Implementing Criterion-referenced Assessment Within a Multi-disciplinary University Department

This paper is concerned with the reconstruction, at the departmental level, of a university assessment policy that required a shift from norm-referenced assessment to criterion-referenced assessment (CRA). As such, it provides an account of a change process driven by a centralised policy imperative and yet implemented and driven also from a bottom-up process. A wide range of data was gathered using action research methods. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with staff and students, participant journals were kept and successive drafts of criteria and standards, and samples of students' responses were collected. The data suggested that a top-down policy can be successfully combined with a departmental-driven process, if financial and time considerations are addressed and a collaborative process amongst staff is sustained. The use of action learning, as a tool for change, appeared to assist participants to begin to own a top-down policy.     

Norm-referenced,Criterion-referenced,and Dynamic Assessment: What exactly is the point?

Assessment of individual children and young people has remained a major focus of professional activity for educational psychologists (EPs) and one surrounded by continuing controversy. Despite the arguments of the 'reconstructing movement' of the 1970s, and ensuing debates, individual assessment has survived seemingly as strong as ever. Subsumed within arguments concerning the prominence given to individual assessment, another set of discussions has concerned the paradigms from which such professional activity might derive. Located among constructs contrasting environment with individual and static with interactive perspectives, the particular debate within individual assessment has centred on the relative merits of norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, curriculum-based and dynamic methods. This article presents a taxonomy of purposes and procedures deriving from these major assessment paradigms. This collection is illustrated by examples taken from EP reports, and the relative familiarity and use of each approach by one major audience group is evaluated through examining questionnaire responses from 59 Special Educational Needs Coordinators within one Local Education Authority.     

新知识观下构建学科知识评价标准的实践探索

认知心理学的研究提出了新的知识观,并形成了新的知识分类和认知过程理论。当前,在开发、编制基于课程标准的考试的过程中,需要借助新的知识观,构建学科知识评价标准,并建立一套可以指导考试前期开发的理论模式。本文在实践探索的基础上,提出了一套包含五个步骤的开发模式。     

Belief,Knowledge and Understanding

This article discusses how to deal with the relations between different cultural perspectives in classrooms, based on a proposal for considering understanding and knowledge as goals of science education, inspired by Dewey’s naturalistic humanism. It thus combines educational and philosophical interests. In educational terms, our concerns relate to how science teachers position themselves in multicultural classrooms. In philosophical terms, we are interested in discussing the relations between belief, understanding, and knowledge under the light of Dewey’s philosophy. We present a synthesis of Dewey’s theory of inquiry through his naturalistic humanism and discuss its implications for the concepts of belief, understanding, and knowledge, as well as for the goals of science teaching. In particular, we highlight problems arising in the context of possible conflicts between scientific and religious claims in the school environment that result from totalitarian positions. We characterize an individual’s position as totalitarian if he or she takes some way of thinking as the only one capable of expressing the truth about all that exists in the world, lacks open-mindedness to understand different interpretative perspectives, and attempts to impose her or his interpretation about the facts to others by violent means or not. From this stance, any other perspective is taken to be false a priori and, accordingly, as a putative target to be suppressed or adapted to the privileged way of thinking. We argue, instead, for a more fallibilist evaluation of our own beliefs and a more respectful appraisal of the diversity of students’ beliefs by both students and teachers.     

语境与隐喻理解

在交际中,听者的知识结构对语境的认知程度,及语境信息的数量、质量都对隐喻的理解过程产生重要的影响。     

The Role of Interracial Interaction in the Development of Leadership Skills and Cultural Knowledge and Understanding

While higher education leaders tout the benefits of racial diversity for developing culturally knowledgeable civic leaders, our understanding of these benefits and, in particular, the role of interracial interaction in realizing them, is still emerging. In this study, differences between the effects of interracial contact among students that are close friends versus more casual interracial interactions are examined for their affect on students' leadership skills and cultural knowledge and understanding. Findings suggest that casual interracial interaction is particularly beneficial among students with more racially homogeneous friendship circles, especially with regard to developing leadership skills. In addition, findings indicate that frequent interracial interaction among students may be more important in developing cultural knowledge than involvement in formal activities such as cultural awareness workshops.     

