ED2135 QUESTION 2 BASIC ASSESSING

ASSESSMENT !
It's not just Black and White

Explain the principles
that are basic to assessing, measuring and evaluating student progress in an area of development in your main teaching area.

Assessment scheduals and tasks for our Art students are design in programs that embraces "assessment should be an integral part of each unit of work and should support student learning". Students are assess on their background work and their creative note taking in their Visual Arts Diary, as well as case study or essays. Students are assess on presentation of works, on development of Art works and written work with peer and student self assessment and self reflection as well. Activities and tasks are designed to stimulate and promote reflection and creativity and students have available a variety of materials and forms. Our Art programs promote ICT , Digital Media Photography and connect in real world ways for the students to other activities and other subjects. eg. WAVE
Our programs provide clear understanding of tasks and the RUBRIC by which the tasks will be assessed and our students understand whats required of them to achieve.


Outcomes Based Learning
Spady(1994) suggests ten categories of outcomes, based on "fundamental life performance roles"(P.21). he suggested that these life performances roles require complex applications of many kinds of knowledge and all kinds of competence as people confront the challenges surrounding them in their social systems. He proposed that no matter what major life roles learners faced after formal education(worker,employer,parent,etc.), they would need to be competent in his Ten Inter-Related Life Performance Roles.

The Life Performance Roles Spady(1994) suggested were:

1. Learner and Thinker.
2. Listener and Communicator.
3. Implementer and Performer.
4. Problem Finder and Solver.
5. Planner and Designer.
6. Creator and Producer.
7. Teacher and Mentor.
8. Supporter and Contributor.
9. Team Member and Partner.
10. Leader and Organiser.

Spady suggested that one way to prepare students for these life roles was to "continually engage students in both individual and team activities that explore important issues or phenomena, use multiple media and technologies, create products that embody the results of students explorations, and call for students to explain their work and products to adult and student audiences".

3 Advice on Assessment (from the Board Of Studies)

3.1 Assessment for Learning

The Board’s revised syllabuses advocate assessment for learning. Assessment that enhances learning recognises that learners use their current understanding to discover, develop and incorporate new knowledge, understanding and skills. Assessment for learning helps teachers and students to know if that current understanding is a suitable basis for future learning.

Assessment occurs as an integral part of teaching and learning. Teacher instruction and assessment influence student learning and learning processes. This involves using assessment activities to clarify student understanding of concepts, and planning ways to remedy misconceptions and promote deeper understanding.

Assessment for learning encourages self-assessment and peer assessment. Students can develop and use a range of strategies to actively monitor and evaluate their own learning and the learning strategies they use.

The feedback that students receive from completing assessment activities will help teachers and students decide whether they are ready for the next phase of learning or whether they need further learning experiences to consolidate their knowledge, understanding and skills. Teachers should consider the effect that assessment and feedback have on student motivation and self-esteem, and the importance of the active involvement of students in their own learning.

By integrating learning and assessment, the teacher can choose which aspects of a student’s performance to record. These records can be used to monitor the student’s progress, determine what to teach next and decide the level of detail to be covered. At key points, such as the end of the year, this information is also available for the teacher to use to form a judgement of the student’s performance against levels of achievement. This judgement can be used to inform parents, the next teacher and especially the student, of the student’s progress. Consequently, teachers using their professional judgement in a standards-referenced framework are able to extend the process of assessment for learning into the assessment of learning.

Principles of assessment for learning
Assessment for learning:

• AP1 emphasises the interactions between learning and manageable assessment strategies that promote learning
• AP2 clearly expresses for the student and teacher the goals of the learning activity
• AP3 reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark
• AP4 provides ways for students to use feedback from assessment
• AP5 helps students take responsibility for their own learning
• AP6 is inclusive of all learners.

Details on how these principles translate in practice can be found on page 58 of the Visual Arts Years 7–10 Syllabus. One activity in this document has been annotated to show how the principles of assessment for learning feature in that activity. It can be found on page 17.

