Educational assessment or educational evaluation

• prof.Abdelhamid Fouda 
• ============================
• 
  

• Educational assessment or educational evaluation is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes, and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning.Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning.Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests.Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of learners), a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole (also known as granularity). The word 'assessment' came into use in an educational context after the Second World War.
• As a continuous process, assessment establishes measurable and clear student learning outcomes for learning, provisioning a sufficient amount of learning opportunities to achieve these outcomes, implementing a systematic way of gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well student learning matches expectations, and using the collected information to inform improvement in student learning.
• The final purpose of assessment practices in education depends on the theoretical framework of the practitioners and researchers, their assumptions and beliefs about the nature of human mind, the origin of knowledge, and the process of learning.
• The term assessment is generally used to refer to all activities teachers use to help students learn and to gauge student progress. Assessment can be divided for the sake of convenience using the following categorizations:

• Placement, formative, summative and diagnostic assessment
• Objective and subjective
• Referencing (criterion-referenced, norm-referenced, and ipsative (forced-choice))
• Informal and formal
• Internal and external

• 
  
• Placement, formative, summative and diagnostic
• 
  
• Assessment is often divided into initial, formative, and summative categories for the purpose of considering different objectives for assessment practices.
• Placement assessment – Placement evaluation is used to place students according to prior achievement or personal characteristics, at the most appropriate point in an instructional sequence, in a unique instructional strategy, or with a suitable teacher conducted through placement testing, i.e. the tests that colleges and universities use to assess college readiness and place students into their initial classes. Placement evaluation, also referred to as pre-assessment or initial assessment, is conducted prior to instruction or intervention to establish a baseline from which individual student growth can be measured. This type of an assessment is used to know what the student's skill level is about the subject. It helps the teacher to explain the material more efficiently. These assessments are not graded.
• Formative assessment – Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a course or project. Formative assessment, also referred to as "educative assessment," is used to aid learning. In an educational setting, formative assessment might be a teacher (or peer) or the learner, providing feedback on a student's work and would not necessarily be used for grading purposes. Formative assessments can take the form of diagnostic, standardized tests, quizzes, oral question, or draft work. Formative assessments are carried out concurrently with instructions. The result may count. The formative assessments aim to see if the students understand the instruction before doing a summative assessment.
• Summative assessment – Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a course or project. In an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign students a course grade. Summative assessments are evaluative. Summative assessments are made to summarize what the students have learned, to determine whether they understand the subject matter well. This type of assessment is typically graded (e.g. pass/fail, 0-100) and can take the form of tests, exams or projects. Summative assessments are often used to determine whether a student has passed or failed a class. A criticism of summative assessments is that they are reductive, and learners discover how well they have acquired knowledge too late for it to be of use.
• Diagnostic assessment – Diagnostic assessment deals with the whole difficulties at the end that occurs during the learning process.
• Jay McTighe and Ken O'Connor proposed seven practices to effective learning.One of them is about showing the criteria of the evaluation before the test. Another is about the importance of pre-assessment to know what the skill levels of a student are before giving instructions. Giving a lot of feedback and encouraging are other practices.
• Educational researcher Robert Stake explains the difference between formative and summative assessment with the following analogy:
• When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative. When the guests taste the soup, that's summative.^[11]
• Summative and formative assessment are often referred to in a learning context as assessment of learning and assessment for learning respectively. Assessment of learning is generally summative in nature and intended to measure learning outcomes and report those outcomes to students, parents and administrators. Assessment of learning generally occurs at the conclusion of a class, course, semester or academic year. Assessment for learning is generally formative in nature and is used by teachers to consider approaches to teaching and next steps for individual learners and the class.^[12]
• A common form of formative assessment is diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessment measures a student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Self-assessment is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves. Forward-looking assessment asks those being assessed to consider themselves in hypothetical future situations.^[13]
• Performance-based assessment is similar to summative assessment, as it focuses on achievement. It is often aligned with the standards-based education reform and outcomes-based education movement. Though ideally they are significantly different from a traditional multiple choice test, they are most commonly associated with standards-based assessment which use free-form responses to standard questions scored by human scorers on a standards-based scale, meeting, falling below or exceeding a performance standard rather than being ranked on a curve. A well-defined task is identified and students are asked to create, produce or do something, often in settings that involve real-world application of knowledge and skills. Proficiency is demonstrated by providing an extended response. Performance formats are further differentiated into products and performances. The performance may result in a product, such as a painting, portfolio, paper or exhibition, or it may consist of a performance, such as a speech, athletic skill, musical recital or reading.

