Moving away from traditional modes of assessment : a focus on students with dyslexia

Abstract

Andrea is the student who often looks sad and daydreams during lessons, who refuses to read out loud in class or reveal any results to other kids. Andrea is the student who goes home and cries because it was a bad day at school. Andrea represents many students with a profile of dyslexia who are quietly getting lost in the educational system. This case study allowed three twelve-year-old students with a profile of dyslexia to talk about their experiences with assessment. The aim of this study was to explore which assessment tools students with a profile of dyslexia preferred and which ones they performed better in. This was achieved through the analysis of their mid-yearly science examination, interviews and a variety of ongoing and summative assessments conducted for the topic of ‘Separating Mixtures’. This study revealed that the performance of the participants with a profile of dyslexia improved in the ongoing assessments that included a variety of assessment tools such as investigative work compared to the mid-yearly examination, though the students were not comfortable with all the assessment tools implemented. The alternative summative assessment that was not of the pen and paper variety did not result in an improved performance for all the students with a profile of dyslexia compared to the traditional type but were regarded more positively by the dyslexic students who yearned for a more hands-on approach to assessment.