Continuous Assessment: Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training

1. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Nizar Ibrahim 27/3/2011

2. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Continuous assessment is a planned process that aims to determine the success of the teaching/learning process and to identify the achievements, the progress and the needs of the students. It also aims to document the learning outcomes and the learning processes. In this framework, assessment is inseparable from teaching in three main respects: a. The learning objectives guide the continuous assessment plan. b. Any teaching/learning activity can be used for assessment purposes, but not every teaching/learning activity should be used for assessment. c. Assessment is part of teaching, but assessment cannot and should not take place in every teaching/learning session.

3. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training The most famous form of continuous assessment is portfolio assessment, which is a selective, a participatory and a representative process. In compiling portfolios, teachers and students select assignments, tasks, tests, students' reflections and teachers' notes, all of which should reflect a range of learning experiences representative of the full spectrum of teaching and learning in authentic settings.

4. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Continuous assessment helps in identifying the achievements of the students, their individual differences, their learning needs, difficulties students face, and reasons for these difficulties. Thus, portfolio assessment is a cooperative process that motivates students to reflect on their learning experiences, encourages them to be proud of their accomplishments and engages them in participating in the plans for future learning experiences.

5. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Two studies have addressed the teachers' understanding of continuous assessment. Both of them are qualitative in nature.

6. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training The first study was carried out as a part of a project the purpose of which was to train teachers and school administrators on quality education. Fifty teachers participated in focus groups that took place in four schools and that aimed to seek the teachers' views, beliefs, and practices in assessment. Also fifty students participated in focus groups to identify their relationship with the teachers and with the school.

7. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training In the second study, fifty four teachers in public schools from different Lebanese regions answered open-ended questions about assessment and about the relationship between assessment and teaching. The researcher also analyzed tests that these teachers gave to their students. The following table presents a summary of the teachers’ answers to the open-ended questions:

8. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training

9. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Teachers misunderstand the relationship between teaching and assessment. Although many of them said that both interrelate and said that assessment identifies the students achievements and needs, there is an overwhelming concern with assessment. Many teachers think that there should be an assessment activity at the end of every session. This certainly contradicts the idea that assessment is a planned and a selective activity.

10. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Teachers do two contradictory things, both of which defeat the nature and the purpose of continuous assessment. First, they design assessment activities separate from teaching activities. This contradicts the idea that continuous assessment includes authentic assessment. Actually, any learning activity can serve assessment purposes. If teachers do not recognize that they can use any learning activity for assessment purposes while the students are doing the activity for learning purposes, they miss the whole point of continuous and authentic assessment.

11. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Second, teachers focus on assessment in most of what they do in their classes. In the focus groups, teachers expressed their concern about always seeing what the students can do. This actually was one of their objections to group work. Teachers could not see that some instructional activities lead to learning even if teachers are not able to directly observe this learning.

12. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training The irony in this contradiction is that while teachers are always focused on assessing (seeing) in most of what they do in class, they have separate activities specifically aimed at assessment.

13. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Continuous assessment includes qualitative and quantitative documentation of the students learning and their weaknesses as well as of the success of teaching. The participants in the research understand assessment as a graded activity. Although they say that assessment should identify the students' needs, they think that the grade is enough for that. A numerical value might tell us that there is a problem, but we need descriptive assessment tools to identify the reasons of the problem.

14. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Teachers use formulaic assessment. In an analysis of 100 tests in elementary classes, most tests depend on simple comprehension questions. Taking into consideration that tests constitute the bulk of assessment activities, it becomes obvious that authentic assessment is rare. In a discussion with the teachers, formulaic assessment is the obvious reason for that. For example, there are two formulas that teacher's depend on: Bloom's Taxonomy and going from easy to difficult. Coupled together, these two formulas lead to rigid forms of assessment that defeat the purposes of authentic assessment and of basing assessment on learning objectives.

15. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training School regulations hinder appropriate continuous assessment approaches. In many schools, teachers are required to design monthly tests and often these tests are formulaic. In some schools, teachers are even asked to design weekly quizzes that are graded. If teachers are always busy designing test and quizzes, they do not have the time and the motivation to think of alternative assessment methods. If the assessment system in the schools does not give importance to authentic assessment, most likely teachers will not use authentic assessment. More importantly, if the systems for assessment in schools do not give weight to qualitative assessment tools and measures and to assessment tools that aim to diagnose reasons for the learner's difficulties, most likely teachers will not use such tools in assessment.

16. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training The authoritative attitude that characterizes the student-teacher relationship is detrimental to the purposes of continuous assessment. Most students in the focus groups described a violent teacher approach in dealing with them. Continuous assessment cannot operate if a cooperative relationship does not exist between the students and the teachers. Continuous assessment is a participatory process. If teachers are authoritative in their classes, no cooperation can take place.

17. Continuous Assessment:Challenges and Opportunities for In-service Training Implications for in-service training • In order for any in-service teacher training program to meet the challenges presented so far, it should work on changing assessment habits, concepts about assessment and teachers' attitudes. • Teachers should be empowered to think critically about theories as well as about their practices. • In-service training programs should show teachers that assessment is a planned process that is interwoven with teaching and that is contextualized to meet the needs of different groups of students. • All stakeholders like school administrators and staff should participate in any training that aims to change beliefs, attitudes and practices. If stakeholders do not participate in training, the training would not be very effective. • Teachers should be empowered to adapt assessment plans to their particular contexts. • Teachers should be empowered with the skill to select the time for assessment, the instructional activities that should be used for assessment, the appropriate descriptive tools that help them identify the students' progress, the students' difficulties and reasons for these difficulties. • Teachers should recognize that systematic and documented assessment cannot be done on daily basis. Otherwise, they will end up with a bulk of data that is hard to analyze. Moreover, teachers should recognize that they should give time for learning and that the nature of the learning outcomes determines the assessment tools and frequency.

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