Is 360o Assessment Assuring the Quality of Learning?

Is 360^o Assessment Assuring the Quality of Learning?

K.SURESH,

Junior Research Fellow,

Department of Education,

Tamil University,

Thanjavur – 613 010.

Tamilnadu.

ksureshtnr@gmail.com

Mob: 09952844955

Abstract

            Education is a mainstay of national development. The standard of society is mostly judged by education. Generally, the quality of education is totally based on the teaching and learning process. Quality of teaching is informally assessed by the learner’s outcomes. Nowadays the assessment has placed principally and plays a vital role in teaching and learning. Teacher is the primary key in the development of the learners. But the development is not the easiest process which is more complex. The quality may affect either by teaching nor by learning or by assessment. The assessment procedures are one way with a teacher perspective. This is evident that the assessment procedures are a subsidy to explore the quality of learning. There are few assessing techniques are used to asses learner’s learning. But they do not represent the exact outcomes of the learners. The objectivity of this is very low.  Generally, we are using summative, formative, criterion reference and norms referenced assessment to assess the learning of the learners. It is biased because the teacher has the responsibility to assess the learners in a particular phase and objectives. For the quality of learning of the learners, the learners should be assessed in 360^o view. The main advantage of this assessment is unbiased. It includes assessments like examination, practical, interview and portfolios. It is a novel technique in educational assessments. So the author of this document has proposed the concept of a novel assessment technique for assuring the quality of learning and justified it theoretically.

Keywords: 360^o Assessment, Diagnostics, Summative, Portfolios, Peers

Initiation:

Education is the backbone of building society. Education determines the standard of the society wherein quality education helps in empowering the nation in all aspects by providing new thoughts.  Teaching profession is the noblest one. Our former president APJ Abdul Kalam said that the students are pillar of our country.  The golden word formally emphasizes making useful students and informally insisted that the teacher has a responsibility to produce such students for the development of our country. The teacher acts a key role in development informally. For sustainable development quality teachers are essential. Nowadays the educational institution in our country is growing up. The output of the students also increased numerically but not attaining quality. This lack of quality produces a new introduction of tests. The obtained degree of any type of education is not assuring for quality, it emphasizes. But the individual fulfills the requirements of education. A simple example explains this precisely that some times the 90% scored individual does not perform well than border passed individual. The reason behind that assessment procedure has a bias in assessing the students. The individual assessed by another individual. It may be biased. Naturally, human behavior could not assess 100% percentage. It may change during the time to time. Some individuals are theoretically weak but practically well-skilled and vice versa. This makes the bias in assessment. So the individuals should be assessed by theoretical, practical and other criteria. The document describes in succeeding paragraphs of new assessment method to education for assuring quality.

Assessment and Evaluation:

            Both assessment and evaluation are very essential in the teaching and learning process. They are used as synonymously. But they are different in their processes. Generally, the purpose of assessment and evaluation should be to strengthen the knowledge, skills, disposition and classroom practices of professional educators. Assessment is a set of processes designed to improve, demonstrated and inquire about learning. It is more focused on measuring performance, work product or skill in order to often feedback to document strength and growth and to provide directives for improving future performance. Generally, it is a process to determine “what is”.

Evaluation is a method of making a judgment about the relative desirability of something in terms of standard. It shows the present performance. It is a qualitative description of the pupil’s behavior which is collected from test scores. Evaluation is a continuous process and is concerned with more than the formal academic achievement of students. It refers to the assessment of student progress towards a stated objective and the efficiency of our teaching, as well as the effectiveness of the curriculum. Tuckman said, “Evaluation is a process wherein the parts, process or outcomes of the programme are examined to see whether they are satisfactory, particularly with reference to the programs stated objectives of our own standards of excellence.” It is a systematic determination of subject merit, worth and significance using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, project or any other intervention or initiative to assess any aim, reliable concept process.

A concise description of Assessment Types:

            Assessment is classified under four types as given below,

Formative assessment: it is sometimes called as internal assessment. It is a programme is designed to monitor the instructional process to determine whether learning is taking places has been planned before. This provides continues information to modify the programme to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Process-oriented Assessment: it is fully based on the performance of the students' process.

Diagnostic Assessment: it is used to determine an individual‘s strength and weakness that are left unresolved by the standard corrective prescription of formative evaluation in order to improve performance.

Summative Assessment: it usually occurs after instruction. It is designed to determine how well the learning objectives were met. Formal classroom tests such as unit tests or final examinations are the most frequently used tool s of summative assessment.

