美国高等教育增值评价模式的兴起与应用

为提升本科教育质量、回应社会问责,一种重新回归学生本位,关注学生成长和发展,评测高等教育为学生带来影响的增值评价运动正在美国大学兴起。增值评价主要测量学生从进入大学到毕业期间所发生的变化,目前可运用直接法、间接法、事后法三种方法来测量。学生的增值是学校教育质量的根本体现,增值评价改变了大学以往过多以"输入"为标准、以经验判断为主要依据的评价模式,构建起了以学习者为中心,以可显现证据为基础,以教育过程、学生学习结果为核心的一套新的教育质量评价体系,是对以往高等教育评估模式的超越,也是美国大学回归大学之道的根本体现。     

Sustainable assessment revisited

Sustainable assessment has been proposed as an idea that focused on the contribution of assessment to learning beyond the timescale of a given course. It was identified as an assessment that meets the needs of the present in terms of the demands of formative and summative assessment, but which also prepares students to meet their own future learning needs. This paper reviews the value of such a notion for assessment; how it has been taken up over the past 15 years in higher education and why it might still be needed. It identifies how it has been a successful intervention in assessment discourse. It explores what more is needed to locate assessment as an intervention to focus on learning for the longer term. It shows how sustainable assessment can help bridge the gap between assessment and learning, and link to ideas such as self-regulation, students’ making judgements about their own work and course-wide assessment.     

Engaged pedagogy: a study of the use of reflective journals in accounting education

This paper provides a report on a study of innovation in postgraduate education in which a reflective learning journal was used for formal assessment purposes in a management accounting course. Prompted by the discourse on the shortcomings of accounting education in terms of learning processes, learning experiences and learning outcomes, the reflective journal was designed to address concerns related to poor uptake of teaching and learning innovations in the discipline and recognised deficiencies in the generic competencies of accounting graduates. Utilising action research methods, the incremental approach to the implementation of the assessment activity is described and evaluated based on an analysis of 73 journal submissions across a five‐year period. The results, while based on a sample of limited size, indicated a dichotomy in surface versus deep approaches to learning in reference to the assessment task, but with improvements in student performances and learning outcomes when more radical change to the learning journal assessment item was introduced.     

Patterns of resistance in managing assessment change

Achieving change in assessment practices in higher education is difficult. One of the reasons for this is resistance among those responsible for teaching and assessing. This paper seeks to explore this resistance through an analysis of staff dialogue during a major attempt to change the assessment practices at one institution. An institution-wide intervention to pilot new assessment practices was initiated, involving 35 academics across 12 departments. This paper reports on patterns emerging in dialogue about this among academics, and between academics and educational development personnel. Findings suggest that resistance is not a unitary concept, but that different stakeholders under varied circumstances express it differently; and that resistance to assessment change is particularly resilient. Implications are discussed in terms of relevance to current theories of higher education assessment and learning change management, as well as the practical considerations of attempts by institutions to engage in assessment change.     

Assessment leaders’ perspectives of institutional cultures of assessment: a Delphi study

Institutional cultures of assessment are praised as beneficial to student learning. Yet, extant studies have not explored the theoretical foundations and pragmatic approaches to shaping cultures of assessment. The researchers used the Delphi method to explore 10 higher education assessment leaders’ attitudes and theoretical perspectives regarding cultures of assessment. These expert assessment leaders were iteratively surveyed until a reasonable threshold of consensus was reached. Study participants viewed buy-in as a necessary component of a positive campus culture of assessment, and advice on reshaping negative cultures was offered. Assessment leaders’ guiding theoretical frameworks were implied and loosely defined with metaphors. Finally, advice is offered for improving cultures of assessment by symbolically connecting assessment to student learning through dialogue.     

以人为本--信息技术教育的评价新观

信息技术教育着眼于所有的学习者,重在普及信息技术和文化,提高受教育者的信息素质与能力以支持自己的学习.信息技术教育评价的作用应是排除学生的学习障碍,目的是促进学生的全面健康发展.由于学生智能结构、学习风格等方面的差异,评价不能一概而论地只采用一个标准,而应从促进学生的潜能发展出发,激发和保护学生的学习热情与发展潜力,以人为本地评价,以体现素质教育的需要.     

Assessment innovation and student experience: a new assessment challenge and call for a multi-perspective approach to assessment research

The impact of innovative assessment on student experience in higher education is a neglected research topic. This represents an important gap in the literature-given debate around the marketisation of higher education, international focus on student satisfaction measurement tools and political calls to put students at the heart of higher education in the UK. This paper reports on qualitative findings from a research project examining the impact of assessment preferences and familiarity on student attainment and experience. It argues that innovation is defined by the student, shaped by diverse assessment experiences and preferences, and therefore its impact is difficult to predict. It proposes that future innovations must explore assessment choice mechanisms which allow students to shape their own assessments. Cultural change and staff development will be required to achieve this. To be accepted, assessment for student experience must be viewed as a complementary layer within a complex multi-perspective model of assessment, which also embraces assessment of learning, assessment for learning and assessment for lifelong learning. Further research is required to build a meta-theory of assessment to enhance the synergies between these alternative approaches and minimise the tensions between them.     

