Diagnostic assessment is regularly used at the beginning of a new unit of study. It is also generic and In relation to education, this enables the educator to assess the skills, abilities, interests, experiences and levels of achievement across the class and individual students. This type of assessment will inform the educator on key elements such as planning, learning …show more content…
Informal assessment involves questioning, discussions and making observations of and with students to distinguish the level of achievement. The formal methods of applying diagnostic assessment can be seen in the form of aptitude tests, checklists and running records, which can be easily reported to parents and authorities. A typical example of formal diagnostic assessment used in education, is the tendentious National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) that is currently used throughout Australia.
In regards to diagnostic assessment, NAPLAN provides an explicit example of norm-responsive testing, where students’ results are placed in accordance to the national achievement. This allows individual students to understand how they are performing at that time and positions them in a scaled system devised of 10 bands. This particular assessment also informs governments, education authorities, schools, teachers and parents as to whether or not young Australians are meeting literacy and numeracy …show more content…
This is accomplished by concentrating on specific problems, providing students with a clear understanding of what needs correcting and how to correct it. Furthermore, the emphasis on providing feedback needs to be directed at the student as an individual and how they can improve, avoiding comparison to their peers.
While directing the feedback towards the individual, formative assessment also involves students’ developing the use of self- and peer-assessment. Black and Wiliam explain, that as students are “generally honest and reliable in assessing both themselves and one another”, they are often very critical towards themselves (1998). However, students can only evaluate themselves when they are able to understand the requirements of the assessment. Thus, educators developing concise expectations of the assessment, engage students in discussion that promotes further learning and