Student views of assessments
Students who see assessments as a way to keep themselves accountable had higher
educational outcomes than students with other conceptions of assessment,
according to a study of 3469 secondary students in New Zealand. Questionnaires
on assessment were administered at the end of reading comprehension tests for
13-16-year-old students.
Students have four major conceptions about assessment, says a recent study
published in Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice.
Students see assessment as (1) making students accountable, (2) being irrelevant
because it is bad or unfair, (3) making schools accountable and improving the
quality of learning or (4) being enjoyable.
Based on this study, students' conceptions of assessment and the relationship
to achievement is consistent with formative assessment theories, the authors
say. "Thus, we see in these results students who reported thinking in terms of
self-regulation and formative assessment tended actually to achieve more. We
further suggest that it is the interaction of both believing in
self-responsibility and using assessment formatively that leads to greater
educational achievements."
The implications for compulsory, large-scale testing programs are that
educators should present the process to students as measures of individual
learning. If the assessment is presented to students as a school or teacher
accountability mechanism, then, according to these data, achievement is likely
to go down, the authors say.
Students' conceptions of assessment: Links to outcomes, Assessment in
Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Volume 15, No. 1, March 2008, pp.
3-17.
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