Appropriateness of Assessment Methods

Overview

Learning targets are very essential to assessment. If learning targets are clearly stated, assessment can be precise and accurate. Once learning targets are clearly set, you can easily determine the appropriate assessment method. Assessment methods can be categorized according to the nature and characteristics of each method. McMillan (2007) identified four major categories: selected-response, constructed -response, teacher observation, and student self-assessment. 

Categories of Assessment Methods

1. Selected-Response Format. In this format, students select from a given set of options to answer a question or a problem. The selected-response items are objective and efficient. It can easily be graded. The teacher can assess and score a great deal of content quickly. It can be objective tests or using a checklist. Objective tests are appropriate for assessing various levels of the hierarchy of educational objectives. These can be multiple-choice tests, true-false tests, or match type tests. The checklist is a list of items for consideration. It can be in the form of questions or actions to be carried out. It can speed up the collection of information by using tick-boxes and rating scales. The checklist needs to be carefully designed to make sure that when they are completed, the results are reliable and true. Checklists can act as memory aids to make sure that all the relevant issues have been considered.
2. Constructed-Response Format. This format is more useful in targeting higher levels of cognition. It is also subjective because it demands that students create or produce their own answers in response to a question, problem, or task. In this type, items may fall under any of the following categories: brief-constructed response item; performance task; essay items/assessment; or oral questioning. 
• Brief-constructed response items require only short responses from students. Examples include sentence completion where students fill in a blank at the end of a statement; short answer to open-ended questions; labeling a diagram; or answering a Math problem by showing their solutions.
• Performance tasks/assessment requires students to perform a task rather than select from a given set of options. Unlike brief-constructed response items, students have to come up with a more extensive and elaborate answer or response. Performance tasks are called authentic or alternative assessments because students are required to demonstrate what they can do through activities, problems, and exercises. As such, they can be more valid indicators of students' knowledge and skills than other assessment methods. A scoring rubric containing the performance criteria is needed when grading performance tasks. In addition, performance tasks provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world contexts. It can be product-based or skills-oriented. This means that students have to create or produce evidence of their learning or do something and exhibit their skills. Examples of products such as book reports, maps, projects, poems, portfolios, audio-visual materials, charts, diagrams, worksheets, reflection papers, journals, and other creative endeavors. These are frequently rated using product rating scales or performance tests checklist. These are tools that state the specific criteria and allow teachers and students to gather information and to make judgments about what students know and can do in relation to the outcomes. Product rating scales offer systematic ways of collecting data about specific behaviors, knowledge, and skills while the performance test checklist determines whether or not an individual behaves in a certain way when asked to complete a task. For instance, the performance test checklist may consist of a list of behaviors that make up a certain type of performance such as using a microscope or typing a letter.
• Essay tests/assessments involve answering a question or proposition in written form. It is powerful in the sense that it allows students to express themselves and demonstrate their reasoning. It can also assess student's grasp of higher-level cognitive skills particularly in the areas of application, and higher than application. When the essay question is not sufficiently precise and when the parameters are not properly defined, students write irrelevant and unnecessary things just to fill in blank spaces. When this happens both teachers & students will experience difficulty and frustration.
• Oral questioning also known as the Socratic method is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue discussion between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions (Copeland, 2005). It is a collaborative and open-minded discussion as opposed to debate. In oral questioning, several factors need to be considered such as the students’ state of mind and feelings, anxiety, and nervousness in making oral presentations which could mask student’s true ability. Moreover, oral questioning is appropriate when objectives are: to assess the students' stock knowledge, and to determine the students' ability to communicate ideas in a coherent verbal sentence.
3. Teacher Observations and Student Self-Reports/Assessments. These are useful supplementary assessment methods when used in conjunction with oral questioning and performance tests. Teacher observations basically record the frequency of student behaviors, activities, and remarks in the anecdotal records. Anecdotal records allow educators to record qualitative information, like details about a child’s specific behavior or the conversation between two children or how students respond to oral questions and behave during individual and collaborative activities. These details can help educators plan activities, experiences, and interventions. This assessment method can also be used to assess the effectiveness of teaching strategies and academic interventions. On the other hand, student self-reports are one of the standards of quality assessment identified by Chappuis, Chappuis & Stiggins (2009). It is a process where students are given a chance to reflect and rate their own work and judge how well they have performed in relation to a set of assessment criteria. Students track and evaluate their own progress or performance making use of a self-rating checklist that lists several characteristics or activities presented to the subject of a study. This is often employed by teachers when they want to diagnose or appraise the performance of students from the point of view of the students themselves.

Finally, the various categories of assessment methods mentioned above can be used depending on the clarity of your learning objective/s. For instance, what assessment method you use for this objective, "To identify the parts of the digestive system"? Would an essay test be appropriate? The objective is low level and a simple competency. It involves only one specific skill which is "identifying" hence essay is not an appropriate assessment method for this. A multiple-choice test or match type test is a much appropriate assessment method for this.

Matching Learning Targets with Assessment Methods

In an outcome-based approach, teaching methods and resources that are used to support learning, as well as assessment tasks and rubrics, are explicitly linked to the program and course learning outcomes. Biggs and Tang (2007) call this constructive alignment. This provides the "how-to" by verifying that the teaching-learning activities (TLAs) and the assessment tasks (ATs) activate the same verbs as in the intended learning outcomes (ILOs). The performance verbs in ILOs are indicators of the methods of assessment suitable to measure and evaluate student learning. In addition, McMillan (2007) prepared a scorecard as a guide on how well a particular assessment method measures each level of learning (see table 1).

Table 1. Learning Targets and Assessment Methods (McMillan, 2007)

Note: Higher numbers indicate better matches (e.g. 5 = excellent; 1 = poor)

Measuring Knowledge & Simple Understanding

Knowledge appears to be the simplest and lowest level of cognitive taxonomies (Bloom, 1956; Anderson & Krathwol, 2004) but is further classified into what type of thought process is involved in learning. The revision of Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwol, 2004) recognizes how remembering can be viewed not only as being able to recall but also as being necessary for learning interrelationships among basic elements and in learning methods, strategies and procedures. McMillan (2007) refers to this as a simple understanding requiring comprehension of "concepts, ideas, and generalizations" known as declarative knowledge and application of skills and procedures learned in new situations, referred to as procedural knowledge (see table 2).

source: De Guzman & Admaos, 2015

Measuring Deep Understanding

Beyond knowledge and simple understanding, comes deep understanding which requires more complex thinking processes. McMillan (2007) utilizes a Knowledge/Understanding continuum to illustrate the relative degree of understanding from knowledge to simple understanding to deep understanding (see table 3).

source: De Guzman & Admaos, 2015

Table 4 describes the relationship between learning outcomes and test types. It can be observed that test types can be made flexible and versatile to test different levels of outcomes and not to be limited or exclusive to only one cognitive level. The arrows suggest that supply or selection type can be used for both lower-level as well as higher-level outcomes. 

source: De Guzman & Admaos, 2015

References:

1. Anderson, L. & Krathwol, D. (2004). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing (A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives). NY: D. Mackay
2. Chappuis, S., Chappuis, J. & Stiggins, R. (2009). The quest for quality: Educational Leadership, 67(3), 14-19.
3. De Guzman, E. and Adamos, J. (2015). Assessment of Learning 1. QC Manila: Adriana Pub. Co., Inc.
4. McMillan, J. (2007). Classroom assessment: Principle and practice for effective standards-based instruction, 4th ed. USA: Pearson Education, Inc.
5. Santos, R. D. (2007). Assessment of Learning 1. Quezon City: Lorimar