Most teachers
today, thanks to Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation CCE, understand the
importance of ongoing assessment of student learning for improving it and the
benefits of both Formative and Summative Assessment.
A key concern for teachers is the performance in each.
Many teachers have spoken about their concern at the student variations in
performance in the Formative and Summative Assessment, pointing out how most
students perform well in the Formative Assessment but falter in the Summative
Assessment. According to them, with the introduction of CCE students do not
take studies seriously, see the Formative Assessment tasks as ‘fun’ and ‘play’
and say the students are able to do better on the ‘small sections’ of the
syllabus included for the Formative Assessment tasks and are not able to deal
with the ‘bigger syllabus’ on which the SA is based.
Educators would say that if the learning is sound and if
the Formative Assessment shows this, (after all the FA is assessment to improve
learning), then students will naturally, as a corollary, do well at Summative
Assessment.
But let’s understand the issue from a different
perspective and some ways to deal with it.
Summative Assessment ‘covers’ a larger syllabus compared
to the Formative Assessment and is in the form of the pen paper test done by
each student individually. In the context of CCE, it constitutes the
traditional way of assessment, different from FA in form and of course purpose.
Seen this way and keeping in mind what the teachers have said about it,
negotiation with the Summative Assessment calls for a well defined approach.
This article will discuss some strategies for helping
students negotiate with the Summative Assessment.
Decode each
Formative Assessment task and learning activity
The process of helping students perform well at the
Summative Assessment starts perhaps with the Formative Assessment. For each
Formative Assessment task and learning activity that is done, the teacher
should explain what was done and what has been learned through and from it. So
for example, when a debate is conducted, the teacher should explain
·
what was done– that through the debate the
students looked at the topic from two different perspectives
·
the purpose– to help in a better, fuller
understanding of the topic .
·
result– the different ideas everyone pooled in
for this and so learnedThe teacher should synthesize the points on the topic
and present them to the students to help them gain a clear understanding of the
topic. Such a conclusion will enable students to understand the learning
objectives of the activity (here the debate) and the learning from it. This
should be done for every activity whether it is role play, model making,
project or any other. This helps students take note that the activity was ‘fun’
to do but had a learning objective.
Another form of this could be to ask students to reflect
on each activity – what did we do, how did we do it, what did we learn from it,
how has it helped me learn the topic better, are there some aspects of it which
I still do not understand and how do I understand these. This will ensure that
students focus on the targeted learning and gather the content in a structured
way well and so be prepared for answering the questions in the Summative
Assessment paper.
·
Some specific strategies for the Summative
Assessment
·
Hand out / give the syllabus for each term at
the beginning of the term
Most often, teachers give the syllabus at the end of a
term, after the completion of the teaching and just before the SA. Giving the
syllabus at the beginning of the term helps students to orient and warm into
syllabus and track it as the topics are studied over the term. This can be
strengthened by the teacher pointing out the topic in the syllabus as it is
studied. Such tracking of the syllabus helps in reducing stress as they see and
experience chunks being done in a paced way over a period of time. It gives
them an important sense of control over their studies.
Link the new topic
with the preceding one; recapitulate the preceding one
Research and daily classroom experiences clearly show
that learning is best when there is ongoing reinforcement and revision. Thus as
each topic or chapter is being studied, the teacher must try and link it with
the preceding topic and at the end of each topic/chapter do a loop back or
recapitulate the preceding one. This helps to sharpen retention and
understanding and serves to show students how learning is cumulative;
specifically enable them to understand that the short sections on which FA
tasks are based together form the base for the SA paper.
Show sample
Summative Assessment papers to students through the term
It is said we are comfortable with the familiar. Showing
sample Summative Assessment papers to students helps them become comfortable
with the paper requirements and format and so better attuned to attempting them
in the SA. Showing here does not mean merely holding up the paper and pointing
to the sets of sheets to a class but giving each student a copy of each sample
SA paper (and at least 3-4 per term) and going through every part of it with
them-explaining the design, the type of questions, the marks for each, the word
limit (many questions across subjects have different word limits), the general
instructions in the paper (number of questions to attempt, the choice given).
Share the Marking Scheme of the Sample Summative
Assessment papers with the students so they ‘see’ what is expected in the
answers and how they are assessed. This will strengthen their Summative
Assessment paper knowledge and skills.
Explain the
question terms and the questions
Critically explain to the students the meaning of each
question—what it asks for i.e. its requirements and how to answer it. The SA
paper in different subjects use words –Explain, Describe,Find out, Solve,
Calculate, List, Mention, How, What, Why, Account For, Prove, Define, Simplify,
Distinguish, State, Name, Derive –in the questions. Are we sure that our
students understand all the words, that they know the difference between
‘Explain’ and ‘State’ and that between ‘Mention’ and ‘Account for’? Every
subject teacher needs to collate all such question terms and explain what each
means in their respective SA paper, what the question asks for and then explain
what the answer entails.
Such exam terms is one element of the question. Many
students do not understand the wording of the entire question and what it calls
for. A clear and regular explanation of different types of questions will
prepare students for the Summative Assessment paper.
Practice Summative
Assessment papers
Explanation must be followed by Practice. ‘Learning by
Doing’ is the buzz in the teaching learning process; this is not always
affected in assessment, specifically Summative Assessment. Teachers must ask
students to attempt the Summative Assessment sample papers as timed assignments
or as home tasks so they become familiar with the pattern and become
comfortable with the Summative Assessment paper.
Time management in Summative Assessment is often a
problem for many students and timed practice of sample Summative Assessment
papers will help them. Another way is to explain to students how to divide the
time between different questions and how to make the choice between questions
in the Summative Assessment paper efficiently and effectively.
Get Students To
Make Questions and Summative Assessment sample papers
As the students understand the Summative Assessment
papers, the types of question, their phrasing and requirements, they should be
asked, in groups to make questions and sample Summative Assessment papers. A
fitting conclusion to this exercise could be: The teacher selects the best
questions made by the students and gives the questions to the class as an assignment;
then asks students in pairs to assess each other’s answers with the help of the
Mark Scheme(peer assessment-an important CCE tool). The same could be done with
sample SA papers i.e. the students make sample SA papers- the teacher selects
the best one and sets it a as practice task for the class to do individually or
in groups. The students then do peer assessment of the answer scripts. This
will effectively help student learning and preparation for the actual SA. How
will this help them?
To make the sample paper, the student will need to study
the required topics, understand the question terms, work out the answers,
allocate the marks and time. They will indirectly be assessing their own
learning.
In making a sample paper, they will prepare for the
actual Summative Assessment paper! A tremendously enabling and empowering
exercise!
Within the context of the quote by Robert Stakes at the
beginning of the article, the students will be the cooks tasting the soup while
making the questions and papers even as they prepare for the guests to pass the
judgment on their assessment.
Assessment can be stressful and CCE is aimed to reduce
the stress and improve the learning through a more transparent ongoing process,
making the learner an active participant, in fact a co-assessor in the process.
All the strategies described here are some steps in that direction for
Summative Assessment and for helping students negotiate effectively with it.
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