Effective Students’ Knowledge Assessment

We will begin this discussion by understanding assessment definition. Effective students' knowledge assessment is a process that investigates the level of awareness with regards to the subjects or lessons being taught in a learning institution. They could be dispensed through various strategies such as assessment test, class discussion, and other parameters set by the teachers. Also, assessment activities can be defined as actions that are deliberately instituted to evaluate, judge, or decide the substance or grasp of a particular idea or ideas.

Life of a Student

New environment with new people will always pose a challenge to a new entrant. Quite often, first-time teachers who may be young in the practice find some difficulties in understanding their students in addition to gauging their knowledge levels. This could imply that even the interaction may be limited. As students will probably shy from sharing their experiences or feelings with regards to the course they are studying with a teacher or a lecturer. It requires mastery of exceptional skills and some persuasive skill to stamp authority and gets a student to open up.

More so, time becomes one's greatest ally, given that he or she must use it wisely to get to know his or her students. A great teacher should be able to exhibit effective students' knowledge assessment after he or she has spent some time with them.

It is not wise to be too strict or too soft. But ideally, it is important to establish a middle ground that does not put one in loggerheads with a student. How we do this requires mastery of assessment strategies. The greatest asset, in this case, is fairness. This should be in terms of judgment and dispensation of duty as a lecturer or a teacher. Fairness will imply that the students get the grades they deserve and at the same time, are doing their best to get the most from the lessons dispensed by the lecturers or teachers.

All in all, it is essential to note that assessment for learning is an essential duty undertaken in the field of education. It is not just a mere requirement, as some may think. There are indeed several ways to carry out an assessment and plan for delivery of the best teaching services to the student. This paper discusses most of them as you will find out.

Usually, students are given assignments and continuous assessments test to do. Probably these are some of the most challenging moments in a student's life, especially when they have not adequately prepared for them. However, unexpected assignments may present an excellent opportunity to carry out self- assessment before interview which you could be facing later in life.

Assessment Strategies

Class Quizzes

Normally, students are happy when they know that they have a test in a week or fortnight. This gives them sufficient time to prepare, and research on the area taught in class, but they did not understand. When a teacher walks in and tells a student to put aside his or her book or written notes and attempt a particular quiz, they normally get stressed and probably become unhappy with the teacher.

The idea that you will engage your thinking on a matter that is not too clear or you are not familiar with will amount to being thrown into a jail cell for a student. Those who might have gone through their notes in advance will be able to write something or attempt the quiz while those who are totally blank will stare at the sheet lying before them in disbelief.

Also, if a student has been attending the classes and listening attentively to the discussion, then he or may be able to do the quiz successfully. Random issuance of quizzes is some of the assessment strategies that teachers use to gauge whether the lessons they have been teaching are well understood or not.

In as much as these quizzes are not normally graded, students are caught flatfooted, and so it is a better way of making them apply self-assessment as learning process goes on their own. Importantly quizzes are better ways of carrying out effective students' knowledge assessment because they test students thinking speed and comprehension of the lessons as taught. It can come in the format of answering where a particular scenario is either true or false, and it can also be set in the format of multiple choices or just simple questions that students may answer using their general knowledge.

Quizzes are synonymous with most learning institutions such as colleges and universities as a great system of assessment and planning. Just like the normal assignments, students are required to write the dates an names of the students for tracking purposes whenever an instructor wants to verify at an individual level who did what, when and if he or she understood the task.

Administering Examinations to Students

This is always the elephant in the room for most students. It is true that the majority of learners are not always enthusiastic when it comes to sitting for exams. They don't like it. Even for the teachers, exams are not something they like to give because of the tediousness that comes with it especially marking and grading. They would rather have a quicker way of assessing their students than through exams.

All said the importance of reviews as one of the assessment activities could not be overlooked. Additionally, expecting an exam means that students will read and prepare themselves well for the paper. Students not only invoke relationships such as study groups to prepare for the paper, but they also ask questions and seek clarification on some of the areas that they did not understand during the classroom sessions.

At the beginning of every term, semester or learning calendar, teachers share with their students the learning objectives and examination time is always the best time to do an assessment as learning procedure. Notably, information to the effect that there will be no exams at the end of the term may affect students negatively. They might develop an attitude that does not help them grasp the knowledge. How we carry out an assessment analysis will require great care and attention to some important details during the examination. Such details are among other the number of questions to be answered which must be clearly stated, the instructions on how the teacher expects the learner to answer the questions and a reminder that they need to understand the instructions before attempting the questions.

