Have we lost our way with assessment and is it time for teachers to reclaim its origins?
The word ‘assess’ derives from the Latin assidere, which means to ‘sit beside’. Therefore, to assess means to sit beside the learner.” (Stefanakis 2002)
Mastering assessment in the classroom
Not many teachers will be able to tell you the etymological meaning of the word ‘assessment’. Many teachers learn that assessment is either summative or formative, then, take years to master how both aspects manifest themselves in their classroom. This will then vary significantly between age groups and subject disciplines and evolves due to time pressure and demands from external audiences.
To sit alone
The opposite of ‘sitting alongside’ a pupil is blighting most classrooms across England. Hundreds of years later, teachers now provide numbers, scores and grades. Teachers now find themselves ‘sitting alone’ in their classrooms, marking books and crunching data to upload onto a management information system, or carrying their pupils’ books from the classroom to their kitchen table at home, to sit alone and assess the work. We clearly have lost our way.
To sit beside
I wonder if it’s time for teachers to ‘sit beside’ pupils once more, rather than ‘sit alone’? My research with 7 state schools in England suggests it can be done and has no detrimental impact on pupil outcomes. Traditionally, written assessment in its day-to-day form (to sit alone) is no-longer the top-dog! One of the participating teacher-researchers said:
“Being part of the Verbal Feedback Project has not only changed my life and career, but more importantly, it has changed my students’ experiences. I feel empowered to react to students and know that verbal feedback (to assess beside) is enough to push their progress forward. My work-life balance is immeasurably improved and I am now spending more time with my family- I feel no-longer feel weighed down and pressured by the job.”
Download the verbal feedback report and toolkit.
Nothing new. Did it throughout my 38 years in teaching
Surely you must have a bit more wisdom to offer us all Darren?
Yeah, except, this is a bit of a miscontextualisation of the etymology.
Assidere does, indeed, mean to sit beside.
But, Assess comes from the Medieval Latin use which, essentially, has to do with assigning taxes or fines…
The Assessor “sat beside” the judge (not the defendant or “student”) and administered the necessary fines.
So, to honestly consider the etymological roots of the word: in the classroom, the closest we would have would be a teacher’s aide grading a traditional test on behalf of the teacher..
Not quite what the author was going for above… Here’s where the rhetoric falls apart…
Mind you, I would not argue that teachers would best use assessment to further learning, but I would argue that authors should be careful with their rhetoric and the contexts of their etymologies.
Thanks for the comment … Due care considered!