What does it mean to be an assessment professional? What do we need to know about assessment if we are to work for national and international assessment … (original) (raw)
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Redefining assessment? The first ten years ofassessment in education
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2004
The completion of the first ten years of this journal is an occasion for review and reflection. The main issues that have been addressed over the ten years are summarized in four main sections: Purposes, International Trends, Quality Concerns and Assessment for Learning. Each of these illustrates the underlying significance of the themes of principles, policy and practice, which the journal highlights in its subtitle. The many contributions to these themes that the journal has published illustrate the diversity and complex interactions of the issues. They also illustrate that, across the world, political and public pressures have had the effect of enhancing the dominance of assessment so that the decade has seen a hardening, rather than any resolution, of its many negative effects on society. A closing section looks ahead, arguing that there is a move to rethink more radically the practices and priorities of assessment if it is to respond to human needs rather than to frustrate them.
Values, uses and problems of assessment
1991
This paper is intended to raise questions and identify some of the problems posed by assessment within an educational setting. The principal aim is to offer a springboard for discussion, rather than to propose a specific plan of action. It is also worth stressing that assessment designates more than just examinations (public or otherwise). As teachers and educators, we are constantly making assessments of our students, passing official, unofficial, conscious and unconscious judgements. These are judgements which inevitably influence our attitudes to our jobs, our performance and our teaching or administrative styles. They also have wide-ranging repercussions on the attitudes, performances and future of our students. They are judgements based on a complex series of assumptions which we habitually make about, for instance, what education involves, the nature of schooling, school structures and their aims, the learning process as it relates to human development. What follows is largely inspired by a desire to identify and scrutinize some of the most recurrent of these assumptions.
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice,, 2008
The paper reports on the findings of a Learning and Skills Research Centre (LSRC) funded study investigating the impact of different modes and methods of assessment on achievement and progress in post-secondary education and training. Data were collected across Advanced-level academic and vocational preparation programmes in schools and colleges, work-based training, and adult education settings. The paper reports that clarity in assessment procedures, processes and criteria has underpinned widespread use of coaching, practice and provision of formative feedback to boost achievement, but that such transparency encourages instrumentalism. It concludes that the practice of assessment has moved from assessment of learning, through assessment for learning, to assessment as learning, with assessment procedures and practices coming completely to dominate the learning experience and 'criteria compliance' replacing 'learning'.
Assessment Practices in Education
Assessment Practices in Education "We plan. We develop. We deliver. We assess and evaluate the results of the assessment. We revise, deliver the revised material, and assess and evaluate again. Perfection is always just out of reach; but continually striving for perfection contributes to keeping both our instruction fresh and our interest in teaching piqued."-E.S. Grassian Assessment is a fundamental element in the process of teaching and learning and is instrumental in enhancing its overall quality. Well designed assessment sets clear expectations, establishes a reasonable workload-one that does not drive students into rote reproductive approaches to study, and offers myriad opportunities for students to self-monitor, rehearse, practise and receive feedback. It is an integral component of a coherent and a sound educational experience. The paper attempts to highlight some of the foundational concepts and principles of assessment, assessment strategies and assessment literacy-in other words, what it is, why it is important to a teacher and how it is practised with reference to a good Language test. We have this notion that assessment often hinders the flow of teaching; but it is not so. There are so many assessment techniques that we consciously and unconsciously incorporate in our teaching strategies, however, at times we are unaware of the specific terminologies that go with them. The term raises some questions in my mind: How good or effective an assessor am I? Am I neglecting assessments while I teach? Am I able to draw a line between a smooth flow of instructions and at the same time keep an eye on the effect of instructions on the learners? Are these one to three hour tests actually valid form of assessment? If a learner fails a test does that mean that his assessment is negative? A commendable aspect of assessment is that it focuses on what students know, what they are able to do, and what values they have when they graduate to higher pastures in their academic journey. Let us not judge our students simply on what they know. That is the philosophy of the quiz programme. Rather let them be judged on what they can generate from what they know — how well they can leap the barrier from learning to thinking.-Jerome Bruner (Harvard Educational Review, 1959) Assessment does not stand in isolation from other acts that are a part of the process of learning, unlearning and relearning. Introducing multifaceted learning strategies in class would open up numerous vistas for learners with multiple intelligences and would certainly validate the process of assessments that are employed by the teachers. There is an urgent need to have a more constructive approach towards assessment planning and strategies.
Assessment for education: standards, judgement and moderation
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2014
This is a very exciting book and should be read widely by anyone who wants a better understanding of the role of assessment in the diverse, globalised, digital societies of the 21st century.'
Towards Theorising Assessment as Critical Inquiry
Educational Assessment in the 21st Century, 2009
In this chapter it is argued that there is a need to explore the theoretical underpinnings to assessment in the 21st century against the backdrop of increasing interest in large-scale, standardised teaching for accountability and reporting purposes on the one hand, and on the other hand, an interest in formative assessment for improving learning. A framework of assessment as critical inquiry is proposed based on an approach to assessment as 'meaning making' (Delandshere, Teachers' College Record, 104 , 2002). The framework is based on the proposition that when assessment is understood as critical inquiry, the practices and processes of assessing-social and cultural acts of doing assessment in actual contexts-can be considered in relation to four main lenses: (1) conceptions of knowledge, including the nature of the knowledge domains and the related capabilities to be assessed;
Reframing assessment research: through a practice perspective
Studies in Higher Education, 2016
Assessment as a field of investigation has been influenced by a limited number of perspectives. These have focused assessment research in particular ways that have emphasised measurement, or student learning or institutional policies. The aim of this paper is to view the phenomenon of assessment from a practice perspective drawing upon ideas from practice theory. Such a view places assessment practices as central. This perspective is illustrated using data from an empirical study of assessment decision-making and uses as an exemplar the identified practice of 'bringing a new assessment task into being'. It is suggested that a practice perspective can position assessment as integral to curriculum practices and end separations of assessment from teaching and learning. It enables research on assessment to de-centre measurement and take account of the wider range of people, phenomena and things that constitute it.
The Central Role of Assessment in Pedagogy
Handbook of Research on Science Education, Volume II, 2000
School governing boards at local and state levels in many countries long had the obligation of establishing the curriculum -by law, as in the United States, or by embedded practice, as in England, or by some combination of the two, as in Australia and Germany. These boards discussed and decided the subjects that should be taught and, not infrequently, determined the specific topics within each one that should be included.
In essence, ‘learning can be defined as changes in knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes, brought about by experience and reflection upon that experience’ (Brown, Bull & Pendelbury, 1996, p21). This research highlights how feedback from learners, peers and tutors, augments the experience and reflection, a form of internal feedback, accelerates the learning (Schmidt et al, 1990). The authors draw on their experience as lecturers and course designers for the module “Curriculum Assessment” which is offered to both, traditional full-time undergraduates and part-time professional educators. This paper builds on research described at the 2009 ECER conference, which focused on the introduction of an assessment portfolio that was designed with the aim of promoting a constructivist approach to the development of professional competence among trainee teachers. This new paper focuses on the next stage of the research and highlights how using multiple ‘voices’ from the research process...