Assessment is one of the most relevant ways to gauge students. This is because it helps teachers monitor their own and their students’ progress through the lens of the students. However, so many schools and teachers stick to exams at the end of the term.
However, some teachers choose to assess students while teaching, and this has proven to be a lot more effective than at the end of the school term. Below are the reasons teachers assess while teaching.
1. To measure achievement
By the beginning of every academic phase, you always have objectives that you want to accomplish as you teach your students, and this is one of the strongest reasons for teachers to assess students while teaching them. Objectives include;
- Coverage of certain parts of the syllabus
- Demystifying certain hard topics for the students to understand with ease
- Completing the syllabus
- Understanding what topics your students don’t understand
When you measure your level of achievement compared to your objectives, it makes your teaching more effective.
2. To measure their understanding of the content
So many times, students will attend all classes, pay attention and seem to understand everything. However, it is only through assessment that you can conclude safely on that. This is because assessment reveals things like;
- Question interpretation
- Depth of the students’ understanding. This is because some students only know how to define or explain on the surface, but not in-depth
- Whether the students are able to think critically about topics; which includes arguing for and against them
3. To find out if the teaching methods work
There are lots of teaching methods, and sometimes you can be tempted to use the methods you’re comfortable with, even though they might not work in favor of all students. In this light, assessment helps you find out;
- Which methods work for which student, and which ones don’t
- How to help other students who can’t learn if you keep using the same teaching method
- Whether or not you can help the students that need other methods
4. To measure the relevancy of the teaching aids
There are lots of teaching aids that teachers in different schools use. However, some teaching aids work well for some students while they don’t work for others. Assessment will help you find out;
- What teaching aids to throw away and what to keep
- The relevant versus the popular teaching aids
- How to use the different teaching aids for the good of every student
5. To improve the communication of the learners
So many learners know how to grasp the things they’re taught, but usually get stuck when they’re asked to explain the same things. This is because of a few mental challenges that can be overcome if the students are assessed more often.
This will help them;
- Familiarize with the questions
- Eliminate the fear of failure
- Learn to phrase and rephrase their answers
- Find out what they do and don’t know
6. To improve the confidence of the learners
Assessment of students is one of the best ways to improve their level of confidence a by a great deal. This can happen if;
- Learners are urged to work in groups
- They are faced with more and more tests until they get used to them
- The teacher gives a chance to learners to discuss in front of their classmates
The more that students are exposed to tests and assessment, they toughen up and become less afraid of being questioned, but always prepared.
Conclusion;
On certain occasions, students will feel used to being assessed, that they won’t feel the urge to prepare for them. This is why as a teacher, you have to always show your students that there’s something at stake in the end. Either you make sure that these results count at the end of the term/ semester, or find another way you can motivate them to always do their best.
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