However, all is not lost, students do appreciates the implementation of formative assessment in the classroom, and expressed that they find learning more meaningful and fun (increased student engagement). Anecdotal responses from 25 students who recently completed an alternative assessment in Biology expressed that the task helped bridge their learning between theory and real-word application (relevance and authenticity). In addition, their understanding for the topics is also extended beyond the syllabus (extension of learning).
On the other hand, students continues to face the pressure both from teachers and parents to perform well in national standardised examinations. The emphasis schools place on helping low-achieving students; and the
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Only with such mind set shift in the intent of education, can the assessment move towards the needed balance between assessment for learning and assessment of learning.
In the operational sense, government and schools needs to be willing to direct resources to the building of assessment literacy of educators, allows for the effective harness of learning through suitable assessment design. By equipping educators with the needed assessment competencies, there can be significant changes to both national standardised examinations and school-based assessments to truly assess competencies for the future. In addition, drivers of education (key personnel such principals) need be believe in the need for such reforms and actively translate this to actual implementation in schools. As with the dialectic relationship between assessment and learning, this would then change the way students learn, further reinforcing the assessment