Needs Assessment Definition

Assessment is an important and essential part of teaching. If teachers are to ask themselves whether what they are teaching and how they are teaching has the desired outcomes, they will needs to assess what children are able to do according to a set of criteria.

The criteria, which indicate what children, should be able to do and think in mathematics by the end of the foundation phase.

Teachers need to ask themselves with assessment:

The following are two very important questions that teachers have to ask when teaching.

Is what I am doing helping children to develop a desire to learn mathematics?

Is what I am doing teaching children to become numerate?

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Why we needs assessment?

Some reasons for assessing learners are so that we can measure whether a lesson has been effective for each learner (whether we have taught the lesson effectively enough). We assess learners to see what each one can do, for example, which learners are able to calculate change, or which learners are able to solve relevant word problem. We assess learners to see which of the children are ready for a new challenge and which must still practice what has already been taught. We assess learners so that we can plan further lessons that suit the needs of the children.

Types of assessment:

There are two main ways in which to assess children

Formative assessment

Summative assessment.

Formative assessment is assessing a learner while the learner is forming the new knowledge.

Example for formative assessment:

An example of formative assessment would be sitting with a learner while he or she is doing a task (say using a number line to count in groups), watching how the child goes about the task and asking the child to explain how and what he or she is doing. In this way, you find out what strategies the child is using and developing and what strategies you should be helping the child with; you are getting direct and instant feedback on hoe the child is coping and you are able to respond to the situation immediately through re-teaching and explaining again, asking anther learner to help, or planning another lesson on that needs for the next day.

Summative assessment is assessing a learner at the end of the lesson, section, topic, quarter or year as a summing up of what the learner knows. Therefore, tests and exams are summative versions of assessment.

When both formative and summative assessments are used, that is continuous assessment. In an outcomes-based education system, continuous assessment is used. The teacher studies the learning outcomes required of the learners and then plans lessons to teach to achieve these outcomes. During the lessons, the teacher observers what children are doing and saying and how children are doing a task. The teacher asks for explanations from the children as to what and how they are doing a take. The teacher helps those learners who are confused and continually monitors which learners are gaining control of the skills and concepts. Once a child can do something independently within the number range for that learner, a teacher can say that that child has learnt what was intended by the lesson and so can record that performance as a desired learning outcome for that child.