Assessment of Genetics Understanding

Understanding how situational features of assessment tasks impact reasoning is important for many educational pursuits, notably the selection of curricular examples to illustrate phenomena, the design of formative and summative assessment items, and determination of whether instruction has fostered the development of abstract schemas divorced from particular instances. The goal of our study was to employ an experimental research design to quantify the degree to which situational features impact inferences about participants’ understanding of Mendelian genetics. Two participant samples from different educational levels and cultural backgrounds (high school, n = 480; university, n = 444; Germany and USA) were used to test for context effects. A multi-matrix test design was employed, and item packets differing in situational features (e.g., plant, animal, human, fictitious) were randomly distributed to participants in the two samples. Rasch analyses of participant scores from both samples produced good item fit, person reliability, and item reliability and indicated that the university sample displayed stronger performance on the items compared to the high school sample. We found, surprisingly, that in both samples, no significant differences in performance occurred among the animal, plant, and human item contexts, or between the fictitious and “real” item contexts. In the university sample, we were also able to test for differences in performance between genders, among ethnic groups, and by prior biology coursework. None of these factors had a meaningful impact upon performance or context effects. Thus some, but not all, types of genetics problem solving or item formats are impacted by situational features.     

Understanding by Design: A Framework for Effecting Curricular Development and Assessment

Successful learning outcomes require the integration of content and meaningful assessment with effective pedagogy. However, development of coherent and cohesive curriculum is seemingly overwhelming even to experienced teachers. Obviously this creates a barrier to successful student learning. Understanding by Design (UbD) overcomes this impasse by providing concise and practical guidance for experienced and inexperienced teachers. In programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, teams composed of University of Wyoming graduate students and science teachers from grades 6 to 9 designed motivating, inquiry-based lesson plans intended to get students to think and act like scientists. In this process, teams utilized principles outlined in UbD with great success. UbD describes a practical and useful “backward” design process in which anticipated results are first identified; acceptable evidence for learning outcomes is established and, only then, are specific learning experiences and instruction planned. Additionally, UbD provides procedures to avoid content overload by focusing on “enduring principles.” WHERE, the UbD sieve for activities, was used effectively to develop tasks that are engaging, that are consistent with state educational standards, and that promote self-directed, life-long learning.     

Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments: compatibility and complementarity

The tension between criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessment is examined in the context of curriculum planning and assessment in outcomes-based approaches to higher education. This paper argues the importance of a criterion-referenced assessment approach once an outcomes-based approach has been adopted. It further discusses the implementation of criterion-referenced assessment, considering to what extent the criteria and standards adopted are implicitly norm referenced. It introduces a compatible interpretation of criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments in higher education, and illustrates how their combined use can avoid grade inflation and also provide useful information to educators, employers and learners. Instead of seeing criterion referencing and norm referencing as a dichotomy, assessment in higher education benefits from their synthesis through a feedback loop that emphasises alignment between learning and assessment; such feedback and alignment are essential features of quality assurance and enhancement.     

理解课堂中的形成性评价

形成性评价是一种能促进学生学习的有效策略,本文的核心问题正是如何理解课堂中的形成性评价。为此,本文将首先介绍目前美国教育系统中存在的一些问题,并就此问题提出一个可能的解决方案——形成性评价。在简要的背景回顾和文献综述之后,文章将提出我们建构的形成性评价工作模型。接着,本文将从我们围绕形成性评价设计的教师专业发展项目,以及我们自身的探索出发,讨论形成性评价面临的一些新问题。最后便是根据这些新问题,分析如何进一步理解形成性评价。     

标准参照考试及其反拨效应

本研究从两个层面( TEM4 和TEM8) 和三个维度( 学科负责人、教师和学生) ,通过问卷调查方式探讨TEM 考试对高校英语专业教学与学习的影响。研究结果显示,学科负责人、教师和学生对考试的关注点 ( 或熟悉程度) 不尽相同;考试成绩在不同程度上给各校提供了评估教学质量和检验学习成果的信息; 然而随着考试影响度的上升,考试成绩也用于院系排名、学位授予、绩效考核、就业与深造等方面;考试未对正常教学秩序或课程造成冲击,但教师和学生受访者内部对考试持不同态度。本研究结果对今后英语专业教学改革具有参考价值。     

