Assessment Value: A Systematic Literature Review on Assessment As, For and of Learning in School

Assessment is a process to assess students' knowledge, skills, and tendencies through the process of collecting and analyzing information. The value or importance of assessment is important because teachers play a role in assessing student achievement and planning teaching strategies. This study aims to identify articles that discuss assessment as, for and of learning; connecting the assessment approach with teachers' beliefs about the importance of assessment and evaluating the importance of assessment approach to teacher assessment practices and student learning. A total of 27 articles were selected based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model. The findings show that assessment as learning is discussed in four articles, assessment for learning is discussed in 25 articles and assessment of learning is discussed in four articles. Based on the number of articles that discuss assessment approaches, the value of assessment for learning is seen as more important than assessment as and of learning. This study has the potential to provide information for teachers and policy makers to focus on a more effective assessment approach in improving student development. Further studies can be carried out through qualitative research methods and the construction of specific instruments on assessment values.


Introduction
Assessment in education is an important aspect of the teaching and learning process.It involves the process of systematically collecting and analyzing information to assess students' knowledge, skills and tendencies (Black & Wiliam, 2010).Assessment aims to measure student achievement, provide feedback for the improvement and inform the teacher's teaching strategy.Assessment paradigms can be categorized into three, namely assessment as learning (AaL), assessment for learning (AfL) and assessment of learning (AoL).Each assessment category has a specific purpose in the teaching and learning process (Black et al., 2004;Cilliers et al., 2010;Schuwirth & Van Der Vleuten, 2011).These assessments are crucial Vol 13, Issue 1, (2024) E-ISSN: 2226-6348 in evaluating student's learning progress, while providing valuable insights for educators to improve their teaching practices and student outcomes.
AaL occurs when students actively perform self-reflection to monitor their learning progress (Black et al., 2004).This assessment method emphasizes the development of metacognitive skills and self-control when students realize their strengths and things they need to improve.AfL or formative assessment, focuses on the use of assessment in planning strategies or next steps in teaching (Schuwirth & Van Der Vleuten, 2011).It involves gathering information about students' knowledge and skills to provide feedback in planning teaching strategies and support student learning.AoL or summative assessment, is used to evaluate student learning outcomes at the end of the semester or year (Cilliers et al., 2010).Through assessment methods such as tests and exams, AoL provides a summary of student achievement and is important to ensure there is accountability on the part of teachers and students.
The value of assessment in education includes various aspects that contribute to the development of professionalism and teaching effectiveness in the classroom.Teachers are aware of the importance of assessment on student learning development and provide information for teachers to plan more meaningful teaching strategies (Darling-Hammond, 2000;Yan & Cheng, 2015).At the same time, assessment is also closely related to accountability and teacher performance evaluation.Evidence of student development and achievement can be obtained through assessment reports which often contributes to evaluation, promotion and the reputation of teacher's professionalism (Lacina & Griffith, 2019).By demonstrating the ability to assist student development and learning through assessment, teachers can increase their professional recognition and contribute to the quality of education.
Assessment values can be influenced by teachers' beliefs in shaping their assessment practices and behaviors (Xu, 2012).Teachers' beliefs about assessment can affect various aspects of teaching such as how to implement teaching, how to treat students, behavior in the classroom as well as the choice of assessment methods.(Muhammad Agung Buwono & Purbani, 2020).This belief has an impact on the effectiveness of assessment practices and student learning outcomes (Brown et al., 2015).Teachers who believe in the value and importance of formative assessment in education will provide constructive feedback to students, thereby improving student learning outcomes.(Othman, 2019).However, further research on the challenges and obstacles faced by teachers to implement assessment in the classroom should be done (Roehrig & Kruse, 2005).External factors such as changes in education policy and teacher professionalism development programs can affect teachers' beliefs (Ghafri et al., 2021).Professionalism development programs that increase knowledge and training in assessment can contribute to changing teachers' assessment beliefs and practices (Azparren Legarre, 2022).This shows that the importance and value of assessment in education requires a positive teacher's belief.
The understanding and belief of teachers is important to the value of assessment because they have a role in implementing assessment approaches such as AaL, AfL and AoL.Teachers that appreciate the value of assessment as part of the learning process are more likely to use assessment in planning teaching strategies and guided by the students' learning requirement.(Shepard, 2000).Therefore, the role of assessment in the learning culture needs to be emphasized to support student development.At the same time, assessment must be used as a tool for learning and student development that is meaningful and useful to foster education in the future (Epstein, 2002).There is a need to study the relationship between assessment and teaching effectiveness as well as the impact of feedback on student learning (Wiliam, 2011).This is because teachers who believe in the value of AfL will use assessment methods that provide constructive feedback to teaching methods.Apart from that, the assessment approach has also shifted from summative assessment to formative assessment which emphasizes the importance of assessment methods that encourage student involvement and self-reflection to support student development and learning.(Schuwirth & Van Der Vleuten, 2011).
The purpose of this systematic literature review is to describe the value of assessment in the context of AaL, AfL and AoL in school.The following are the objectives of this study: i. Identify articles on the implementation of AaL, AfL and AoL.ii.Relating different assessment methods to teachers' beliefs about the importance of assessment.iii.Assessing the importance of AaL, AfL and AoL on teacher assessment practices and student learning.

