Learning and Development Level 3Understanding Principles and Practice of Assessment

Understand the principles and requirements of assessmentPrinciples of assessment are the ‘rules’ and theories that underpin assessment practice. For example:

• Communication: liaising with others who are involved with the assessment process and the learner.

• Equality and diversity: ensuring all assessment activities embrace equality and diversity and represent all aspects of society.

• Fairness: activities should be fit for purpose, relevant adaptations should take place, planning, decisions and feedback should be justifiable and documented.

• Health and safety: carrying out risk assessments and following regulations.• Methods: observation, questioning, simulation, professional discussions etc.• Policies and procedures: following internal and external regulations and guidelines, eg

appeals and complaints.• Quality assurance: ensuring that learning delivery and assessment decisions meet

requirements, and that assessors are carrying out their role correctly.• Record keeping: ensuring accurate, detailed and complete records are maintained.• Roles and responsibilities: following job descriptions and professional and organisation

codes of practice.• SMART: ensuring all assessment activities are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic

and time-bound.• Standardisation: ensuring the assessment requirements are interpreted accurately and

that all assessors make comparable and consistent decisions.• Transparency: ensuring learners are aware of the full assessment process, what is being

assessed, how decisions are made, how feedback will be given and what will be done with the records.

• Types: initial, formative, summative, holistic etc.• VACSR: ensuring assessed work is valid, authentic, current, sufficient and reliable.

Ethics issues also need to be considered such as:

• Ensuring the assessment process is honest, objective and moral.• Confidentiality and integrity.• Judgements: remaining objective, looking for plagiarism or inauthentic evidence.

If you are teaching a subject that will have an external examination, you will find it useful to obtain past copies of papers for your learners to refer to.

Using the correct assessment methods in the right context will ensure you assess fairly and effectively.

Understand different types of assessment method Background informationDepending upon the subject you are going to deliver, you will need to use various assessment activities with your learners. Assessment is a way of finding out whether learning has taken place.

Assessment can be formal, such as an examination or observation, or informal, such as questions, discussions or activities.

You will need to be aware of types of assessment and methods of assessment.

Types of assessment are initial assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment.

Initial assessment will ascertain whether a learner has any prior knowledge or experience. If you are teaching a subject such as information technology, it would be useful to know if your learners have used a computer before and, if so, what stage in their learning they are at. Carrying out initial assessment can help with the identification of prior learning and learning styles, along with any areas for development, eg literacy, numeracy. Finding out your learners’ learning styles will help you plan your teaching and resources to suit their needs.

Formative assessment is ongoing throughout the learning process. It is the means by which you can measure whether learners are learning and evaluate whether to change your teaching approach. In a classroom situation you will need to decide which assessment methods will let you know whether learning is taking place, and you should mix and match your methods to get as much information as you can – eg oral questions, group activities, observing the results of learners researching and presenting information, written questions or tasks, case studies, role play/simulations. A written task for homework will also provide you with valuable information on learners’ progress.

Initial assessment and formative assessment depend very much on the tutor giving clear and concise feedback to learners to aid their progress.

Summative assessment is the final assessment. This can take the form of observation in a real working environment, a written test or examination, completion of a final assignment or a project. Any summative assessment should be completed by the learner with no input from anyone else and marked against the qualification criteria.

Methods of assessment are many and varied and are used within each type of assessment.

Methods of assessment include:

Recognition of prior learning (RPL):

This is a process which enables learners to obtain recognition for past achievements and accreditation.

Witness testimony: This is a written statement from a learner’s manager or mentor, which can help to confirm claims of competence. Such a testimony should always be signed for authenticity.

Observation: Watching learners do the work, and viewing the product of their efforts.

Oral questioning: Asking questions to establish knowledge and understanding in support of another assessment activity.

Work product evidence: Examining the output arising from a learner’s performance. This is supportive evidence for competency-based assessment.

Professional discussion: A structured discussion to probe the level of knowledge and competence of the learner. It should be audio or video recorded and linked to work product if appropriate, but always cross-referenced to the assessment criteria.

Projects and assignments: These are used so the learner can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding as fully as is possible.

Reflective accounts: A statement written by the learner demonstrating reflection on their activities and learning. This demonstrates knowledge, understanding and development of learning.

Simulation: This is a pretend situation which is played out to demonstrate competency and possibly knowledge. To maintain integrity of its use it must be set against the required assessment criteria.

Tests/written questions: These are used to test knowledge and understanding. They may be produced by a tutor or by an awarding organisation. They can be used as formative or summative assessment tools.

Case studies: This is a written description of a situation or activity. The learner is required to identify how they would deal with the situation in order to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.

All assessment methods and activities should be based upon the learning outcomes and assessment criteria of each unit.

