Papers by Therese Hopfenbeck
Frontiers in Education, Nov 22, 2023
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into educational contexts may give rise to both p... more The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into educational contexts may give rise to both positive and negative ramifications for teachers' uses of formative assessment within their classrooms. Drawing on our diverse experiences as academics, researchers, psychometricians, teachers, and teacher educators specializing in formative assessment, we examine the pedagogical practices in which teachers provide feedback, facilitate peer-and self-assessments, and support students' learning, and discuss how existing challenges to each of these may be affected by applications of AI. Firstly, we overview the challenges in the practice of formative assessment independently of the influence of AI. Moreover, based on the authors' varied experience in formative assessment, we discuss the opportunities that AI brings to address the challenges in formative assessment as well as the new challenges introduced by the application of AI in formative assessment. Finally, we argue for the ongoing importance of selfregulated learning and a renewed emphasis on critical thinking for more effective implementation of formative assessment in this new AI-driven digital age.
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Nov 2, 2022
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Jul 4, 2018
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Oct 1, 2016
On 6 December 2016, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) releases its report... more On 6 December 2016, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) releases its report on the achievements of 15-year-olds from 72 countries and economies around the world. This triennial international survey aims to evaluate education systems across 72 contexts by testing skills in Mathematics, Science and Reading Literacy. This is the sixth cycle of PISA and the OECD suggests countries and economies now have the capability to compare the results over time to 'assess the impact of education policy decisions' 1. Compared to other education studies, the media coverage of PISA must be described as massive (Baird et al., 2016; Meyer & Benavot, 2013) and, as with previous years, it is expected that PISA will attract considerable discussion among policy-makers, educators and researchers (Wiseman, 2014). It is therefore timely to present a thematic issue of Assessment in Education, where we publish four articles that have analysed previous data-sets from the PISA studies each commenting upon the challenges, limitations and potential future assessment research on the PISA data. The articles touch upon issues regarding sampling, language, item difficulty and demands, as well as the secondary analyses of students' reported experiences of formative assessment in the classroom. One important message from the authors in this thematic Special Issue is the need for a more complex discussion around the use and misuse of PISA data, and the importance of pointing to the limitations of how the results are presented to policy-makers and the public. In an area where the media produces narratives on schools and education systems based upon rankings in PISA, researchers in the field of large-scale assessment studies have a particularly important role in stepping up and advising on how to interpret and understand these studies, while warning against potential misuse. In 2014, Yasmine El Masri gave a keynote at the Association for Educational Assessment-Europe conference in Tallinn, Estonia, following her Kathleen Tattersall New Researcher Award. We are pleased to publish the paper based upon her DPhil research: Language effects in international testing: the case of PISA 2006 science items. Together with Jo-Anne Baird and Art Graesser, El Masri investigates the extent to which language versions of the PISA test in Arabic, English and French are comparable in terms of item difficulty and demand (El Masri et al., 2016). As there is an ongoing discussion on whether it is possible to assess in a fair manner and compare science, mathematics and reading performances across countries and cultures, this present study offers important findings for future research. Using released PISA items, El Masri et al. show how language demands vary when comparing Arabic, English and French versions of the same item, and hence could impose different cognitive demands on the students participating in the PISA test in different countries. With the expansion of PISA to other countries through PISA for Development and the need for fair comparisons across countries, El Masri et al. suggest that subsequent research could explore the possibility of investigating computational linguistics approaches in test transadaptation as an alternative to the use of expert judgement which is the current practice in international test development. The next article in this issue by Freitas, Nunes, Reis, Seabra, and Ferro (2016), Correcting for sample problems in PISA and the improvement in Portugese students' performance, reports a
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Sep 27, 2018
Feedback is important for student learning; however, research shows that students can have a numb... more Feedback is important for student learning; however, research shows that students can have a number of difficulties when attempting to learn from feedback. Based on an in-depth analysis of undergraduate students' self-reported reflection logs, we present findings about students' experiences with oral and written feedback and how they act upon this feedback when a portfolio is the main assessment and learning tool. Our findings indicate that, within our context, students' overall experiences with receiving feedback are positive. Oral feedback was perceived as particularly valuable to the students while written feedback challenged their understanding. We identified four specific actions the students engaged in to create meaning from the feedback: internal feedback, using oral feedback, initiating dialogue and interacting with peers. The findings indicate that the students take responsibility in the feedback process. The findings are discussed in relation to current perspectives on feedback in higher education.
Elsevier eBooks, 2023
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen un... more This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world on to a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what they did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next 15 years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet.
