Perspective Of Informal Assessment

The development in learning assessment has served its function from punishing or awarding students to focusing on their development, or from talents selection to talents training. Since 90's, more and more educator has realized the constraints because of standardized examination and paper- and pen-based measurement, Based on these, foreign experts has pointed out and developed various modes of assessment, aiming to universally and fairly assess the potentiality as well as their performance. It is universally known to all that quality education has recently been carried out concretely in China, then here comes the following question that, if the assessment of students?performance is still laid in the phase of those predominant forms, such as standardized examinations and paper- and pen-based tests, it seems that the unitary way of assessment, which is solely related to the examinees? cognitive competence, fails to meet the need of teaching and learning reforms. Performance assessment, a major domain in the assessment of one抯 learning and teaching, will be meaningful in the development of Chinese students?work assessment if we can timely learn from those theories or methods abroad. Therefore, this very thesis has introduced and analyzed the historical background, connotation features, reason of originality, functions, and restrictions of informal assessment, what's more, it has offered workable suggestions based on those concepts advocated by informal assessment from a perspective of how to assess students? work reasonably and fairly; besides, it has suggested some meaningful thinking on how to scientifically develop China's performance assessment. The selection of thesis topic has, to larger extent confined its framework, that is to say, based on the framework, a series of items will not be preset or prescribed at first, then they will be equipped to the reader, this is somewhat like cramming methods in teaching and learning. Based on the characteristics in the development of contemporary performance assessment, this very thesis holds that the criticism on the formal assessment typical of standardization and paper- and pen-based from serves as a loci in the analysis of such a method as informal assessment. Based on the above assumptions and directed by the dialectic and historical materialism, a lot of method has been employed, for instance, literature, comparison, and deduction. The introducing part has elaborated the tendency in the development of performance assessment, namely, from unitariness to pluralism. This very characteristics can be concretely shown as the pluralism in the assessment of value concept, that in the assessment of content and mode, and that in the assessment standards, and later informal assessment, the object of this very thesis, has been pointed out from a perspective of the tendency in the development of performance assessment. Part One of the thesis has introduced the connotation, feature, and design of informal assessment, pointing out that informal assessment has appeared as an improvement to the errors in the formal assessment which is typical of standardization and paper and pen-based examinational form. It can refer to all those assessing methods or approaches excluding formal assessment. The informal assessment is in fact a mode of assessment where a universal judgement of the students?performance can be carried out in settings of their life and learning, by means of teacher's observation of the students?performance, spec...