对数学知识高效率管理的认识

综观多年来的数学教学,笔者认为影响数学教学水平的一个深层次的原因,是数学知识在学生头脑中应该怎样进行有效管理,这恰恰是被教师和学生遗忘的角落。具体地说,教师只是单纯“教会”学生知识,却忘了教会学生对知识进行管理,以至运用时很多学生不会提取知识。所谓数学知识的管理,实际上就是每个学生对所学得的数学知识在头脑中重新进行组织。知识在每个学生的头脑中不是随意堆砌的,     

论个人知识的课程论意义

在对长期主导西方思想传统的客观主义知识观的批判中,个人知识应运而生。因其综合了内容之知、能力之知和状态之知等要素,从而在承认言语可述知识的重要价值时,将认知主体的情感、态度和价值等默会认知能力概为知识范畴,进而跨越主客二分鸿沟,从明述与默会、普遍与具体等交叉维度重构个人知识内涵,赋予个人知识以逻辑品格与情境理性之特质,寓居和亲知引导其基本方法取向。个人知识为理解当前我国以核心素养为理念的课程改革带来了全新视角。     

Negative Knowledge: Understanding Professional Learning and Expertise

In this paper, we critically analyze how the concept of negative knowledge contributes to the understanding of professionals’ expert practice and learning. Negative knowledge is experientially acquired knowledge about what is wrong and what is to be avoided during performance in a given work situation. In terms of its theoretical foundation, the concept relates to constructivist theorization and metacognition. Building on existing conceptions of negative knowledge, we systematically relate the concept to research on expertise and learning from errors. The concept of negative knowledge augments existing theories of professional knowledge by emphasizing knowing about what to avoid as part of experts’ effective actions. During routine actions, negative knowledge enhances professionals’ certainty of how to proceed and increases the efficacy through the avoidance of impasses and suboptimal problem-solving strategies. Quality and depth of reflective processes after actions are related to the development of negative knowledge. The potential of negative knowledge for the investigation of professional learning is discussed through reference to recent empirical work. Re-submitted for publication in: Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education.     

Talk and the Development of Social Understanding

Our theme is that parent-child talk about the mental world plays a central role in the development of children's social understanding. This view is supported by Wittgenstein's argument that public criteria are necessary for learning the meaning of mental state terms. We propose that children, mainly in talk, learn the patterns of interaction that are criterial for the use of mental state terms. Two examples of empirical research illustrate this proposal. The first, a qualitative analysis of how criteria for psychological terms are displayed in mother-child talk, revealed that criteria were variously displayed and were presented in temporal, cause and effect sequences. The second, a quantitative analysis of key elements for understanding false beliefs present in mother-child talk, compared dyads in which children Failed (N = 14) or Passed (N = 10) false belief tests. In both Fail and Pass dyads, mothers elicited the vast majority of elements but produced about the same number as children. Only Pass children produced elements without mothers eliciting them. There were no instances of child-elicited/mother-produced elements. Overall, Fail children were less competent at recognizing and commenting on important aspects of a situation of false belief. We conclude that the development of talk and social understanding are inextricably intertwined.     

Talk and the Development of Social Understanding

Our theme is that parent-child talk about the mental world plays a central role in the development of children's social understanding. This view is supported by Wittgenstein's argument that public criteria are necessary for learning the meaning of mental state terms. We propose that children, mainly in talk, learn the patterns of interaction that are criterial for the use of mental state terms. Two examples of empirical research illustrate this proposal. The first, a qualitative analysis of how criteria for psychological terms are displayed in mother-child talk, revealed that criteria were variously displayed and were presented in temporal, cause and effect sequences. The second, a quantitative analysis of key elements for understanding false beliefs present in mother-child talk, compared dyads in which children Failed (N = 14) or Passed (N = 10) false belief tests. In both Fail and Pass dyads, mothers elicited the vast majority of elements but produced about the same number as children. Only Pass children produced elements without mothers eliciting them. There were no instances of child-elicited/mother-produced elements. Overall, Fail children were less competent at recognizing and commenting on important aspects of a situation of false belief. We conclude that the development of talk and social understanding are inextricably intertwined.     

论基于知识理解的网络课程设计

在信息过剩的网络资源条件下,促进学生理解是教学过程中一个核心目标。基于知识理解的网络课程设计,是以呈现衍生性论题、公开的理解目标、层次化的理解活动,实现引领理解的导航以及促进理解的持续性评价,来呈现学习内容的网络课程模式。