Study of Assessment of Student Learning

In recent years, a number of long-standing assumptions about assessment practices have come into question. Some research has indicated that traditional assessment methods, many of which rely heavily on standardized testing, may not provide the most accurate portrayal of each student's learning and knowledge attainment. In addition, in certain content areas, instructors may seek to obtain a more nuanced, multi-dimensional illustration of each learner's achievement, strengths, and shortcomings.

Paper Masters helps you outline how to formulate a study on assessment and student learning. The outline below will help you get started and direct your research.

This increased interest in the accuracy and reliability of traditional assessment practices has spurred the development of an array of alternative assessment methods that can be used with students for whom traditional assessment methods are inappropriate, or in instances when a more detailed, comprehensive view of the student's attainment than can be achieved using traditional methods is required. In this discussion, a number of traditional and alternative assessment methods that have been devised in recent years will be discussed and compared.

How to Research Assessment and Student Learning

1. Locate a published study in a professional journal that involves some form of assessment of student learning. You may use the sources I provided or you may use your own sources.
2. After reviewing the study, you are to analyze it using the "Guidelines for Critical Analysis Paper" disseminated in our first class. Specifically you are expected to construct a paper that describes your study by addressing the components of the Guidelines.
3. Under the Introduction heading of your paper, describe the phenomenon under investigation. For example, your study may look at why secondary students in rural South Georgia are disproportionately performing at lower rates on the Georgia Graduation Test, compared to students in suburban areas of Georgia. Provide background data regarding the phenomenon. Who are the students? Where are they located? Do they share some characteristics? Then, describe the problem the phenomenon creates. How are these students impacted? In this case, some obvious examples would be the students' inability to attain a career path or post-secondary educational. Finally under this heading, describe other studies your study may have referenced to develop research principles.
4. Under the focus of the study, tell me why this study was conducted. This information is usually overt in nature, but it may be inferred depending upon the author(s). Using the example provided, an effective purpose statement may read as such: The purpose of this study is to determine why students in rural areas of Georgia are disproportionately performing at lower rates on the Georgia Graduation Test, compared to students in suburban areas of Georgia. Also describe all hypotheses or research questions the study attempts to answer.
5. For the methodology, determine the design of the study, experimental, correlational, descriptive, action research. Tell me who the subjects are and how they were selected (random sampling, sampling of convenience, etc.). Discuss any instruments used and how data was collected (i.e. survey, interviews, observation, etc.). Finally, discuss how the data was analyzed. Most studies will use inferential statistics (T-test, Analysis of Variance, Pearson Product Moment, Chi Square, etc.) to analyze data. You do not need to explain what these statistics mean, you just simply need to reveal which, if any, where used to analyze the data.
6. Reveal the results were of the study. This information is always raw data or the data that has not been converted to a statistic and/or given meaning. An example of the findings of the study I've referenced may be that the study revealed that 150 of the 225 high school students surveyed in south Georgia indicated that the Georgia Graduation Test included algebraic equations that were not included in their local curricula.
7. Your study should include a discussion and recommendations section and this portion of the study provides the author(s) the opportunity to explain the findings, to propose more research needed to further understand the phenomenon and to make suggestions on how to begin to resolve the complications caused by the phenomenon. Your study may or may not include the ladder; however, any good study should.
8. For the final section, tell me what implications the study has at the classroom level. Using our example, one implication may be that specific algebra content materials must be included in the teacher's classroom to better align the curriculum with the test.
   

Make certain the paper is written in accordance to APA requirements. Use the APA checklist as you draft your papers and always write in the third person.

Outline for a critical analysis of a study on assessment and student learning

1. Introduction

• Description of the phenomenon
• Background Information
• Description of the problem
• Literature review

2. Focus of the Study

• Purpose of the Study
• Research questions /hypotheses

3. Methodology

• Design of study
• Description of the Subjects
• Description of the Instruments
• Collection of Methods and Techniques
• Procedures for Analyzing Data

4. Results

• Findings

5. Discussion and Recommendations

• Explanation of Findings
• Application to Practice
• Recommendations

6. Classroom Implications