What are we really trying to do with assessment in teacher education:

Resolving Conflicting purposes and principles

Sue Bloxham

Certification

to identify and discriminate between different levels of achievement, and between students,

providing a license to practice in the case of professional programmes,

enabling selection of students for further study and employment.

This is assessment of learning.

Quality assurance

to provide evidence for relevant stakeholders (for example headteachers, ofsted, external examiners)

to enable them to judge the appropriateness of standards on the programme

This is assessment of learning.

Student Learning

to promote effective learning

formative and diagnostic

steering students’ approach to learning

giving the teacher useful information to inform changes in teaching strategies.

This is assessment for learning.

Lifelong learning: sustainable assessment

This is assessment as learning.

to achieve an understanding of standards,

to learn how to make judgments,

to be able to use criteria,

to be able to tell when you really understand something

Reformed vision of the curriculum•All students can learn•Challenging subject matter aimed at higher order thinking & problem solving•Equal opportunity for diverse learners•Socialisation in to the discourse and practices of academic disciplines•Authenticity in the relationship between learning in and out of school•Fostering of important dispositions and habits of the mind•Enactment of democratic practices in a caring community

Cognitive and constructivist Learning Theories•Intellectual abilities are socially & culturally developed•Learners construct knowledge and understandings within a social context•New learning is shaped by prior knowledge & cultural perspectives•Intelligent thought involves ‘metacognition’•Deep understanding is principled and supports transfer•Cognitive performance depends on dispositions and personal identity

Classroom Assessment

From Shepard, L.A. (2000)

Discussion

Discuss with those sitting near you:

• Where you think the emphasis lies in your programmes.

• Do assessment strategies include, explicitly or implicitly, all four purposes or do they major on one or two.

Conflict in assessment purposes

Group assessment

Un-seen

examinations

Peer & self assessment

Presentations, debates

Unseen

exam

Essay

Poster setting out scientific work for lay readers

Press release

Reflective journal

Debatespeech

Designing a leaflet for parents or web resource

School-based project

Working in a group to make a radio programme

Curating an online exhibition

Familiar ‘safe’ assessmentMethods. Examiners will understand.

Newer methods which may assess a wider range of learning and different communication skills

Tutor marked

Self, peer and tutor marked

• comes at the draft stage,

• Isn’t graded• is forward looking• focuses on skills

rather than content.

• Look only at final pieces

• Look for comments that justify the mark against the learning outcomes

encouraging a focus on marks, and feedback on content

Studies suggest that useful feedback to students

But moderators and external examiners

Who is the tutor writing their comments for?

Dealing with conflict

Two potential ways forward

• Taking a programme approach to assessment design

• Making greater use of assessment methods which combine different purposes

Programme assessment environment

Factors• How many exams• Variety of ass. Methods• How much summative

assessment• How much formative

assessment• How much oral feedback• How much written feedback• Timeliness of feedback• Explicit criteria & standards• Alignment between outcomes

& assessment

Can influence• Student effort• How much of the syllabus they

cover• Usefulness of feedback• Use of feedback by students• Whether students know what

is expected of them• Whether they focus on deep or

surface approaches to learning• Whether exams encourage

learning

From Gibbs & Dunbar-Goddet (2007)

Programme assessment map

modules Programme outcome 1

Programme outcome 2

Programme outcome 3

Programme outcome 4

Programme outcome 5

Programme outcome 6

101 D D

102 D

103 D D D

104 DA D

105 DA D

203 DA D D

204 D

205 DA D D

206 D D D

D= developed A=assessedCon’t through all modules/ placements

Discussion

• How successfully do you think your programmes achieve a programme approach to assessment?

• Do they plan and co-ordinate assessment across the different elements of students’ programme?

Combining the different purposes of assessment

Two things we need to do:

• identify what are the key characteristics of learning-oriented assessment

• choose assessment methods that meet those characteristics whilst also fulfilling the purposes of certification and QA

Reformed vision of the curriculum•All students can learn•Challenging subject maater aimed at higher order thinking & problem solving•Equal opportunity for diverse learners•Socialisation in to the discourse and practices of academic disciplines•Authenticity in the relationship between learning in and out of school•Fostering of important dispositions and habits of the mind•Enactment of demoncratic practices in a caring community

Cognitive and constructivist Learning Theories•Intellectual abilities are socially & culturally developed•Learners construct knowledge and understandings within a social context•New learning is shaped by prior knowledge & cultural perspectives•Intelligent thought involves ‘metacognition’•Deep understanding is principled and supports transfer•Cognitive performance depends on dispositions and personal identity

Classroom Assessment•Challenging tasks to elicit higher order thinking•Addresses learning processes as well as learning outcomes•An on-going process, integrated with instruction•Used formatively in support of student learning•Expectations visible to students•Students active in evaluating their own work•Used to evaluate teaching as well as student learning

From Shepard, L.A. (2000)

Characteristics of learning-oriented assessment

• Formative• Demands higher order learning • Learning and assessment are integrated• Students are involved in assessment• It promotes thinking about the learning process; • Assessment expectations should be made clear;• Involves active engagement of students, developing

independent learning;• Tasks should be authentic and involve choice ; • Tasks align with important learning outcomes• Assessment should be used to evaluate teaching.

Field-based enquiry

• includes formative stages, students can get help and feedback in a low stakes way

• Expectations available to students both in written criteria and embedded in feedback

• Potential to integrate learning from university with learning from other contexts

• integrated with the learning• encourages independent and active learning• involves students in the assessment process (avoiding grades in the early stages)• higher order skills, complexity• authenticity, choice

Interactive exam

• higher order thinking• integration of university knowledge and classroom knowledge• authenticity• student involvement in assessment• gaining feedback (from expert solutions) and taking action on

it.

• Involves reflection• Exam marking scheme

shared with students before the exam

Patchwork text

• Integration of professional and subject learning

• Focus on learning process• Assessment is integrated with

learning• Integrates formative and

summative assessment • Student involvement in

assessment• Complex task requiring higher

order and critical thinking• Independent, autonomous learning• Reflection