Importantly, as a great way, of carrying out assessment analysis, it is paramount to check on the way the exams are set. This implies that the use of language and clarity of the questions asked should be emphasized. Some institutions admit students from foreign countries who are not an English speaker, and for that reason, it is important to think about their level of language comprehension before subjecting them to the exams otherwise they may fail not because the questions were a difficult bit because they did not understand it altogether.

It is also advisable to keep exams as short as possible because too long exams may limit the ability of the students to think. They must have sufficient time to read through the questions, choose, which ones they will attempt and think of the answers to the ones they have chosen. Whether a class is composed of first thinker, slow thinkers or moderate thinkers, the essence of an exam is to enable the teacher to carry out an effective students' knowledge assessment and for this reason, it is important to give them enough time to think through the questions.

Assessment Analysis through Homework Assignments

Among the most creative approaches that teachers employ in assessment vs evaluation strategy is the issuance of assignments for students to take home. In other institutions, it is also known as takeaways. For the realization of the benefit of this approach as a means of assessing the students, a teacher will have to pair learners or ask them to form groups. Of course, such a group should have a manageable number of learners to warrant equal or near-equal participation by all of them. Such groups can be tasked with writing an essay on a particular topic or subject or carrying out research and compiling notes to share with the rest of the class through presentations.

It is often forgotten that students take more than one subject in learning institutions, and teachers get it all wrong when they give their learners too much homework. Teachers should, therefore, strike a balance and give assignments in a timely manner beside the assignments being reasonable, based on the course outline and realistic.

Additionally, teachers should ensure that they help their students to understand what is expected of them with regards to the assignment. He or she should explain the homework well and issue relevant reference sources, so those students do not come up with what is not expected. This can be termed as the preliminary assessment vs evaluation stage, which should be taken with all the students.

Just as you would do in terms of setting the final paper, consider some of the questions that will appear in the terminal exams and let the students try them through the takeaways. The approach is not only motivational but also fun for learners. You can also consider it as an assessment test.

Assessments through Surveys and Polls

We have mentioned some traditional ways through which institutions carry out their assessment before interviewing the learners on an individual basis to ascertain their grasp of the subject. However, those are not the only ways that can be used as assessment tests for the learners. An instructor can opt to use a polling system of interviews to ascertain the level of knowledge in his or her class. Normally, instructors carry out assessment analysis at the end of the term by issuing questionnaires to the learners to get feedback.

Specific questions are asked in the questionnaire, and they are both open-ended and close-ended. The learner may be required in the open-ended section to make a recommendation on areas that needs improvement in as far as the delivery of the subject by the teacher is concerned. The questionnaire, in this case, should be anonymous to allow honest feedback from the learners.

In some cases, evaluation is done digitally through computers in the school labs where students are asked to evaluate the subject and their teachers. The importance of this kind of approach is that it enables learners to sincerely give their feedback knowing that they will not be victimized for giving their views since they are asked not to write down their names.

Importantly, teachers should know or at least have an idea of their learner's attitude towards him or her and the subject so that they can best help them appreciate the topic and gain sufficient knowledge that they seek. The survey other than being beneficial to the students can also help the teacher to identify his or her weaknesses and improve. It is also important to note that well-done polls and surveys can be a greater assessment for learning because the benefit is symbiotic.

The Following are some of the Tips

• Give homework considering that the students are attending other classes and have more than one subject to learn
• Give feedback to your learners promptly whenever they ask for clarifications
• Promptly give the students relevant and useful information. Do not fall into the temptation of showing off how much you know because that may lead to students harboring some negative attitude towards you as their teacher
• Ask questions and immediately attend to misconceptions that students may be having
• Foster a good professional relationship with the students as you encourage participation and contribution from all the students.

In Conclusion

There are quite simple and easy methods employable in carrying out classroom assessment for teacher and for helping their students to improve. As earlier mention, the most important attitude that a teacher should have is a positive one and fairness in both awarding of grades and establishing his or her credibility. If we understand the assessment definition, then we will appreciate that indeed, it is not difficult to do it after all.