WHAT IS ASSESSMENT?

WHAT IS ASSESSMENT?

We are teachers, and teachers are ALWAYS assessing students, but the big question is: Do we really know what assessment is?

I have to admit that before taking this course, I was totally ignorant about the concept of assessment.

I knew that there were certain differences among testing, evaluation and assessment, but I couldn´t tell which ones were those differences. Fortunatelly, today, I have a clear definition of this concept and believe me, it feels good not to be as confused as I was!

So, at this point, I can say that assessment is a set of methods and tools that teachers use to evaluate, measure and keep a record of the students´ progress, observing their achievements, their skills and failures. This information they can use it to improve their teaching, to reinforce students´ knowledge on their weak areas or even to identify special needs or issues that the learners have. 

Assessment is a wide umbrella in the teaching spectrum. It is more than applying tests, more than judging students, more than making inferences about knowledge, although all of these are part of it. I would say that assessment is the everyday process that happens in the classroom since the student is a kid until he is a post-graduate. Sometimes we are not even aware of it, because we are applying it unconsciously.

Finally, I can say that I do not think that eduacation is possible without assessment. The former is a fundamental part of the educational puzzle. Without assessment, education would be a nonsense. 

Assessment is like taking care of a garden; you work on it little by little, until you have a beautiful seeding that will produce great fruits.