Design and Conduct of Assessment:
Assessments and examinations must be credible, and
based on valid ways of gauging learning.
As long as examinations and tests assess children's
ability to remember and recall textbook knowledge,
all attempts to redirect the curriculum towards learning
will be thwarted. First, tests in knowledge-based
subject areas must be able to gauge what children have
learnt, and their ability to use this knowledge for
problem solving and application in the real world. In
addition, they must also be able to test the processes
of thinking to gauge if the learner has also learnt where
to find information, how to use new information, and
to analyse and evaluate the same.
The types of questions that are set for assessment
need to go beyond what is given in the book. Often
children's learning is restricted as teachers do not accept
their answers if they are different from what is presented
in the guidebooks.
Questions that are open-ended and challenging
could also be used. Designing good test items and
questions is an art, and teachers should spend time
thinking about and devising such questions. The interest
and ability of teachers to design good questions can
be promoted through district- or state-level
competitions. All question papers must be designed
graded for difficulty in order to permit all children to
experience a level of success, and to gain confidence in
their ability to answer and solve problems.
Trying to devise a good and effective open-book
examination can be a challenge that we must try to
take up in our curricular efforts at all levels of school.
This would require teachers and examination setters to
emphasise the interpretation and application of learning
over the arguments and facts that can be located in the
book. There have been successful demonstrations that
such examinations can be carried out on a large scale,
and that teachers can themselves be trusted with
moderating the results of such examinations. In this
way, the assessment of projects and lab work can also
be made credible and sound.
It is important that after receiving their corrected
papers, children rewrite the answers and that these are
again reviewed by teachers to ensure that children have
learnt and gained something out of the ordeal.
Competition is motivating, but it is an extrinsic
rather than intrinsic form of motivation. It is, of course,
much easier to establish and to manipulate, and
therefore frequently resorted to by teachers and school
systems as a way creating and nurturing the drive for
excellence. Schools begin 'ranking' children as early as
their pre-primary years as a way of inculcating in them
a competitive spirit. Such a competitive drive has
several negative side effects on learning; often superficial
learning is sufficient to create and maintain impressions,
and over time students lose their ability to take initiative
or do things for the fulfilment of one's own interest;
hence, areas that cannot be 'marked' are neglected. This
has unhealthy consequences for classroom culture,
making children individualistic and unsuited to team
work. There is an absurd and unnecessary importance
given to term examinations, often accompanied by
extreme arrangements of invigilation and secrecy. While
the physical and psychological effects of this may not
be readily visible until middle school, they frequently
lead to high levels of stress in children, and cause early
burnout. Schools and teachers need to ask themselves
whether there is really much to be gained out of such
practices and to what extent learning requires such
systems of marking and ranking.
3.11.6 Self-assessment and Feedb