Contested discourses: assessing the outcomes of learning from experience for the award of credit in higher education

When mature students enter higher education they bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience gained in their lives outside of education. A majority of higher education institutions in the UK and elsewhere around the world have now set up systems for recognizing and accrediting such learning. However the processes of assessing learning from experience tend to conform to other higher education assessment processes, originally devised for the assessment of learning gained through study in an educational context. This poses a dilemma for the students presenting their learning for assessment, those advising or guiding them and those assessing the learning. How can learning gained in a life/work setting be quantified and evaluated in academic terms? What happens in this process? This paper takes a discourse analysis approach to examine the process from both student and assessor perspectives, and proposes some strategies for bridging the gap in discourse between the outside world and academia.     

Assessment moderation in an Australian context: processes,practices, and challenges

Moderation is a quality assurance process that plays a central role in the teaching, learning, and assessment cycle in higher education. While there is a growing body of research globally on teaching, learning, and, to a lesser degree, assessment in higher education, the process of moderation of assessment has received even less attention. In a context of heightened accountability and greater transparency in the tertiary sector, the formalising of moderation processes has not been a part of established practice. In light of these changes, the purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and investigate current marking and moderation processes and practices operating within one faculty in a large urban university in eastern Australia to gain insight into the challenges to effective moderation. The findings suggest the need for moderation to be considered holistically as an inherent part of teaching and learning, and the need for ongoing staff development.     

Implementing Outcomes Assessment in an Academic Affairs Support Unit

While outcomes assessment has become a focus for institutions of higher education, assessment in academic support units remain sparse. Traditionally, assessment has been comprised of one-time student satisfaction surveys and/or supervisor evaluations tied specifically to job criteria. Although informative, these methods fail to account for or measure specific student learning outcomes completed by students via their interaction with faculty and staff. This article presents the development and implementation of a program of outcomes assessment at a 4-year public university in the northeast. Results indicate that students come to college with varying expectations of the role of academic advisors and range on a continuum of academic and social preparation to meet the demands of higher education. A majority of students are meeting the stated learning outcomes. Feedback from this assessment model is being used to improve the quality of services provided to successive cohorts of students at this institution.     

Large-scale implementation of formative assessment practices in an examination-oriented culture

Singapore’s education system has often been characterised as exam-oriented. This paper describes efforts (‘windmills’) made by the Government to constructively respond to the ‘winds of change’ in the education system. A committee called the Primary Education Review and Implementation (PERI) Committee was appointed to study and recommend the priorities, programmes and resources needed to revise primary education in Singapore. The Committee recommended that a balanced school-based assessment system that provides constructive feedback, enabling more meaningful learning in support of both academic and non-academic aspects of a pupil’s development, be carried out under the label of ‘Holistic Assessment’. This paper is an attempt at surfacing the challenges (‘walls’) in implementing ‘Holistic Assessment’ on a large scale, highlighting in particular, the tensions perceived by stakeholders concerning the interaction between formative assessment and accountability systems. It documents how stakeholders, namely teachers and parents, perceive and typify the concept of ‘Holistic Assessment’. The findings provide insights into the consequent realities of a nationwide shift in assessment purpose and discourse on teachers and parents.     

“双减”政策背景下学生学业评价问题的若干思考

在“双减”政策背景下,中小学既要大力压减考试次数,严格控制作业数量,又要确保教育教学的高质量发展,提供令家长满意的高品质教育,所以必须加大学生学业评价改革的探索力度。一些可行的改革策略主要有:去繁就简,简化评价设计,提高评价效率;改进结果评价,深化命题改革,探索表现性评价;强化过程评价,评学结合,以评促学。有了学业评价改革的配套支撑,轻负高质的教育才有望真正实现。     

Standards of practice to standards of evidence: developing assessment capable teachers

Abstract

Teacher education is a hotly debated policy area in higher education and schooling portfolios, with increasing emphasis on standards and accountability. It is in this environment that The Standards Project (2013–2015) presented in this article began. It has at its core a three-part commitment: first, to undertake a comprehensive audit and analysis of all teacher education programmes in the state of Queensland, Australia, to establish the approaches and practices Universities relied on to preparing beginning teachers as assessment capable; second, to take account of multiple perspectives and approaches in initial teacher education to integrating data into how beginning teachers are prepared to source and use evidence for improving learning and teaching; and further, to develop new principles, policy and practices for reviewing and moderating teacher education programmes against professional standards. The paper proposes a move beyond the discourse of professional standards of practice towards a complementary discourse of standards of evidence. In our collaboration we drew on two fields, namely the writing on teacher education including reviews, and the field of assessment, both considered within broader sociocultural theory applied to assessment.     

Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice

The importance of formative assessment instudent learning is generally acknowledged, butit is not well understood across higher education.The identification of some key features offormative assessment opens the way for adiscussion of theory. It is argued that thereis a need for further theoretical developmentin respect of formative assessment, which needsto take account of disciplinary epistemology,theories of intellectual and moral development,students' stages of intellectual development,and the psychology of giving and receivingfeedback. A sketch is offered of the directionthat this development might take. It is notedthat formative assessment may be eitherconstructive or inhibitory towards learning. Suggestions are made regarding research intoformative assessment, and how research mightcontribute to the development of pedagogicpractice.     

高职学生学习叙事评价研究

随着职业教育的迅猛发展,高职学生学习质量评价问题日益突出。在指出以往学习评价问题的基础上,提出高职学生自主评价之学习叙事评价,并结合典型案例进行分析,以探索高职学生学习质量评价新途径。     

学习效果评估:美国高等教育评估发展的趋向

随着利益相关者的介入,政府外在问责与高校内在质量改进的要求,促使美国高等教育评估发生了转变,更注重以学生学习效果作为重要维度。高等教育认证机构、质量评估机构纷纷推动学习效果评估的实施,建构了评估框架与标准体系,从而提升高等教育质量。在实施过程中,体现出学生全面发展的理念,政府加强介入,评估活动更加专业化,注重在全国范围内实施的特点。     

What (more) can,and should,assessment do for learning? Observations from ‘successful learning context’ in Singapore

Singapore has earned accolades as one of the leading education systems in the world, based on its record in international assessments, including TIMMS and PISA. This has contributed to the entrenchment of ‘assessment’ becoming an institutional authority of standards, teaching (performativity) and classroom learning. It is against, and amidst such contexts, that this article traces how the notion and discourse of formative assessment and Assessment for Learning (AfL) are widely introduced and used formally across all Singaporean schools, particularly after a recent introduction of new ‘Holistic and Balanced Assessment’ policies. We argue that the very institutional authority of successful high-stake examination results, which served as critical standards of performativity of teaching and learning in the classroom, is being challenged. The changing assessment context of Singaporean schools, therefore serves as an interesting case study site for studying how formative assessment and AfL can be adapted and understood when ‘learning’ is already seen to be successful.     

The role of learner-centred assessment in postsecondary organisational change

For postsecondary institutions, organisational change is an inevitable and ongoing process. Institutions face a growing need to assess student learning assessment as part of an institution's comprehensive assessment plan. While a growing body of literature suggests that learner-centred assessment is a best practice in higher education pedagogy, it is unclear whether faculty members have embraced it fully. Using data from the 1993 and 2004 administrations of the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, this study examines the extent to which faculty members employed learner-centred assessment in two- and four-year colleges in the USA. Findings show increases in use for some assessment techniques over the decade, as well as differences in use by faculty gender, discipline, and institution level. Increases in the use of these techniques may indicate a continued emphasis on learner-centred assessment and thus one aspect of organisational change. Implications for institutional policy are discussed.     

从“形成性评价”到“学习性评价”：课堂评价理论与实践的新发展

"学习性评价"是在"形成性评价"基础上发展演变而来的、为适应新一轮国际基础教育改革而产生的课堂评价理论及其指导下的课堂评价实践。"学习性评价"的五大核心理念体现了国际基础教育评价理念经历的重大变化。"学习性评价"与"形成性评价"既有密切联系又有显著区别。我国需要从评价制度(如督导)和政策层面上确立"学习性评价"在课程与教学中的地位,积极发挥"学习性评价"对课程与教学改革的促进作用。     

The Contested Curriculum: Academic learning and employability in higher education

This article explores the discourse of employability in higher education by investigating the understanding of different stakeholder groups (students, staff, employers) of the University of Nottingham (UK and China), and their fit to each other and to the educational literature. It finds that, while theories of life-long or life-wide learning position employability as an outcome of a holistic curriculum embracing both discipline and employability, stakeholders perceive learning for employability as a threat to disciplinary learning. The results suggest that to progress significant curriculum development in support of employability, a greater consensus of stakeholder views is needed with a deeper sympathy towards the integration of academic learning and employability. The article concludes with an assessment of the re-envisioning needed by Nottingham and other universities as they prepare students for an “employability” fit for purpose in a twenty-first century characterized by change and challenge.