FAD on assessment
Many Danish teachers have an ambivalent relationship to testing, they know they are supposed to do it but often can’t see the point of doing it. One of the reasons that many teachers don’t feel that compelled to use test in their teaching is because of the many bad test that exist.
Backwash
The methods and areas that we decide to test students will also have a profound influence on how the both teacher and students approach the course. The response to this is called Backwash or Washback and can be both positive and negative for how students and teacher perform during the lessons. If most of the testing is on grammar, then students will concentrate their efforts on this part, and then tend to neglect other areas of their curriculum and will therefore be negative or bad backwash. Another negative approach could be forming test that don’t live up to the requirements or standards of the final exam, and thereby gives a wrong impression on the required level for the students.
Assessment can be used for different end purposes
Summative Assessments are given periodically to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know. Many associate summative assessments only with standardized tests such as state assessments, but they are also used in the classroom. It is generally used as part of the grading process.
Summative assessment is a means to look, at a particular point in time, student learning relative to content standards. The information retrieved can only help in evaluating certain aspects of the learning process. Summative assessments are tools to help evaluate the effectiveness of goals in curriculum, or student placement in specific programs. Summative assessments cannot provide information at the classroom level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the learning process.
The use of different evaluation tools is not a guarantee in itself that students are going to develop in the right direction. Only through specific, constructive and prospective feedback from the teacher on the students achievements, is it possible to identify the different needs and goals for each student and their by adapt future teaching and teaching methods. One way of achieving this is through actively involving the student in their own learning process and developing different types of learning strategies.........
