As a teacher, which I have been for the past four decades, but for that matter any teacher, spends more than one-half of her school time engaged in one or another type of assessment or evaluation activity. The omniscient red or green or black pen in a teacher’s hand, the frown on her face and the incessant ticks and crosses with innumerable scores at the end, is the sum total of a teacher’s academic existence. A teacher is forever marking. A sad reality but truth nevertheless. Does it still hold value as we move into a AI dominant Gen-X world? Look around your personal space. Can anyone deny that things have drastically changed? Can anyone assert that assessments are no longer mere marks? I leave you to your yes and nays. The truth, that I believe in, is that assessments should support learning and teaching. To do so we do not need just marks, which is evidence- based practice but we need to design assessments which provide contextualised practice aimed to create a better learning environment and go beyond a simple accountability function.
What should a comprehensive assessment design look like if it is not just marks that we are concerned with? Let us begin with the role of the teachers. It is imperative here that they, our teachers not only start thinking of teaching differently but also engage in assessing what they are now teaching, differently. The points to note are:
• Their focus needs to be honed on developing the deeper skills that students should and can master. The ability of their students to think creatively and out-of-the -box, find solutions to problems presented, communicate their thoughts meaningfully and work in collaboration with others whenever required, and perhaps many others.
• The nature of tasks needs to be open-ended and varied. Projects both individual and group, presenting their solutions in their chosen format, designing questions to which they have thought of answers already, exams that challenge thinking rather than mere memory, among others.
• The frequency of assessments need to be increased with emphasis on formative and interim-progress data, thereby removing the stigma of the one-time assessment and result thereof. One bad day cannot determine a student’s extent of learning nor capture the entire gamut of abilities, namely, original thoughts, individualised solutions, effective group work and communication of thoughts.
I am a staunch supporter of formative assessments i.e., assessment for learning. This is a continuous process through which students and teachers make inferences about student competency through a series of assessment-experiences with specific learning goals in view. Let me cite two examples, one from the early years perspective and one from the high school demands.
EARLY YEARS- Here the task, assessment and feedback comprises a comprehensive document.
15th April- Evaan took the monkey puzzle and with our help was able to put the pieces together.
16th April- Today, he again picked up the puzzle, took out all the pieces one at a time, placed them on the floor and completed the puzzle with very little help. It is encouraging to see him focused and independently able to accomplish tasks, which he earlier needed help with.
17th April- He came into class, took up the monkey puzzle and very casually dismantled it. Then with great speed and a sense of mastery he put the puzzle back in a jiffy.
Puzzles provide children with an opportunity to practice the trial-and-error method of finding a solution. The child is a problem-solver.
17th April- Evaan noticed boxes with fevicol, paper cuttings, pasta and feathers appearing very attractive after he completed his monkey puzzle. He immediately decided to replicate the monkey puzzle by sticking two round pieces of paper for eyes, pasta for ears and nose and feathers for the tail.
Loose parts fosters creativity through endless possibilities. A child has the freedom to create their own designs as per their imagination. The focus is on the process rather than the end product. The child is knowledgeable and a thinker.
18th April- During playtime Evaan waited for the trampoline to be available before he jumped on to it and tried balancing and jumping, first while sitting and then by standing. He did fall but he got up instantly, never stopping to experiment with the movements. No sooner did he see others waiting for their turn he quietly came off it and went back to the end of the line displaying positive social skills, while earlier he demonstrated patience and used the trial and error method to find what best suited the trampoline experience. The child principled and a risk taker.
GRADE 10- HISTORY
Let us assume that teachers need to assess the understanding of the students of the higher grades about the role of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in the struggle for India’s Independence. The teacher plans an oral presentation to be designed and shared by each group on a fixed day in school. The students are informed that they will be assessed on the following criteria as designed by specific rubrics:
Content, Organization, Creativity, Demonstration of Antibias competency and Collaboration/cooperation.
Under new -age assessments knowledge testing as is evident cannot be limited to mere content. Interpreting events in history in the above case and the critical thinking ability of the student to connect events of the past to their present are avenues of real test. Through rubric based assessments a thorough expectation of what learning means can be assessed.
Being a teacher it is natural that I use these specifics as mentioned above, to draw the conclusion, that our assessments need to develop target competencies through functional and structured learning. A teacher can use this formative tool to address particular student needs. These are intended not only to facilitate student achievement of curriculum standards and development of cognitive proficiencies but also to facilitate self-reflection and give the student the agency of the learning process and investment in the results for the future. Summative assessments with marks for high stake examinations is a reality, we cannot make it disappear, but the skills to take those exams are being assimilated through such target competency assessments.
Th new-age assessments, not solely dependent upon marks does assume a heavy presence of technology. Technology can help make assessments more relevant as computers are now standard tools in education. Technology can make assessments more informative as process indicators can tell us how a student arrived at a particular result. Also technology can make assessments more efficient, as electronically, information can move cheaper, faster and thus impact quicker and better. My arguments above are not sacrosanct nor do I profess that all schools and students can be brought under this ambit. My writing is to begin a conversation. A conversation that starts with the question, can we redesign assessment as a system so that it adequately serves to create a generation of learners who can think independently, deliberate to find solutions and design a better eco-system than the one they have been born into? Being in this beautiful playground of possibilities , which is academic, I believe we all have a moral obligation to do our best to find out how we can create lifelong learners who are happy in their space while creating happier spaces for others.
