If you work in trades and your learners need to measure things, the simplest way to diagnose their ability is to set them practical tasks that involve using the right tools to do simple measurements.
For example, estimating and then measuring the length of a table using a tape measure would be a practical way of approaching diagnostic assessment for measurement. You could ask questions like these
- How long do you think the table is?
- Using the tape measure, how long is it actually?
- What’s the appropriate unit of measurement to use in this trade?
- How many millimetres (or metres) is that?
If you teach trades or workplace literacy, it’s almost a given that your learners will need to work with some kind of measurement.
- If you need to, you can download the resource above here.
Guidelines for using the measurement diagnostic assessments
- There are only two diagnostic assessments in this resource. But they’re both practical and similar to what we described above.
- Both relate to estimation and measurement and you can read more about how to use them on page 7.
Estimating and measuring length and weight
- This one covers width, units, measurement with a ruler and scales, weight, conversion, perimeter, area and volume.
- While it’s useful to have a range of questions, we have a couple of suggestions. One is that you focus on either linear measurement or weight. And the other is that you reduce the number things you’re testing here.
- Aside from being practical, one of the nice things is that you can see how the complexity increases as the questions advance.
- This diagnostic is on page 8.
Estimating and measuring dimensions
- Again, this assessment covers a lot of ground so you might want to strip it back to the parts that you need. It covers estimation, units, using a measuring instrument for capacity, linear measurement, conversion diameter, radius, circumference, and volume.
- Again, it’s easy to see the increase in complexity as the questions progress.
- You can find this one on page 9.