Types of assessment and higher-order thinking skills in assessment

Types of assessment and higher-order thinking skills in assessment

Day 7 : 16^th October 2014
Session : 2 (11.00 am – 12.30pm)
Slot : Types of assessment and higher-order thinking skills in assessment
Tutor : Katie Courtney Bennett

Classroom Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session, lecturers will have to:

• become familiar with different types of assessment.
• be able to identify examples of assessment types.
• become familiar with higher-order thinking skills  in assessment.

Suggested Activities

Activity 1: Brainstorming types of assessment

Instructions:

1. In groups, make a list of the types of assessment on the board.
2. Each group will provide feedbacks.

         

Activity 2: Match the types of assessment

Instructions:

1. A set of types of assessment were given. 
2. In pairs, choose the list in activity 1 and match it with the types of assessment provided above.

Activity 3: Identifying different set of skills

Instructions:

1. Each group will be given a short text with three different types of assessment.
2. Identify each assessment whether it is LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) or HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills).

Suggestions

There are various ways for teachers to continuously monitored students development and achievement over time. Some of the continuous assessments are:

1. Teacher observation
2. Open and closed questions
3. Progress charts
4. Portfolios
5. Traffic lights
6. Thinking time

These assessments are also known as “formative assessment”. Formative assessment is an ongoing process that informs teaching assessment for learning. Teachers can continuously monitor their students’ development and achievement over a time of period.

Teaching tips

1. When giving feedback on written work, consider using a correction code, encouraging learners to find their own mistakes. This will encourage the skill of analysis. For example:

2. Encourage students to take a pro-active part in their own learning and progress.   

   This will encourage analysis and evaluation. Below is a sample of lesson that can be   

   used by teachers.

• Learners make poster with assessment criteria.
• Put them into groups of three or four and tell them they are going to work on assessment criteria for a piece of work.
• Learners work together to think of different ways of completing the following sentence: The ideal (name of piece of work)…
• One learner notes down ideas for a group poster.
• Remind them to think about both content and language. For example: The ideal laboratory report… (physics) or The ideal collage (art)…

Reflections

When developing assessment for students, there is a tendency of only focusing on summative type of assessment. It is an assessment where after a specific period of time, it sums up what students have learned. In short, it is focusing on the end product of their learning process. With heavy workload and other duties that teachers have to execute, summative assessment is a convenient form of evaluation. However, if teachers combined together with formative assessment, then the whole learning process will become more meaningful. The students will become more autonomous in their learning development and achievement through the use of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), while teachers will achieve their target in effectively conveying knowledge to students. Overall, it’s a win-win situation for both sides. 

Prepared by:

JAIME AK MUNDU
POLITEKNIK KOTA KINABALU
SABAH