• Objective and subjective
• 
  
• Assessment (either summative or formative) is often categorized as either objective or subjective. Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false answers, multiple choice, multiple-response and matching questions. Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays. Objective assessment is well suited to the increasingly popular computerized or online assessment format.
• Some have argued that the distinction between objective and subjective assessments is neither useful nor accurate because, in reality, there is no such thing as "objective" assessment. In fact, all assessments are created with inherent biases built into decisions about relevant subject matter and content, as well as cultural (class, ethnic, and gender) biases.

• Basis of comparison
• 
  
• Test results can be compared against an established criterion, or against the performance of other students, or against previous performance:
• Criterion-referenced assessment, typically using a criterion-referenced test, as the name implies, occurs when candidates are measured against defined (and objective) criteria. Criterion-referenced assessment is often, but not always, used to establish a person's competence (whether s/he can do something). The best known example of criterion-referenced assessment is the driving test, when learner drivers are measured against a range of explicit criteria (such as "Not endangering other road users").
• Norm-referenced assessment (colloquially known as "grading on the curve"), typically using a norm-referenced test, is not measured against defined criteria. This type of assessment is relative to the student body undertaking the assessment. It is effectively a way of comparing students. The IQ test is the best known example of norm-referenced assessment. Many entrance tests (to prestigious schools or universities) are norm-referenced, permitting a fixed proportion of students to pass ("passing" in this context means being accepted into the school or university rather than an explicit level of ability). This means that standards may vary from year to year, depending on the quality of the cohort; criterion-referenced assessment does not vary from year to year (unless the criteria change).^[15]
• Ipsative assessment is self comparison either in the same domain over time, or comparative to other domains within the same student.

• Informal and formal
• 
  
• Assessment can be either formal or informal. Formal assessment usually implies a written document, such as a test, quiz, or paper. A formal assessment is given a numerical score or grade based on student performance, whereas an informal assessment does not contribute to a student's final grade. An informal assessment usually occurs in a more casual manner and may include observation, inventories, checklists, rating scales, rubrics, performance and portfolio assessments, participation, peer and self-evaluation, and discussion.

• Internal and external
• 
  
• Internal assessment is set and marked by the school (i.e. teachers). Students get the mark and feedback regarding the assessment. External assessment is set by the governing body, and is marked by non-biased personnel. Some external assessments give much more limited feedback in their marking. However, in tests such as Australia's NAPLAN, the criterion addressed by students is given detailed feedback in order for their teachers to address and compare the student's learning achievements and also to plan for the future.

The Toome Road by Seamus Heaney

Introduction

This poem shows a sense of state of war. The poet narrates his watching of foreign soldiers marching on the road in a state of battle. This state of battle has snatched away all the rights of man or public. Heaney feels that there must be some reaction, there must be a revolt. He feels, as a poet, not to protest but, as a man, he wants to protest. Anyone, who tries to shake the people out of slumber, appears to people as an enemy. So Heaney seems to be helpless to find some outlet for his depression and helplessness at the invasion of foreign armies. Life is stable in sanctity; cruelty and oppression come and go but life stays holy. Huxley also says that life is invincible.

Marquez got the Nobel Prize in 1987. In his address to the Nobel Prize ceremony he said that there is so much oppression, cruelty, violence and disease in the world, but the population of the world is increasing. This shows that life does not stay still. It is always on the march to progress. In this poem, Heaney, too, seems to advocate this thing and tries to preach for a compromise with the troubles and worries of life.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

This poem perhaps relates to a childhood experience of Heaney when he was only five or six years of age. He watched American soldiers on military exercises in the fields along the roads. The forces were preparing for the Normandy invasion of 1944. The American armies were stationed near his house at an aerodrome within a couple of miles from his home. This is how history, even legend or myth, haunt the consciousness of Heaney.

In the Toome Road, he describes the movement of armoured cars in a convoy. The carriages, covered with some paint, leaves or nets so that they look like their surroundings, are in a state of battle with soldiers standing up through holes in the armoured cars and they are wearing head phones.

Heaney’s first reaction was that these were the foreigners who had occupied his land and who had denied him the right of way. He wants to protest; he wants to- rouse people in reaction but helplessly he remarks:

‘The whole country were sleeping’

He wants to shake the people out of their slumbering in action. They have locked themselves within their houses because they, too, feel helpless.

The poem is a good picture of foreign invasion. Like all poets, Heariey is also anti-war. In the end he makes a very helpless remark that these forces have invisibly descended upon their country from omphalos (omphalos is considered to be the navel, the centre of the universe. Obviously the reference is to a super power) so they are invincible.

Here we see a conflict in Heaney between his aversion to foreign domination and his belief in political non commitment

Learning a language is unlimited

Everyone who needs to improve a language he or she  learns, they  must know it takes much time to reach their goals. Practice all time or according to a timetable is the way to learn. The more we practise, the faster we learn. 'More practice, more perfect ' an old saying proves  its  right style in learning a language....