| Open Workshop Educational Assessment: Purposes, Principles and Roles in the Classroom Date: 24 June 2014 or 25 June 2014 (please select a preferred date) School/Cluster Based Workshop Registration Please contact Joseph Loy by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or tel: 6363 0330 on the cost of conducting the workshop. Please indicate your preferred date in the School/Cluster-Based Registration Form but this is subject to availability. Click here to download the School/Cluster-Based Workshop Registration Form. All you wanted to know about assessment but were afraid to ask – an interactive one-day workshop for teachers and school leaders Synopsis We all know that good quality assessment – both formative and summative – is an essential part of ensuring that all children can succeed. Most teachers and school leaders now have a basic understanding of some of the key principles of assessment. But many people worry that their knowledge of assessment theory and practice is still only skin-deep, and that this is hampering their own confidence and effectiveness. If you are one of these people, this intensive interactive one-day workshop is for you. The day will be split into four sessions, where we will deal with the following topics: Session 1 – Setting the scene, and getting to the heart of the learning process In this session we will look at educational assessment in an international and historical context, as a way of setting the scene. We will look briefly at the purposes and principles of the different types of educational assessment. We will consider the impact that assessment has had over the past 30 years of educational reform in a number of countries, with both good and bad consequences. This will lead us to taking an in-depth look at what learning is all about, in order to get a better understanding of how classroom assessment works when it is an integral part of the repertoire of the expert teacher. We will look at how Assessment for Learning (AfL) can become ‘Assessment as Learning’. We will use lesson videos (volunteers welcome!) to identify ways of maximising the effectiveness of classroom assessment practice (including teacher assessment, peer assessment and self assessment) to boost children’s learning. Session 2 – Testing, testing... In this session we will look at the theoretical basis for educational testing, with an ‘all you need to know’ introduction to psychometrics - both classical test theory and modern test (item response) theory. We will look at the process of creating test items and examinations for both school use and in national and international examinations. We will explore the potential of Rasch modelling as it is used in modern test design (such as in PISA and PIPS), for grading item difficulty, assessing student ability and constructing high quality tests. We will look at some school based tests in the light of the principles discussed (volunteers welcome again!). We will also look briefly at computer adaptive testing. Session 3 – What is value added? In this session we will look at the concept of educational value added, using assessment data to measure student progress over a period of time. Progress measurements are increasingly used across the world as a way of identifying students who are doing either better or worse than expected, and in evaluating the effectiveness of schools or educational systems. School effectiveness (and therefore school accountability systems) should be measured not just by overall results, but by the progress which all students make from their respective starting points. We will look at the basic principles behind progress tracking and value added measurement, and will also highlight some of the pitfalls. We will look at complementary methods of assessing value added by analysing socio-economic data as well as student progress data, including a brief introduction to multi-level modelling, and the two basic concepts of effect size and statistical significance. Session 4 – Using the data effectively Our final session will bring us back to the fundamental purpose of all educational assessment, which is to improve children’s learning and teachers’ professional practice. The secret is to use the data effectively to identify strengths and weaknesses, to target areas for specific attention, and to monitor the achievement of learning objectives. We are not short of data – in fact most schools are now data-rich – but we tend not to use the data as effectively as we could. This session will look at how assessment data can be analysed, and then used, at school level, class level and with individual students, to bring a more focussed and effective approach to the whole of teaching and learning. Target Audience About the Trainer - Professor David Hawker
The workshop leader is Professor David Hawker, of the College of Teachers, UK. Professor Hawker was originally a languages teacher, and is a former Assistant Chief Executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in the UK, where for seven years (1992-9) he led the development of the national student testing and assessment system in English schools. He has also served as Director of Education in two local authorities in England (1999-2008), and as Director General for Education in the Welsh Government (2008-11). He now works as an international education consultant, specialising in the development of national assessment systems. He has acted as an advisor to the OECD’s PISA program, and is currently working with the iPIPS team at Durham University to set up the first ever international assessment of children starting school. Other topic: Integrating Services for Children at the Local and National Level |
| Educational Assessment 2014 |
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