THE WORLD OF ASSESSMENT

In our daily life, there are too many kind of assessment. 

We are revealed too many 'assessment' topics almost everyday, whether in the news, on a television, on the radio, in newspapers and across the internet. 

Now and then, we will consciously or unconsciously talk about assessment among our family, friends or community that we have experienced. But, is it we really understand the meaning of assessment?

So, the question is....what exactly is ASSESSMENT.

The definition of assessment based on the Oxford Dictionaries are,

''The evaluation or estimation of nature,quality, or ability of someone or something'',

"An opinion or a judgement about somebody or something that has been thought about very carefully'',

''The act of judging or forming an opinion about somebody/something'',

and

''An amount that has been calculated and that must be paid''.

According to the Glossary of Educational Reform, the term of assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students. 

While assessments are often equated with traditional tests—especially the standardized tests developed by testing companies and administered to large populations of students—educators use a diverse array of assessment tools and methods to measure everything from a four-year-old’s readiness for kindergarten to a twelfth-grade student’s comprehension of advanced physics.

Just as academic lessons have different functions, assessments are typically designed to measure specific elements of learning:

e.g., the level of knowledge a student already has about the concept or skill the teacher is planning to teach or the ability to comprehend and analyse different types of texts and readings.

Assessments also are used to identify individual student weaknesses and strengths so that educators can provide specialized academic support, educational programming, or social services.

In addition, assessments are developed by a wide array of groups and individuals, including teachers, district administrators, universities, private companies, state departments of education, and groups that include a combination of these individuals and institutions.

Without assessment, a teacher will not be able to know the efficacy of the pedagogical method he/she adopts thus the need for constant assessment to both understand the pupil’s and student's interests and abilities.