VELS Level 1 - 6 Assessment Advice
This section defines what is meant by the term 'assessment', explains the various purposes of assessment used in teaching and outlines the strategies behind the Department of Education's Assessment Professional Learning Modules.
Assessment is the ongoing process of gathering, analysing and reflecting on evidence to make informed and consistent judgements that improve future student learning.
Purposes of assessment
- Assessment FOR learning: occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching
- Assessment AS learning: occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals
- Assessment OF learning: occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards.
Assessment Professional Learning Modules
The Assessment Professional Learning Modules developed by the Department include strategies to :
- strengthen capacity to use assessment to drive teaching that promotes deep understanding and powerful learning, and
- ssess students' progress towards the achievement of Victorian Essential Learning Standards.
See the Department's section on Assessment Professional Learning Modules for detailed information on each module.
Notes and references
- The following text is taken from Literacy Teaching and Learning in Victorian Schools (paper No 9, part A, page 4): 'While it is systemically important to have broad descriptive parameters of what students should and could be learning at different year levels, students' learning needs are not always commensurate with their year level. For example, a Year 10 student might be laying the foundations of literacy required for vocational study; a Year 6 student with a learning disability might be laying the foundations in the English domain; and a Year 2 student might be building breadth and depth in the same domain.'
- Though this resource provides opportunities for teachers to examine a range of literacy assessment tools in designated levels of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, teachers are encouraged to strategically select and use assessment tools across the stages of schooling to support personalised learning.