What is the role of assessment in learning? Is assessment a tool for the teacher or student? How can assessment be both?
Assessment is important to the process of learning because it is the tool used to determine whether learning is actually taking place. Most people think that it is a tool that can only be used by the teacher, and is only important to the student in that they "need a certain grade". However, I think that it is important that students understand how assessment can be more than a means to a grade and that it can also be a tool for them to gauge their understanding in the learning process.
Many instructors (some of which I have encountered myself) use only summative assessments, which come at the end of the lesson (and sometimes the end of the semester). This behaviorist approach to teaching has its place in assessing the knowledge gained by students in the course, but doesn't give the students much to learn from the assessment process itself. It just gives them a grade and some possible feedback, but coming at the end of the lesson (or semester), it doesn't give the students opportunity to go back and learn from their mistakes or misunderstandings, and doesn't give the instructor the time to address these same things before either moving on to the next lesson or the next semester.
I like the idea of formative assessment, which can take place all through the semester and doesn't necessarily have to be a quiz or traditional short-answer/multiple choice format and is more constructivist by nature. By doing this type of assessment all along, students can gain feedback to determine if they should be asking questions or changing their study habits in order to improve their understanding of the lesson. It's also a great tool for the instructor to determine if all students are "getting it", and if not, allow time to re-visit lessons before moving on to the next. In previous discussions, we've talked about how instructors can go about determining the different levels of background/knowledge of students. Formative assessments can be useful to an instructor for helping to determine which students need more help than others. I like the idea of the "one-minute essay" as described by Wiggins and McTighe (p. 169). This is a simple assessment tool that can be utilized to determine levels of understanding and offer each student the opportunity to ask questions that they may not be willing to raise their hand to ask in front of everyone for fear of embarrassment in front of their peers. The instructor can look at the essays and then address the questions in a way that the questioner(s) remain anonymous.
I don't think that there is really one perfect way to assess student learning, and that all instructors have to follow the same way. However, I do feel that assessment isn't just about the grade, and instructors should try to instill an understanding of this to their students in order for the students to be successful in understanding what they learn and how it will help them beyond just getting the grade and passing the class.
P.S. This is just something I wanted to mention. It's relevant to the topic, but didn't really fit into my post. I've always preferred the essay examination to the multiple choice/true and false/short answer type of exam. I seem to perform better and walk away knowing I really understand the material when I'm given the opportunity to write essays for assessment. Maybe because it's easier to approach the big idea of the lesson when discussing it in essay form. I also like to be able to explain my thoughts and understanding, which you can't really do in a multiple choice format. Granted the essay exam isn't the right format for every subject (ie: Math), but I always seemed to do better in classes that assessed in this manner.