Methodology
Literature Search Procedure This systematic literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA; Liberati et al., 2009).Articles that were searched are related to AaL, AfL and AoL in the context of school education as well as the objectives of the study.A protocol was established to document the analysis method and article selection criteria.The keywords used are only in English because the desired articles in this study are not only focused on studies from Malaysia.The main databases used for article searches are Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) because the articles from these databases are of high quality with stable search results and more comprehensive advanced search capabilities.

Article Search Keywords
Scopus and WoS databases were used to obtain quality articles that fit the research objectives.The advanced search capabilities of these two databases are used by using specific terms to ensure that the articles being studied are relevant.The terms used are "assessment as learning", "assessment for learning", assessment of learning" and "education".Table 1 shows the search strings used in both databases.The search results obtained from the Scopus and Wos databases yielded 547 articles which later became 445 articles after 102 duplicate articles were identified.

Article Criteria
The criteria in Table 2 have been set as acceptance conditions for articles found in the database.The study year considered is the last five years, from 2019 to 2023.The designated document type is journal articles and other documents such as proceedings, theses and book chapters are not accepted.The research topics of the selected articles are related to AaL, AfL and AoL in the context of school education.Articles related to medical education, instrument validation, outside the scope of education as well as literature review were excluded because they were not in line with the objectives of the study.

Article Selection Process
Figure 1 shows the flow chart of the PRISMA model used to find articles related to AaL, AfL and AoL.445 articles were generated at the beginning of the search and 27 articles were found to be included in this study based on the established criteria.

Data Extraction and Synthesis
Articles were read carefully so that the process of data extraction and synthesis could be carried out.A table was constructed to summarize the data obtained from the selected articles.The relevant data included in the constructed table is the title of the article together with the writing and year of publication, the assessment paradigms, and the main findings of the study.A table was also constructed regarding the number of articles that discuss AaL, AfL and AoL.

Results and Discussion Articles Discussing Assessment Paradigms
As a result of data extraction and synthesis, there are 27 articles related to assessment paradigms that have been identified.All these articles have been summarized in Table 3. • Teachers are seen using assessment criteria as a scoring tool for summative assessment as perspectives (Jahan & Davison, 2023) opposed to using it as a learning instrument.Assessment criteria are also used to determine grades.

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The effect of a formative assessment practice on student achievement in mathematics (Boström & Palm, 2023) ▪ AfL • There was no significant difference of the post-test scores between the intervention and control groups.(Lin & Lin, 2019) ▪ AfL ▪ AoL • The study found that there is a high percentage of special education teachers using accommodation and modification assessments for students with special needs.• There is a high percentage of teachers who use summative assessment compared to formative assessment.

