Reflective note on Competency-Based Assessment

Summative assessment being conducted with a child

“Scriven has argued that there is a thin line between summative and formative assessment as it majorly differs in the way feedback from the assessment is used for children to decide next steps”. (Taras M., 2005). He pointed that any assessment done will not improve learning of the child if the process of feedback sharing and utilisation is not intentional. The purpose of assessment has always been ignored and mostly it has been guided by the authorities to the teachers in the school. Since we don’t talk about the purpose of assessments we tend to shift the focus from learning to understanding the effect of a learning material on the child. The NEP 2020 has emphasised focus on competency based assessment that keep children at the centre and intention is to improve learning. 

The 2005 NCF curriculum revolved around the constructivist theory where the child is at the centre of learning and is active in the process of learning. The NEP 2020 takes it forward and highlights the importance of 21st-century skills. It proposes four stages to understand the K12 education system which is Foundational (3-8 years), Preparatory (9-11 years), Middle (12-14 years) and Secondary (15-18 years). Each stage has pre-defined subject competencies that are expected to be achieved over the end of the stage.

A competency is the composition of four things:

• Knowledge

• Capacity

• Values

• Dispositions.

Therefore, a child is competent when she shows or displays appropriate knowledge, skills and attitude while engaging in a task/activity/assessment. We know that the NCF takes a shift from rote teaching practices to more innovative, art-based, sports-based and storytelling-based teaching practices where every learner gets the opportunity to construct their knowledge through peer collaborations, project based learning and develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and logical reasoning capabilities. Therefore, we need to bring a shift to the assessment practices that we use to track the learning of children. The NCF calls for an assessment that supports learning of the child. It talks about use of formative assessments as an imperative to support the learning of children and use of feedback from parents, peers, teachers as an important way of knowing the achievement of the child.

Further I would like to suggest a few ways to change the discourse around assessment.

A balance between the three approaches of assessment (of, for & as) is hard to find but a step towards shifting the bar towards assessment as learning will be possible by orienting the parents about the approach and long-term benefits for the child (Earl, L. 2003). In my personal experience, parents and teachers are a key stakeholder in a child's education. They are the part of the micro-system (bronfenbrenner ecological theory) of the child and it has a direct impact on the development of the child. Parents and teachers both have the child at the centre of their approach and their interaction is responsible for the experiences that the child is part of and shapes the development. Therefore, parents trust over teachers for using the processes in the school to equip the child with necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate for his/her developmental stage shall prove to be fundamental in shifting the narrative around assessments.

Another possible way of striking the balance would be by understanding the purpose of assessment. Class 10 & 12 examinations are certificate based examinations which certifies the mastery level of the child over competencies being assessed in the examination. The scores do not tell the critical thinking abilities, logical reasoning skills or higher order thinking skills of a child. The scores are to certify the attainment of competencies by the child against a benchmark. The purpose of the assessment gets defeated when scores are linked with a child’s success rate or doing better in a job sector. The more we are able to change this narrative, an ecosystem around the purpose of assessment will be developed and the pressure of producing marks will reduce and focus shall be upon mastering the competencies. The ecosystem would push for assessment that is constructive, focused upon learning and development.

By

Guneet Sekhon

References: 

1. Maddalena Taras (2005) ASSESSMENT – SUMMATIVE AND FORMATIVE –SOME THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS, British Journal of Educational Studies, 53:4, 466-478, DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8527.2005.00307.x 

2. Earl, L. (2003), Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximise Student Learning, Ch-3 Assessment of Learning, for Learning, and as Learning, Thousand Oaks, CA, Corwin Press.