Understand how to plan assessment

Factors to consider when planning any assessment:

The main responsibility for assessment The main responsibility with assessing learners will lie with the teacher (assessor) but both the awarding organisation and the assessment centre also have a responsibility to the learner.

• A teacher is advised to use all the templates and paperwork as provided by the awarding organisation. Sometimes this paperwork might confuse a learner if the assessment centre is not offering all of the options. A centre might prefer to standardise its own documents to meet the awarding organisations requirements.

• A teacher also needs to keep up to date with all changes within their own subject area, to ensure that the specifications from the awarding organisation have been met.

• The wording in assessments needs to be clear, understandable and written at the correct level for the subject being taught. It is vital that suitable language is used when wording assessments and a teacher should include some input on study skills to help the learner prepare for the assessment.

• Once a teacher has created any form of assessment they should make sure that it is clear, so that learners fully understand what is expected from them. A good way of doing this is for a teacher to get a colleague to check the instructions before using the assessment with their learners.

• Other considerations are to make sure that the advantages of the chosen method outweigh the disadvantages and that there is enough time for the assessment to take place (including the feedback).

• A variety of assessment methods should be used, as this will help to motivate and keep all learners engaged despite their style of learning.

• A teacher needs to make sure that the learners are assessed across the whole syllabus. This responsibility might not solely lie with one teacher as different assessors may assess different parts of a course. Meetings with other teachers are vital to enable a teacher to plan key areas of assessment into their scheme of work.

• It is good practice to space assessments evenly throughout the course and to make sure that they are progressive. Formative assessments should be used to prepare learners for summative assessments.

Understand how to involve learners and others in assessment

All tutors and assessors should follow the assessment cycle with their learners.

The tutor/assessor can use each part of the cycle to keep learners involved.

Initial assessment will give the learner the opportunity to demonstrate what they already know or can do. It will make them feel motivated as it will show them that they can bring something to the qualification.

Agreeing targets with learners will start as a result of initial assessment and can start the process of the learner being involved with the assessment criteria they are going to work towards. Targets for progress and achievement can be agreed together at this point which will involve the learner taking ownership of meeting targets.

Assessment planning: Once the learner is in a position to be assessed, the more involved they are in contributing towards planning the assessment – eg when and where it will take place, whether they are ready to complete a set test or assignment – the more in control and motivated they will feel in the progress they are making.

Assessment activity should be valid, reliable, relevant and fair. If these are in place the learner will feel confident in the assessment process.

Initial assessment

Assessment planning

Assessment activity

Assessment decision and

feedback

Review of progress

Assessment decisions: Once assessments have taken place, peer and self-assessment are key assessment approaches which will help involve the learner in their own assessment and encourage them to take ownership.

Peer assessment is when learners are involved in assessment of other students’ work. Some key features of peer assessment are:

• It identifies developmental points that tutor has not identified.• It provides a safe environment.• It develops the ability to collaborate as a critical friend.• It allows exchanges of ideas.• It aids reflection.

Self-assessment gives the learner responsibility for assessing their own work. Some key features of self-assessment are:

• It is a starting point to reflect on past performance.• It can help identify and re-evaluate own achievement.• It can identify own areas for improvement.• It helps to develop an ability to examine and think critically.• It encourages review of criteria being assessed and taking responsibility for own learning.

In summary, always keep good, open communication with your learners, talk to them about their assessments, and feed back constructively – praising them for what they have done and discussing what else needs to be achieved. Let the learner take the initiative in deciding what to do next. You will always be able to rein them in or encourage them to do more as long as you are actively listening to them.

Understand how to make assessment decisionsAssessment should always be:

• Valid: does it assess the learning outcomes of the unit?• Authentic: is the evidence genuinely the work of the learner?• Current: can the learner’s skills and knowledge be demonstrated now to the current

standards?• Sufficient: is there enough to cover all the requirements of the learning outcomes?• Reliable: are the assessment decisions consistent across a range of learners and

tutors/assessors?

Applying the rules of evidence (VACSR)Validity

The key question for the assessor/tutor is ‘What does this assessment actually tell me about the learner? Does it, or does it not, relate to the specified assessment criteria?’

For example, a maintenance engineer may produce completed documentation showing the number and types of checks they have carried out. The evidence is valid depending upon what I want to assess. If I want to know whether the engineer can complete paperwork accurately then this will be valid evidence. If I want to know how well the engineer performed the checks it will not be valid evidence on its own, but will need an observation to go with it.

Assessors/tutors should understand that the issue of validity is critical. Ask yourself: ‘Does this piece of evidence actually tell me that the learner can meet the criteria specified?’.

Authenticity

Continuing the example from validity, how do you know the documentation was actually completed by the learner? Was it produced solely by the learner or with assistance from others? Or, if an assignment has been completed, can the tutor be sure it has not been downloaded from the internet?

