Assessment is focused on determining a students’ progress as related to academics. In this post, we will examine several types of assessment common in education today. The types we will look at are

• direct observation
• Written responses
• Oral responses
• Rating by others

Direct Observation

Direct observation are instances in which a teacher watches a student to see if learning has occurred. For example, a parent that has instructed a child in how

to tie their shoe will watch the child doing this. When successful, as observed, the parent is assured that learning has occurred. If the child is not successful the parent knows to provide some form of intervention, such as reteaching, to help the child to have success.

Problems with direct observation include the issue of only being able to focus on what is seen. There is no way of knowing what is going on in the child’s mind. Another challenge is that just because the behavior is not observed does not mean that no learning has happened. Students can understand, at times, with being able to perform.

Written Response

Written response is the assessing of a student’s response in writing. These can take the form of test quizzes, homework, and more. The teacher reads the student’s response and determines if there is adequate evidence to indicate that learning has happened. Appropriate answers indicate evidence of learning

In terms of problems, written responses can be a problem for students who lack writing skills. This is especially true for ESL students. In addition, writing takes substantial thinking skills that some students may not possess.

Oral Responses

Oral responses involve a student responding verbally to a question or sharing their opinion. Again issues with language can be a barrier along with difficulties with expressing and articulating one’s opinion. Culturally, mean parts of the world do not encourage students to express themselves verbally. This puts some students at a disadvantage when this form of assessment is employed.

For teachers leading a discussion, it is often critical that they develop methods for rephrasing student comments as well as strategies for developing thinking skills through the use of questions.

Rating by Others

Rating by others can involve teachers, parents, administrators, peers, etc. These individuals assess the performance of a student and provide feedback. The advantages of this include having multiple perspectives on students progress. Every individual has their own biases but when several people assess such threats to validity are reduced.

Problems with rating by others includes finding people who have the time to come and watch a particular student. Another issue is training the raters to assess appropriately. As such, though this is an excellent method, it is often difficult to use.

Conclusion

The tools mentioned in this post are intended to help people new to teaching to see different options in assessment. When assessing students, multiple approaches are often the best. The provide a fuller picture of what the student can do. Therefore, when looking to assess students consider several different approaches to verify that learning has occurred.