Assessment A Powerful messaging system

Teaching and subsequently learning can be seen as a consequence of key messaging systems such as curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. For organisations charged with the provision of education, management of these systems is essential. While other factors such as culture play a role in setting the final shape of the learning that occurs in our schools, the big three of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are most open to manipulation. Quality teacher frameworks and teacher evaluation methods influence pedagogy and governments have increasingly taken charge of curriculum with many countries moving towards national or common core curriculums. The role of assessment has always played its part but it is a role that is changing in the present global climate and understanding this shift is important for educators. - Read More

Good Reads for Great Assessment

A collection of quality, research based text exploring this essential aspect of education.  Authors include Dylan Wiliam, Siobhan Leahy, Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, Lee Watanabe Crockett and Andrew Churches.

Aligning assessments with the purposes of our teaching

We need to consider the purposes of our teaching, the goals that we hope to achieve with and for our learners and in each instance, what success might look like. Only when we ensure that the assessments we value align with the learning we hope to engender, will we begin to have an accurate perception of what works and what does not. - Read More

Good Assessment Gone Bad

Many teachers find the task of designing an assessment almost as much of a challenge as the Assessment is for their students. Perhaps the difficulty can be found within the stages of an assessment's design from initial concept to its use with a group of students. My goal here is to identify where we might go wrong with our assessments and locate the point at which Good Assessments Go Bad. - Read More

Avoiding Assessment Mistakes

Assessment is arguably the piece of the learning cycle we get most wrong. Whether looked at from the perspective of the learner, the teacher, the school administrator, the politician or the parent, assessment is misunderstood and poorly utilised as a tool for learning. The importance of changing this situation is only made more salient in light of the countless research studies from the likes of Jon Hattie & Dylan Wiliam that points to the power of effective assessment. So, what are the common mistakes and how might we avoid them? - Read More

Assessment and Student Agency - Better Together

As with many things in education, the outcome achieved will be a result of all that we do. Efforts to promote and empower student agency, voice and choice certainly falls into this category. We might have the best of intentions but unless each of our messaging systems align, we are unlikely to achieve success. So where do our efforts go wrong and what else might we change so that student agency is genuinely a part of our learning environment? - Read More

Assessment and Learning

Assessment is an essential component of the teaching and learning cycle but sadly it is one that is often misunderstood. If we are to have any hope of getting it right we must begin with a sound understanding of what we hope to achieve, what is being assessed, who is being assessed and what will be done once the results are available.  - Read More

Local Wisdom versus Global Assessments

A significant shift continues to occur within global education markets. It is signified by the manner in which it makes sense to speak of a global education market. It is driven by neo-liberalism and the expansion of markets into all aspects of our lives and it is made possible by manipulation of the third messaging system within the educational triad of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. It is a drive towards accountable, comparable and productive education systems fine-tuned to maximise the return on investment and provide industry with the workforce it desires. What must be asked is how does this trend impact students and are these the forces that should be driving change in our education systems? - Read More

Lessons from Schrödinger's Cat

There are some ideas which seem to translate nicely into fields of thought far from their point of origin. These are ideas which shine a metaphorical light on concepts and allow us to develop a deeper understanding of that concept once we see it from a fresh perspective. - Read More