An assessment system must ensure that if ability or knowledge is to be attributed to an individual on the basis of evidence presented, there must be no doubt that it relates to that individual’s own work.

Currency

The evidence must prove that the candidate can currently meet the assessment criteria. Also, it is important that the competence or knowledge is still relevant and has not, for example, become out of date because of changes in technology or legislation.

Experienced assessors/tutors will ensure that evidence must relate to a current competence or ability that is up to date and relevant.

Sufficiency

An unbreakable rule of assessment is that all learning outcomes must be assessed. There must be enough evidence of the right quality to make a judgement beyond reasonable doubt about the level of competence or knowledge

Assessors/tutors will ensure that sufficient evidence is collected to demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that the individual has reached the standards of all the learning outcomes in the unit.

Reliability

Are the assessment decisions consistent across a range of learners and tutors/assessors? Are there checks in place to ensure that all marking or observations are consistently assessed to an equal standard against the learning outcomes?

This should be overseen and monitored by an internal verifier.

Feedback

Always give feedback after carrying out an assessment – this could be verbal or written and should be encouraging and developmental for your learners. Start with something positive, and then go on to any negative points, using the word ‘however’ to link the positive points to the negative ones. Ensure you give reasons for all positive and negative points, explaining how the learner could change anything negative into something positive.

Assessment should allow equality of opportunity, not discriminate against or exclude any learners, and should always meet internal and external requirements.

Understand quality assurance of the assessment process

Quality assurance is a way of making sure that learners are achieving the outcomes as set by the Awarding Organisation.

The quality assurance process is something that a teacher needs to be fully aware of and play an active role in. It is essential that a teacher keeps all paperwork up to date and tracks the progress of their learners. A simple tracking document will inform the teacher of which learner has passed each assessment and at what grade. This will help to keep the teacher fully up to date with the progress that individual learners are making. This information can be used when feedback is given to learners and during individual tutorials. Other colleagues, inspectors, mentors and observers might also find this information useful.

Tracking records also highlight possible patterns, for example, if a group of learners all get quite a low score for a set piece of work then maybe the teacher needs to look at how they are delivering that unit. Questionnaires also form a valuable source of feedback from learners regarding all aspects of a course. This provides a teacher with the opportunity to give feedback to learners and make changes to any planning documents or delivery.

As part of the Awarding Organisation’s quality criteria, each assessment centre needs to make sure that all work has been quality assured. This means that an assessor will have their work checked to make sure that they are consistent, fair and meeting the standards as set by the awarding organisation. Tracking documents will also be checked by the IQA.

Pontin (2012: 28) groups the functions of an IQA into four main areas:.

Sampling• Planning• Sampling strategies• Rationales for sampling• Feedback to assessors

Ensuring• Consistency• Reliability• Fairness• Accuracy

Supporting• Coordinating assessor team• Supporting assessor team• Developing assessors

Monitoring• Quality• Compliance• Issues and trends

The IQA normally works for the same organisation as the assessor but their responsibility is to check the assessor’s judgements and the consistency of any assessment undertaken. An IQA will sample work that an assessor has marked including written and oral feedback.

Horizontal sampling

This should not take place just at the end of a course but it should be an ongoing process from the start. There should be at least one piece of work internally verified for each assessor, each learner, each assessment and each location. This sampling ratio might be higher for new assessors, a new course or on request from an EQA.

Standardisation

Within a teaching team it is good practice for each teacher to look at and check each other’s feedback to learners. Standardisation meetings should take place regularly – they give teachers the opportunity to check that they are all marking at the same level. An assignment could be copied and marked independently by each teacher. A discussion should then take place, which would encourage the teachers to see if they have all awarded the same grade or spotted the same mistakes. They should also discuss whether the same amount of feedback is being given or if one teacher is stricter than another.

When assessment marking/feedback has been standardised within a team this will help to avoid friction between learners and teachers and also between teachers. It demonstrates to the learners that there is strong communication between all teaching staff and that teachers are working together. This process is also supportive towards a less experienced teacher as it reassures them that they are assessing correctly.

External verificationThe Awarding Organisation will regularly visit the assessment centre and check that the internal verification process has been implemented and is working. The EQA will want to be able to follow the trail of evidence for any chosen learner. All internal quality assurance records will have to be made available along with learners’ work. EQAs also like to talk with learners about their learning experience and the teaching that they have received. They also check that the assessment criteria from the awarding organisation have been closely followed and delivered at the correct level.

This is normally done on a percentage basis, with new assessors having 75–100% of their marking verified (checked); more experienced teachers will have between 10% and 20% checked. A new course requires a100% check, regardless of the teacher.

