CET Unit 4 Manual

Level 4
Certificate in Education and Training

Unit 4

www.sltraininganddevelopment.co.uk

Unit 4 – Introduction

Assessing learners in education and training - Level 4 (6 credits)

This unit is based on the principles of assessment. It will allow you to understand the
types and methods of assessment and how to use them, the need to conduct and record
assessments in accordance with internal and external processes and requirements and
an evaluation of your own assessment practice. You will also consider the evidence
requirements for the qualification.

Within this unit you will learn about:

ü Assessment types and methods
ü Using suitable assessment methods
ü Your approach to assessment
ü The requirements for accurate record keeping

This unit links closely to the practical assessment requirements within the qualification
and enables you to gather evidence that could satisfy the assessment criteria across this
unit and several others.

Unit Assessment Criteria

Unit 4
1.1 Explain the purposes of types of assessment used in education and training
1.2 Analyse the effectiveness of assessment methods in relation to meeting the
individual needs of learners
1.3 Use types and methods of assessment to meet the individual needs of learners
1.4 Use peer- and self-assessment to promote learners’ involvement and personal
responsibility in the assessment for, and of, their learning
1.5 Use questioning and feedback to contribute to the assessment process
2.1 Identify the internal and external assessment requirements and related procedures
of learning programmes
2.2 Use assessment types and methods to enable learners to produce assessment
evidence that is valid, reliable, sufficient, authentic, and current
2.3 Conduct assessments in line with internal and external requirements
2.4 Record the outcomes of assessments to meet internal and external requirements
2.5 Communicate assessment information to other professionals with an interest in
learner achievement
3.1 Analyse ways in which minimum core elements can be demonstrated in assessing
learners
3.2 Apply minimum core elements in assessing learners
4.1 Review the effectiveness of own assessment practice taking account of the views
of learners and others
4.2 Identify areas for improvement in own assessment practice

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What is assessment?

Assessment is a way of finding out if learning has taken place, it is a process of
making a decision regarding your learner’s knowledge and/or performance against set
criteria. If learning has taken place, there will be a change in behaviour i.e. the
demonstration of new skills, knowledge, attitudes, and understanding.

Assessment can take place before or when a learner commences, whilst they are
progressing, and when they complete their learning programme. These are known as
assessment types and are often carried out formatively and summatively.

Formative assessment checks ongoing progress, usually through formal or informal
methods devised by the Assessor. Summative assessment confirms achievement (or
not) usually by formal methods devised by an Awarding Organisation (AO).

Depending upon the subject you are assessing, and whether it is knowledge or
performance based, you will usually follow the assessment cycle.

The cycle will continue until all aspects of the qualification have been successfully
achieved by your learner, or they decide to leave the programme.

Records must be maintained throughout to satisfy your organisation, the regulatory
authorities and Awarding Organisations.

Initial
assessment

Review of Assessment
progress planning

Assessment Assessment
decision and activity

feedback

The Assessment Cycle

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Initial assessment: ascertaining if your learner has any previous knowledge or
experience of the subject or topic to be assessed. Relevant initial assessment
activities will also give you information regarding your learners, for example, any
special assessment requirements they may have, their learning style, or any
training they may need.

Assessment planning: agreeing suitable types and methods of assessment with
each learner, setting appropriate target dates, involving others as necessary, for
example, colleagues or workplace supervisors, and following relevant guidelines.

Assessment activity: this could be assessor led, for example, observation or
questioning, or learner led, for example, completing assignments or gathering
appropriate evidence of competence. Records of what was assessed should always
be maintained.

Assessment decision and feedback: making a judgement of success or
otherwise. Giving constructive feedback and agreeing any further action that may
be necessary. An overall tracking sheet should be completed to enable you to
clearly see what progress each learner has made, towards each aspect of the
qualification.

Review of progress: the assessment plan can be reviewed and updated at any
time until your learner completes their programme or qualification. Reviewing
progress with your learners will give you an opportunity to discuss any other
issues that may be relevant to their progress. Reviewing the assessment activities
used will give you the opportunity to amend them if necessary.

Assessors must make decisions and judgements about learners, using a range of
assessment methods and in line with best practice in assessment.

A definition of assessment

The act of judging or deciding the amount, value, quality, or importance of
something, or the judgement or decision that is made.

