Ways of Assessing
- Rationale
- Aims
- Organisation
- Student Diversity
- Ways of Teaching
- Ways of Teaching Video
- Ways of Assessing
- General Capabilities
- Cross-Curriculum Priorities
- Glossary
- Technologies Glossary
- Technologies Scope and Sequence
Technologies Scope and Sequence- ABLEWA Technologies Scope & Sequence
- ABLEWA Technologies Scope & Sequence
The 'ways of assessing' complement 'ways of teaching' and aim to support teachers in developing effective assessment practice in Technologies.
The 'ways of assessing' also complement the principles of assessment contained in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline. The assessment principles, reflective questions and assessment snapshots support teachers in reflecting on their own assessment practice in relation to each of the assessment principles. Here teachers will find:
- background information for each principle
- reflective questions
- guidance for addressing the principle within their own assessment practice.
Refer to the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/) for further guidance on assessment principles, practices and phases of schooling.
The key to selecting the most appropriate assessment is in the answers to several reflective questions. For example:
- How do you use assessment as the starting point of your lesson planning?
- Do your assessments have a clear purpose?
- Do you design assessment tasks in a way that meets the dual purposes of formative and summative assessment?
- How do you use your observations of students (during the course of classroom activities, in assignments and in tests) to determine how learning can be improved?
- How do you identify students' misconceptions or gaps in their learning?
- How do you identify the next skill or understanding a student or group of students needs to learn?
- What information do you collect to evaluate your own teaching?
- How do you work with colleagues to evaluate student achievement data and how does this work inform your teaching?
- What range of evidence do you draw on when you report student performance and evaluate your teaching?
In the Western Australian Curriculum: Technologies the two strands, Knowledge and understanding and Processes and production skills, are interrelated and inform and support each other. When developing assessment strategies, teachers combine components of the strands in different ways to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through the practical application of their skills, (e.g. students may be asked to consider the implications of technologies in society when designing a solution to a problem, situation or need). The assessment experiences and evidence collected may look different for individual tasks as the assessment strategies should match the design brief and be reflective of individual students' understandings and interpretation of the solution they are creating.
Refer to the Judging Standards tool in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/judging-standards) when reporting against the Achievement Standards; giving assessment feedback; or explaining the differences between one student's achievement and another's.
The following table provides examples of assessment strategies which can enable teachers to understand where students are in their learning. Assessments should also be based on the integration of a range of types and sources of evidence.
Examples of assessment strategies | Examples of sources of evidence |
|---|---|
Observations | The observations of student understandings and process and production skills through the use of anecdotal notes, checklists, photographs, videos or recordings. |
Group activities | Collaborating and managing is one of the production and processes skills, this needs to be actively programmed for and assessed in accordance with the relevant year's content description. During group work, teachers should stop at key points to check individual student understanding. |
Videos or audio recordings | The recording of student achievement in physical and verbal activities such as role-plays, performances, speeches, play-based learning, debates or online discussions. |
Fieldwork and practical (authentic) evidence | The demonstration of learning through activities such as virtual and actual fieldwork, to inform the creation of digital and designed solution. |
Portfolios and work samples | Collections of student work that provide long-term documentation of student progress and achievement. Portfolios may be subject area specific or contain a range of work undertaken by the student and be evidence of project management. |
Tests or quizzes | These may include verbal questioning, multiple choice, short answer responses or open-ended questions that require longer, sustained written responses. |
Written work | This includes short and extended written tasks. These may take the form of short responses such as worksheets and sentence or paragraph answers. Longer responses may include essays, information reports or imaginative texts such as narratives and journal entries. Students may also conduct investigations in which they must develop questions; gather, analyse and evaluate information; communicate on findings and reflect upon conclusions. |
Graphic organisers | Frameworks, including digital, that help structure thinking. They make thinking processes visible by showing connections between data. Examples include concept maps, flowcharts and cause-and-effect patterns. |
Visual representations | The demonstration of learning through, algorithms, tables, graphs, diagrams, posters, brochures, photographs and other digital media (e.g. slides, animations, blogs). |
Performances or oral presentations | The demonstration of learning in role-play, speeches, simulations, debates and structured discussions. |
Conferences | Discussions or interviews that are conducted either face-to-face, online or via audio and video recordings. |
Self-assessments and evaluations and student journals | The self-reflection of achievement and progression towards goals. It allows for metacognitive thinking about their learning and personal reflection upon their strengths and weaknesses. Journals provide personal accounts of student responses to learning activities, experiences and understandings. This should be guided by the relevant year's content description on Evaluating. |
Peer assessments | Individuals, peers or a group of peers provide evaluative feedback on performance or activity. |