Development and Validation of a Longitudinal Assessment Model using Normalised Change to Improve the Quality of Educational Outcome Standards

Abstract

The concept of “knowledge assessment” is increasingly utilized, but not yet well defined. Despite its vagueness, or variability according to the people who utilize it, the concept of knowledge assessment has been imposed in the management literature in general and in the inculcated literature in particular over the past thirty years. However, professional competence remains elusive and equivocal because of its fragility resulting from the distinction between its importance and its low calibre of definition. The longitudinal assessment model is therefore developed to clearly define the usefulness of assessment, using normalised change to improve the quality of education standards. Though educational assessment provides information on whether teaching/knowledge has been prosperous, the information it provides has a number of potential different audiences, whose precise requisites may vary. In education, it is essential for instructors to gather information on how pupils’, understanding, knowledge and skills are developing, both to appraise how they should adjust their teaching method and to determine what kind of feedback is needed to upgrade pupils. Furthermore, education administrators as well as policy makers need to be provided with additional broader information on the quality of education on a continent or in a country. Government also requires information which can help understand their workers’ achievements and constraints. Pupils themselves require knowing how they are progressing and how to improve their performance, and to be protected from the potentially demotivating effects of negative assessment. The aim therefore of the Longitudinal Assessment Model using Normalised Change is therefore to provide a wider spectrum of reporting, which could offer more insight into the actual performance of the different parties.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p564