Summary

Assessment

Assessment is a tool that teachers use to measure their students knowledge and abilities.

Assessment has two possibilities: First, Informal assessment, it is the way that we collect students’ performance without establishing test conditions in normal class. And second Formal assessment, which is used in the same situations, but with a test. By other hand, testing is when a teacher assesses his/ hers students through a test in order to get facts or a data about their performance or knowledge.

According to Baxter, “teaching and testing go hand-in-hand”.  We must be careful to avoid confusing teaching and testing because we usually teach and automatically test the students to confirm what is being seen in the classroom. I think that teaching is given training or knowledge to someone through strategies, so learning is, as Trussell says, “When teacher and student facilitate changes in knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, attitudes and values”.

As we can see teaching, assessment and learning are deeply linked, they are often part of the teaching process and teachers should be aware of them. One example of awareness could be when a teacher uses a book; a teacher analyses the content of the units, decides what abilities to teach and how to teach them, prepares possible evaluations considering the skills to be measured and problems, then a teacher during his/her class and in a book decision he/she conscious or unconsciously uses what was mentioned above.

Alfonso L.

Assessment: Is the way the teacher is going to evaluate if the students are learning or not. This is a very important action that the teacher has to do because is the way the teacher and the students are able to know if they are learning or not. And it is also require by the school administration.
Testing: Is a similar concept that assessment but for me the difference is that testing is the way the teacher is going to assess the students, for example, oral tests or written tests. 
Teaching: Is when the teacher gives the students his or her knowledge by methods and techniques, he/she uses test in oral or written form to assess.

Sarahi A.

Assessment:  

According to Trussel, “Assessment is seen as the gathering of evidence and documentation of learning.” There are two forms of assessment: informal assessment and formal assessment. According to Harris, informal assessment is “collecting information about our students’ performance in normal classroom conditions.” It can include not only linguistic factors like reading, listening, fluency, intonation, etc. but also other factors like attitude, homework, participation, and so on. Formal assessment collects evidence of students’ performance establishing test conditions.

Both types of assessment are important and their percentages combined give the end grade of the students. The weighting of each kind of assessment depends on the teacher, who needs to take several considerations into account; for example, classroom size, hours of English lessons per week, etc.  Assessment should be seen as a feedback for students, parents and teachers and not as punishment.

Testing: 

Testing is part of formal assessment. It shows the student’s performance in numbers. Testing is an important tool of assessment because it evidences clearly whether students have made process in their learning, but it should not be the only one because some students do not perform very well in tests, but participate and work very well in class.

What is the relationship of assessment and testing with teaching and learning?

They are all part of the learning process. While we teach, we check constantly whether the student is able to do what he should be able to do, whether he knows what he should know, etc. Every exercise a student does, every word a student says, every sentence he writes in a classroom shows the student and the teacher whether the student is progressing. Obviously not each word or sentence will be assessed with a grade, but even without being assessed, a mistake in a sentence may show a student in which field he needs more practice. Teachers must be aware when they are assessing and when they are asking questions in order to make a point/teach. It is very important to know that assessment is not just an evaluation of the results of the learning process because in reality it is an important part of the learning process itself.

Melanie L.