Basic Concepts and Principles in Assessing Learning

Vocabulary flashcards generated from the lecture transcript covering assessment principles, roles, target types, Bloom's taxonomy, and standardized vs. teacher-made testing classifications.

Assessment

Derived from 'To sit beside each other', it is the process of gathering quantitative/qualitative data for making decisions, which is vital to the educational process.

Measurement

Gathering information about student learning using various strategies and assessment tools.

Evaluation

Making decisions or judgements about student learning based on the information gathered.

Grading

Assigning value to a learner's performance.

Formative Assessment

Assessment used at the beginning and during instruction to identify learners' gaps so instruction can be adjusted.

Summative Assessment

Assessment used at the end of the term to determine whether learners have gained intended knowledge and skills.

Diagnostic Assessment

Assessment used at the beginning to test students' prior knowledge and identify specific weaknesses and learning difficulties.

Placement Assessment

Grouping of learners to determine their level of knowledge.

Traditional Assessment

Conventional assessment strategies used to provide information about the learning of students.

Authentic Assessment

Assessment strategies that allow learners to perform or create a product that is meaningful to them.

Validity (in Principles of Assessment)

Consistency (as defined in the lesson text).

Reliability (in Principles of Assessment)

Accuracy (as defined in the lesson text).

Instructional Goal

What learners should know or be able to do.

Learning Outcomes

The expected evidence of learning.

Assessment of Learning

Summative assessment that determines whether learners have gained the intended knowledge and skills.

Assessment for Learning

Formative assessment used to identify learners' gaps so instruction can be adjusted to help them.

Assessment as Learning

Self-regulation/formative assessment used to help learners become self-regulated by using tasks, results, and feedback to improve their learning.

Goals

General broad statements about desired learner outcomes over a year or during the duration of a program.

Standards

Specific statements about what learners should know.

Educational Objectives

Clear statements describing what learners should be able to do after instruction.

Benjamin Samuel Bloom

American educational psychologist (1913 – 1999) who made contributions to the classification of educational objectives.

Taxonomy

Branch of science that deals with the classification of living and extinct organisms, from Greek 'Taxis' (arrangement) and 'Nomos' (law).

Cognitive Domain

Knowledge-based goals within Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Affective Domain

Affective goals within Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Psychomotor Domain

Skills-based goals within Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Lorin Anderson & David Krathwohl

Educators who revised Bloom's taxonomy in 2001 so it would better reflect how learners think, learn, and demonstrate knowledge in modern education.

Factual Knowledge

Basic facts, terms, and specific details in a discipline (who, what, where, when).

Conceptual Knowledge

Knowledge of concepts, principles, theories, generalizations, and models.

Procedural Knowledge

Processes, steps, techniques, methods, and skills needed to perform tasks.

Metacognitive Knowledge

Knowledge of one's own thinking, learning strategies, and how learning applies to real-life situations.

Knowledge Targets

Facts, concepts, and procedures that learners need to understand and learn in a particular subject.

Reasoning Targets

Thinking processes used to apply knowledge in problem-solving, decision-making, analyzing, and other mental tasks.

Skills Targets

Using knowledge and reasoning to perform physical skills or actions.

Product Targets

Using knowledge, reasoning, and skills to create a tangible product.

Educational Assessment

Assessment used in school settings to track the growth of learners, grade performance, and measure progress and mastery of lessons.

Psychological Assessment

Measures such as tests and scales that determine a learner's cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics including mental abilities, personality, behavior, and potential.

Paper-and-Pencil Assessment

Assessment focused on cognitive responses requiring a single correct answer, formatted as True/False, Identification, Matching Type, or Multiple Choice.

Performance-Based Assessment

Complex, integrated, open-ended assessment where learners perform tasks, create products, show strategies, or present information.

Standardized Test

A test administered and scored in the same way for all examinees to measure knowledge, skills, abilities, or performance and allow comparison of results.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

An intelligence test that measures adult intelligence, cognitive abilities, memory, reasoning, and processing speed.

Metropolitan Achievement Test

An achievement test that measures students' achievement in areas such as reading, language, mathematics, science, and social studies.

Raven's Progressive Matrices

An aptitude test that measures nonverbal intelligence, abstract reasoning, and pattern-solving ability.

Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Approach

A test that measures critical thinking skills, including reasoning, evaluating arguments, and making logical decisions.

RIASEC Markers Scale

An interest test that measures career interests and identifies a person's preferred work environments based on six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.

NEO Personality Inventory

A personality test that measures personality traits based on the Big Five dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Norm

A large number of target groups on which standardized test items were sampled during development.

Teacher-Made Tests

Tests intended for classroom assessment to determine whether learners have reached learning targets in line with course objectives.

Achievement Test

A test measuring what learners have learned after instruction or after going through a specific curricular program.

Criterion-Referenced Tests

Tests where individual scores are compared with a given standard or criterion.

Norm-Referenced Tests

Tests that interpret an individual's score by comparing it with the score distribution of a sample group.