Beliefs and attitudes about assessment of a sample of student teachers in South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to take the first steps in a long-term approach to helping South African teachers understand and respond to government demands that they change their assessment practices. Specifically, it attempted to identify the beliefs, perceptions and attitudes about assessment that student teachers bring with them to courses that are designed to equip them to teach in ways that are consistent with current curriculum trends in South Africa. The study attempted to answer the following research questions: are student teachers’ beliefs about assessment consistent with the approaches to assessment advocated in the South African Revised National Curriculum Statement? Are student teachers’ beliefs about assessment consistent with the basic principles of outcomes-based education? The results indicated broad general agreement between student teachers’ beliefs about assessment and the principles of assessment espoused in the Revised National Curriculum Statement. However, there was evidence that the beliefs of some of the subjects were inconsistent with these principles.     

Educational assessment and accountability: a New Zealand case study

This paper discusses the increasing use of assessment as a market signal and as an index of educational accountability. It is argued that assessment policies in New Zealand reflect an uneasy balance between the interests of the new right and more progressive educationists. These influences are examined using three largely contradictory models of educational accountability (professional, market and management). Each model reflects a range of epistemological and ideological assumptions. Thus student assessment serves different and largely conflicting purposes. The paper uses a recent New Zealand policy document (Tomorrow's Standards) to examine the interaction of each model. It is argued that through a failure to state clearly the purpose of assessment, educational reform in this area is overly concerned with the means rather than the ends of education. This has important implications for student motivation and learning. The paper concludes with a comment on current policy development and concludes that some recent initiatives provide the hope that a system of assessment that is both meaningful and relevant to individual learners may be developed.     

Assessment and development: Some theoretical and practical issuesNotation et developpement: Quelques aspects theoriques et pratiquesAsesoramiento y desarrollo: Algunos planteamientos teoricos y practicos

The study of educational assessment procedures has been traditionally largely the concern of psychometricians and educational administrators. Little attention has typically been given to trying to understand the social origins of particular procedures and their implications for individual pupils and the society as a whole. This article explores the strength of the hold of assessment procedures on education systems and some of the more noticeable international trends in educational assessment at the present time. The article suggests that although these trends tend to be more visible in developed countries, the pressure for reform is more urgent in developing countries where the likelihood of realisation is most problematic.As well as exploring the significance of a number of common national characteristics, the article examines briefly the implications of different administrative arrangements as they affect the role of assessment in the education system. The final part of the paper offers a more speculative analysis of the scope for fundamental change in assessment procedures in line with the new demands likely to be made on educational systems by current economic and technological trends.     

A reasonably large review of operationalization in child maltreatment research: Assessment approaches and sources of information in youth samples

Child maltreatment research varies considerably in how maltreatment is measured. Although researchers have advocated for improvements in maltreatment assessment, a first step is a clear understanding of the status on how the field operationalizes maltreatment. The current paper sought to achieve this goal through reviewing research on child maltreatment over a recent 10-year span to identify trends in maltreatment assessment and operationalization. Information on maltreatment measurement was extracted from 338 articles across three major journals devoted to publishing research on child maltreatment. Among the various definitional dimensions of maltreatment, type was the most common way maltreatment was operationalized, followed by severity, frequency, and chronicity, a stable trend across the 10-year span of review. The results indicated that the majority of studies measured maltreatment as consisting of multiple types, although some studies focused on one type of maltreatment as the indicator of child maltreatment. Further, the most common assessment method was the administration of a questionnaire or the combination of two questionnaires with the second most common being summaries from case file review. Recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Gender and higher education experience: a case study

This research seeks to contribute to current discussion of gender differences in experience of higher education. Its specific focus is to compare the assessment of various university services by male and female students. The research sample consisted of 9793 students who participated in three University of Western Sydney surveys in 2004 and 2005. The results suggest that, first, female students place higher importance on the majority of the university’s services than do male students; second, as female students advance through their studies, they appear more demanding about the quality of services, while male students remain comparatively tolerant; and third, while all students consider that some areas warrant improvement, this is significantly more so for female than for male students. Specifically, the key areas for improvement from female students’ perspective are the relevance and instructional clarity of the course and efficiency of administration. It is recommended that, considering the current trends in higher education across gender, a sharper focus on these areas for improvement action could help the university ensure equity and better manage competition.     

Natural language processing techniques in computer-assisted language learning: Status and instructional issues

The role of natural language processing (NLP) techniques, such as parsing and semantic analysis, is described within current language tutoring systems. Significant trends are distinguished in the exploitation of these techniques, design issues and tradeoffs are examined, and current and potential contributions of NLP technology are discussed with respect to instructional theory and educational practice. Limitations and problems are addressed in using NLP tools for teaching, and approaches to assessment are considered.     

