Basic Principles
Assessment is the overall analysis of the performance of individuals based on the skill and knowledge one has acquired through the learning process. The process of assessing the learner’s development throughout the learning activity is often emphasized. Accordingly, there are several types of assessments which aim at measuring and improving the standards of the learner’s learning activity.
In other words, assessment is important for the evaluation of the learner’s achievement or learning as well as for the presentation of more effective instruction in the learning process. Therefore, there are several basic principles which help in the large scale as well as classroom based assessment. The principles which are fundamental for effective understanding and application through assessment include the principles of reliability, validity, relevance and transferability etc.
There are also other principles which guide the quality of assessment. Thus, an effective assessment, which is inclusive of all learners, offers means for the learners to utilize feedback from the evaluation and prepares them to take up the responsibility for their own learning. Further, such an effective assessment “emphasizes the interactions between learning and manageable assessment strategies that promote learning… clearly expresses for the student and teacher the goals of the learning activity… reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark.” (Principles of Assessment for Learning).
The chief principles that are fundamental in assessment are the principle of reliability, validity, and relevance and transferability. These are common criteria which make an assessment process effective and useful to the learner.
When an assessment is reliable, valid, and relevant, it can be immensely useful to the learner in his future improvement. Through a reliable assessment, same judgment and evaluation about the learning content will be arrived at by the different assessors acting autonomously using the same criteria and mark scheme. The question of validity is also considered to be crucial in assessment and it is measured in terms of the extent to which the assessment values the content of learning. Similarly, the principle of relevance and transferability is also significant.
Thus, it is important that the assessment task “addresses the skills you want the student to develop and, as much as possible, it puts them into a recognizable context with a sense of ‘real purpose’ behind why the task would be undertaken and a sense of a ‘real audience’, beyond the tutor, for whom the task would be done.” (Principles of Assessment). To conclude, the principles of reliability, validity, and relevance and transferability are often considered to be greatly crucial in the assessment process and they are given utmost significance in the formulation of the assessment tasks. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to the educators to recognize the relevance of these principles which guide an effective assessment of the learners in the learning process.
Works Cited
Principles of Assessment for Learning. New South Wales Government: Assessment Resource Centre: Board of Studies News. 2006. Web.
Principles of Assessment. Oxford Brookes University. 2007. Web.