such as English or Anthropology.
Assessment often takes place in the capstone but can just as easily take place in a non-
capstone course, especially if there is something particularly special or meaningful
about the course (gateway courses, methods courses, theory courses, technical skills
courses, upper-level seminars, or particularly popular electives). While teaching is
the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening
so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given. In much modern usage,
the words ‘teaching’ and ‘teacher’ are wrapped up with schooling and schools. One
way of approaching the question ‘What is teaching?’ is to look at what those called
‘teachers’ do – and then to draw out key qualities or activities that set them apart from
others. The problem is that all sorts of things are bundled together in job descriptions
or roles that may have little to do with what we can sensibly call teaching.

2. Informal and Formal Assessment

There are some comparison between informal and formal assessment. First, informal
assessment can take a number of forms which starts from incidental, unplanned
comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the
student. Also it is embedded in classroom tasks designed to elicit performance
without recording results and making fixed judgments about a students’ competence.
In contrast, formal assessments are exercises or procedures specifically designed to
tap into a storehouse of skills and knowledge. Formal assessment is systematic, using
planned sampling techniques constructed to give teacher and student an appraisal of
student achievement.

3. Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative assessment usually can be applied in classroom and most of classroom

used this. It can be evaluating students in the process of forming their competencies
and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process. The key to
such formation is the delivery (by the teacher) and internalization (by the student) of
appropriate feedback on performance with an eye toward the future
continuation/formation of learning. For the summative assessment, the main focus is
to aims the measure, summarize what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at
the end of a course or unit of instruction. A summation of what a student has learned
implies looking back and taking stock of how well that student has accomplished
 objectives, but doesn’t necessarily point the way future progress. The examples are
final exams in a course and general proficiency exams.

4. Norm and Criterion Referenced Tests

In norm referenced test, each test taker’s score is interpreted in relation to a mean
(average score), median (middle score), standard deviation (extent of variance in
scores), and rank. It is basically in numerical score. The typical of norm-referenced
tests are standardized tests like SAT or TOEFL. On the other hand, criterion
referenced tests are designed to give test-takers feedback, usually in a form grades, on
a specific course or lesson objectives, and it is connected to curriculum. In a criterion
referenced test, the distribution of students’ scores across a continuum may be of little
concern as long as the instrument assesses appropriate objectives.

5. Discrete and Integrative Testing

Discrete point tests are constructed on the assumption that language can be broken
down into its component parts and those part can be tested successfully. Those
components are skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and various units of
language. For the integrative testing, there are two types of tests have historically
been claimed to be examples of integrative tests: cloze test and dictations.

6. Traditional and Alternative Assessment

There are significant differences between traditional and alternative assessment. Here
are the comparison:

Traditional:

1. One-Shot, standardized exams Timed, multiple choices.

2. Decontextualized test items
3. Scores suffice for feedback
4. Norm-referenced scores
5. Focus on the right answer, etc.

Alternative:

1. Continuous long-term assessment

2. Untimed, free response format
3. Contextualized communicative tasks
4. Individualized feedback and washback
5. Criterion-referenced scores, etc.