Philosophy of Assessment

Lauren MacKenzie

St. Thomas University

February 28th, 2019

Professor: Bill Buggie

 Assessment is a tool, that if used correctly, can be a turning point in a child’s education

for either better, or worse. I believe that in order for assessment to be successful, it must not only

be an assessment of what the student has learned, but also as a way to inform myself as a teacher

as to how I can better educate the students, and as an accountability tool for students to measure

their own learning. Moreover, it is essential to include a variety of sources from which I am

pulling my assessment, and to make sure students have an active role in their own education

through the assessment process.

Although there are many ways to assess a student’s progress and learning in the

classroom, all of these break down in to formative and summative assessment, both of which are

important and have distinct places in the classroom. Previously, I had understood that the

majority of assessment was done in the form of paper and pencil, however, I know now that the

majority of intel a teacher receives is in fact through their own eyes. Formative assessment is the

initial way that I will determine if students are not only understanding what I am teaching them,

but are enjoying their education. Ideally, I would like to assess students in a way that they are

unaware that I am assessing them as to relieve stress and pressure and create a realistic setting

for optimal results. Ways in which I have included formative assessment and plan to continue to

incorporate it in the classroom include clipboard cruising, anecdotal records, observations,

demonstrations, and conversations. However, it is also important to note that I believe

summative assessment is not worth deeming as irrelevant, because although minimal, it does

serve a purpose in the classroom. However, I believe the important part of summative

assessment is how you “grade” it, what you do with the information and what you will do next. It

is important to note what the students got right and not wrong when checking to see what

answers the student wrote and to be “specific and descriptive” (Davies, A., 2017). Then, as
opposed to simply leaving the summative assessment in a folder to show that a student is unable

to do something, I would conference with the student, see where the issue is and use it as an

opportunity to work on whatever the issue is. Overall, my goal is to base the majority of my

teaching practices on formative assessments and put less emphasis on summative assessment in

an elementary classroom.

In addition to the different types of assessment, I believe that as learners, students have

the right and an obligation to be involved in their own education and take responsibility for their

learning. I know that “when students are involved in their own assessment, mistakes become

feedback they can use to adjust what they are doing” (Davies, A., 2017) and allows students to

use assessment as learning. Initially, I imagined this being done at a high school level where

students would tell the teacher what grade they thought they deserved, or co-created a rubric.

However, I have come to realize that even something as simple as conferencing with students

and creating a list as a class of what students expect of themselves can be excellent ways to

include students in assessment. An important of this aspect of assessment, however, is to create

an environment in which students feel safe to be vulnerable with their work and be honest in

what they want for their personal learning and education goals.

As a whole, assessment is a triangulation that provides students with the best possible

assessment feedback by obtaining it from multiple sources. Ideally, this would be done through

conversations, observations and products created by the student. It is essential that sources of

assessment of learning are collected from multiple sources over a wide time period to “make a

decision regarding whether and to what degree, students know, understand, can apply, and can

articulate what is detailed by the standards or learning outcomes” (Herbst, S. & Davies, A.,

2016). If all the proof of learning you collect from a student comes from one type of assessment
from one point in time, it is possible that the student was unable to perform to their best ability in

that one style of assessment, and it is also possible that they have since then met the curriculum

outcome.

Through my learning process of assessment and evaluation, I know realize how important

and essential it is to provide students with multiple ways of representing their learning and that

students don’t always feel as though they are going to receive a grade or a giant red “X” for

trying whether they were successful or not. It is important for students to understand that

learning can come from failure, and unless we use all of the previously mentioned methods of

assessment, we will be assessing with a pencil and paper and be writing bright red “X”s that are

negatively impacting student’s learning. The overall goal of my assessment strategies are to

inform myself as well as the student whether or not the concept is being understood, and if not,

how can we get you there in a way that is meaningful to you.

 References

Davies, A. (2017). Making classroom assessment work. Courtenay, British Columbia:

Connect2learning.
Herbst, S., & Davies, A. (2016). Grading, reporting and professional judgement: Taking action
in elementary classrooms. Courtenay, BC: Connections Publishing.