Diagnostic Assessment in Learning is an assessment that is carried out specifically to identify the competencies, strengths, weaknesses of students. So that learning can be designed according to the competencies and conditions of students.
Students whose development or learning outcomes are the most lagging based on the results of the Diagnostic Assessment, are given affirmative learning assistance.
The purpose of diagnosis is to find the causes of problems. Efforts to find the location and type of learning difficulties experienced by students.
INITIAL DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT
During the Distance Learning period, managing a conducive classroom is a very challenging matter. Circumstances where teachers and students cannot meet face to face, do not allow the teacher to carry out a control function like when in class. students seem unmotivated to learn remotely online, learning at home where students do learning independently has also been controlled, how can the teacher find out students’ difficulties and achievements?
Not to mention that every student has different abilities, various family circumstances, with different economic levels. There are those who have been taught many times and still don’t understand the material, while there are students who, once taught, can do it right away.
Students whose tasks at home are not monitored because their parents are busy working. There are students who often skip online classes for the reason that their devices are used interchangeably with their siblings. There are students who do not have credit. Chaotic! How can the teacher manage the class in this situation?
The Covid-19 pandemic forced teachers and students to immediately change the normal way of learning to distance learning. Emergencies make teachers forget to see and consider students’ readiness conditions both cognitively and non-cognitively before and during distance learning. This has an impact on the challenges mentioned in the previous session.
Departing from this issue, in addition to setting policies regarding emergency curricula during a pandemic, the Minister of Education and Culture also urged teachers to carry out diagnostic assessments. Assessments are carried out in all classes periodically to diagnose students’ cognitive and non-cognitive conditions as a result of distance learning.
COGNITIVE DIAGNOSIS ASSESSMENT
Cognitive diagnostic assessments on the other hand are used to:
- Identify student competency achievements
- Adapting classroom learning to the average student competency
- Providing remedial classes or additional lessons to students with below average competence.
Like the non-cognitive diagnostic assessment, the cognitive diagnostic assessment also goes through the stages of preparation, implementation and follow-up.
NON-COGNITIVE DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT
Non-cognitive diagnostic assessment at the beginning of learning is given to students to find out:
- Psychological and emotional well-being of students
- Student activities while studying at home
- Student’s family condition
In carrying out a diagnostic assessment at the beginning of learning, you need to carry out the preparation stage, the implementation stage, and the follow-up stage. Regarding the preparation and implementation of non-cognitive diagnostic assessments, the teacher’s skills to ask and make questions can help teachers get comprehensive and in-depth information.
PERIODICAL DIAGNOSIS ASSESSMENT
The assessment of the learning process or summative assessment aims to determine the level of achievement of student learning outcomes which is carried out at the end of the learning material. On the other hand, assessments for and as learning are also known as formative assessments. In the formative assessment the teacher collects information that helps the teacher provide feedback and follow up on the learning process. In addition to helping teachers, formative assessments also help students improve their way of learning by redefining learning strategies that suit their needs. This fits in with the 5M way of building sustainability that you learned about in the initial topic.
However, teachers often only focus on summative assessments that emphasize student learning outcomes. In fact, students need more process-oriented learning experiences, feedback and follow-up learning achievements. Not just assignments through tests and grades. Especially in the current condition of distance learning, formative assessment needs to be a top priority compared to summative assessment.
As you know, assessment in learning aims to collect and process information to measure the achievement of student learning outcomes. In this case, measuring how far the student’s learning progress means measuring the teacher’s learning progress. Why is that? If the teacher is able to diagnose students’ learning needs, what needs to be improved and improved means that the teacher can directly reflect on the learning that has been done. The results of the assessment obtained can be used to determine learning strategies that suit the needs and development of student learning.