Page 357 - Foundations of Learning, 4th Edition (Revised)

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”
Aldous Huxley, English author

13 ASSESSMENT FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT

Why Assessment? Why Assessment?

Introducing David Evaluation is a given in education. As a student, you are used to evaluation. In
school, you’ve taken lots of tests. You most likely took the SAT or ACT in order
Measurement, to get into college. These are all examples of evaluations. Evaluation is common
Evaluation, and in the workplace as well; supervisors are responsible for evaluating employees.
Often, companies have checklists that are completed regularly for each employee.
Assessment Sometimes, there is a benefit to a positive evaluation, such as a raise. And, there
is that warm feeling when you receive a positive evaluation, confirming that you
Assessment and have done a good job.
Self-Assessment
If evaluation is so prevalent and useful, what is assessment and why are we
Profile of a High- asking you to learn about assessment? To answer the first part of the question,
Quality Assessor you’ve actually been performing assessments throughout this course, right from
the first chapter. Most have been in the form of SII Assessments: identifying
Assessment Strengths, areas for Improvement, and Insights.
Methodology
Here’s the basic difference between the two: While evaluation is used to judge
Discussion of the the quality of a current product or performance against a set standard, the main
Methodology purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that helps a person improve the
quality of a future product or performance. In this chapter, we’ll talk further about
Designing an assessment and evaluation, including ways to perform more formal assessments.
Assessment
Why is it important to improve your assessment skills? While an evaluation can
Rubric: Performance be helpful, it usually comes at the end of a process and is focused on a product or
Levels for Assessors performance. It usually does not provide information about how you can improve.
A good assessment, however, can help you improve the quality of your current and
Activity 13.1 future performance. Without assessment, it is possible that you may repeat a process
over and over and yet have no change in the quality of the performance or outcome.
Exploring the
Assessment In this chapter, you will learn
Methodology more about assessment so you can
perform a high quality assessment in
Activity 13.2 a structured manner. This includes
establishing guidelines for what
Building a is to be assessed, knowing how
Criteria List the information is to be collected,
and how the feedback is to be
Activity 13.3 reported. You will also learn about
the differences between assessment
Assessing a Work and self-assessment, and between
Product evaluation and assessment.

GLOSSARY assessment attribute criterion evaluation measurement scale self-assessment

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