Nicola Murphy
Preparing to teach in the Lifelong Learning sector
Assignment 1 – level 3 Theory
Unit 7
Q: State the different assessment methods available and explain the ones you would use for your subject area, including reference to initial assessment. State the types of assessment records you would complete and explain why.
Assessments within the teaching profession are important as they allow for the tutor to identify if the outcomes of a lesson or course of lessons have been achieved. They help to check individual progress and help to provide feedback to learners. The tutor is also able to get feedback on their own teaching and learning methods and assessments enable the tutor to deliver a session successfully by using reflective practice.
Assessments need to be valid, authentic, current, sufficient and reliable. Valid work carried out by the student should be related and appropriate to the criteria being assessed, authentic work should show that the student has written or created the piece of work by themselves and not copied the work of others and work that is current should be up to date at the time of assessment. Work that is produced by students should be sufficient to cover all the relevant standards and criteria being assessed and reliable work should be consistent across all students and be at the mandatory level required by the board of examiners.
Three different types of assessment, namely, initial, formative and summative are key assessments that are vital to the learning process. Initial assessment is generally carried out before a student commences a course or qualification. This type of assessment should indicate that a student is taking the right qualification at the most appropriate level, for example, if a student wishes to take a cookery course it would be helpful to the tutor to know if the student has any prior experience and a keen interest in cooking. The initial assessment can help the tutor to know what...