Number Of Articles Discussing Assessment Paradigm
Table 4 summarizes the number of articles discussing AaL, AfL and AoL.

Relationship between Assessment Paradigm and Importance of Assessment
As reported in Table 4, the number of articles discussing AfL is higher than AaL and AoL.This shows a higher focus given by researchers to formative assessment practices.The focus on formative assessment gives the impression that researchers also understand the importance of AfL for teachers because it allows teachers to plan effective teaching strategies (Mulyana et al., 2021).
AfL is studied from the point of view of knowledge, understanding, practice and challenges faced by teachers in implementing formative assessment for students.Teachers have knowledge and understanding about formative assessment but there is a gap when compared to the practice of formative assessment (Govender, 2019;Mahlambi et al., 2023;Taole, 2022).
Teachers were found to practice formative assessment less or consider it as an unimportant component in learning.This follows the challenges that teachers have to face such as lack of transparency, school administration problems and constraints due to complying with the tempo of curriculum implementation (Gebremariam & Gedamu, 2022;Govender, 2019).This gives the impression that AfL is important to teachers because they have good knowledge and understanding, but its implementation is not in line with the perception held by teachers.
Studies on the AoL are fewer and given less focus based on the number of articles found in Table 4.This is in line with the development of the assessment process which has shifted to formative assessment due to summative assessment's flaw in measuring students' abilities as a whole (Kulasegaram & Rangachari, 2018).In fact, AoL are carried out in tandem with formative assessment.This shows that summative assessment needs to be supplemented with formative assessment to ensure that assessment objectives can be achieved.
Although there is a shift to formative assessment, the research findings from the articles in Table 3 show that teachers still prioritize summative assessment (Lin & Lin, 2019).Formative assessment is not used to complement to summative assessment, instead it is used to diversify the methods of implementing summative assessment such as to set test grades (Jahan & Davison, 2023).This gives the impression that teachers still attach importance to summative assessment in assessing student abilities even though they agree that formative assessment can help improve student learning.
As for AaL, there are still fewer studies conducted for this assessment paradigm based on the number of articles in Table 4. AaL such as self and peer assessment methods allow students to evaluate their learning progress and make improvements to their education (Capan- Melser et al., 2020).Low focus on the research of AaL reflects the lack of active student involvement in their assessment process.
Self or peer assessment is found to be not widely practiced compared to formative assessment.In fact, the assessment practices carried out by teachers also do not support the implementation of AaL in the classroom (Yildirim & Biliċan-Demiṙ, 2022).However, students actually want to be directly involved in the assessment process to improve their skills (Sandvik & Sommervold, 2021).This shows the teacher's perception of AaL as less important in assessment practice even though there is a desire to apply it during the learning process among students.

