Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 45

The assessment act has a procedural character, being carried out in stages and by
numerous mechanisms, aiming, finally, to make consideration about what is being
evaluated. In order to achieve a more accurate assessment, it is necessary first to
measure the phenomenon considered so that, on the basis of the measurements
made, appropriate evaluation can be made. Teachers usually complain because
sometimes their job is about tests and data, and is indeed a difficult and time-
consuming task.
Jeremy Harmer considers that ”when students get good grades their motivation is
often positively affected – provided that the level of challenge for the task was
appropriate. Bad grades can be extremely disheartening. Nor is grading always
easy and clear cut. If we want to give grades, therefore, we need to decide on what
basis we are going to do this and be able to describe this to the students” (101).
The main assessment operations are: measurement, appreciation and decision. All
three operations are complementary, they form an evaluation unit, and they are
either relatively distinct (depending on time) or relatively concomitant (in relation to
the nature of the evidence, the goals pursued, and the urgency). In terms of
education, measuring is not as rigorous as in other areas and has a relative
character. Often, when assessing school results the idea of measurement is
expressed by the classification.
Measurement consists in assign a number to an object or event according to an
accepted logical rule. It implies an objective weighing of the students' skills based
on the most accurate evidence and objective determination by rigorously capturing
acquisitions and does not involve the issuing of making judgments.
Kauchak says in Learning and Teaching that “Two important processes are
involved in assessment: measurement, which includes all the information teachers
gather as part of the assessment process, and evaluation, which refers to the
decisions they make on the basis of the measurements” (397).
Appreciation involves issuing a value judgment on the outcome of a measurement.
Through this operation, the results are measured by appreciation, praise, critical
observations. Appreciation is a much more complicated operation. In the case of
accurate sciences, measurement is safer, because the nature of knowledge is also
more certain. In the case of foreign languages, the measurement becomes flexible,
the interference of measurement with appreciation being probable.
The decision is consumed in taking steps to modify the training device in such a
way that the instructional and educational process gains relevance and efficiency.
The decision prolongs the act of appreciation in a mark, characterisation,
judgment, recommendation. The assessment process can be completed by
making decisions on: differentiation, individualization, rehabilitation, change of
didactic strategy.
“Thus classical test theory has primarily been concerned with differentiating
between individuals who possess certain attributes, or in determining the degree to
which they do so” (Gardner, 254).
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