Pariksha SaathiLesson 9 of 10 · Child Development and Pedagogy
Assessment for Learning: Formative Assessment, CCE, Rubrics and Bloom's Taxonomy
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Assessment of, for and as learning
Assessment is the process of gathering evidence of what children know and can do and using it to make decisions. Assessment of learning is summative: it comes at the end of a unit, term or year and is used to grade, certify, promote or report. Assessment for learning is formative: it goes on during teaching, gives feedback to both teacher and child, and is used to adjust teaching and plan next steps. Assessment as learning puts the child in charge: through self-assessment, peer assessment and reflection she monitors her own learning and develops metacognition, an awareness of how she thinks and learns. NCF 2005 and NEP 2020 both want the balance shifted from assessment of learning towards assessment for and as learning.
Formative, summative and diagnostic
The terms formative and summative were introduced by Michael Scriven in 1967 for evaluating programmes and were applied to student learning by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues. Formative assessment uses observation, questioning, discussion, quizzes, homework and projects; its purpose is improvement, so it should not be marked harshly. Summative assessment uses unit tests and term-end and board examinations. Diagnostic assessment digs into the specific cause of a learning difficulty - for example, finding that a child's subtraction errors come from always taking the smaller digit from the larger - and is followed by remedial teaching. Norm-referenced tests compare a child with other children; criterion-referenced tests compare her with fixed learning outcomes.
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation
CCE, already recommended by the National Policy on Education 1986, was strongly backed by NCF 2005, whose position paper on examination reforms criticised the stress and rote learning caused by one-time examinations, and the RTE Act 2009 made it law for elementary classes: Section 29 asks for comprehensive and continuous evaluation of the child's understanding of knowledge and ability to apply it, and Section 30 says no child shall be required to pass any board examination until elementary education is completed. 'Continuous' means that assessment is part of everyday teaching, spread across the year. 'Comprehensive' means that it covers scholastic areas (subjects) and co-scholastic areas (life skills, attitudes, values, health, arts and sports), using many tools: observation, anecdotal records, checklists, rating scales, portfolios, projects, oral work, and self and peer assessment. Results are reported through grades and descriptive feedback rather than raw marks. The no-detention rule of Section 16 was modified by the RTE (Amendment) Act 2019, which provides for regular examinations in Classes 5 and 8 and, after a re-examination, lets the appropriate government (Centre or state) decide whether a child may be held back. In December 2024 the Centre amended the RTE rules so that, in its own schools such as Kendriya and Navodaya Vidyalayas, a child who fails the Class 5 or 8 re-examination is held back, though not expelled.
Portfolios and rubrics
A portfolio is a purposeful collection of a child's work over time - drafts and final pieces, drawings, project reports, worksheets and her own reflections - that shows growth and effort, not just a final score. A rubric is a scoring guide that lists the criteria for a task and describes what performance looks like at each level, for example beginning, developing, proficient and exemplary for the content, organisation and presentation of a project. Rubrics make assessment transparent and consistent, and when shared before the task they show children what good work looks like. Analytic rubrics score each criterion separately; holistic rubrics give one overall judgement.
Questioning and Bloom's taxonomy
Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues published the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in 1956, classifying objectives into cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. The original cognitive levels were knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In 2001 Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl revised it, using verbs and placing create at the top: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and create; they also added a knowledge dimension of factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive knowledge. Questions can be pitched at each level: 'Name the parts of a plant' (remember), 'Why do plants kept indoors bend towards the window?' (understand), 'Where would you keep a potted plant, and why?' (apply), 'Compare desert plants with water plants' (analyse), 'Should this old tree be cut for a road? Why?' (evaluate) and 'Design an experiment to test whether plants need light' (create). The affective domain, set out by Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia in 1964, runs from receiving and responding to valuing, organisation and characterisation. Good questioning mixes open and closed questions, allows wait time and invites children's own questions.
NEP 2020 and competency-based assessment
NEP 2020 calls for a shift from summative, rote-memory testing to regular, formative, competency-based assessment that tests higher-order skills such as analysis, critical thinking and conceptual clarity. It proposes a 360-degree, multidimensional holistic progress card that includes self-assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment; school examinations in Grades 3, 5 and 8, conducted by the appropriate authority; board examinations redesigned to test core capacities rather than months of coaching; and PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) as a national assessment centre that sets norms. In CTET terms, good assessment is ongoing, uses varied tools, gives specific feedback rather than only marks, covers all aspects of development, involves the child in judging her own work, and improves teaching rather than labelling or ranking children.
Key facts
- Assessment of learning = summative (at the end, for grading); for learning = formative (during teaching, feedback to improve); as learning = self and peer assessment, metacognition.
- Formative and summative were coined by Michael Scriven (1967); diagnostic assessment finds the cause of a difficulty and is followed by remedial teaching.
- CCE: 'continuous' = throughout the year as part of teaching; 'comprehensive' = scholastic and co-scholastic areas (life skills, attitudes, values, health, arts, sports).
- RTE Act 2009: Section 29 - comprehensive and continuous evaluation; Section 30 - no board examination until elementary education is completed.
- RTE (Amendment) Act 2019: regular examinations in Classes 5 and 8, a re-examination for those who fail, and the government may decide whether to hold children back.
- Portfolio = purposeful collection of a child's work over time showing growth; rubric = criteria with described performance levels, shared in advance.
- Bloom (1956): knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation. Anderson and Krathwohl (2001): remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create.
- Affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia, 1964): receiving, responding, valuing, organisation, characterisation.
- NEP 2020: competency-based, formative assessment; 360-degree holistic progress card; school examinations in Grades 3, 5 and 8; PARAKH as national assessment centre.
- Norm-referenced tests compare children with one another; criterion-referenced tests compare each child with set learning outcomes.
Quick revision
Assessment of (summative), for (formative), as (self and peer, metacognition) learning; Scriven 1967; diagnostic then remedial; CCE = continuous + comprehensive (scholastic, co-scholastic), NPE 1986, NCF 2005, RTE Sections 29 and 30; 2019 amendment: exams in Classes 5 and 8; portfolio, rubric, anecdotal record; Bloom 1956, revised 2001: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create; NEP 2020: competency-based, holistic progress card, PARAKH.