The Value of Assessment Paradigms For Teacher Assessment Practices and Student Learning
AfL or formative assessment plays an important role in shaping teacher assessment practices.This is shown when formative assessment has the potential to help teachers plan effective teaching strategies after obtaining information about the development and understanding of student learning.(Willis et al., 2023).In fact, emphasis on the importance of formative assessment in the fields of language, science and mathematics as well as physical education can improve the quality of teaching (Chng & Lund, 2021;Jahan & Davison, 2023;Taole, 2022;Williams & Williams, 2022).Nevertheless, teachers were found neglecting formative assessment because they still prioritized summative assessment as a method to assess students' academic abilities (Govender, 2019).Although teachers understand the role of formative assessment in education, there is still a gap between the knowledge and understanding of formative assessment and its practice by teachers (Gebremariam & Gedamu, 2022).This shows that formative assessment has an important value to teachers' assessment approach, but it is not aligned with the assessment practices implemented by them in the classroom.
Various benefits can be obtained from the assessment approach for student learning such as being able to improve the academic achievement of students (Oyinloye & Imenda, 2019).
Formative assessment also has a positive impact on the experience and learning outcomes of students whilst influencing their perception and motivation (Baas et al., 2020).Furthermore, students can improve their autonomy and competence in learning when formative assessment is implemented in teaching sessions (Nikou & Economides, 2021).When parents are involved in formative assessment, students are found to have lower stress thus stimulating their interest in learning (Williams & Williams, 2022).At the same time, formative assessment can help teachers support the learning of students with learning disability (Willis et al., 2023).This shows that the implementation of formative assessment has a positive effect on the overall development of student learning.
AoL or summative assessment functions as a form of accountability to teachers and schools where student test results can be used by all stakeholders to evaluate teaching performance (Harrison et al., 2017;Svensäter & Rohlin, 2023).At the same time, summative assessment is only able to assess students' abilities from certain aspects such as knowledge and understanding (Kulasegaram & Rangachari, 2018).Therefore, this assessment approach should not be given priority by teachers in assessing student learning progress.However, there is a high percentage of teachers who use summative assessment compared to formative assessment in the teaching process (Lin & Lin, 2019).This is supported by Aliakbari et al.
(2023) who found that teachers told they used formative assessment in the classroom on the questionnaire but informed that summative assessment was preferred during the research interview process.In fact, formative assessment is only used as a tool by teachers to give marks and grades for summative assessment (Jahan & Davison, 2023).This shows that teachers value AoL higher than AfL based on their assessment practices.
AaL through self and peer assessment methods can actively involve students in the assessment process and allow students to self-assess their learning progress (Capan Melser et al., 2020).The cognitive level and student involvement in learning can be increased through this assessment approach (Rasmy et al., 2022).However, teachers were found to apply fewer self and peer assessment methods in the teaching and learning process (Yildirim & Biliċan-Demi̇r, 2022).AaL approach is less emphasized by teachers even though students wish to be directly involved in assessment to improve their skills and competence (Sandvik & Sommervold, 2021).Therefore, AaL is seen as having a low value among teachers even though it has the potential to help students determine their learning weaknesses and strengths and implement effective improvements.

Conclusion
The findings of the study show that teachers and researchers place AfL as more valuable than AaL and AoL.The value of AoL is seen to be decreasing due to the changing trend of teaching and learning that is more student-centered using formative assessment.Nevertheless, the value of AaL is found to be low even though this approach can increase student involvement in their assessment.Each approach discussed in this study has its own strengths and weaknesses and should be given an important value when implementing the teaching process in the classroom.
The implication of the study seen from this study is through a high emphasis on the assessment approach for learning.Teachers should practice formative assessment as part of the teaching process instead of just using it to assess students' abilities.As for policy implications, the findings of this study allow policy makers to focus on more effective assessment approaches in helping to improve student learning such as assessment as learning.Self and peer assessment methods suggested by policy makers to teachers can increase student involvement in their learning process.This can help empower students as self-regulated learners, contributing to their academic development and enhancing their learning outcomes.The result of this study can also contribute to helping teachers make an informed decision on which assessment paradigms they should prioritize while conducting classroom-based assessments.
However, this study has some limitations.First, this systematic literature review only used databases from Scopus and WoS.It is possible that articles that meet the selection criteria are found in other databases.Second, the criteria for the selection and rejection of articles have limited the number of articles synthesized in this study.This caused many articles related to the study to be rejected during the article screening process.Third, the findings of this study only provide an overview of the value of the assessment approach through the number of articles that discuss the assessment approach.This method is not able to accurately determine the perception of researchers and teachers regarding the value of assessment.
This study suggests that the value of assessment should be determined based on its role in the teaching process and its ability to help improve student learning.A comprehensive form of instrument needs to be built to get the level of assessment value by teachers more accurately.Qualitative research methods are also needed to get teachers' views on the importance of different assessment approaches.The impact of future studies on the value of assessment through different research methods and instruments can provide a clearer picture of teachers' perceptions of the importance of assessment approaches.

Table 2
Article acceptance criteria

Table 3
Articles discussing assessment paradigms