Planning for Assessment

Assessment tasks should provide students with an opportunity to display the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes they have developed and motivate them by recognising what they have accomplished. Determining how a unit of work will be assessed needs to be considered at the start of unit planning so that it ensures the characteristics of effective assessment are addressed.

While planning for assessment is an essential part of preparation for teaching and learning, it is important that learning, creativity, initiative and risk taking are not curtailed by assessment driven activities.

Stages of Assessment

Best practice in assessment requires the integration of the three stages listed below. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has developed professional learning modules on each stage which can be accessed by the links below. These contain a range of activities that can be completed either individually or within teams.

Assessment for learning
To provide information on student knowledge, skills and behaviours to inform the next stage of learning.

Professional learning module 3

Assessment as learning
To provide feedback and opportunities for student reflection and/or self-assessment to support future learning.

Professional learning module 4

Assessment of learning
To provide information about what students have learnt in relation to the standards.

Professional learning module 2

Assessment and the VELS

The Victorian Essential Learning Standards learning focus statements outline the learning that students need to focus on at each level. Directly linked to this, the Standards define what students should know and be able to do at each level. Therefore, units of work based on activities described in the learning focus statements, will be assessable against the expected standards.

Assessment of student achievement against the standards requires a mix of summative assessment to determine what the student has achieved and formative assessment to inform the next stage of learning. This should be based on authentic assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks demonstrating the application of essential knowledge and skill.

Assessment must also evaluate knowledge, skills and behaviours in an integrated way, rather than treating each and every standard as discrete. This not only ensures a more efficient approach to student assessment that avoids unnecessary duplication of assessment tasks and subsequent reports, but also more clearly reflects how students actually learn and develops deep understanding in learners which can be transferred to new and different contexts.