Assessment For All Learners
Assessment Bulletin, Issue 1, Feb 2020
News
The term ‘assessment for learning’ has become commonly used and widely
accepted in Singapore, but is it always understood and used for all learners?
After all, one of the intended purposes of assessment is to discriminate
between learners, and inferring from their demonstrated learning what
learners are good for.
However, this does not always align with the educational imperative of
wanting and helping all our students to learn and succeed. At times, some of
our assessment policies and practices may in fact deter or disempower our
students from learning!
Assessment should be fit for its intended purpose, but what if the primary
purpose of assessment is to be fit for all learners? What if we challenge
ourselves to ensure that every single learner under our care benefits
adequately from assessment? What if we were to rethink and enact
assessment to help the least, the last, and the lost amongst our learners?
Previously, we had named this bulletin as the “CTL Assessment Bulletin” to
signal the important relationship between Curriculum and Assessment, and
underscore the dialectic relationship between assessment and teaching.
Organisationally, the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) academic
group in NIE has been restructured, and the assessment team is now posited
in the Learning Sciences and Assessment academic group.
The AFAL team
More importantly, the assessment bulletin is now headlined as a mission and
a motive – Assessment For All Learners (AFAL). We hope that the expertise,
experiences, and ideas of the bulletin will address your (assessment) learning
needs, and help you ensure that your assessment practices are for all
learners under your care. And because you are a learner as well, that your
own love and desire for learning will be refreshed in the process.
Motivating Learners through Classroom Assessment
Ms Lin Rongchan delivered a keynote address titled Motivating Learners and
Promoting Learning through Classroom Assessment at Manjusri Secondary
School Staff Learning Festival on 3 September 2019. Teachers from both
Manjusri Secondary School and Maha Bodhi School attended the event.
In her address, Ms. Lin first defined classroom assessment and emphasized
the role of classroom assessment in student motivation. Subsequently, she
illustrated how teachers could motivate learners and promote learning
through meaningful assessment practices such as employing patchwork texts
in assessment. She also prompted participants to examine different scoring
practices and their impact on student motivation and learning. Finally, the
participants engaged in a discussion and explored the possibilities of
integrating the relevant assessment frameworks into their curriculum. The
discussion was facilitated by Mr. Stanley Yang from Manjusri Secondary
School.
Noteworthy Assignments
Assessment in Education and Learning: Theories, Tensions and
Issues
by Tng Ya Wen Valerie
Typically, when the word assessment is mentioned, the first thing that comes
to mind is academic assessment. This is especially evident in Singapore
schools where the assessment focus tends to be on the academic grades of
the students and their learning gaps. However, besides academic assessment,
another piece of assessment work that takes place in schools, which is no
less important, is the assessment of student conduct. Though it is not in the
spotlight as much as academic assessment, the assessment of student
conduct should not be taken lightly. This is because the behavioural
expectations embedded in the assessment of student conduct sets the
foundation for the students to develop habits that are likely to persist when
the students leave school and enter the workforce. This paper explores some
of the issues in the way assessment of student conduct is typically done in
schools and suggest possible approaches to refine it. Read more.
Harnessing the potential of dialogic feedback to enhance learning
for students with dyslexia
by Siti Asjamiah Binte Asmuri
Research on the efficacy of dialogic feedback practices on students’ learning
has largely focused on higher education. Its effectiveness on struggling
learners and those diagnosed with dyslexia accessing mainstream education
has not been sufficiently explored. As these students also continue to pursue
higher education and become part of the tertiary student population, it is
imperative that their perspectives and experiences with feedback practices
and processes are also looked into. Read more.
