Strategies for Monitoring and Assessment in Higher Education Report

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of educational assessment and monitoring, focusing on strategies employed to evaluate and enhance student learning in higher education. It defines assessment as a systematic process of evaluating student knowledge, skills, and progress through various tools and modalities. The report explores several assessment strategies, including group work, which fosters collaboration and peer learning through formal and informal group activities, and tests, encompassing diagnostic, formative, summative, and benchmark assessments. It discusses the benefits of group work, such as improved communication and transferable skills, and the different types and functions of tests. The report also includes a discussion of the 'Two Stars and a Wish' strategy, highlighting how these methods contribute to student understanding and progress. The report also addresses potential challenges and provides insights into the effective implementation of these assessment methods. It also provides a summary of how these methods have worked to improve student performance.

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MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

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Educational Assessment & Monitoring
In the context of education, assessment is defined as a variety of modalities or tools adopted by
educators in evaluating, documenting and gauging the academic readiness, acquisition of skills,
progress or even the educational needs of a student. It is a process that systematically documents
and used the empirical data collected in the beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and skills of students to
better programs and improves the learning of students (Cohe, 2012, p.188). The data used in this
analysis can be achieved either from directly evaluating the work of a student to evaluate the
attainment of the learning objectives or can be extracted from the data from which inference can
be made about learning. Assessments are tests often used interchangeably even though
assessments are not limited to tests. An assessment may be tailored to focus on the learning
community, an individual learner, and an academic program, the system of education in totality
or a course. Being a continuous process, assessment provides an opportunity for which concise,
clear and measurable learning outcomes of a learner for learning and the opportunities available
for the attainment of these leaning outcomes can be established (Jane, 2016, p.241).
Various assessment strategies are used in gauging the achievement of the learning objectives
among learners. The choice of a strategy to use in assessing the ability, skills, beliefs, attitude,
and improvement among students depends on the objectives of the assessment. Among the
assessment, strategies include group work, questioning, tests, exemplary and two stars and a
wish. These assessment strategies are discussed in details below.

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Group work
Group work, also known as collaborative working refers to a collection of between two and six
students that come together to deliberate particular issues or undertake a particular task. Group
work encompasses such terms as peer learning, collective learning, team learning or even
reciprocal learning (Maurice, 2014, p.199). Whichever term is picked, the basic and main idea is
learning that involves the students working in collaboration and learning together based on
student-student interaction. There are three types of group work including formal groups,
informal groups and study groups. Informal groups encompass clusters of students working in
class to gauge understanding or discuss an issue. Study groups mainly aim at supporting
members and in most cases formed just for some duration of a course. Formal groups, on the
other hand, are formed with the aim of completion of a specific task in one or numerous sessions
of a class over weeks. The assessment of the output of an informal group may or otherwise be
assessed (Boaler, 2015, p.167).
Group learning revolves bringing people together in a specially designed environment
accommodative of the learning requirements. On the basis of group, learning has the species of
human beings evolved. Rine argues that of the available learning contexts that are experienced
by human beings, learning from others is classified as the most natural and instinctive (Omicini,
2015, p.211). This gives insight into the important or the need for group work. A greater
comprehension and retention of what is taught is facilitated by a well-constructed group that has
defined conviction and rationale of the values of the process.
How group work benefits the learner

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 Facilitates the satisfaction n of the learning experiences of the learners by nurturing and
promoting self-esteem
 Facilitates discussion, debate, and questioning thereby facilitating motivation by raising
the interest of the learners
 Gives the learners opportunities to know each other hence improving the working
relationships (Robshaw, 2015, p.174)
 Acts as a stimulant to innovative and creative ideas through brainstorming and
engagement in discussions as well as debates that brings an issue into different
perspectives
 Acts a platform onto which students are able to work in conjunction with other students
who might be at different levels from their form.
 Enables the student to learn by doing as it engages students as active participants-
Through group work, students are subjects to situations where they have to communicate
by explaining what they are doing, consider the perspectives of others and explaining
why they did things the way they did (Nilson, 2010, p.121).
 Facilitates development of transferrable skills of negotiation, organization, listening,
evaluation, collaboration, and leadership, which can be of assistance to the students in
their preceding lives.
 It serves as a strategy for valuable retention as it protects the student from the danger of
being isolated.
 Group delivered tasks are stimulants to students on tasks that they end up doing in the
contexts of the real world.
 It is an avenue for students to undertake a greater variety of assignments.

