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ACER researchers achieve a breakthrough in measuring creativity and curiosity
No full textA challenge to create a learning transcript for curiosity and creativity for the International Baccalaureate Organization has resulted in tools that every school can use
Ways of orienting secondary schools to becoming learning communities
Get PDFThis paper focuses on work carried out over the past two years at the Australian Council for Educational Research for a project entitled: Improving the Foundations for Lifelong Learning in Secondary Schools. Lifelong learning at secondary school level in particular is concerned with keeping students engaged in learning at school and developing in students those characteristics that will make learning an integral part of their lives when they leave school. To a large extent this involves developing the idea of schools as learning communities. The research is underpinned by an exploration of issues through the extensive literature on lifelong learning and through case study work with seven secondary schools in South Australia and Victoria. The schools were selected for their interest in lifelong learning, but they are at different stages of developing and implementing policies and practices on the journey to becoming ‘learning communities’
Reimagining classroom assessment and feedback to meet learner needs
Get PDFThe power of classroom assessment and feedback to improve student learning outcomes has long been recognised. Yet, decades of research have yielded disappointing and often conflicting outcomes. This presentation challenges traditional conceptions of classroom assessment and feedback as teacher-driven practices. To meet learner needs better, it proposes a student-centred perspective in which students are active and have agency. By drawing on an extensive study of feedback reviews, this presentation illustrates how conceptualisations of feedback have changed over recent decades. This paper provides key insights into how classroom assessment and feedback practices can be changed in ways that are sustainable, afford student agency, and enhance student learning outcomes. Key learnings from recent research in primary and secondary education contexts are synthesised to provide state-of-the-art insights for shaping policy, practice and future research
The accuracy of item and ability estimate of concurrent calibration under the Interlaced Anchor Test design administration
No full textThe Indonesia’s teacher’s qualification assessment was administered to more than 600,000 participants in the first of three batches consisting of several days of administration. To amp-up the test security and avoid any threats of cheating and test-stealing that could affect the validity of the results, equivalence forms were developed and an interlaced anchored design with a systematic block of missing responses was implemented. To investigate the effectiveness of the design, a simulation was conducted to study the accuracy of the concurrent calibration estimation under two parameters logistic model of the item response theory. Sample sizes were varied with one thousand replications. Root mean square of difference between the true value and the estimates was computed partition into bias and variance. Positive results were obtained and will be discussed in the light of the implication of the design in real conditions
Assessments for global goals
No full textAssessing where students are at in their learning is critical in determining the progress of countries towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4): ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education … for all’ by 2030. ACER’s contribution to Education 2030 is spearheaded by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre, a long-term partnership with the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The GEM Centre develops robust methods for using regional or national learning assessments to report against global proficiency standards in reading and mathematics. Education stakeholders continue to be concerned about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning outcomes and progress towards SDG 4. ACER, with support from the GEM Centre, developed the Assessments for Minimum Proficiency Levels (AMPL) as part of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics study ‘COVID-19: Monitoring Impacts on Learning Outcomes’ (MILO)’. The AMPLs are groundbreaking tools that can be administered, independently or alongside national or regional assessments, to measure the proportion of learners at the end of primary school who have achieved at least a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics (SDG indicator 4.1.1b). For the MILO study, the AMPLs were used to monitor the effects of COVID-19 in six African countries. This presentation provides an overview of how the GEM Centre supports countries to achieve global goals and uses the MILO study as an example, with a focus on the investigation of the educational responses to COVID-19 and the resulting recommendations to build more resilient education systems
Reimagining the purpose of assessment
Get PDFAssessment is commonly understood as the process of judging how well students have learnt what they have been taught. It comes at the end of a sequence that begins with a curriculum or course syllabus. Teachers are expected to deliver this body of specified content, students are expected to learn it, and assessment is the process of judging and grading students on how well they have learnt what teachers have taught. This is a common view of assessment among students, parents and many teachers. I will argue in this presentation that this traditional understanding of what it means to learn successfully is no longer serving us well. It results in many less advanced students falling further behind in their learning, being written off as poor learners, and eventually disengaging from school. It also fails to challenge and extend some of our most advanced students, resulting in less progress than they are capable of making. The alternative is to use assessment to monitor learning – that is, to establish and understand where learners are in their long-term learning progress; to evaluate growth over time; and to provide teachers, students, parents, school leaders, system managers and governments with quality information to promote further learning. Shifting the focus from judging and grading to monitoring would be a significant change in assessment practice with the potential to better support successful learning
