Although tasks are only one form of assessment, they are arguably the most versatile.
Tasks may include:
- a written test format
- learning tasks doubling as assessment opportunities
- interview tasks
- individual or group tasks
- short assessments during a topic (formative)
- major assessment at the end of a topic or term (summative).
Teacher-designed assessment tasks can target the specific information a teacher requires for:
- informing planning for teaching
- evaluating teaching practice
- mapping student progress.
The quality of an assessment task is determined by the quality of information that it elicits. Does the task adequately assess the targetted knowledge and skills?
To produce good quality tasks, the following aspects of task design should be considered:
- coverage of the different ways of using fractions
- variety of representations
- type of response expected
- closed or open tasks
- use of materials
- contextualised problems or no context
- probing for misconceptions
- evidence of strategies.