Judgements: remaining objective, looking for plagiarism or inauthentic evidence

Types: initial, diagnostic, formative, summative, holistic, (formal, informal)

Methods: observation, questioning, professional discussion, etc.

Transparency: ensuring the learner is aware of the full assessment process, what is
being assessed, how decisions are made, how feedback will be given and what will be
done with the records

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The role of the Assessor

The role and responsibilities of an assessor will vary depending where the assessor is
employed, for example, in a college, training provider or in the workplace. They will also
vary due to the type of learner being assessed, and whether or not they are taking an
accredited qualification, non-accredited course or working against company standards.

Assessments of occupational competence in the work environment (workplace) may
need to take place. Learners may be working towards a qualification, competency
framework or in-house company standards.

If the assessment of vocational skills, knowledge and understanding is being
carried out this may be in other environments such as a classroom, training centre or
simulated environment.

Responsibilities of an assessor include:

• understanding and applying the standards and requirements that learners are
working towards

• planning assessments to meet learner needs

• communicating assessment requirements to learners

• carrying out assessments

• comparing evidence with set standards / criteria

• making assessment decisions

• documenting the assessment process and decisions

• providing feedback to learners

• taking part in standardisation processes

• completing continuing professional development (CPD) activities

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Methods of assessment

When assessing learners’ vocational skills, knowledge and understanding this
might be in a classroom or workshop and may be through methods such as:

• assessments in simulated environment

• skills tests

• oral and written questions

• assignments

• projects

• case studies

• recognising prior learning (RPL)

These methods might be pre-determined by an Awarding Organisation or standard
setting body if assessing towards national standards, or in-house by the learners’ own
organisation.

Observation will be regularly used when assessing a learner in their work
environment, the assessor should to be as unobtrusive as possible and not get in the
way. The assessment criteria to hand along with the assessment plan and feedback
record. The assessor must brief the learner beforehand to ensure they are aware of what
is being assessed and why.

The assessor may also need to examine the work products from the learner
(checklist, documents, etc.) and ask the learner verbal questions to enable them to
confirm their knowledge. An assessor should make a note of any questions asked and
the learner’s responses. The assessment might also involve the learner’s supervisor or a
colleague who could write a witness testimony / statement regarding their
achievements towards the assessment criteria. An additional way to assess knowledge
and for the learner to provide examples of their practice is to make use of professional
discussion, a recorded discussion based on a range of topics or assessment criteria.

Assessors should also be aware of how technology can be used to enhance the
assessment process, for example, by using video or digital evidence of skills /
performance; recording of oral evidence, using a paperless portfolio and computer-based
/ online testing.

Peer and self-assessment - peer-assessment involves a learner assessing another
learner’s progress. Self- assessment involves a learner assessing their own progress.
Both methods encourage learners to make decisions about what has been learnt so far,
take responsibility for their learning and become involved with the assessment process.

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The method can be formal or informal, formal methods count towards achievement
whereas informal methods check ongoing progress. Sometimes, informal methods could
also be formal methods depending on the situation.

Formal assessment methods Informal assessment methods

• assignments • discussions
• case studies • gapped handouts
• essays • group work
• exams • journals/diaries
• observations • puzzles
• oral and written questions • quizzes
• projects • role plays
• recognition of prior learning • word searches
• reviewing work products

evidence
• skills or knowledge tests
• use of others e.g. witness

statements

If you are assessing a programme where the assessment activities are provided, for
example tests or exams, there is often the tendency to teach purely what is required to
achieve a pass. Learners may therefore not gain valuable additional skills and
knowledge. Teaching to pass tests does not maximise a learners’ ability and potential.

Meeting individual needs

If you have learners with any particular needs or requirements, you should consider
how you can help meet these. Always check with your organisation regarding what you
can and can’t do as you may need approval to make any reasonable adjustments.
Some examples of meeting your learners’ needs include:

• adapting or providing resources for a learner who is partially sighted
• adapting the environment for a learner who is physically disabled

• allowing extra time for a learner with dyslexia or dyscalculia
• changing the date and/or time for a learner who works shifts
• providing specialist support staff to improve English and maths skills
• providing the assessment information in an alternative format

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Making assessment decisions

All assessment decisions follow one core principle to ensure correct and accurate
judgements are made, ensuring assessed work is valid, authentic, current, sufficient and
reliable

V
A
C
S
R

Valid refers to how well an assessment matches what is being assessed. A good
example of valid assessment is a driving test. During the assessment the learner will
drive a car in natural road conditions that he/she is able to handle the car, follow the
highway code, perform safe maneuvers and otherwise meet the performance standards
set for safe driving. The assessment must match the performance being assessed; the
theory test alone would not be a valid way of assessing a person’s ability to drive.

