Practice in e-assessment

Roddy Stuart

Educational ICT Consultant

Scotland in PISA 1 - reading literacy

Percentage of students at each level of proficiency on the combined reading literacy scale

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Australia 9.1 19.0 25.7 25.3 17.6

Canada 7.2 18.0 28.0 27.7 16.8

England 9.2 19.7 27.6 24.2 15.6

Finland 5.2 14.3 28.7 31.6 18.5

Ireland 7.9 17.9 29.7 27.1 14.2

Scotland 9.0 18.8 27.1 26.5 15.3

USA 11.5 21.0 27.4 21.5 12.2

Russia 18.5 29.2 26.9 13.3 3.2

Overall 11.9 21.7 28.7 22.3 9.5

Scotland in PISA 2 - mathematical literacy

Mean scores in mathematical literacy

Australia 533

Canada 533

England 529

Finland 536

Ireland 503

Scotland 533

USA 493

Russia 478

Overall 500

Scotland in PISA 3 - scientific literacy

Mean scores in scientific literacy

Australia 528

Canada 529

England 533

Finland 538

Ireland 513

Scotland 522

USA 499

Russia 460

Overall 500

Why ICT?

To extend the appeal of learning To allow for a more individual, personalised

experience To embed learning within the context of

something which is meaningful to the young learners

To help with aspects of formative assessment

http://www.nationalpriorities.org.uk

From a corpus of knowledge to a knowledge society

More interactive ways to learn, where the learners are actively engaged in the learning process. This will stand them in good stead in an environment where the absolutes of one decade are swept away increasingly rapidly by the growth in knowledge and the forces of technological and economic change in a global workplace

ICT offers• general purpose tools for communication using both

words and a range of visual and aural media• specialist software to model the real world (eg in climate

or in physical forces)• increasing use of e-learning to offer scope for learning

beyond the limiting confines of the school day and timetable

John Muir of St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston, on use of the Internet

"The secret to success, in my opinion, of passing Higher Physics is to practise the problems, understand fully the problem solving in the course. Outwith the classroom these pupils can access it and they can get feedback from it, they can get answers to find out how well they're doing""Students work together at university and this is maybe a way of getting pupils to work together - have you tried this problem; have you read this bit; does it make sense? - in a bigger community and allow them to work together"

From rote learning to thinking skills and critical skills

The development of thinking and reasoning skills, eg as part of the dispositions and core skills articulated within the 5-14 curriculum, reflects an increased awareness of how youngsters learn, including the preferred learning styles of boys whose relative under-performance is a cause of increasing concern

ICT offers• advanced organisers in the form of outlining tools• brainstorming tools such as those in online learning suites

(eg Think.com)• visual organisers and mind mapping tools (eg Inspiration)• templates offer the ‘big picture’ and small steps approach

which appears to be particularly useful for boy-type learners

Alan Dunsmore of Stewart’s Melville College in Edinburgh on thinking skills

"Something that became very clear was that we need to teach kids to think more, and give them time to think more. We need to challenge and give them problem solving contexts that will challenge them. We need to promote the idea of independent study and the idea of dependent study where they work within groups"

From learners as consumers to learners as producers

We need to ensure that youngsters are prepared for a world in which they will be expected to be versatile, self-directed and flexible in their thinking and in their actions

ICT can offer• tools for the management of learning, and assessment of

learning (eg VLEs or MLEs)• an environment in which experimentation is risk free - and

even sometimes fun - with structured menus/inspectors/toolbars and help systems

• youngsters are able to 'own' the processes by which they tackle tasks when using ICT by making choices as to how they achieve the target

Lynn Horn from Tobermory High School on digital video production

"one of the things that they're not so good at is the actual planning stages, that they have to be guided through. They can sometimes be very enthusiastic about what they think the final product might be. And we have to take them through the stages of saying … before you can film, you need a script, you need a plan, you need a storyboard of what it is you're going to go out and film"

From replication and rules to enterprise and creativity

The emphasis in the future will surely be on making something happen which has not happened before, rather than repetition, and that applies to engineering parts and the caring professions

ICT offers• a word processor or e-mail client to express oneself• the development of web pages or movies or PowerPoint

and equivalent tools to report or to imagine• 2 and 3-dimensional design software to make actual

'things'

Heidi Fawcett, Glasgow City Council on primary pupil use of digital video

"that's another area where there are open-ended possibilities and outcomes for pupils to direct ways in which they want us to see the world. And when we put the pupil in the driving seat that really does demand that the pupil is thinking"

From convergent uniformity to divergent metacognitive awareness

We are moving away from an era where 'regurgitation' and conformity are seen as the highest end of a youngster at the end of formal schooling

ICT can offer• tools to help to develop more consciousness about how

we learn, what are the barriers to learning and all the elements in the list on the next slide

• an environment in which experimentation is straightforward (and even enjoyable), where you can readily learn from mistakes, you can change your mind, you can explore alternatives

From 'Learning, Thinking and Creativity: a staff development handbook' (LTS, SEED, IDES Network May

2004)

• What am I being asked to do?• Why can’t I do this?• Have I met this before?• Am I doing this correctly?• What information do I have?• Is there another way to do this?• How much do I understand?• Would I do it differently next time?• What do I need to think about?• Did I work as well as I could?• How can I find this out?• How did I learn what I learned?• Do I need a plan?• Could I use what I learned in another situation?• How can I check my progress?• Can I think of one?

HMIE video on ICT and primary education

"Children are now coming to school with much more experience in the field of ICT than ever before. And in schools teachers and educationalists, we have to provide a very wide curriculum for children and the use of ICT has allowed us, it has given us access to a much wider range of materials than ever before"

From individual learning to collaborative learning

Youngsters need to be able to operate independently and interdependently

ICT can offer• tools which can help to provide 'scaffolding' for properly

structured group tasks within the classroom, and beyond• help to break down a task into component elements,

offering each collaborator a worthwhile role

Maureen Balloch of St Mary's Primary School in Glasgow on using wireless

"It's a great tool for collaboration between the children, and communication - as is all the ICT technology that we've used in here. Our children are not always, or were not always the most articulate, but they have really, using this media, developed their skills in communication greatly, and I now just stand back in awe when they're talking to people because they can take it on themselves and demonstrate what they're doing to anybody, and it really has raised their self-esteem and confidence greatly"

Other trends in which ICT can play its part

From a wholly cognitive curriculum to an appreciation of emotional intelligence• we are more than what we know; what we feel is a crucial

determinant of our individuality; question children in a primary classroom about their experience of computers and the answer almost always starts "I like" (and sometimes "I hate it when …")

From competition to inclusion• "Pupils are generally good at sharing; they are often

helpful to other pupils and often 'inclusive' when it comes to helping those who are less able" [Secondary teacher in Glasgow who attended Masterclass]