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Our lesson begins with three examples of assessment and how confusing / unclear / problematic it might be. The first example is of a six-year-old pupil who ticks next to the sums of simple exercises he calculated in arithmetics, because this is what his teacher does when he shows her his work. This example shows complete ignorance concerning the meaning of teacher's assessment. The second example is of a student (Orly Sela) who got a mark (90) on one of her papers, wanted to know why points were taken off, but did not get a satisfactory answer ("It seemed OK, so I marked it 90"). The last example is of a high-school student (Noga Sela) who was wrong in calculating her mark in literature because she did not know how each and every component of her mark were calculated; how much each component of her grade weighed. Orly hands out a comic-strip demonstrating, again, how anxious / confused pupils may feel when they get an assessed paper back.

We discuss the questions "Why do we (teachers) assess? What are our aims?" Here are the students answers:
 * feedback for teachers / pupils / parents / school(s) / nation.
 * administrative demands
 * comparison (between pupils / classes / teachers)
 * review of material
 * teacher-planning ("feed-forward")
 * checking progress
 * mapping (Example: before division to groups)
 * motivation
 * cooperation (which was cotroversial)

Some of the above factors may have a beneficial effect on pupils: feedback for the pupils, comparison, review of material and motivation.

Here are the potential problems of assessment:
 * Validity: are we actually testing what we wish to test? (Example: does writing a paragraph as an answer in a Reading-Comprehension test check understanding of __//reading//__ ?)
 * Reliability: assessing in the same way should bring about similar results.
 * Self-fulfilling prophecy: one's expectations in terms of marks usually come true. This is true for both, teachers and pupils.
 * 'Elastic' testing: using a test, designed for a specific purpose, for other purposes.
 * Consequences: assessment always has added, sometimes subconscious, consequences. (Example: a change in the student's image in the eyes of the teacher as a result of a poor / great mark)
 * Measuring the measurable: teachers usually measure what is easy to measure, rather than what needs to be measured. (Example: writing the past form of verbs, instead of lecturing / writing about a past event, which is needed in real-life situations)
 * International comparisons: these comparisons are problematic, and not objective.(Example: present results cannot be compared wit past results, because as time passes conditions change).
 * Politicizing: test-results are often misused, or used for political purposes (Example: to fire / hire a soecific teacher).

All these lead to the conclusion that traditional assessment does not always work; maybe assessment should be different:

Formative assessment: this is a construct / process based on social interaction between teacher and pupil, like a dialogue, intended to have a positive impact on pupil's learning. There are many differences between traditional and alternative assessment. We will continue learning and expand on these differences in our next lesson.