Responding to scholarly views on formative assessment
by Eugene Lee Fook Loong
Formative assessment was initially conceived as a contrast to the traditional
role of summative assessment, a process of judging and evaluating students’
learning. The term formative was first used by Scriven (1967) to clarify the
different purposes of curriculum evaluation. Benjamin Bloom subsequently
extended this notion to formative assessment to reflect processes that seek
to provide students “feedback and correctives” at each stage of the learning
process and used “primarily as an aid for teaching” (Bloom, 1969, p. 48). In
their response to the over-emphasis of summative testing in UK schools,
Black and Wiliam (1998a, 1998b) conducted an extensive literature review on
formative assessment and provided evidence on its effectiveness in
increasing student achievement in schools. Black (2001) rationalises why
schools need to focus on formative assessment to improve intended
curriculum outcomes: “… formative assessment has a powerful effect on the
gap between the intended and the achieved, and [there is] evidence that
current practice is weak so that the gap is wider than it should be” (p. 8).
Read more.
Journals, Books and Chapters
Crisp, V., Johnson, M., & Novaković, N. (2012). The effects of
features of examination questions on the performance of
students with dyslexia. British Educational Research Journal, 38
(5), 813-839. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23263781
This research investigated whether features of examination questions
influence students with dyslexia differently to others, potentially affecting
whether they have a fair opportunity to show their knowledge, understanding
and skills. A number of science examination questions were chosen. For some
questions two slightly different versions were created. A total of 54 students
considered by their teachers to have dyslexia and a matched control group of
51 students took the test under exam conditions. A dyslexia screening
assessment was administered where possible and some students were
interviewed. Facility values and Rasch analysis were used to compare
performance between the versions of the same question and between those
with and without dyslexia. Chi-square statistics found no statistically
significant differences in performance between groups or between question
versions. However, some tentative implications for good practice can be
inferred (e.g. avoiding ambiguous pronouns, using bullet points).
Xu, Y., & He, L. (2019). How pre-service teachers’ conceptions of
assessment change over practicum: implications for teacher
assessment literacy. Frontiers in Education, 4(145). doi:
10.3389/feduc.2019.00145
Practicum poses great challenges for pre-service teachers who learn to assess
because their conceptions of assessment (CoAs) may undergo dramatic
changes. This multiple-case study reports on how three pre-service teachers'
CoA changed over practicum at a primary school in China. Findings show that
pre-service teachers' CoAs have experienced a rapid change from a
superficial perception of assessment for academic achievement and moral
character development to a more comprehensive understanding of varied
assessment purposes, constructs in assessment criteria, feedback, fairness in
classroom assessment, and students' involvement in and engagement with
assessment. A range of factors are found to have exerted varying degrees of
influence on these conception changes, such as personal factor (i.e., agency
in assessment), experiential factors [i.e., school-based assessment practices,
interactions with students, and (anti-)apprenticeship of observation about
assessment], and contextual factors (i.e., mentoring, classroom reality,
school assessment culture, and national assessment policy). These findings
are discussed in terms of how these changes are diverse but limited, as well
as how the mediating factors have exerted differentiated influences in
positive or negative ways. This paper concludes with implications for
research on teachers' CoAs and professional development for assessment
literacy.
Hoo, H. T., Tan, K., & Deneen, C. (2019). Negotiating self-and
peer-feedback with the use of reflective journals: an analysis of
undergraduates’ engagement with feedback. Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1665166
Self- and peer-feedback are commonly used in higher education, and in most
cases, it is assumed that students will engage with the feedback. There is,
however, limited systematic exploration of how students use the feedback.
This study proposes a structured reflective journal for students to engage
with both self- and peer-feedback in the context of teamwork competencies.
In total, 519 undergraduates’ self- and peer-ratings and feedback and a
matching number of reflective journals were coded for how students
internally negotiate self- and peer-feedback on teamwork competencies. The
analysis of ratings shows upward trajectories of self- and peer-ratings over
time, and the analysis of journals suggests students were more effective in
building their teamwork competencies when they negotiate their experiences
by giving attention to positive affect, goal intention and performance. These
findings highlight the importance of priming students to be reflective of self-
and peer-feedback via a written and codified reflective journal.
Tay, H. Y., & Tan, K. H. K. (2019). Assessment Leadership. In
Wong, B., Hairon, S., & Ng, P. T. (Eds.), School Leadership and
Educational Change in Singapore (pp 51-68). Springer.