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Nov 1, 2020
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, Aug 3, 2020
Teachers sometimes believe in the efficacy of instructional practices that have little empirical ... more Teachers sometimes believe in the efficacy of instructional practices that have little empirical support. These beliefs have proven difficult to efface despite strong challenges to their evidentiary basis. Teachers typically develop causal beliefs about the efficacy of instructional practices by inferring their effect on students' academic performance. Here, we evaluate whether causal inferences about instructional practices are susceptible to an outcome density effect using a contingency learning task. In a series of six experiments, participants were ostensibly presented with students' assessment outcomes, some of whom had supposedly received teaching via a novel technique and some of whom supposedly received ordinary instruction. The distributions of the assessment outcomes was manipulated to either have frequent positive outcomes (high outcome density condition) or infrequent positive outcomes (low outcome density condition). For both continuous and categorical assessment outcomes, participants in the high outcome density condition rated the novel instructional technique as effective, despite the fact that it either had no effect or had a negative effect on outcomes, while the participants in the low outcome density condition did not. These results suggest that when base rates of performance are high, participants may be particularly susceptible to drawing inaccurate inferences about the efficacy of instructional practices.
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Sep 2, 2020
Globalisation, Societies and Education, Jan 2, 2023
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Jan 2, 2023
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Oct 2, 2017
In their commentary article Testing, Teaching, Learning, who is in charge, Resnick and Schantz (2... more In their commentary article Testing, Teaching, Learning, who is in charge, Resnick and Schantz (2017) argue that educational practice will be weakened if tests are at odds with ‘what we know about how people learn’. They claim American teachers practice ‘teaching to the test’ and that students take ‘practice tests’ that closely match content and form of high-stake tests: ‘Teaching methods focused on problem-solving, reasoning and dialogic discussion are pushed out’ (ibid, p. 430). The dilemmas of high-stake testing is also the theme of this issue’s first article, with a specific focus upon how teachers cope with the conflicts and consequences of high-stake testing. In this issue, Klein (2017) examines whether educational staff perceive conflicts between the educational demands they experience in schools due to high-stake testing and then goes on to investigate how staff cope with these conflicts. Klein describes the Israeli context where the high-stake School Efficacy and Growth Measure tests (Meitzav tests) have been administrated to elementary and junior high schools since 2002, in the four subjects Science and Technology, Mother Tongue (Hebrew or Arabic), Mathematics and English. The test is administrated by RAMA – the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education, with the aim to provide the Ministry of Education and school principals with objective information about the schools. The tests are marked by examiners outside the school. Findings are reported back to the schools and published on an internet site, comparing national, district and local authority results. Half of the schools in Israel sit for the tests each year. The other half of the schools are offered test booklets and pedagogical material to practice for internal use until they are tested the year after. In the present study, 150 teachers from 30 public elementary schools, year 5, and 150 teachers from 30 public high schools, year 8, participated. Some of the concerns raised in the article are teachers reporting that they ask low achievers in their class not to take the tests, so-called ‘strategic behavior’. Teachers further report that they make slightly more effort in the subject they know will be tested. Klein discusses several options for tackling the consequences of high-stake tests and their impact upon schools. Unintended consequences of assessment and evaluation systems are also discussed in the article by Gagnon, Hall and Marion (2017), Teacher evaluation and local control in the US: an investigation into the degree of local control afforded to districts in defining evaluation procedures for teachers in non-tested subjects and grades. The authors write that states and schools in the United States have moved to incorporate indicators of students’ achievement into the teacher evaluation system. The rationale behind the policy is that more effective teaching should result in improved student outcomes, and therefore students’ achievements need to be included in the system. The authors note that one of the biggest challenges is to identify appropriate measures of student achievement and how to use those measures to make inferences about a teacher’s impact on students’ learning. Gagnon, Hall and Marion argue that it is particularly challenging regarding teachers who teach in the so-called ‘non-tested subjects and grades’. We end this year by publishing reviews of five books as a timely reminder of the importance of keeping up to date on new research published in books on assessment. Klenowski (2017) has reviewed the book Excellence in university assessment: learning from award-winning practice, by David Carless. Klenowski writes that the aim of the book is to bring together much of
Educational Psychology Review, Dec 10, 2019
Peer assessment has been the subject of considerable research interest over the last three decade... more Peer assessment has been the subject of considerable research interest over the last three decades, with numerous educational researchers advocating for the integration of peer assessment into schools and instructional practice. Research synthesis in this area has, however, largely relied on narrative reviews to evaluate the efficacy of peer assessment. Here, we present a meta-analysis (54 studies, k = 141) of experimental and quasiexperimental studies that evaluated the effect of peer assessment on academic performance in primary, secondary, or tertiary students across subjects and domains. An overall small to medium effect of peer assessment on academic performance was found (g = 0.31, p < .001). The results suggest that peer assessment improves academic performance compared with no assessment (g = 0.31, p = .004) and teacher assessment (g = 0.28, p = .007), but was not significantly different in its effect from self-assessment (g = 0.23, p = .209). Additionally, meta-regressions examined the moderating effects of several feedback and educational characteristics (e.g., online vs offline, frequency, education level). Results suggested that the effectiveness of peer assessment was remarkably robust across a wide range of contexts. These findings provide support for peer assessment as a formative practice and suggest several implications for the implementation of peer assessment into the classroom.
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Mar 4, 2023
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Jul 4, 2022
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, May 4, 2022
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Jan 2, 2022
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Papers by Therese Hopfenbeck