The EQA has the ability to prevent the learners from passing the course if they are not happy with the standard of internal verification or the work of the teacher. In a worst case scenario an EQA can remove accreditation from the assessment centre, which means that the assessment centre will not be able to continue to run that course in the future.

The EQA will also check that there are procedures in place for when there are disputes concerning assessments. It is vital that learners know who they can approach if they are not happy with an assessment decision. The teacher should obviously be the first person they approach, however, if a

learner is not happy with this then they should be made aware of who the line manager or section leader is. These contact details should be given to all learners at the start of the course.

Other external interested parties might also want to be informed of learners’ progress, for example parents and employers. Having reliable, up-to-date and accurate records demonstrates that a teacher is professional and able to provide valuable evidence when required.

Quality assurance can have an impact on retention and achievement. which in turn will have an impact on funding. It is important that a teacher is meticulous about keeping all records as up to date as possible.

Understand how to manage information relating to assessment

You need to keep records of assessment to satisfy your centre, the Awarding Organisation and regulatory authorities, for example Ofsted.

The requirements include:

• enrolment details• learners’ personal details (for at least 3 years)• initial assessment records• schemes of work/lesson plans• assessment decisions • feedback (to learners) records• progress review of learners• final assessment results• claims for certificates• summary of achievement/progress on SAR.

Awarding Organisations will monitor records of assessment and quality monitoring.

Learner and tutor tracking of progress: A tracking sheet is useful for recording your learners’ names and the dates when they achieve each outcome, section or assignment. It is useful to have this on one sheet of paper, giving you a clear overview of your learners’ achievements to date.

Tutor monitoring learners’ assessment and progress: You should have a record of feedback on all assessments and how the result of the assessment contributes to the ongoing progress of the learner.

Tutor’s permanent record of learners’ progress: You should have an overview of the progress and achievement of all your learners – this is usually on a form to give a quick and clear view of where all learners are. A record of units achieved should be included there and/or completion of tasks towards unit completion.

Identifying requirements for intervention: Feedback sheets should identify areas for more training or teaching. Tutorial records should also be in place to show discussions and subsequent planning

activity with learners who need more help. If they have been directed to another person with a particular expertise, then records of communication with that person should be kept and copies of their intervention sent to you.

You should keep the original and your learner should have a copy. Thus, if a learner loses their records, you will still have yours.

A teacher will have to complete and manage a lot of assessment documentation relating to assessment and legislation. It is important that they are familiar with all of the procedures that are in place along with any paperwork that will need to be completed. All records must be kept as up to date and accurate as possible to provide evidence of each learner’s progress. These records will have been agreed with the learner and might be needed as evidence for funding purposes. A line manager might also ask for certain data at any time.

Understand the legal and good practice requirements in relation to assessmentLegislationA teacher must be aware of all current legislation and codes of practice that apply to the subject area in which they teach. Within the area of assessment it is vital that a teacher particularly takes heed of the following legislation.

The Health and Safety Act (1974): Whatever assessment method a teacher decides to use, it is important that they first assess whether there are any risks to their learners. Some methods will have a higher risk factor than others. For example, taking a group of learners on a field trip will be a higher physical risk than giving them a multiple choice test. Wherever there is a risk it must be explained clearly to the learners. Some subjects are safer to teach than others, for example, catering, motor vehicle or chemistry will be a higher risk than maths, English or business management.

The Equality Act (2010) and Equal Opportunities legislation: A teacher should make sure that the assessment methods chosen do not discriminate against learners in any way. Some learners speak more than one language so prior to the assessment they should be asked in which language they would like to be assessed. Teachers should think carefully about which learners to put together for group work: a mix of male, female, experienced, less experienced, young, old, diverse ethnicities, etc should be considered beforehand with thought also given to cultural differences. A teacher needs to be fair and treat all learners with respect – it could be seen to be rather insulting to put all the males in one group and all the females in another. Also under this Act, a teacher needs to make sure that any learner with a disability is able to access and complete the chosen assessment. This Act states that educational establishments must modify any physical feature that may cause barriers.

Data Protection Act (1998): A teacher should keep all information that they have about their learners in a safe place. Any information bearing a learner’s name, such as assessment tracking records, should be locked away and not left on display when the teacher is away from their desk. The assessment data that a teacher might collect about a learner should be shared only with other professionals who are involved with that learner, eg other members of the teaching team.

Code of Professional Practice (2008): A teacher needs to encourage the learners to continually reflect on the assessment they have completed and build this into their ILP and action plans.

The Copyright Design and Patents Act (1988): A teacher need to make sure that all resources used for assessment purposes compile with these guidelines.

Every Child Matters (ECM): A teacher should consider the five outcomes of ECM and try to embed these within all the assessment methods that they use.