Assessment and Grading in the Processes of Educating and Supporting an Intellectually Disabled Student: Dilemmas and Directions

Abstract

Assessment is an important part of the process of educating and supporting a student with intellectual disabilities. It includes, on the one hand, a review of existing knowledge and skills acquired in the course of education, which provides important feedback to teachers and students, and on the other hand, is the basis for launching a process of so-called self-revalidation. Assessment, particularly when we work in a diverse environment such as mainstream or integrated class, is a major challenge for teachers. Difficulties include the need to follow a different core curriculum for students with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities, building appropriate relationships based on understanding and mutual support between students with different levels of functioning, fear of unfair treatment in the assessment process, meeting different parents' expectations of their children’s assessment. The article discusses the importance of assessment and evaluation in the process of education of students with intellectual disabilities, analyzes the most common difficulties in this area, and proposes measures to optimize the assessment process for this group of students.