Sharing and securing learners\u27 performance standards across schools
Get PDFAssessing learners’ performance makes very different demands upon teachers depending on the purpose and the context of the assessment. But common to all assessment is some sense of what ‘quality’ looks like. Most often teachers engage in formative assessments in the classroom, and the familiar standards of the classroom are adequate for this purpose. However if teachers are to undertake external, nationally regulated assessment then some sense of a national standard of quality is required. But there are very limited mechanisms by which teachers can acquire this understanding, so they use their best judgement, and standards vary from school to school not because anyone is attempting to cheat the system but simply because they cannot know what the real national standard is. It is for this reason that regulated examination bodies follow some process such as the following from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) in Ireland. ‘… teacher estimated marks will be subjected to an in-school alignment process and later a national standardisation process’. (SEC, 2021). How much simpler it would all be if teachers had – as a matter of normal practice – access to, and familiarity with, work from a national sample of schools, not just their own classroom. Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) is an online assessment tool that has been used for some years, principally as a formative tool for learners (e.g. Bartholomew et al., 2018; 2019). This presentation reports on a study of the new ACJ Steady State tool from the same stable. The purpose of the new tool is to solve the problem of variable standards across schools by enabling teachers to make paired judgements of work from multiple schools and thereby evolve and agree standards of performance beyond their own school. The current study is operating in Ireland with a group of schools, a university, and the SEC. The anticipated outcomes include 1) better consistency of performance standards across schools in the research group and 2) greater understanding of and confidence in assessment judgements by the teachers. If ACJ has proved to be a powerful formative assessment tool for learners, ACJ Steady State is designed to be a formative assessment tool for teachers, helping to inform and support their assessment judgements
Evidence-informed early language and literacy practice: Implementation of a new formative assessment for early language and literacy development
Get PDFWith one in five Australian children starting school developmentally vulnerable, there is a need in this critical period for visibility over children’s oral language and early literacy development. The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) partnered with a Northern Territory primary school to implement the Early Language and Literacy Development Index (ELLDI), a newly-created valid and reliable assessment which places children on a progression scale for oral language and early literacy development and provides meaningful, accessible recommendations for educational practice. Twenty-three children in the school’s transition cohort were measured using the ELLDI at the beginning and end of the school year. Educators’ capacity to interpret children’s ELLDI Feedback (assessment results) was built during regular online co-planning sessions, driving adaptations to pedagogical approaches to best suit each child’s need. Significant growth from pre-test to post-test was observed for children in the case study group. Additional changes were also observed at the educator, school, and community level as a result of the school’s use of the ELLDI to inform planning and practice. The ELLDI, when linked to pedagogical approaches, provides a catalyst for systemic change which can then change children’s educational trajectories
Infographic: Expectations of teaching hours
Get PDFThe newly-released Education at a Glance 2022: OECD Indicators reports on the state of education in OECD and partner countries. In this infographic, we take a look at the net statutory teaching time in hours, per year, in public institutions across the world for pre-primary and upper-secondary, general programs.https://research.acer.edu.au/teacher_graphics/1181/thumbnail.jp
Simulation of comparing the sensitivity between response model and response time model detecting aberrant behavior
Get PDFThis study aims to determine whether there is a difference in detection rates between response model and response time model to detect aberrant behavior. Also, to determine examinee’s ability estimation accuracy of each model along with checking the strengths and weakness when there is an aberrant behavior in testing data especially CBT. This research is a simulation study where concentrate on test-length, sample-size, and aberrant level with 50 replications. Analyzing parameter recovery from replicated data to check the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Further, comparing the lz person-fit that using response’s data and response time’s data to see which one the most sensitive is from both models. Moreover, the estimation of examinee’s ability also compared to see the accuracy of each model. The result shows that increment of aberrant level would make item parameter estimation more bias for both models. Detection rates using response time (or response time model) indicates more sensitivity than detection rates using response (or response model). Both models also showed there was an increment estimation for examinee who doing aberrant behavior, so becomes bias and invalid if used as decision-making.https://research.acer.edu.au/ical/1009/thumbnail.jp