OUTCOMES
Stage 5 Visual Arts

• 5.1 develops range and autonomy in selecting and applying visual arts conventions and procedures to make artworks
• 5.2 makes artworks informed by their understanding of the function of and relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audience
• 5.3 makes artworks informed by an understanding of how the frames affect meaning
• 5.4 investigates the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts
• 5.5 makes informed choices to develop and extend concepts and different meanings in their artworks
• 5.6 demonstrates developing technical accomplishment and refinement in making artworks
• 5.7 applies their understanding of aspects of practice to critical and historical interpretations of art
• 5.8 uses their understanding of the function of and relationship between artist – artwork – world – audience in critical and historical interpretations of art
• 5.9 demonstrates how the frames provide different interpretations of art
• 5.10 demonstrates how art criticism and art history construct meanings

3.2 Planning for Effective Learning and Assessment

The diagram below summarises a model for integrating learning and assessment. It emphasises that outcomes are central to the decisions teachers make about the learning to be undertaken and the evidence of learning that needs to be collected. This evidence enables teachers to determine how well students are achieving in relation to the outcomes and to provide students with feedback on their learning. Evidence of learning assists teachers and students to decide if students are ready for the next phase of learning or if teachers need to adapt programs to provide further learning experiences to consolidate students’ knowledge, understanding and skills.

3.3 Designing Effective Learning and Assessment

Designing effective learning experiences requires the selection of activities that develop students’ knowledge, understanding and skills and that allow evidence of learning to be gathered. Methods of gathering evidence could include informal teacher observation, questioning, peer evaluation and self-evaluation, as well as more structured assessment activities. Assessment should be an integral part of each unit of work and should support student learning.





Student Entry
WAVE Design
Year 9


When designing assessment activities, teachers should consider whether the activity:
• has explicitly stated purposes that address the outcomes
• is integral to the teaching and learning program
• shows a clear relationship between the outcomes and content being assessed
• allows students to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge, understanding and skills
• focuses on what was taught in class and what students were informed would be assessed
• provides opportunities to gather information about what further teaching and learning is required for students to succeed
• provides valid and reliable evidence of student learning and is fair.

3.5 Sharing Learning and Assessment Intentions

Students must be aware of what they need to do to demonstrate evidence of learning. This information could be conveyed informally or formally by the teacher, as appropriate for the learning activity. Students should be informed of the criteria that will be used to assess their learning. They should be clear about the meaning of the language used, and the subject-specific terminology. They also need to be clear about any sources or stimulus material that are appropriate to the activity.

It may be helpful to give students models of good responses and templates, or procedures to help them demonstrate the extent of their knowledge, understanding and skills.


3.6 Effective Feedback to Students

The aim of feedback is to communicate to students how well their knowledge, understanding and skills are developing in relation to the outcomes. Feedback enables students to recognise their strengths and areas for development, and to plan with their teacher the next steps in their learning. They are then given opportunities to improve and further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills.

Teacher feedback about student work is essential for students and is integral to the teaching and learning process. Student self-reflection and peer evaluation can also provide valuable feedback to students. Students should be provided with regular opportunities to reflect on their learning.

Feedback should:
• focus on the activity and what was expected
• be constructive, providing meaningful information to students about their learning
• correct misunderstandings
• identify and reinforce students’ strengths and state clearly how students can improve.

Forms of feedback include:
• oral discussion with class, groups or individual students
• written annotations
• general comments to the class about those aspects of the activity in which students excelled and those aspects that still need addressing
• examples of good responses
• peer evaluation and self-evaluation.


3.7 Recording Evidence for Assessment
Recording student performance needs to be manageable. Teachers should make decisions about which aspects of student performance on an activity should be recorded, and in what format. The teacher can use this information to ascertain students’ progress, what needs to be taught next and to what level of detail, and to form a judgement of student achievement at key points.

Record-keeping should reflect the reporting processes of the school and may take the form of individual comments or notations, marks, grades or visual representations for the activities.
For further information click on BOS