Seriousness of Assessment

As a teacher, I often consider assessment to be rather a process i.e it is more than just an event. While there is a lot of research as to how the assessment influences instruction, there is relatively little attention paid to how students receive and react to assessment. It has in fact got different perspectives to it - social, emotional, or psychological.

1. Students need to learn how to use assessment feedback from an early age.
2. We need to better understand how students respond to assessment.
3. We need to learn how to promote positive classroom assessment climates.
4. We need to better understand how classrooms work and how assessment fits into effective classrooms.
5. We need to promote the students‘ voice in learning and assessment.
6. We need to understand how students work on assessments that are longer in duration and exist to a degree outside of the confines of the classroom.
7. We need to teach students how to monitor and self-regulate their independent learning efforts through better self-assessment.
8. We need to consider how students will react to major changes in curricular and assessment practice and policy. This should be a regular part of the consultation process. If we desire good outcomes from changes in policy and practice, we need to think those changes through from the perspective of the student.
9. We need to know how students experience tests‘ that are a regular part of classroom and school life such as, PATs and asTTle.
10. We need to better understand which types of assessment tasks students feel they are able to best demonstrate their level of understanding and skills.

In short, and in sum, the ten recommendations listed above can be boiled down to the simple phrase, ―Think of the students.