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When to use group work
 When the task is too big to be handled by an individual
 When the task can only be conducted by a group
 When certain goals of the group are appropriately achieved through group work
 When skills of group work are precisely needed for a research
 When the limitations of the resources are enough justification for group work (Maurice,
2014, p.190)
 When learning is aimed at imparting skills of team work, cooperation and collaboration
 When creative and original thinking is required of the students as well as listening to the
ideas of the others in a critical and sympathetic manner
Need to assess group work
Group work provides the student significant experience in learning regardless of the group being
associated with the formal assessment or not. The decision to assess a group and how the
assessment is to be done depends on the role of the activity and the importance attached to it
about the learning outcomes of the student (Sheena, 2013, p.177). An assessment of the group
should be conducted in circumstances where the group work is a significant contributor to the
attainment of the objectives of the course or program. Still, recognition should precisely
represent and acknowledge the importance, efforts and time that must be committed by students
to the group assignments.

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Potential challenges with group work
 Considerable skills in teaching are required for an effective group work
 Non-participative students
 Self-selection of students with focus given to the nationality
 Group work lacks popularity among students
 Isolation, exclusion or marginalization of any of the group members may lead to lack of
engagement by some students
 Inappropriate tasks or criteria for assessment of a research topic or subject
 Inappropriate balance resulting from having too much work done in groups concerning
individual work (Maurice Galton, 2014, p.220)
 The challenges of international students and students originating from diverse
backgrounds
 Focus on individual specific tasks by students while in the group may be harmful to the
group
 Challenges with assessment
 Low levels of academic support
Assessing group work
Assessment of the fundamental aspect and focus in a course or program hence requires utmost
care when being prepared in order to achieve a proper and well-working learning context. Group
work can be accessed using some techniques among them use of individual about the product
alone allocating of a group mark to be shared among the members of the group and even a

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combination of both individual effort, product and group process. Still, the assessment can be
done using components of peer assessment (Wiliam, 2010, p.85). Of importance during the
assessment of group work is that the allocation of marks should be done in such a way that is in
line with the achievements of objectives of learning the course.
How well the strategy has worked
Through group work, the learners have been able to share knowledge and different perceptions
of understanding of HTML and CSS among themselves. In the discussion groups formed each of
the students has had an opportunity to contribute to the discussion topic by sharing with the other
members what they know on the topics of study. This has enabled students to learn from each
other, seeking clarification from the peers freely thereby an improvement in the grades. Still,
through the group discussion, it has been possible for the collaborative members to correct
mistakes and errors in the knowledge and understanding on the topic. For a reason or another, a
student might be privy to the wrong information on the topic, and by sharing it out with the rest
of the group members the mistakes and errors in knowledge due to ignorance have been
eliminated otherwise significantly reduced.
Tests
A test is an assessment aimed at gauging the aptitude, physical fitness, knowledge, and skills of
the test taker. It can be administered in various forms among them on a computer, verbally, on
paper or within the confines of an area (Bill, 2018, p.121). Tests are administered in various
levels of rigidity; rigor and requirements depend on the objectives of the test as per the expected
learning outcomes. Tests can be taken formally or informally. An example of an informal test
would be the case where a child is instructed to undertake a reading test that is administered by

