Thinking about Assessment. (1999)

Educational Assessment in the 21st Century, 2009

In this chapter it is argued that there is a need to explore the theoretical underpinnings to assessment in the 21st century against the backdrop of increasing interest in large-scale, standardised teaching for accountability and reporting purposes on the one hand, and on the other hand, an interest in formative assessment for improving learning. A framework of assessment as critical inquiry is proposed based on an approach to assessment as 'meaning making' (Delandshere, Teachers' College Record, 104 , 2002). The framework is based on the proposition that when assessment is understood as critical inquiry, the practices and processes of assessing-social and cultural acts of doing assessment in actual contexts-can be considered in relation to four main lenses: (1) conceptions of knowledge, including the nature of the knowledge domains and the related capabilities to be assessed;

Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2012

It is sometimes said that there has been a 'paradigm shift' in the field of assessment over the last two or three decades: a new preoccupation with what learners can do, what they know or what they have achieved. It is suggested in this article that this change has precipitated a need to distinguish two conceptually and logically distinct methodological approaches to assessment that have hitherto gone unacknowledged. The upshot, it is argued, is that there appears to be a fundamental confusion at the heart of current policy, a confusion occasioned by the demand to know what learners know and compounded by a failure to recognise what this properly entails for assessment methodology.

2000

Many authors over the past twenty years have argued that the prevailing ‘psychometric’ paradigm for educational assessment is inappropriate and have proposed that educational assessment should develop its own distinctive paradigm. More recently (and particularly within the last five years) it has become almost commonplace to argue that changes in assessment methods are required because of changing views of human cognition, and in particular, the shift from ‘behaviourist’ towards ‘constructivist’ views of the nature of human learning. However, these changes are still firmly rooted within the psychometric paradigm, since within this perspective, the development of assessment is an essentially ‘rationalist’ project in which values play only a minor (if any) role. The validation of an assessment proceeds in a ‘scientific’ manner, and the claim is that the results of any validation exercise would be agreed by all informed observers. Developing on the work of Samuel Messick, in this paper...

Seeking a Philosophy of Assessment: Rethinking and Reconceptualizing Assessment for Today’s Education and Society, 2023

The idea of assessment, while prevalent in education, needs rethinking. This paper reflects on the notion of assessment in today's society, proposing an alternative for what it could (and should) be. By critically analyzing the role of assessment in today's education, we conducted a hermeneutic examination of its original concept's influence on the potential shift away from subject taxation and its current pornification. Through a discussion of assessment's role in contemporary society and its true nature, the authors propose a shift from viewing assessment as a mere curriculum add-on to envisioning how a philosophy of assessment could profoundly transform education and society.

1991

This paper is intended to raise questions and identify some of the problems posed by assessment within an educational setting. The principal aim is to offer a springboard for discussion, rather than to propose a specific plan of action. It is also worth stressing that assessment designates more than just examinations (public or otherwise). As teachers and educators, we are constantly making assessments of our students, passing official, unofficial, conscious and unconscious judgements. These are judgements which inevitably influence our attitudes to our jobs, our performance and our teaching or administrative styles. They also have wide-ranging repercussions on the attitudes, performances and future of our students. They are judgements based on a complex series of assumptions which we habitually make about, for instance, what education involves, the nature of schooling, school structures and their aims, the learning process as it relates to human development. What follows is largely inspired by a desire to identify and scrutinize some of the most recurrent of these assumptions.

Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2004

The completion of the first ten years of this journal is an occasion for review and reflection. The main issues that have been addressed over the ten years are summarized in four main sections: Purposes, International Trends, Quality Concerns and Assessment for Learning. Each of these illustrates the underlying significance of the themes of principles, policy and practice, which the journal highlights in its subtitle. The many contributions to these themes that the journal has published illustrate the diversity and complex interactions of the issues. They also illustrate that, across the world, political and public pressures have had the effect of enhancing the dominance of assessment so that the decade has seen a hardening, rather than any resolution, of its many negative effects on society. A closing section looks ahead, arguing that there is a move to rethink more radically the practices and priorities of assessment if it is to respond to human needs rather than to frustrate them.

Assessment through the Looking Glass, 2010

Assessment Practices in Education "We plan. We develop. We deliver. We assess and evaluate the results of the assessment. We revise, deliver the revised material, and assess and evaluate again. Perfection is always just out of reach; but continually striving for perfection contributes to keeping both our instruction fresh and our interest in teaching piqued."-E.S. Grassian Assessment is a fundamental element in the process of teaching and learning and is instrumental in enhancing its overall quality. Well designed assessment sets clear expectations, establishes a reasonable workload-one that does not drive students into rote reproductive approaches to study, and offers myriad opportunities for students to self-monitor, rehearse, practise and receive feedback. It is an integral component of a coherent and a sound educational experience. The paper attempts to highlight some of the foundational concepts and principles of assessment, assessment strategies and assessment literacy-in other words, what it is, why it is important to a teacher and how it is practised with reference to a good Language test. We have this notion that assessment often hinders the flow of teaching; but it is not so. There are so many assessment techniques that we consciously and unconsciously incorporate in our teaching strategies, however, at times we are unaware of the specific terminologies that go with them. The term raises some questions in my mind: How good or effective an assessor am I? Am I neglecting assessments while I teach? Am I able to draw a line between a smooth flow of instructions and at the same time keep an eye on the effect of instructions on the learners? Are these one to three hour tests actually valid form of assessment? If a learner fails a test does that mean that his assessment is negative? A commendable aspect of assessment is that it focuses on what students know, what they are able to do, and what values they have when they graduate to higher pastures in their academic journey. Let us not judge our students simply on what they know. That is the philosophy of the quiz programme. Rather let them be judged on what they can generate from what they know — how well they can leap the barrier from learning to thinking.-Jerome Bruner (Harvard Educational Review, 1959) Assessment does not stand in isolation from other acts that are a part of the process of learning, unlearning and relearning. Introducing multifaceted learning strategies in class would open up numerous vistas for learners with multiple intelligences and would certainly validate the process of assessments that are employed by the teachers. There is an urgent need to have a more constructive approach towards assessment planning and strategies.

Teaching in Higher Education, 2008

Over the past few decades assessment has been heralded for its key role in the improvement of teaching and learning. However, more recently there have been expressions of uncertainty about whether assessment is in fact delivering on its promised potential. Against this backdrop of uncertainty and circumspection this paper offers a critical reflection on higher education assessment discourses with a particular focus on the discourse of criterion referenced assessment. The central argument is that while the social constructivist perspective has significantly illuminated our understanding of assessment, inadvertently the very object of assessment Á knowledge Á has been eclipsed. I propose that a fruitful way forward for our assessment practices is the centring of disciplinary forms of knowledge as an explicit component of the object of our assessment. Drawing on sociologists of education Á Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton Á I stake out some of the theoretical ground for reconceptualising the relationship between knowledge and assessment.

Arguments against outcomes assessment often provide powerful portrayals of assessment as anathema to quality teaching and learning in higher education. However, we two philosophers, with extensive experience designing, implementing, and managing outcomes assessment, find these arguments to be less than convincing. In this paper, we present a philosophical analysis of some of these arguments with the goal of unpacking their exact strengths and weaknesses. In doing so, we are more interested in discussing these arguments in the context of assessment (or conceptions of assessment) well done and well managed rather than reading these arguments as attacks on poorly implemented versions of assessment. In short, we aim to get at the realistic possibilities of using assessment as a tool for improving instruction, curricula, and student learning. We also advocate scholarship of teaching and learning that aims to improve theories of learning assessment and to develop new models and methods of assessment.