Synergy and Tension between Large-Scale and Classroom Assessment: International Trends

The synergy, or lack thereof, between large-scale and classroom assessment has been fiercely debated in both academic and policy spheres for decades around the world. This paper seeks to explicate how different countries are utilizing large-scale testing and test results at the classroom level. Through country profiles, this paper analyzes contemporary developments on the tensions and synergies between large-scale assessment and classroom teaching, learning, and assessment observed across seven international jurisdictions: United States, Canada, Australia, England, Germany, Finland, and Singapore. The paper concludes with an analysis of international trends leading to a synthesis of root causes contributing to the current limited uptake of large-scale assessment results at classroom levels.     

The Developmental Spelling Analysis: A Measure of Orthographic Knowledge

This study describes the development and evaluation of an assessment of orthographic knowledge designed to help teachers interpret children's spellings for meaningful instruction and to aid researchers in advancing current understandings of how children acquire a knowledge of words. The Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) is based on developmental spelling theory and includes two components: a Screening Inventory for determining a child's stage of development, and parallel Feature Inventories for highlighting strengths and weaknesses in knowledge of specific orthographic features. Investigative results of the DSA's reliability and validity are presented, including developmental trends revealed by the performance of 1,016 students in Grades 1 to 8 and relations between the DSA and relevant reading and spelling tests. In addition, because teacher response ultimately determines the value of an assessment intended for their use, the reactions of teachers using the measure for the first time are examined.     

Psychosocial Factors and Sex Differences in High Academic Attainment at Cambridge University

This paper discusses current trends in government policy for special educational needs. It reviews both the legacy of previous reforms and key elements of current approaches, namely raising educational standards and increasing inclusion. It is suggested that although the incorporation of SEN into mainstream policymaking is to be welcomed, there are a number of features of policy and practice which may undermine intentions to enhance provision and outcomes.     

An international online survey of the practices and perceptions of higher education professors with respect to the assessment of learning in the classroom

In a context where public action must demonstrate its effectiveness and efficiency, and where the links between teaching and the quality of learning are regularly highlighted, it seems relevant to identify the trends and logic that govern university professors’ decisions with respect to the modes of learning assessment favoured within the framework of their delivery of teaching services. Moreover, given that university teaching practices are changing rapidly due to the introduction of different views of the learning process, one might conclude that the same holds for assessment practices. Through our research work, we led to the development of a trilingual (English, French and Spanish) online survey devoted to an international investigation into the classroom assessment practices of higher education teachers. This survey proposes an online platform that will allow institutions of higher learning to document some of their current practices and to compare observed trends with what is happening elsewhere, in accordance with differing missions and traditions. These research notes are thus intended to describe the survey itself and to show how the questionnaire and individual items were structured, in addition to providing an overview of treatments within and between institutions that followed the testing.     

Trends in school psychology as demonstrated by content analysis of school psychology textbooks

This investigation was undertaken to determine if there were general and specific trends within school psychology between the years 1960 and 1975 as reflected by both the content presented and the chaning amount of emphasis given to specific topics within school psychology texttooh. Content analysis was chosen as the method of analysis. Seventeen school psychology textbooks separated into three consecutive time periods of five years each, were used in the research. The data indicated that trends in publication emphasis were present. While the types of content presented remained relatively constant, the overall trend was toward decreasing publication of text type materials. Assessment had remained consistently the highest emphasized category of content, whereas clinical issues and personality have shown clear trends toward decreasing emphasis. Both special education and therapy issues maintained high and stable levels of emphasis. Neither consulting activities nor community activities demonstrated trends toward increasing emphasis. Ethics and legal issues were discussed in less than half the textbooks examined. Group assessment, curriculum development, sex education, teaching psychology, and group therapy received very little content emphasis. Behavior modification future trens, and remediation activities demonstrated clear trends toward increased emphasis, whereas areas of administration and organization, research issues, and working with special populations demonstrated clear trends toward decreasing emphasis.     

论国外信息化教育研究的发展走势

文章从研究目的与方法、研究范型和研究领域等三方面入手，认为当前国外信息化教育研究发展的现状与走势可以概括为：研究目的和研究方法向多重性和多样化方向发展，研究范型从实证研究向发展研究转型，研究领域向技术、教育和学习理念相交织的时代性方向拓展。这些发展走势对我国的信息化教育的发展有重要的参照意义。     

A strategy for the assessment of bilingual handicapped children

Because of current federal legislation, educators must assess children with possible handicapping conditions and plan an individual education program for each child with a special need. Past trends are inadequate for these two purposes, and, furthermore, have placed bilingual, culturally different children into special education classes disproportionately to their representation in the general population. What needs to be recognized by measurement experts and educators is that no one test method is sufficient for the assessment of bilingual children. This paper discusses past measurement directions and makes recommendations for the assessment of bilingual, culturally different children.     