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the parent while a final examination at a level of study classifies as a formal test. Formal tests are
associated with test grades or results, which are subject to interpretation depending on the
criterion of the test, the norm or both. Tests can either be standardized or non-standardized.
Standardized tests are administered, and the results provided in a consistent way to maintain
legal defensibility and are in most cases used in psychology, education, military and professional
certification among other fields (Jay McTighe, 2013, p.119). Non-standardized tests, on the other
hand, have a varied degree in format and scope, significance, and difficulty. Non-standardized
tests are created by the individual instructors, and this format and degree of complexity may be
similar across or easily adopted by other instructors. Among the functions of non-standardized
tests, include:
 Provision of feedback to the students
 Engaging the level of proficiency of students
 Encouraging the students to study
Types of Tests
Diagnostic Testing: Used in the diagnosis of what is known and unknown to the student and is
usually conducted at the beginning of a new stage of education. The test helps teachers by
guiding them what to teach and how to teach.
Formative Testing: Used to evaluate the learning of a student during the lesson (Cohe, 2012,
p.369). It is adopted throughout the session of learning and provided a platform for the students
to illustrate their understanding of the materials in the learning process.
Summative Testing: A test administered at the end of the year to gauge how much of the
contents of the course has the student managed to learn. Summative testing covers all that the

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student has been spending time on throughout the study year in the course. Due to their broad
nature, summative tests cannot be used in assessing into depth a single concept and thus the
results of feedback is not as rich as feedback obtained from the formative or diagnostic test.
Benchmark Testing: Used in gauging whether a student has grasped the concept in a single unit
of concept and is usually administered during or after a lesson of part of material (Brookhart,
2013, p.116). The test may cover part of or all the whole content of what has been taught up to
the time of assessment. These tests are informative to the teachers on whether the students have
managed to comprehend the covered material.
How well the strategy has worked
Testing has formed an avenue for the teacher to gauge the level of understanding of the student
on the topic. Through the various types of tests, the teacher has been able to get information on
the progress the students are making as far as understanding the topic is concerned. Benchmark
tests have allowed the teacher to establish how much the students have managed to master by the
end of each lesson giving the teacher an opportunity to find out which areas of the topic require
specialized attention.
Two Stars and a Wish
In this strategy, the learners are out in groups in which they are instructed to read the written
work of each other. In the reading session, it is important that the reader must come up with a
specific suggestion (wish) and two things that the author of the work he is reading did well
(stars) (Fusco, 2012, p.222). This strategy calls for the students to be trained first so as to
familiarize themselves with the most recommended ways of offering meaningful and
constructive feedback to the work of their peers. The trainer can use this strategy as a method of

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formative assessment in which the teacher goes round the classroom listening to the chats
between the partners as they go about reading the work of the peers and giving feedback as well
as identify what they have excelled.
In order to achieve the objectives of the learning outcomes through two stars and a wish,
awareness must be created among the students to bring to their attention the importance of the
strategy and how much significant constructive feedback would be in the learning process. The
feedback provided must be correlated directly to the criteria of learning and the students and the
teachers must come to a consensus through negotiation and construction the criteria (Brookhart,
2013, p.241). Through this, the students will be equipped with concise and clear objectives and
guidelines, which would translate o fairness as well as equitable practice assessment. In a two
star and wish strategy:
 The student review or listens to the work of a peer
 The student identifies two positive things or dimensions of the work and notes them
down accompanied by an explanation of the reasoning behind the choice
 The student makes an expression about on a wish about what the peer may do next time
to improve the quality of the work (Boaler, 2015, p.116)
 The student issues feedback through a written response
The very procedure is applicable for self-assessment. In self-assessment, the students can
organize themselves and assess their own work by awarding themselves wishes and stars. In so
doing, the students are able and learn to take their own responsibilities. Self-assessment using
this strategy results in motivation and serves to increase the self-esteem of the students.
Applications

