MERC Publications

Document Type

Research Report

Original Publication Date

1998

Date of Submission

December 2016

Abstract

This review of literature is an analysis of completed research on the nature and effect of classroom assessment practices and grading. In recent years the assessment of student performance has become a central focus of efforts to reform education (Cizek, 1997). Policy-makers have increasingly seen assessment as a measure of student and school accountability, influencing curriculum and teaching. At the center of this movement is the classroom teacher. It is the teacher who communicates standards and expectations through the assessments students experience, and it is the teacher who makes decisions daily about what students learn. Classroom assessments, because students experience them continuously, are what have meaning to students concerning their abilities and achievement. Competent teachers use assessment to inform their instruction and determine student strengths and weaknesses.

The revived interest in assessment has resulted in part by advances in cognitive learning theory, motivation, and constructivist learning. These fields have shown that effective instruction does much more than simply present information to students. Rather, good instruction provides an environment that engages students in active learning that connects new information with existing information. Learning is an ongoing. self-regulated process in which students actively receive, interpret, and relate information in a meaningful way to what they already know and understand. Recent motivational research as suggested that specific and meaningful feedback to students help determine student self-efficacy and self-confidence (Brookhart, 1997).

Is Part Of

VCU MERC Publications

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.