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Assessment Methods Essay The 12 principles of Good Assessment and Feedback were produced by Academic Policy Committee and agreed by Senate in 2008. They are intended to help academic staffs who wishes to promote student engagement and self-regulation in learning http://www. strath. ac. uk/learnteach/teaching/staff/assessfeedback/12principles/16. 30on 12/05/2010 The principles of good assessment are Help clarify what good performance is. Encourage time and effort on challenging learning tasks. Deliver high quality feedback information that helps learners self-correct. Provide opportunities to close any gap between current and desired performance. Ensure that summative assessment has a positive impact on learning. Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and teacher-student) Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in training Give choice in the topic, method, criteria, weighting or timing of assessments Involve students in decision-making about assessment policy and practice Support the development of learning communities Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem. Provide information to teachers that can be used to shape teaching. `An assessment must be consistent, accessible, detailed, earned and transparent. These principles form the acronym CADET. ( Linda Wilson 2009) C-Consistent A-Accessible D-Detailed E-Earned T-Transparent There are certain basic assessment rules. Though there are different ways of assessing anyone assessing should have something to measure on. In my classes these are given by the awarding body The Association of Business Executives. The assessments have o be valid and relevant ,reliable, authentic, sufficient, objective and power of Discrimination. Assessment relationships to The following assessment methods are used for my Diploma students in Level 5 in Economics class and the assessment methods encompass these principles. (MCQ) Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) MMMMMMMMCQ)) Multiple choice questions Advantages Often referred to as objective tests (in terms of their marking), this method can sample a wide range of knowledge and memory quickly and has the potential for measuring understanding, analysis, problem solving skills and evaluative skills. There are a wide variety of formats from true/false to reason/assertion. Multiple Choice Questions are easy to mark and analyse results. They are useful in terms of their ease of administration with large numbers of students, especially where marking is to be done by assistants rather than the test-setter. Computer marking and web-administered tests for Multiple Choice Questions are well-established. They are also useful for self assessment and screening. Multiple Choice Questions have potentially high reliability, validity and manageability, and feedback to students is fast. Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress. Short Answer questions Advantages A standard method using slightly less structured questions than those in Multiple Choice Questions. They are frequently used in the mock examination conducted by me to award a few marks as a starter, which is then followed by a question which requires more writing. Although they have the potential for measuring analysis, application of knowledge, problem-solving and evaluative skills, more often than not their construction means they only test the lower cognitive levels. Marking to model answers is relatively fast compared with marking problems but not compared with Multiple Choice Questions. They are convenient to use when a number of assessors will mark the papers, and all alternatives can be considered. Marking for feedback (e. g. with formative assessment) can be relatively fast. Single Essay Examination: These are relatively easy to set and can test a wide range of abilities including capacity to draw on a wide range of knowledge, to synthesise and to identify recurrent themes. Marking for grading is relatively fast providing the criteria are simple. Essays: These are applicable to any topic that requires the ability to construct and sustain a written argument. There are several types of essays that test different styles of writing and types of thinking. They can measure understanding, synthesis and evaluation, providing you asks the right questions. They are relatively easy to set and mark for grading based on impressionistic marking is fast. However, it is essential to determine the marking scheme before you start marking and then share it with the students — or better still, get them involved in drawing up the marking criteria/scheme and/or suggesting additional personal criteria. It is also worth having a formal student peer-review system on drafts prior to submission. Case Studies: These can range from simple vignettes illustrating issues in the practice of a discipline, through to complex sets of documentation which may require analysis and research. Solutions can range from short answer questions to complex plans or proposals. They have potential for measuring application of knowledge, analysis, problem-solving, evaluative skills and principles applicable to real-world situations. They can reach all the way up Blooms taxonomy to synthesis and evaluation levels. Short cases are relatively easy to design and mark. Marking for grading and feedback are about as fast as essay marking. They can provide useful information for formative purposes, including diagnosis of problems, because answering the questions or meeting the requirements is often a multistage process. Cases are generally best used in conjunction with several other methods. They often overlap and move into simulations and they can also form the basis of project briefs, and lend themselves to collaborative learning. Projects: These are good for all-round ability testing. There is the potential for sampling a wide range of practical, analytical and interpretative skills, as well as the wider application of knowledge, understanding and skills to real/simulated situations. They can provide a measure of project and time management. Group projects can provide a measure of teamwork skills and leadership. Motivation teamwork can be high. Learning gains can be high particularly if reflective learning is part of the criteria. They test methods and processes as well as end results. Projects allow students to contextualise ideas or material by applying them to practical instances. Educational assessment is reasoning from observations of what students do or make in a handful of particular circumstances, to what they know or can do more broadly. Practice has changed a great deal over the past century, in response to evolving conceptions of knowledge and its acquisition, views of schooling and its purposes, and technologies for gathering and evaluating response data. Conceptions of what constitutes assessment data, how it should be interpreted, and what kind of inferences is to be drawn can differ radically under different psychological perspectives. We see greater continuity, however, when we distinguish the structure of assessment arguments from their substance. Developments here have been more in the nature of extensions, elaborations, and refinements, as they have been prompted by changes in culture and substance. Problems: This method has the potential for measuring application, analysis and problem solving strategies. Marking for grading of easy problems is fast but marking of complex problems can be slow. Variation between markers is fairly low when based on model answers or marking schemes but you need to allow for creative, valid solutions by bright students. Student Peer Assessment: This is an area which can develop students’ judgemental and evaluative skill and is helping them along the road to being critically reflective practitioners. But students need to be involved in criteria setting to some extent at least in terms of a discussion of the criteria and their appropriacy in terms of the learning outcomes. Computer based assessment: Much talked about but still mostly of the MCQ and short-answer type which can mark and analyse results quickly. More recently this area has expanded to include mathematical problems and simulations. Reliability is high. Indeed, Crisp and Green Lister (2001) point out that on reviewing social work education literature there seems to be far less emphasis on assessment of classroom-based learning than of learning in field settings. David Boud, Enhancing learning through self assessment,1989 Routledge Falmer Crisp, B. R. Green Lister, P. (2001). Assessment methods in social work education: A review of the literature. Social Work Education, 21(2), 259-270.