Trends and Issues in the Dissemination of Child Development and Early Education Knowledge

Drawing upon the experience gained from 25 years as director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education this paper is presented in two parts. First some observations on current trends in the environment to which the dissemination of child development and early education knowledge is directed. Included within these trends are the expansion of the information environment as an increasing number of specialist journals emerge and the collision in some countries between these specialised professionals and experts and public and political sentiment. Second, some issues related to the dissemination of knowledge are presented ending with the suggestion that those in advisory and training positions have an important role to play in helping the scientific and practitioner cultures understand each other. The paper concludes with a discussion of some implications of the trends and issues.

     

Developing a construct‐based assessment to examine students' analogical reasoning around physical models in Earth Science

In recent years, science education has placed increasing importance on learners' mastery of scientific reasoning. This growing emphasis presents a challenge for both developers and users of assessments. We report on our effort around the conceptualization, development, and testing the validity of an assessment of students' ability to reason around physical dynamic models in Earth Science. Building from the research literature on analogical mapping and informed by the current perspectives on learning progressions, we present a three‐tiered construct describing the increasing sophistication of students' analogical reasoning around the correspondences and non‐correspondences between models and the Earth System: at the level of entities (Level 1), configurations in space or relative motion of entities (Level 2), and the mechanism or cause for observed phenomena (Level 3). Grounded in a construct‐centered design approach, we describe our process for developing assessments in order to examine and validate this construct, including how we selected topics and models, designed items, and developed outcome spaces. We present the specific example of one assessment centered on moon phases, which was administered to 164 8th and 9th grade Earth Science students as a pre/postmeasure. Two hundred ninety‐four responses were analyzed using a Rasch modeling approach. Item difficulties and student proficiency scores were calculated and analyzed regarding their relative performance with respect to the three levels of the construct. The analysis results provided initial evidence in support of the construct as conceived, with students displaying a range of analogical reasoning spanning all three construct levels. It also identified problematic items that merit further examination. Overall, the assessment has provided us the opportunity to better describe and frame the cognitive uses of models by students during learning situations in Earth Science. Implications for instruction and future directions for research in this area are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 713–743, 2012     

世界基础教育:面临的挑战、趋势和优先事项——解读联合国教科文组织第47届国际教育大会"主文件"及"公报与建议"

世界基础教育面临的挑战是:要保障青少年在接受初等教育后继续受教育的权利,全球化背景下如何提高青少年的素质。世界基础教育的发展趋势是:把提高基础教育质量放在首位,把对教育的需求视为教育的动力,提高培训水平,注重学习成绩的评估和国际比较,对增加教育投资的重新置疑,建立新的国际管理机制。优先事项包括:考虑青少年教育的基本需要,重新思考变革的行为,在现有的各种形式的教育框架内进行革新,消除不平等现象,向艾滋病作战,促进各个层次的联合,建立伙伴关系。     

Assessment in the Kindergarten Classroom: An Empirical Study of Teachers’ Assessment Approaches

Within the current accountability framework of public education, kindergarten teachers face the challenge of balancing traditional developmental programing and current academically oriented curriculum. Central to this challenge is teachers’ uses of assessment to measure and communicate student learning in relation to their curricular stance. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth examination of three teachers’ approaches to assessment within the current context of kindergarten education in order to elucidate potential approaches to bridging developmental and academic demands. Based on data collected from teacher interviews and classroom observations, three profiles are constructed that link focal teachers’ curricular stances with their approach to assessment. The paper concludes with a discussion on assessment within kindergarten education and areas for future research in the field.     

From piloting e‐submission to electronic management of assessment (EMA): Mapping grading journeys

The increasing interest in electronic management of assessment is a sign of a gradual institutionalisation of e‐submission and e‐marking technologies in UK Higher Education. The effective adoption of these technologies requires a managed approach, especially a detailed understanding of current assessment practices within the institution and the development of new or adapted business processes. The findings from close participant observation of assessment processes over a 2‐year period across a large Faculty reveal that three independent variables around (1) initial marking, (2) internal quality assurance and (3) the timing of the return of e‐feedback to students, determine variance in grading journeys. Despite the apparent wide variety of processes, five major grading journeys prevail: three varieties of moderation (moderation of multiple markers and moderation of single markers either before or after grades and feedback are released to students); and two forms of second marking (either blind or open to peers). Within an institution, the identification of major workflows is fundamental to both an effective implementation of assessment technologies and in conducting change. The identification of major workflows across UK Higher Education Institutions remains critical to attain the necessary software development from global vendors.