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Two stars and with does not only apply to written work but can as well be adopted in various
learning environments for example:
 Adopting the strategy in training the students how to understand criteria sheets and use
them appropriately
 Video students are coming up with speeches and giving them the opportunity to self-
assess themselves by comprising their performance against a criteria sheet. During this
assessment, there should also be feedbacks from the peers (Ishiyama, 2015, p.201). A
combination of both assessments is important in the achievement of critical feedback.
 Engaging the students in the design of the criteria sheets- This can be an opportunity to
adopt grammar lessons by choosing on the most appropriate descriptors.
Significance of two stars and a wish
 Ensures the student is involved
 Builds on the confidence of the learner
 Facilitates critical thinking
 Trains the students to be owners of their learning (Bill, 2018, p.198)
 Formative assessment allows for forward planning
 Enables construction of criteria sheets
How well the strategy has worked
Using the knowledge the students have acquired, they can identify what their peers can best
deliver, using justification from what they have learned. Still, two stars and a wish enable the
student to identify the weakness of the other student and make recommendations on what steps
the weak student might undertake in order to record improvements (Biggs, 2011, p.311). This

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means that the weakness of a student is most probably what another student might be best in. By
sharing information in such a manner, a student is not only able to improve by adopting the
recommendations but also make further consultations with the peers to record even higher
improvements.
Questioning
Effective question forms one of the key fundamental aspects and tools for assessing the strategies
of learning and requires adequate planning in such a way that it can accommodate as many
responses as possible. Through appropriate and good questioning, a balance is created between
the process and the content for the learner.
Importance of Effective Questioning
The type and nature of questions asked to the learners determine the thinking levels that are
expected to be developed hence effective questioning form an integral aspect of the learning and
teaching process (Issa, 2013, p.258). Research has established that lessons in which questions are
involved tend to attain more than those in which questions are not involved. Proper questioning
requires that the students are given time to think and respond, and greater numbers are involved
actively in the learning process. Among the positive implications of well-structured questions,
include:
 Assists students in clarifying their understanding of a research topic
 Direct the thinking of students in a specific way
 Guides or structures the learning of a task
 Identifies myths and gaps in the learning of students (Jane, 2016, p.177)
 Motivates the interests and attitudes of the students besides engagement in a topic

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 Gives the students an opportunity to learn through discussing among them
 Encourages active thinking and engagement among students
Characteristics of Effective Questioning
Good questions encourage learning and have a purpose. Teachers are expected to be in a position
to identify potential sources of mistakes and establish probing questions. Good questions
acknowledge mistakes as genuine and treat them as opportunities for learning.
Types of Questions
Open questions: These questions have more than a response and thus tend to promote high order
skills in thinking. Well-structured open questions enhance the experience of learning of a learner
as they encourage him to make links between what was learned in the previous lessons. Teachers
are as well having opportunities to investigate the understanding and knowledge of the student
and evaluating their ability to apply the knowledge acquired (Bidgood, 2010, p.121).
Closed questions-Mostly used in evaluating the memory of a learner and establishing his ability
to recall. Closed questions have only one right answer.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
This is the hierarchy, which shows the type of learning that takes place in a classroom set up.
The most detailed learning is at the top of the hierarchy while the least learning is placed at the
bottom. The hierarchy is as shown below:
 Remembering
 Understanding
 Applying

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 Analyzing
 Evaluating; and
 Creating
How well the strategy has worked
Questions have helped the students with the mastery of the various concepts of the study topic.
Through the questions they are asked to answer, they get an opportunity to recall what they have
learned previously thereby able to link it with what they learn next. In so doing, the topic
coverage takes place as a whole with the students being able to appreciate what they had learned
before. The closed questions offered students opportunities to recall specific aspects of the topics
thereby equipping them with the knowledge that is specific in its application. Open questions
allowed the students to brainstorm on the topic thereby offering opportunities for further thought.
This expands their knowledge and understanding of the topic thereby prompting creativity and
critical thinking.

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