ABSTRACT
Assessment is a vital part of successful teaching because instruction needs to be calibrated according to students’ knowledge, skills, and interests. Tests, quizzes, and performance evaluations help teachers identify developmentally appropriate instruction. Effective instruction challenges children because it is on the edge of their independent abilities, the zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s terms. Effective instruction may also be fun, inspirational, and motivating. Most importantly, effective instruction is shaped by assessment because teachers use their knowledge about students to select materials based on interest and difficulty, and to group children based on collaborative work habits. Some of these decisions may not be regarded as “assessment” in a traditional sense but
they illustrate how teachers use their informal knowledge about children to guide their classroom instruction.
