Course Title
Programme Title
Mode
Course ID
Course Type
Credits
Educational Assessment
M.A. Education
M1
Level
Credits
Elective
Semester
3
Academic Year
Course Development Team
Radha Ganesan, Shailaja Menon, Sindhu Mathai & B.S.
Rishikesh
B.S. Rishikesh
Course Instructor(s)
L3
3
IV
2015-2016
A. Introduction
Assessment is an integral component of teaching-learning processes. Teachers undertake several
activities in the classroom to gauge the understanding of students and also give appropriate
feedback about the process to students, teachers, parents, school managements, etc. ‘Educational
Assessment’ broadly includes the collection and interpretation of data or evidence which provides
information about learning, teaching, classroom practices, institutional processes and so on. Such
information is important to improve institutional practices and student learning. When the
outcomes of assessment are judged for adequacy by drawing from the aims of education, curricular
objectives and pedagogical practices, it is often termed ‘evaluation’. The distinction between the
two is not very clearly demarcated from available literature; also assessments often include a
component of evaluation in order to be meaningful. This course will primarily focus on educational
assessment, and evaluation will be taken up where appropriate, such as when discussing the
relationship between the aims of education, the curriculum and teaching-learning processes.
This elective will introduce students to the meaning and purpose of educational assessments
drawing from multiple perspectives introduced by the core courses. An understanding of the
relationship between curricular aims, pedagogical practices, learning, and assessment is required
to understand the meaning and purpose of assessments, and further to develop and implement
appropriate classroom assessments. The course will intend to build an understanding of the value
of assessments not merely to check if learning outcomes have been met, but also to enhance the
teaching-learning process. Various issues and challenges with the development and
implementation of educational assessments will emerge as the course content is discussed.
B. Rationale
The aims inherent in education as an intentional endeavour are embodied in the curriculum and
further enacted and shaped in the classroom. In order to understand whether these aims have been
achieved, the teacher has to think of appropriate criteria for assessment keeping pedagogical
approaches in mind. This requires an engagement with the purpose of assessment from the
perspective of different people or groups in the system, a familiarity with various kinds of
assessment, and skills to develop appropriate tools and administer them.
Historically, in India, assessments at the school classroom level have tended to be based on class
tests or end of term examinations which are often routine processes in the system testing for mere
recall of content. The National Curriculum Framework (2005) calls for a move away from end-ofyear, summative assessments alone, to a system of continuous, formative assessments which
provide feedback about the teaching-learning process, so that the process could be improved for
better learning. The recently passed Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
states that no child shall be required to pass any Board examination till completion of elementary
education. The objective of this recommendation seems to be to protect children from unneeded
psychological pressure in a competitive system. However, such recommendations could lead to
practices that do not pay enough attention to learning, or alternatively, to a regimen of frequent
tests that increase such pressure rather than reduce it.
The purpose of continuous, formative assessments therefore, should not be to label learners, but to
understand each student’s engagement with learning and the trajectory taken. The learning
experience during schooling could be deepened with appropriate feedback and will aid further
planning. This will also help the learner become aware of and reflect about his/her learning. Welldesigned methods of assessment can find immense use for external evaluators and state
governments in arriving at decisions relating to professional development of teachers, specific
districts, schools as institutions, and subject areas that require more focus and resources.
C. Objectives
Some of the key objectives of the course are, to:





Comprehend the idea of assessment and its necessity for any intentional endeavor like
education, drawing from perspectives and purposes introduced through the core courses.
Analyze the purposes of assessment drawing upon the relationship between the aims of
education, curricular objectives, pedagogical practices and methods of assessment.
Examine the historical and contemporary assessment practices and policies in India’s
public education system.
Develop tools for large-scale assessments; the meaning of validity and reliability, and
epistemological issues pertaining to them.
Get an understanding of various methods of assessment including alternative forms of
assessment.
D. Syllabus
Units I – An Overview of educational assessment and emergent issues and debates
•
•
•
Learning and Assessment: relationship between the aims of education, curricular
objectives and classroom processes leading to assessment practices; its importance,
considering education as an intentional endeavour.
Purposes of assessment and emergent issues such as a narrow focus on testing and mere
recall.
Theoretical perspectives on assessment drawing from philosophical and sociological
debates on purposes and use of educational assessments; psychological perspectives
•
•
deciding the nature of assessments, such as: the influence of Behaviourism and Positivism
on assessment practices, the Vygotskyan notion of the Zone of Proximal Development
leading to ‘dynamic assessments’, etc.
Historical perspectives on educational assessment
Current debates on the ‘assessment culture’ and its repercussions: politics of educational
assessments; the use of evidence from assessments reflecting individual, institutional
and/or societal aspirations and relationships of power; large scale assessments as drivers of
educational decision making, expenditure and budgets, and influencing policy.
Unit II– Large Scale Assessments
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rationale and criteria for evaluation of school curricula
Rationale and criteria for choice of methods of assessment drawing from curricular aims
and objectives.
Issues related to the rationale and use of evidence from Large Scale Assessments.
Types of assessment items in a questionnaire: open-ended, multiple choice, essay-type,
etc.; examining the rationale of different item types and their assessment.
Validity and reliability; epistemic issues in defining and constructing tools for large scale
assessments.
Development of large scale assessments: item writing, pilot testing, development of
assessment rubrics for different types of questions, analyses and use of evidence for
decision making and issues pertaining to them.
This Unit will be linked to specific practicum tasks (2) in Section E.
Unit III: Methods of assessment in the classroom
•
•
•
•
Methods of assessment: formative and summative assessments; formal and informal
assessments; qualitative and quantitative assessments; and teacher-made and standardized
assessments.
Meaning and purposes associated with large scale assessments using the rationale and tools
used in some large scale assessments. For example: the Learning Guarantee Programme,
the Annual Status of Education in India Report (ASER), PISA, etc.
Development of classroom assessments: questions in the teaching-learning process,
question papers, peer-feedback, portfolios, project-based learning and assessment, inquirybased learning and assessment, etc.
Communicating results of classroom assessments to students, teachers, parents,
institutions, etc.
Students will develop classroom assessments based on their choice of pedagogy electives.
Guidance will be sought from faculty members who have taught these electives to enable
development of the tools.
E. Practicum
There will be a weekly practicum with differing time requirements for each as mentioned in the
table. Specific tasks will be carried out connected to the Units. The practicum days will be divided
as follows:
Day
1
2
3
Task
Conduct of a field trial of a school-subject based standardized assessment (selfdesigned written tool) (1.5 hour)
Pilot alternative assessment forms in the practicum schools (1.5 hour)
Conduct of an ASER assessment in select households (2 hours)
F. Assessment and Evaluation
Parameter
Class participation
Development of appropriate tool and conduct field trials for: a school
subject-based standardized tool
Develop an alternative form of assessment
Field trial and report on ASER-based practicum task
G. Required Readings
Will be uploaded on the Course website.
Weightage
20
30
25
25