Authentic refers to the ownership of the evidence. Did the learner produce it
independently? All evidence submitted by a learner should be generated by the learner
and may need to be authenticated. This is particularly true of computer-generated
evidence. If the evidence was produced as part of a team effort, can the individual’s
contribution be clearly identified?

Current does the learner still possess a skill assessed in the past? Currency is usually
thought to last 2-3 years; however, this depends on the particular skill. In each case the
assessor will need to confirm the learner’s competence at the time of the assessment.

Sufficient relates to the amount of evidence needed to make the judgement. Is the
evidence enough to give confidence that the learner can perform competently at all
times and under all conditions stated in the range both now and in the future? This is a
difficult concept to describe because learners will produce evidence of varying quality
and amounts. Using standards as a guide, the assessor will need to make judgements
about whether the learner is competent and has met the evidence requirements.

Reliable are the assessment decisions that are being made now consistent with those
made in the past and across all learners? The best way to ensure reliability is to ensure
that learners are assessed over time, and the assessor should constantly refer back to
the National Standards, qualification requirements or in-house standards.

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Internal and external assessment requirements
Internal requirements relate to those within your organisation, such as checking a
learner’s work for plagiarism and ensuring it is authentic.
External requirements relate to those from other organisations such as the time limit
within which learners must be registered with an awarding organisation.

Internal relate to those within your organisation, such as an Internal Quality Assurer
(IQA) or internal verifier, who is responsible for motoring assessments.
External relate to External Quality Assurers (EQA) who work on behalf of an Awarding
Organisation and monitoring the assessment and internal quality assurance processes of
an approved centre, to ensure quality standards are met.

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Record keeping

It is important to keep assessment records; otherwise how can you prove what progress
your learners have made and exactly what they have achieved?

You also need to satisfy any external requirements, for example, Awarding Organisation
or regulatory authorities. The time period for keeping records will usually be for a set
period, for example three years. If a learner loses their work, without any assessment
records you have nothing to show what was assessed, and quality assurers need to
sample the records along with the learners’ work.

This applies to assessment records such as observation reports, audio or video
recordings.

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Reviewing your own assessment practice

Why review your own practice?

• To evaluate the effectiveness of your assessment practice

• To improve the learner experience

• To enable you to develop, adapt and improve your assessment practice

The review process should take into account your own thoughts and the views of
learners and others you come into contact with. Reviewing your practice will also help
you identify any problems or concerns, enabling you to do things differently next time.

Feedback from the internal quality assurance (IQA) and external quality assurance
(EQA) processes can also support any review.

Reviews could include:

• Communication between yourself and others
• The types of questions asked during the assessment process
• The types and methods of assessment used
• The way you give feedback
• The way you complete your records, for example, assessment plans,

observation and feedback records

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The minimum core and assessment

The minimum core consists of four elements, which are:

• literacy

• language

• numeracy

• information and communication technology (ICT).


The minimum core aims to:


Promote an understanding that underpinning literacy, language, numeracy and ICT skills
may be needed for learners to succeed and achieve their chosen qualification.


Encourage the development of inclusive practices to addressing the literacy, language,
numeracy and ICT needs of learners.


Raise awareness of the benefits to learners of developing embedded approaches to
teaching, learning and assessment of English, Maths and ICT.


Demonstrating the minimum core through assessment


Some examples of how learners can develop their minimum core skills through the
assessment process:

• Literacy – reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax

• Language – speaking, listening, discussing, role play

• Numeracy – calculations, interpretations, evaluations, measurements



• ICT – online applications, e-assessments, word processing, use of a virtual
learning environment (VLE), using video conferencing and video assessments

Acknowledgements: anngravells.co.uk, ncfe.org.uk, et-foundation.co.uk, highfieldqualificaitons.co.uk, Readon publications

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