POLICY IN NATIONAL CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING (original) (raw)
Related papers
Fijian primary school leaders’ beliefs and practices about assessment
Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 2018
School leaders have an important role in supervising learning and instruction. In these roles, they use a variety of assessment methods to measure and support student learning. Their beliefs about assessment can have an impact on how they perceive and use different forms of assessment. This study sought to explore assessment related beliefs and practices of a small group of Fijian Head Teachers. The findings suggest that they hold mixed beliefs about assessment. The findings also suggest that the Head Teachers made attempts to make formative use of written or other assessments they used. They registered little support for too much formal, standardized testing.
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
Effects of the Examination-Driven Education System on Teachers and Students in Primary Schools in Fiji., 2022
Examinations have been a part of the Fijian education system since formal schooling was introduced. Exams, according to the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA), are a yardstick for determining a student’s stock of knowledge after a specific year of schooling. Examinations are beneficial, but they also have negative consequences for both teachers and students. This study investigated the effects of the examination-driven education system on the teachers and students in Fijian primary schools. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were used to gather relevant data. The data was analyzed using the Framework Analysis method. The findings show that the current Fijian education system is overburdened with exams. Exams are viewed as unreliable forms of reflection and discourage students’ holistic development. The findings also show that students are psychologically stressed and pressured to perform well by their teachers and parents during the examination period, leading to the development of a fear of failure, generalized anxiety disorder, and low self-esteem. The findings also revealed that examinations jeopardize effective classroom teaching because rote learning is encouraged when teachers teach to the tests, and students are expected to memorize and reproduce the same when tested. On the other hand, the findings show exams are viewed as useful in determining how well teachers teach and how well students learn. Exams help students meet the high expectations set by schools and the MEHA. This study recommends that current examination practices be reviewed to improve student learning outcomes and skill development.
The Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) project has released a computer software package that enables teachers to assess student progress in reading, writing, and mathematics in both English and Maori. The asTTle tool enables teachers to interpret student progress and obtain resources for further teaching. asTTle has been developed within a teacher-managed system of national testing that builds on teachers' conceptions of assessment. This paper will review improvement-oriented principles of national assessment, discuss how these relate to New Zealand primary school teachers' conceptions of assessment, and describe how the asTTle tool allows teachers to design assessments, analyse reports, and obtain resources to improve the quality of their teaching and their students' learning.
2017
My supervisor, Prof. Geesje van den Berg, for her inspirational and tireless guidance. She supported and encouraged me throughout the study. Her encouragement, as well as professional and constructive criticism, kept me going. I feel honored to have worked with her. The school principal and members of staff for the support and positive spirit they have shown during the time I conducted a survey in the school. The deputy director of Nzhelele West Circuit, for her understanding and support in granting me permission to visit the school, which is within her area of supervision. My wife and children for their support through prayer, and for understanding my absence from some of the family's activities.
Assessment System in Curriculum 2013 of Elementary School in Sumenep District Madura Island
JETL (Journal Of Education, Teaching and Learning)
New curriculum has been implemented by Indonesia government in an effort to improve quality of education in 2013. Curriculum 2013 is implemented only in grade I, IV, VII and Class X against 6,325 target schools. In 2014/2015 academic year Curriculum 2013 is applied to the class I, II, IV, IV, VII, VIII, IX and X in all schools in Indonesia. This study conducted in Sumenep district Madura Island as supported study to monitoring and evaluation of Curriculum in 2013 on assessment system in East Java province. The research method used is descriptive qualitative by using observation, interviews and questionnaires techniques. The results showed optimism and expectations from respondents consist of teachers, headmasters and students in curriculum 2013’s assessment system. The findings are expected to support decision-making by stakeholders and improve the implementation of Curriculum 2013.
National curriculum assessment: how to make it better
Research Papers in Education, 2003
In a series of papers ov er the last ten years, I have outlined various problems affecting the assessment of the national curriculum in England which are the subject of a critique by Paul Newton (this issue). In responding to this critique, I acknowledge that his summary of my position is fair, and agree that, by the standards of analytic rationality, the evidence for some of the problems I identify is not compelling. However, in response I argue that by standards of reasonableness (eg on the balance of probabilities) the evidence is sufficently serious to warrant a re-examination of national curriculum assessment, and the alternatives. In particular, I argue that the current system provides assessments that are not sufficiently reliable for the inferences that are made on the basis of the results and has also caused a narrowing of the curriculum. I propose that the first of these weaknesses can be addressed through the increased use of teacher assessment, and the second by increasing the range of the curriculum tested through testing a greater proportion of the curriculum. In order to effect these changes without increasing the burdern on students and teachers, I propose that these two changes are combined in the form of a light sampling scheme which would increase both the reliability and minimise the curricular backwash, although the price paid for this would be the lack of a direct, transparent and objective link between the results achieved by individual students on tests and the reported levels of a school's performance.
School Based Assessment Methods – Development and Implementation
School Based Assessment (SBA) has been carried out for a long time—but there are problems with how it has been done and new priorities that require changes. Traditionally, SBA has involved examinations and tests that mimic or mock public or school end-of-year examinations. Student performance on these kinds of SBA are usually reported as percentage scores or letter grades designed to reflect the same standards as would be applied by the examination authority in the formal, public examinations. Teachers were expected to comment on student performance in terms of effort, and likelihood of the student obtaining a pass or a high grade. It is generally assumed that public examinations (and the school-based mimics) evaluate students fairly and the consequences attached to the grades are merited and appropriate. And the consequences can be immense—high enough grades give entry to the next level of education and highly exceptional grades lead to prestigious financial, educational, and social rewards. SBA also determines the quality of schools and teachers. Hence, public examinations and school-based versions of these assessments had great importance to the school, the teachers, let alone the students and their families. Issues with SBA include: (1) little use of alternative forms of assessments (e.g., portfolios, performances, peer, or self); (2) much trickle down of high-stakes examinations into pre-examination school years. There are some advantages to this approach to SBA. Since the stakes are so high, students are usually motivated to make significant effort. There is usually systematic and extensive coverage of the syllabus content, ensuring students and teachers pay attention to those things. There is, in most countries, a strong social acceptance that examinations are accurate, lead to valid decisions as to who is good, and have positive social consequences (i.e., exams identify talent regardless of sex, social status, ethnicity, wealth, and so on). Furthermore, there is a strong conviction that examinations are relatively robust against corruption, collusion, and cheating. There is also potential to provide diagnostic analysis of which parts of the required curriculum have yet to be or are already mastered. This is only a potential benefit as very careful curriculum analysis and mapping of test content to the curriculum map and effective reporting of performance is required. However, for teachers in schools to take advantage of this approach requires that teachers have significant professional development so as to be able to replicate the highest standards in testing. However, ordinary classroom teachers rarely have the necessary skills, which are normally available to qualifications authorities and test development companies. Hence, instead of turning teachers into testing experts, we aimed to give teachers a computer-assisted tool that helped teachers fulfil better the task which they were employed for— pedagogically skilled delivery and facilitation of real learning in the real-time space of a classroom. In other words, we supported the teacher with computer assistance. Another significant limitation of tests and examinations is that they usually generate a total score (a percentage) and/or a rank-order score such as position in class (e.g., 1 st or last) or position relative to a norming sample (e.g., percentile or stanine). While these scores have some educational value, they do not lead to strong educational decision-making in the This is the pre-published version.