The Role of Assessment
The control of students’ knowledge has always been, is, and will be one of the most critical components of the educational process. In the procedure of improving various techniques and methods, certain forms and methods of knowledge control are changing, but its primary essence is to establish feedback on how successfully the process of mastering the material has gone and remains unchanged. Control in modern pedagogical science performs various functions and has tremendous educational value. The control helps to formalize students’ knowledge and reproduce it orally or in writing.
Disadvantages of Assessments
The system of monitoring and grading students is currently imperfect and has several disadvantages, such as insufficient consideration of the age and individual characteristics of each student individually and the dominance of quantitative forms of evaluation. Moreover, the distinction between irregular and episodic assessment, high subjectivity in grading, and psychological discomfort of students during control. Furthermore, the disadvantages include a limited range of ratings, the division of reviews into positive and negative, and the lack of a mechanism for objective summation of ratings (Brown and Abeywickrama, 2019). Optimizing, monitoring and evaluating the results of students’ learning activities directly depends on the teacher’s understanding of the ratio of mechanical memorization and meaningful assimilation in the learning process.
Ethics in Assessments
Ethics of evaluation is a set of norms and rules of a teacher’s behavior, ensuring the moral character of pedagogical activity and relationships caused by pedagogical activity. The development of this type of ethics has a positive impact on the nature of the teacher’s interaction with students, contributing to improving the moral and psychological climate in the school, and strengthening the positive role of the family (Isucelt, 2013). The practical activity of a teacher does not always comply with the norms of professional ethics, which is caused by the complexity and contradictions of pedagogical practice; therefore, one of the essential tasks of the ethics of assessment is to study the state of the moral consciousness of the teacher. The universal and most common methods of public opinion research in the field of evaluation ethics aim to clarify value orientations, the motivational sphere of the individual, and the evaluative judgments of the interviewees.
Main Principles of Assessments
Objectivity is one of the essential requirements for assessing students’ knowledge and skills and is expressed in an accurate assessment and adequate establishment of criteria according to curricula. This requirement means that the assessment should characterize the quantity and quality of knowledge and skills, regardless of the methods and means of control and the personal qualities of the teacher who exercises control. Assessment is an emotional attitude of the teacher to students’ work and can be expressed in a word, gestures, facial expressions and mean agreement, approval, praise, and dissatisfaction (Archer, 2017). A positive assessment is a means of strengthening the student’s faith in their strength and capabilities. An unfavorable evaluation means eliminating errors in the student’s work. An evaluative attitude can be important for forming a student’s self-esteem as a particular element of self-awareness. Annoyance and dissatisfaction with the student’s grades can lead to an unconscious conflict with the environment, a decrease in self-esteem, disappointment in their abilities, and deactivation of cognitive interest in studying the subject.
An essential psychological and pedagogical principle in the process of monitoring and evaluating knowledge is objectivity because the effectiveness of all control depends on it. Control stimulates the organization of full-fledged interaction between teacher and student, making it possible to objectively assess the progress of educational activities and compare the result with the goals and objectives set. Properly organized control and objectivity assessments allow students to evaluate their work, evoke a sense of satisfaction with their achievements, and increase cognitive interest and activation of the desire to learn and acquire new knowledge.
References
Archer, E. (2017). The assessment purpose triangle: Balancing the purposes of educational assessment. Frontiers Education, 2(41), 1-7. Web.
Brown, D. & Abeywickrama, P. (2019). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. Pearson.
Isucelt. (2013). Writing a teaching philosophy statement [Video]. Web.