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Testing and Assessment: The Why, What and How

© Amanda Kendle

Plenty of students would admit their main reason to be at school, college or university is to pass the right courses and leave with a new qualification. Along the way, most are interested in at least some of the courses they take, and might make an extra effort in a few, but research has shown that for many students the testing and assessment they'll take part in form the "defacto curriculum". And it's not just students who are focused on assessment: proven by the age-old teaching adage, "teach to the test"! Testing and assessment are important components of the education process, and whether they are used to decide which students are better at a particular topic, or to certify that a student has achieved an ability at a certain level, they are here to stay.

Assessment of student achievement comes in many forms. Sometimes, it is formative assessment - a task that won't count towards a final mark or grade, but will help students work out what they're already good at, and what areas they should put more effort into. A formative assessment might be a multiple choice test, a computer-based test, or a writing assignment. Summative assessments are tests or assignments that will count in the final grade. They can be continuous - that is, students complete them during the semester - or they can occur at the end of a semester or year, like final exams.

Testing and assessment can take place in a huge variety of ways. Unfortunately, a lot of people have bad experiences with assessment, and mostly when it has been in the form of page after page of multiple choice questions, or a badly phrased essay question. Many adults and children alike experience enormous stress and anxiety when they're completing an assessment or test. With the recent drive towards "authentic assessment" - setting students real-life tasks - there are opportunities for the assessment experience to be much more positive.

In future articles, you'll be able to read about different types of testing and assessment and the controversial issues surrounding them. In recent years, assessment techniques such as compiling portfolios or writing learning journals have become increasingly popular. At the same time, objective tests like multiple choice or true/false tests have decreased in favour, but because they are so easy to administer, have still been widely used. With the onslaught of the Internet and the increase in online learning, entirely new ways of assessing student achievement are also being developed.

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