A formative assessment can provide a snapshot of what a student knows and is able to do. It can include written tests, performance tasks, formal or informal questioning, or teacher observations embedded in a unit of study. The information gathered from formative assessments is then interpreted and used to further student learning. Such assessment…

Addresses the benefits of formative assessment, the diagnostic use of assessment to provide feedback to teachers and students over the course of instruction, and provides examples and resources to supplement its implementation. (SLD)

This article gives a brief overview of the structure and purposes of rubrics; reviews the benefits of using rubrics as both teaching and grading tools; warns against approaches that limit the effectiveness of rubrics; and urges instructors to take simple steps toward ensuring the validity, reliability, and fairness of their rubrics. Tips for using…

It is argued that assessment discourses are essentially local discourses. Assessment warrants, such as certificates and diplomas, are essentially local creations. They ought not to be treated as valid and reliable descriptions of general achievement. The case is developed by distinguishing between three forms of assessment and arguing that…

Although assessment is acknowledged as vitally important in its effect on students' approaches to learning, there is much criticism of assessment practice. This paper argues that if a social constructivist approach is applied to the assessment process many of the problems could be overcome. It describes what a social constructivist approach to…

Instructors use peer feedback to afford students multiple assessments of their work and to help them acquire important lifelong skills. However, research finds that this type of feedback has questionable validity, reliability, and accuracy, and instructors consider much of it too uncritical, superficial, vague, and content-focused, among other…

Commencing each class session with a class quiz, which emphasizes the previous week's work and is supported by immediate feedback, encourages students to revise their notes ahead of the session, undertake more reading and keep pace with course progression. It reduces the necessity for any spoken review of the previous week's work, provides…

It is not enough to say merely that formative assessment is a measure of student achievement administered several times during the school year, whereas summative assessment is a measure of student achievement usually administered at the end of the year. That is only part of the answer, the true distinction between the two lies in their respective…

Parents and teachers have found that evaluations, both those provided by public school systems and private clinicians and hospitals, vary greatly in their comprehensiveness, usefulness of information and specificity of recommendations. Therefore, parents must become informed consumers when selecting who will evaluate their children as well as what…

Assessment can be conducted in various ways in school, and has also different purposes. In this paper, the focus is on pupil assessment during project work. The article touches on the aim of assessment that has ranking and certificating purposes, but its main focus is on assessment as a learning device. Dialogues from the classroom are used as…

Using video recordings of lessons and interviews with teachers, this article explores the way in which teachers enact Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices in their classrooms. Starting with the hypothesis that AfL is built on an underlying pedagogic principle that foregrounds the promotion of pupil autonomy, we analyse the ways in which…

Private conferences with students allow the composition teacher to give more feedback, increase teacher concentration and pace, demystify the evaluation process, and facilitate teacher/student interaction. (DD)

Describes a feedback method for teaching interviewing skills that requires dual evaluation of a student's performance by both the student interviewer and the interviewee. Illustrates benefits of this method with an analysis of 139 paired assessments of students' information-gathering skills in a "career interview" assignment. (PD)

Students receiving competency/evaluation profiles of their examination results, rather than the traditional summative grades or marks, obtained a significantly higher level of cognitive achievement. Their attitudes toward the assessment process were also more favorable. (LRA)

Understanding and implementing effective classroom assessments are skills that are essential to increasing student achievement. Unfortunately, many teachers have had little training in assessment strategies in either graduate or undergraduate programs. Administrators, therefore, must find innovative ways to help their teachers think like assessors…