Authentic Assessment

There have been notable transitions in the assessment of student achievement at present times which can be greatly attributed to the fact that today's students are facing a world that demands new knowledge and abilities. Nowadays, it is of utmost importance for students not only to understand the basics but also to think critically, to analyze, and to make inferences (Black, P., & Wiliam,D., 2006). Achievement of such skills will require changes in assessment at the school and classroom level, on top of new methodologies to large-scale, high-stakes assessment.

In Singapore, many educators, under the leadership of the Ministry of Education (MOE), believe that there is a need to change their assessment approaches from traditional to authentic to tie assessment design and content to new outcomes and rationale for assessment. Thus, the nation is gearing towards an atmosphere of reform wherein student assessment has become the centerpiece of many educational enhancement endeavors. Singapore's policymakers (MOE) anticipates that a transition to authentic assessment will set more appropriate learning objectives for students, focus advancement efforts for teachers, promote curriculum reform, and improve the whole nation's instruction and instructional materials.

But what is the concept behind authentic assessment that makes reform possible? Will Singapore's educational system improve greatly with the transition to authentic assessment? Is school reform really feasible with such transition? Will Singapore cope up to the demands of change? Or just like other educational reform issues, this will remain as a holy grail, something wonderful yet impossible to have? These issues shall be briefly yet thoroughly weighed and discussed in this paper.

Literature Review

The Ministry of Education in Singapore is currently making extensive changes in the areas of curriculum and assessment which are geared towards preparation of students in meeting the challenges of a progressively more globalized world. Thus, the national school curriculum has been modified to encourage and enhance critical and creative thinking skills, as well as to cultivate problem-solving and independent learning abilities in students (Rajenthiran Sellan, Karen Chong and Connie Tay,2006). To set off these changes in the curriculum, important changes have been made in some areas of assessment since it is a popular belief that tests and assessments are an indispensable element of the whole instructional process.

Educational testing has become a popular issue in the last two decades that tests are now often used as a device to enhance instruction and hold schools liable for the quality of their instruction. New trends in instructive measurement are causing educators to alter the assessment process. One of these trends is the shift from traditional tests and grading systems to authentic assessment and portfolios (Linn, R.L., & Gronlund, N.E., 2000). Educators acknowledge the link between good assessment and good teaching that they embraced standards for teacher aptitude in educational assessment.

Assessment is authentic when students' performance is candidly examined on creditable intellectual and rational tasks (Wiggins, G., 1998). The shift to authentic assessment is based upon the principle that assessment should first and foremost sustain the needs of learners. Traditional assessment methods use paper-and-pencil tests to gauge students' performance which cannot adequately assess aptitude (Nitko, A.J., 2004). Therefore, a traditional assessment that is made of secretive tests, proxy items and scores that have no palpable meaning or efficacy destabilize both the educators' capability to enhance their instruction and the students' aptitude to perk up their performance. A shift toward more authentic tasks and outcomes then advances teaching and learning. However, it should be noted that a truly authentic and innovative assessment system should meet these criteria: (a) criterion-/standards-referenced, (b) formative, (c) restrained, (d) transparent in the progression of instructive development, and (e) consists of significant assessment structure that depicts the more valued accomplishment variables and therefore worth assessing (Wiggins, G., 1998).

However, educators must be cautious of the possible negative impacts of wrongly administered authentic assessment on students' motivation for learning: (a) creating a classroom culture that is partial to diffusion instruction and over which a variety in ways of learning is underrated, (b) teaching students to take on goals as a routine act (performance) rather than goals as learning, (c) bestowing mostly critical and judgmental feedback in terms of scores and grades, and (d) preferring circumstances in which summative judgments pervade all teachers' assessment deals (Harlen, W., 2006). It is but normal for students and educators alike to strive for high performance. However, measuring this performance through external tests over which the results are supplemented with penalties for low performance, the goal becomes to perform well in the tests, which is often not the same as to learn well.

Traditional ways of gauging students' learning however aids in cultivating an effective authentic assessment process. Any attempt to modify classroom assessment so that it is integrated into the instruction and erudition process will entail an understanding and analysis of the influence of traditional paradigms and historical beliefs (Shepard, L., 2000).Conclusion

Conclusion

It is supposed that both traditional and authentic assessments are patterned on the belief that the major goal of schools is to help cultivate productive citizens. Thus, an educator must not be pressured to choose between traditional and authentic assessments. It can be that an appropriate combination of the two will best meet his needs. It wouldn't hurt to produce students who have a good knowledge base about a subject matter (best assessed traditionally) and are able to employ that knowledge in a real context (best exhibited through an authentic assessment).

However the Singapore Ministry of Education is keen on adopting a wholly authentic assessment process through IBM's Reinventing Education. This program implements authentic assessment tools which aim to help institute performance standards for students and to reinforce the whole assessment process. The project was implemented during the time when the nation was challenging their traditional assessment practices, shifting from a teacher-directed lecture-based approach to a student-directed project-based approach. IBM asserts that Singaporean institutes are already enjoying educational success due to this assessment method transition, proving the hopeful claim that authentic assessment is indeed feasible for the nation's school reform and not just a holy grail that's unlikely to happen. With all the advantages that an authentic assessment could bring to the learners of Singapore, it is but desirable not only for the program but also for the reform objectives in its entirety to be successful.

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2006). Assessment for learning in the classroom. In J. Gardner (ed.), Assessment and Learning. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Harlen, W. (2006). On the relationship between assessment for formative and summative purposes. In J. Gardner (ed.), Assessment and Learning. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Linn, R.L., & Gronlund, N.E. (2000). Chapter 2 − The role of measurement and assessment in teaching. Measurement and Assessment in Teaching (8th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative assessment: A vision. Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve Student Performance. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Nitko, A.J. (2004). Performance, portfolio, and authentic assessments: An Overview. Educational Assessment of Students. Columbus, Ohio: Pearson.

Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29 (7), 4-14.

Rajenthiran Sellan, Karen Chong and Connie Tay (2006). Assessment shifts in the Singapore education system. Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, Singapore

Reinventing Education. Retrieved January 22, 2009 @ http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives/grant/education/programs/reinventing/re_school_reform.shtml Authentic Assessment. Retrieved January 22, 2009 @ http://www.funderstanding.com/content/authentic-assessment