The Role of Learner Self Assessment in the IB PYP classrooms Assignment

The Role of Learner Self Assessment in the IB PYP classrooms - Assignment Example In the wake of this discussion, researchers have suggested that effective assessment at all levels of education holds the key to realising the aim of childhood. In the school set up, there are different kinds of assessment and assessments are conducted for different reasons and at different times. Students at the early stage of education have several areas of their education that is worth assessing. These diverse areas of assessment help in giving well resourced and comprehensive reports about individual students – their weaknesses, their strengths, their progress and projections for their future. In this regard, The Cedarville University (2010) admonishes that â€Å"understanding ones' skills, interests, abilities, personality, and values is important when considering any next step after obtaining a high school diploma.† This is to say that a lot of assessment has to be carried out on the student at the very beginning so that a comprehensive data can be obtained as to who the student really when he gets to the higher level. This topic, â€Å"The Role of Learner Self Assessment in the IB PYP classrooms† has therefore been chosen to help find the relationship between childhood education and effective assessment at the primary level. As there remains diverse forms of assessment, an emphasis will be laid on self-assessment at the primary level of education to discover how the phenomenon can be helpful in producing an all round student. Defining Assessment Assessment is a very broad aspect of school education and comes with several explanations and definitions. Kizlit (2011) defines assessment as â€Å"a process by which information is obtained relative to some known objective or goal.† CyberSleuth-Kids, an online educational journal on the other hand, sees assessment as â€Å"the process of documenting, often times in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs.† The Northwestern Science Health University (2010) al so explains that â€Å"Assessment is an ongoing process of setting high expectations for student learning, measuring progress toward established learning outcomes, and providing a basis for reflection, discussion and feedback to improve University academic programs.† To sum all the definitions up, it can be deduced that assessment is the practice of gathering necessary information about a person through the use of a measurable device for decision making. The decision making in the school environment has mostly got to do with student academic standing, student behaviour, student interest, student talent, skills, and knowledge among other factors. A common device that is used to gather needed information about students is test. There are some closely linked terminologies or components of education that have some relation with assessment though these are different from assessment. As already mentioned, test is one of these components. Measurement and evaluation are the others. D rawing the distinction between these components, Kizlit (2011) notes that measurement is refers to â€Å"the process by which the attributes or dimensions of some physical object are determined.†