Understanding Student Assessment- The Vantage Point

Vantage point is the point, generally a high place, that provides a good and clear view of the area we want to look at. The area is the assessment, in our case. 

Our vantage point, as educators, is to understand assessment from a broader perspective. 

Assessment for us means class tests, other methods of assessments and of course, the final exams to assess whether the learners have learnt or not and how much they have learnt in our subject.

If we zoom out a little bit, we see that they learn other subjects as well to develop different skills. 

Zoom out a bit further and we see that whatever we teach in our classes is aimed at meeting the goals and realising the vision of our school. 

Zoom out more and we can see that our school’s goals and vision are aligned with those of the society and the community. 

When we zoom out further, we get our vantage point, from where we see the vision, purpose and aim of education from the nation’s standpoint, through the defined curriculum.

This is the place that makes us realise the importance of student assessment. 

In a nutshell, the role of assessment is to align the learning and educational goals of all the layers shown in the diagram. 

We assess learners in the classroom to confirm that we have met the learning objectives as defined by our school, that we have taught the learners in the context of their surroundings and the community and that we have met the objectives defined in the curriculum.

Assessments inform teaching and learning in a way that allows us to build skills in our learners that they will need to achieve their full potential, to develop a just and equitable society, and to promote the development of their nation.

Assessments help us raise the standards of education and help our learners become the best versions of themselves.

If you want to dive deeper into this area of teaching and learning, please feel free to check out our course on Assessment and Evaluation Techniques.