- Teacher-made assessment strategies
8. Involve parents. Parents need to understand the portfolio process. Encourage parents to
review the work samples. You may wish to schedule parent, teacher-students
conferences in which students talk about their work samples.
Source: Adapted from Popham (2005)
Assessment that enhances motivation and student confidence..................................................................
Studies on testing and learning conducted more than 20 years ago demonstrated that tests promote learning
and that more frequent tests are more effective than less frequent tests (Dempster & Perkins, 1993). Frequent
smaller tests encourage continuous effort rather than last minute cramming and may also reduce test anxiety
because the consequences of errors are reduced. College students report preferring more frequent testing than
infrequent testing (Bangert-Downs, Kulik, Kulik, 1991). More recent research indicates that teachers’ assessment
purpose and beliefs, the type of assessment selected, and the feedback given contributes to the assessment climate
in the classroom which influences students’ confidence and motivation. The use of self-assessment is also
important in establishing a positive assessment climate.
Teachers’ purposes and beliefs
Student motivation can be enhanced when the purpose of assessment is promoting student learning and this is
clearly communicated to students by what teachers say and do (Harlen, 2006). This approach to assessment is
associated with what the psychologist, Carol Dweck, (2000) calls an incremental view of ability or intelligence. An
incremental view assumes that ability increases whenever an individual learns more. This means that effort is
valued because effort leads to knowing more and therefore having more ability. Individuals with an incremental
view also ask for help when needed and respond well to constructive feedback as the primary goal is increased
learning and mastery. In contrast, a fixed view of ability assumes that some people have more ability than others
and nothing much can be done to change that. Individuals with a fixed view of ability often view effort in opposition
to ability (“Smart people don’t have to study”) and so do not try as hard, and are less likely to ask for help as that
indicates that they are not smart. While there are individual differences in students’ beliefs about their views of
intelligence, teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices influence students’ perceptions and behaviors.
Teachers with an incremental view of intelligence communicate to students that the goal of learning is mastering
the material and figuring things out. Assessment is used by these teachers to understand what students know so
they can decide whether to move to the next topic, re-teach the entire class, or provide remediation for a few
students. Assessment also helps students’ understand their own learning and demonstrate their competence.
Teachers with these views say things like, “We are going to practice over and over again. That’s how you get good.
And you’re going to make mistakes. That’s how you learn.” (Patrick, Anderman, Ryan, Edelin, Midgley, 2001, p.
45).
In contrast, teachers with a fixed view of ability are more likely to believe that the goal of learning is doing well
on tests especially outperforming others. These teachers are more likely to say things that imply fixed abilities e.g.
“This test will determine what your math abilities are”, or stress the importance of interpersonal competition, “We
will have speech competition and the top person will compete against all the other district schools and last year the
winner got a big award and their photo in the paper.” When teachers stress interpersonal competition some
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