The case for “Assessments”
Do you think one achieves their goals faster when one measures their progress or when one doesn’t?
By Sri Nitya Anupindi
Photograph by: Frederik Leenknecht/CSSL
From when I was in middle school, I loved taking tests. Partially because I wasn’t a bad student, but mostly because I wanted to get them over with. I didn’t like the idea of looming tests; I thought it better to have them behind me and enjoy the pre-result bliss.
As I neared high school, my father began to ask my sister and me to put down our expected scores after each test. He would tell us that it was important to know where we thought we stood. We were to grade ourselves as our teachers might grade us, but were allowed a leeway of about 3 marks either way.
It was okay even if we were expecting to score only 50 out of 100; he wanted us to face up to how we fared. But it was not okay for us to receive marks that were not in our defined range.
I now realise the importance of that exercise. For one, it was never about competing with others. It was an assessment of our learning. The ability to assess one’s own levels of learning is a singularly important factor when it comes to learning. It requires one to truly inspect and re-evaluate what they think they know and understand.
As a 12-year old, being able to assess one’s performance like they were a teacher who taught 12-year olds is not very easy. But it is not difficult, either. It forced us to dive deep into what each question tested, to identify what we missed, and to weigh and measure our responses with care.
Secondly, it was remedial. Whatever we pegged as our points of improvement, it was an unstated rule for us that we needed to sit down and work on them. Wherever we ended up on the scale, the one evident lesson was that there was always room for improvement.
The subject of assessments has always fascinated me — how they came into being, why there was a need for assessment, and how it was done in the time preceding ours.
To understand that, let us travel back in time — back to when the first universities across the world were flourishing. The earliest known universities, like that of Socrates in Greece, the Nalanda, and the Takshashila in India, etc. used dialogue and discussion for assessment. What one must keep in mind when considering the ancient forms of assessment, is that these were far before paper became commonly available or the printing press was invented.
The industrial revolution in the West brought with it the modern paper mill and hordes of jobs. The former made schoolbooks more commonly available, while the latter introduced the urgency for testing candidates. This led to the introduction of standard subjects and standardized essay tests which, over time, changed form and structure to suit the needs and pace of the ever-changing face of the job market, to MCQ-based tests.
In India, this pace has been slower, but not absent. The decline of the gurukulas and the establishment of an education system based upon the British model brought us to a largely English-based education system. At the time, Western-style education was considered the pinnacle of civilization. This caused a major overhaul of schools, subjects, the medium of instruction, and unsurprisingly, assessments.
While these assessments have been many and varied, and it could be argued that their purpose differed across time and history, the intention behind them has prevailed — to appraise the worth of students. And this brings us back full circle.
Assessments have been around a long time — clearly because they serve an essential purpose. So, did my father’s exercise make any considerable difference in my performance? I cannot say. But I’d like to leave with you a question. Do you think one achieves their goals faster when one measures their progress or when one doesn’t?
Nitya joined the Centre for Science of Student Learning due to her fundamental belief that assessments can truly revolutionise learning. While the world has always realised the need for assessments, assessments in education in India are still focused on “rote” learning, and do not truly measure whether our children are learning or not. At CSSL, Nitya develops diagnostic assessments for language and science. Excited about the role assessments & data science can play in revolutionising how children learn? We’re hiring Resident Experts and Researchers in different subject areas. Apply to our open positions here.
