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Assessing learners´ skills and competences

Assessment Strategies

Contents

In this module part, you will learn about assessment strategies and methods for gauging FIL participants’ needs, provide feedback about their learning and their level of achievement. Performing these strategies in your training you always should make sure to use clear, simple language and to adapt questions or tasks to participants / the target group so that they don´t have difficulties in understanding and answering questions or completing tasks.

Using assessment adapted to training objectives and target group will make visible how much a learner already knows at the beginning of a training course or unit, help to track progress and provide information when the subject matter has been adequately learnt.

For pre-course, ongoing and final assessment there is a variety of tools that are useful judging

  • Participants´ existing skills and competences related to finance aspects,
  • Participants´ training needs to become independent and self-responsible with their finances,
  • Participants´ progress and development in the course topic(s) seen by themselves as well as by teachers,
  • Participants´ satisfaction with the learning offer and their learning achievements,
  • Next steps to be taken to meet the learning objective(s).

Depending on the learning methods that had been set up for a certain trainig unit or course (like in the FIL project e.g. group learning versus self-learning, traditional classroom setting versus e-learning, etc.), assessment strategies and methods should correspondent to them. This will make it easier for partipants to make the connection between learning contents and activities or assessment tasks.

The most common and well-known assessment methods are formative and summative  assessment.

Source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bTGnJnuVNt8/sddefault.jpg

The main differences in a nutshell:

  • Formative asessment is used continuously to set up or improve learning goals and to provide feedback to participants. It shows learning progress and where further improvement is needed, as well as satisfaction with the learning contents during the training course or unit.
  • Summative assessment is used at the end of a training course or unit. It is used to measure participants´ enhanced skills and competences and/ or their satisfaction with the completed training course or unit.

Source: BEST Institut für berufsbezogene Weiterbildung und Personaltraining GmbH

Assessing theoretical knowledge as well as practical skills and competences

Formative assessment is „for learning” and does not directly contribute to the final learning outcome while summative assessment is „on learning”. Both help identify a participant’s progress in developing his/her knowledge, as well as skills and competences during on-going training process. The summative assessment as final one provides information on achievement of learning goals and participants´ feedback on the entire training course or unit.

There are several good reasons to consider offering a variety of assessment methods. Here are the top three:

  • Participants need to understand learning contents, as opposed to memorise information and reproduce it on an test, so they can use it in their life realities,
  • Participants need to be able to apply knowledge in authentic learning and assessment activities to develop the skills and competences necessary to improve financial every day life,
  • Participants have diverse abilities, backgrounds, interests, and learning styles, so assessment variety puts them all on a level in terms of demonstrating what they actually know and are able to do.

Tests and quizzes with measurable results refer to participants’ existing or improved factual knowledge at the beginning or throughout an on-going training process. They can be graded and thus one can provide feedback to partipants regarding their learning progress during a certain period of time. This can help the target group to gradually gain confidence and routine with regard to efficient handling of finances.

In order not only to assess any factual knowledge, but also existing or improved cognitive skills and competences, there are assessment tools which help teachers assess skills and competences related to the training contents; some of them recommended for the FIL target learners are presented in this module. When it comes to behaviour, assessment could be used to observe, describe, explain, predict and sometimes correct behaviour. Behavioural aspects to consider in the FIL training context could refer e.g. to if/ what level/ extent learners are cautious when it comes to money use or online banking, or organised when it comes to finances in their daily life, if they are precise when it comes to applying finance security aspects etc. Assessment tools particularly considering behavioural aspects are also suggested later in this module.

A combination of both will inform teachers and participants about a continuous learning progress or needs, help them to appraise learning progress and provide profound feedback to participants.

Characteristics of good assessment are that it is:

  • Appropriate to the target group,
  • Fair (and objective),
  • Relevant (it should be related to training content as well as applicable to real life),
  • Valid and reliable,
  • Constructive (able to point out strengths and weaknesses of learners, provide direction for improvement to participants as well as to teachers)

Preferably, it is also: Practical and interactive (asking for interaction from participants, response from / among teachers) and motivating for participants.

This means, good assessment provides answers to questions like:

  • What does the learner know?
  • How competent is s/he based on the targeted learning outcome(s)?  
  • How much knowledge and skills has s/he achieved from the training course or unit?

It gives strong evidence if the learner has achieved the learning objectives/ outcomes.

 

At the beginning of the training, needs assessment might be used to determine appropriate training types and course content; during the course, it may assure that learner and training goals are being met and allows for necessary changes; at the end of the training course, it can be used for assessing progress and planning future programs.

Suggested assessment tools for the FIL target group are:

  • Placement- and learning objectives test,
  • Spontaneous questions and answers at the end of a lesson,
  • (Online) Quizzes,
  • Small practical assignments (including the transfer into their daily finances),
  • Group work activities and Role plays,
  • Observation,
  • Final questionnaire on the training course or unit (related to factual knowledge)/ Survey on training course or unit including self-assessment of participants (on competences)/ Satisfaction questionnaire

The following module parts will be structured along the possible time of assessment, in general this is pre-course, ongoing and final assessment.