User:Tbutchart/Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic Assessment - a Teachers Tool

Diagnostic assessment is a component of formative assessment. Formative assessment is adapted from the term 'formative evaluation' first used by Michael Scriven in 1967 and refers to assessment practice that develops and enhances learning. This is in contrast to summative assessment which establishes the extent of what has been learnt by a learner at the end of a specific period and serves to certify learning to produce results for promotion, placement or special awards.

The value of assessment in enhancing teaching in learning is well-established. Assessment guru, Dylan Wiliam, says "All teaching really boils down to three key processes ... The processes are: finding out where learners are in their learning, finding out where they are going, and finding out how to get there." John Hattie in his synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement states that "Teacher education might be more successful if it placed more emphasis on ... developing teachers' conceptions of teaching as an evidence-based profession (learning from errors as much as successes) ... It might be more successful if it ... showed how evaluation and assessment of students provides powerful feedback to teachers about how well they are teaching, who they have not taught so well, and where they need to re-teach. Dylan Wiliam presents assessment as the bridge between teaching and learning when he asserts that "assessment occupies such a central position in good teaching because we cannot predict what students will learn, no matter how we design our teaching."

This is where diagnostic assessment plays a vital role. Diagnostic assessment is assessment practice that is able to identify learners' strengths and weaknesses across different conceptual threads in order to redirect and adapt teaching to address these weaknesses. In this process, such assessment is also able to inform on a teacher's own teaching successes and challenges and offer opportunities to redesign teaching practice for improved learning.

A valuable tool for enabling diagnostic assessment is the teaching and learning diagnostic matrix. Here is an example of such a tool:

This example shows a class list of Grade 3 learner names down the left-hand side of the tool. Conceptual threads, in this case in the subject of Grade 3 Mathematics, are reflected across the top of the tool. Learner results on various assessment tasks have been collated under these conceptual threads and make up the body of the matrix. Scores on a 7-level scale were combined for varying numbers of assessment criteria in various assessment tools across different assessment tasks. The T&L diagnostic matrix tool enables analysis of learner results. Reading across the individual rows identifies learners' strengths and weaknesses within the different conceptual threads. Reading down the columns informs on the teacher's successes and challenges within the conceptual threads. Information gathered can be used to personalise teaching practice to meet specific learner's needs as well as encourage self-evaluation and the pursuit of successful teaching strategies.

to be continued ...