Principles and purposes of assessment in the classroom

It might not always feel like it but, as teachers, we are constantly using assessment information to make decisions about what to say, what tasks to set and what to do with task outcomes. Every interaction with students is a potential assessment opportunity, in the sense that such interactions provide us with information about how learning is going, in order to help us to adapt our teaching. Assessment influences school and classroom culture, impacts on pupil and teacher ideas about learning and determines what is taught and how. According to Stobart (2008, p. 1), ‘Assessment does not objectively measure what is already there, but rather creates and shapes what is measured.’ The effective use of assessment provides both the means to identify whether students have succeeded and the information to help teachers to support those who have not yet ‘got there’. This article will emphasise the use of assessment as we consider principles and purposes. It will explore formative and summative purposes to support meaningful use of assessment, and the principles of validity and reliability to inform decision-making