The Benefits of Using a Holistic Approach to Assessment

The College of Social Work (2012) presents that “holistic assessment is used where learning or performance objectives are interrelated and complex and the extent of learning or performance is measured against established standards”. Holistic assessment is an assessment approach where students can demonstrate or achieve several criteria from different units at the same time (Gravells, 2014).

The benefits of using a holistic approach to assessment include:

• Efficient evidence collection for the learner and assessor: it would reduce the number of assessment tasks needed to be set by the tutor or assessor for the different units to achieve similar criteria. This reduction in assessment activities and pieces of evidence required makes this approach efficient. Pieces of evidence can be used to meet the learning outcome requirements of multiple units. Stress is reduced on the students who produce the same pieces of evidence and on the assessor, who provides feedback on the same criteria for the different units.

• Evidence that can be used for more than one unit: Another benefit is that pieces of evidence can be used for more than one unit. If the learning outcomes or requirements overlap with other units, these pieces of evidence can be assessed at the same time by the tutor, thus, saving the time and effort required to assess the same criteria. For example, in the NVQ level 4 units I assess, I observe how multiple pieces of evidence can be used for different criteria in the same and other units.

• Identifying how the learner integrates, for example, knowledge and understanding into their practice. This is useful when assessing students in their work environment. During the assessment process, an assessor can observe how the student’s knowledge of a topic area is being applied in their work. For example, in the NVQ level 4 units I assess, I observe how the students provide answers to the knowledge-based criteria and then provide practical pieces of evidence for the performance-based criteria.

• In addition, holistic assessments help to ensure that the curriculum is designed to manifest real-world tasks and provide challenging situations that stimulate the students (Akubuilo, 2012).

Reference/Bibliography

Akubuilo, F. (2012) ‘Holistic assessment of student’s learning outcome’, Journal of Education and Practice, 3(12), pp. 56 – 60.

Davies, A. and Stiling, L. (2021) TAQA – training assessment and quality assurance [PowerPoint presentation]. 22 October.

Gravells, A. (2014) Achieving your assessment & quality assurance units (TAQA). 2nd edn. London: Learning Matters SAGE.

The College of Social Work (2012) Understanding what is meant by holistic assessment. Available at: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Document-library/holistic-assessmentASYE1.pdf (Accessed: 11 November 2021).