Deficiencies of Current Assessment Methods:

Assessment is a continuous process. It is a kind of process to measure our present and future needs. The assessment describes knowledge, Activities, Achievement, etc not in the form of numerical numbers (Marks) or algebraic symbols (Grades). Sometimes assessment may be used to develop the personality of the learners.

The quality of learning is not so simple. It is much complex. Because teaching and learning process is complex as well as improper assessment procedures. The present purpose of education is to give economic prosperity and social stability by providing qualified human resources. Nowadays the quality of learning directly depends on examination, not the nature of education reforms. Quality education is critical and examination-oriented. In general, exam-oriented education is distorting the purpose and significance of education. The real purpose of education is to improve the quality of an individual or the teacher who is used to develop the society and nation. The assessment system only focuses on the learners' test scores or test results for awarding the degree. This is the problem behind the assessment method to incline the quality of learning.

Assessment techniques in our education system are still conventional in their purpose and nature. The following defects were identified in the current evaluation method are as follows;

ü   Assessment is not followed as systematic.

ü   Learners’ competencies are not being assessed.

ü   Fully based on achievement not giving preference to performance.

ü  Lack of feedback about learners’ performance.

ü  Defect in assess skill at the end of the course or during the course.

ü  Individual biased assessment

To rectify these biases of assessment and enhance the quality of learning, the following novel assessment is proposed for consideration.

360^o Assessment Method:

            An assessment helps to make quality individual learning in the future. But, the evaluation provides the current performance of the individual. 360^o means the assessment is done in all view of the individual. That is, individual learning is assessing by all aspects of the learners. The traditional assessment only based on examinations. The main drawback of this method is that it only asses the theoretical knowledge by writing. It is not assessing the oral skill, practical skills etc. This method includes few techniques as single to assess the learning. So it is called a method and it assessing in 360^oview of the learner. Thus it is called as 360^o assessment method. So, it is called a novel method in measurement in teaching and learning process.

Is 360^o Assessment Assuring the Quality of Learning?

            Yes. The 360^o assessment has to assure the quality of learning. The following are justifying this. Assessment is essential to show the quality of learning. Traditional assessment is based on the examiner. But in 360⁰ assessment method is slightly different from the traditional assessment. This assessment occurs when the examinee is assessed all-round in different ways or procedures. It means that the examinee is introduced to assessment in 360⁰ views. This produces unbiased in the assessment. The mean scores or pass in all assessment he/she could be eligible to promote. It will help to enhance the quality of education. It gives way to de-promote unqualified learners. So the quality of learning will maintain as far as long. The 360⁰ assessment method includes few techniques and they are discussed below,

ü  Examination

ü  Practical+ Interview

ü  Peers

ü  portfolios

Examination:

Examinations are used to measure learner’s knowledge or achievement. It is a correct method for testing learners’ knowledge. In education, theoretical knowledge will not give good understanding; they must need skill practice which is not assessed by theoretical. This is the limitation of examination.

Practical and Interviews:

Practical is a precise method to assess learners’ skills and knowledge. An interview is a conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee. A transcript or account of such a conversation is also called an interview. The interview also measures the student's knowledge about the usage of skills. Both practical and interview is essentially done one by one. It is exactly asses the knowledge as well as skill.

Portfolios:

A portfolio is a systematic collection of student work and related material that depicts a student's activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more subjects. It is used to be evidence of student reflection and self-evaluation, guidelines for selecting the portfolio contents, and criteria for judging the quality of the work. There are two types of portfolios are given below,

Process portfolio: It documents the stages of learning and provides a progressive record of student growth.

            Product portfolio: It demonstrates mastery of a learning task or a set of learning objectives and contains only the best work.

Peer assessment:

Peers may be evaluating the learners. It is not essential but it may include. Because of the peers may give a biased assessment. 

The author of this document introduces this as a new theoretical assessment process for the quality of learning.

Conclusion:

 Quality is the main theme of teaching and learning. Teaching or learning is measured continuously for enhancing it. Now, there are many assessment methods are available. But, no one method or technique does not measure the exact performance of the learning. For that purpose, a novel technique is available for assuring the quality of learning. 360^o assessment is a novel method and it measures the performance in all aspects of the learner. This document presented a description of 360^o assessment method. Although the above-tabled novel and theoretical assessment is used to assuring the quality of learning. Finally, the author of this paper hoped that the reader may get knowledge about 360^o assessment method and it provides sustainable changes in future learning assessments.

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