How can Singapore principals negotiate the many complexities associated
with assessment change to bring about better learning in their schools? This
chapter discusses the assessment challenges of three principals at a primary
school, secondary school and a junior college. By analysing their stories, it is
argued that in order to bring about sustainable and structural assessment
reform in schools, principals must exercise a threshold level of assessment
leadership. The four characteristics of such leadership involve bringing about
irreversible change, being coherent and integrative, being a catalyst for
transforming the direction and value of education, and provoking new and
unfamiliar thinking in others. Buy the book or chapter here.
Tan, K. H. K. (2020). Assessment Rubrics Decoded. Routledge.
Assessment Rubrics Decoded offers insights into a myriad of issues that
affect, and are affected by, the construction of merit in students’ learning
and the articulation of (underlying) educational ideologies in the assessment
of student achievement. Designed for both students and teachers – who
should have parity of involvement in developing and using rubrics - this book
covers the problematic issues of assessment in schools at the same time as
offering readers practical solutions for navigating the ensuing tensions and
dilemmas.
Pre-order a copy now.
Schuelka, M. J., Johnstone, C. J., Thomas, G., & Artiles, A. J.
(Eds.). (2019). The SAGE Handbook of Inclusion and Diversity in
Education. SAGE Publications Limited.
This handbook examines policy and practice from around the world with
respect to broadly conceived notions of inclusion and diversity within
education. It sets out to provide a critical and comprehensive overview of
current thinking and debate around aspects such as inclusive education
rights, philosophy, context, policy, systems, and practices for a global
audience. This makes it an ideal text for researchers and those involved in
policy-making, as well as those teaching in classrooms today. Check it out
here.
Conferences and Trainings
EARLI Assessment SIG on Assessment & Evaluation in HE, 22 - 25
June, Cadiz, Spain.
By bringing together two long-standing EARLI special interest groups SIG 1
“Assessment and Evaluation” and SIG 4 “Higher Education”, the “Joint SIG1
& SIG4 Conference 2020” provides an opportunity to initiate, foster and
consolidate synergies and collaborations in research areas present in both
communities.
The two communities represent a variety of research interests:
SIG 1 Assessment and Evaluation: Research with a thematic focus on
classroom assessment, largescale assessment and program evaluation at all
levels of education (from kindergarten to higher education).
SIG 4 Higher Education: Research with a contextual focus on higher education
that covers various themes related to learning and instruction as well as
academic development.
The Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference (RPIC), 1-3
June, Singapore.
RPIC 2020 aims to provide a global platform for researchers, educational
leaders, practitioners, and policymakers to collectively debate and generate
creative solutions, and to actively exchange research and educational ideas
and experiences between and across local, regional and international
educational communities.
The proposed conference theme is “Redesigning Pedagogy: Educating for
Innovation, Nurturing for Society”. The rationale for the proposed theme is
the continuing and sustained interest in two educational imperatives for
Singapore. First, education is needed to create a future-generation of
entrepreneurs and innovators across the industries and public sectors.
Second, education is needed to nurture and maintain a strong cohesive
society especially given the multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and
multi-religious makeup of Singapore.
Assessment Courses
Assessment Literacy 2.3: Designing Quality Alternative Assessments and
Associated Rubrics
(TRAISI Course Code: 73209)
Assessment Literacy 2.4: Effective Questioning & Feedback as AfL
Strategies
(TRAISI Course Code: 72245)
Nurturing Self-Regulated Learners through Assessment Practices
(TRAISI Course Code: 72763)
Student Self-Assessment: 5 Ws and 1 H
(TRAISI Course Code: 72762)
Evidence-based AfL
(TRAISI Course Code: 73207)
Assessment Literacy 3.1: Assessment Leadership – Policy and Practice
(TRAISI Course Code: 50669)
We would like to thank everyone who has
contributed to our Assessment Bulletin.
The AFAL team welcomes your feedback
and suggestions on how we can continue
to support you in your assessment work in
school. Please email
to aforall.learners@gmail.com.
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