Importance Of Diagnostic Assessment For Learning

Assessment FOR learning is more commonly known as formative & diagnostic assessments. Assessment for learning involves teachers using evidence about students' knowledge, understanding and skills to conduct the class. It usually occurs throughout the teaching and learning process to clarify student learning and understanding. It reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark. It provides effective feedback that motivates the learner and can lead to improvement and is inclusive for all learners.

Assessment OF learning is the use of a task or an activity to measure, record and report on a student's level of achievement. It is the assessment that becomes public such as PSAC

In schools, the most visible assessments are summative. Ministry of education used summative assessments and evaluations as a way to test the learner potential but with the 21st century education there’s the inclusion of continuous assessment in our education system. Continuous assessment, which can be complementary to the end-of-year summative assessment, just help to reduce pupil’s anxiety to carry out a high-stake exam at the end of the academic year. The continuous assessment method will empower teachers to use a variety of local and available resources to transmit knowledge and to effectively help the student to extrapolate knowledge to real-life situations. But assessment may also use a formative one. In classrooms, in order to meet the student’s need, the teachers may use formative assessment approaches and techniques from the beginning of the year. Indeed, summative results can be used formatively. The concept of formative assessment was first introduced in 1971 by Bloom, Hastings and Maddaus. Teachers using formative assessment meet the students’ need by using different approach and techniques such as feedback, questioning and scaffolding. Formative assessment promotes the goals of lifelong learning, including higher levels of student achievement, greater equity of student outcomes, and improved learning to learn skills. Formative assessment methods have been important to raising overall levels of student

Thus, they use the learning knowledge to assess themselves and they use assessment as learning to find a solution for problem solving. They seek for solution to strengthen their ability to think and develop strategies for addressing problems. In other words, they develop strong “control” strategies to access their own learning. “Learning as” involves awareness of how one goes about learning and thinking about new subject matter and is sometimes referred to as “thinking about thinking”. The student who has an awareness of how he or she learns is better able to set goals, develop a variety of learning strategies, and control and evaluate his or her own learning process. The strategies are essential for the process of learning because they help students to adapt their learning to particular features of the task on which they are working. Schools have appointed holistic teachers to give more attention to students to manage and control their learning. This will help them to learn new aspects in their learning at school but also to help them with the tools to manage their learning later in life. Thus, the key role for teachers is to help children build confidence, and develop a variety of learning strategies and motivate them to