Transcript Document

Association for Achievement and Improvement
through Assessment
Conference 2004
Thinking about Assessment
From a Culture of Accountability to a Culture of
Responsibility
Professor B J McGettrick
University of Glasgow
In present day society, the education system may play
an increasingly significant role in terms of social
cohesion and cultural leadership.
If they are to be successful in this regard schools must
be aware of how they are to develop those human
assets for which they have responsibility. They must
feel empowered to state their priorities and be
supported in their development.
Are we looking for attainment or for creativity…
both?
or
Assessment is the formal process of
collecting evidence
about the success and progress
of students as they learn.
Education in the service of Human Development
Education is often thought about for learning
Why are we learning? … To think …
Why are we thinking? ... To be human.
What is it to be human? ... Autonomous, dignified
and free …?
“Amongst the other blessings (which God gives) it is to
be reckoned not least that by assiduous study man may
win the pearl of knowledge. This shows him the way to
live well and happily and its preciousness opens the
door for him to understand the mysteries of the
universe; it helps and raises to distinction those that
were born in the lowest places.”
(Nicholas V, Bull of 7 January 1451, Glasgow University
Archives)
“Education thus presents itself as at once
preparation for life and an irreplaceable part of life
itself:
Hence the good school is to be assessed not by any
tale of examination successes, however impressive,
but by the extent to which it has filled the years of
youth with security, graciousness and ordered
freedom,
and has thus been the seed-bed for the flowering in
due season of all that is of good report.”S
AAdvisory Report on Secondary Education in Scotland, 1947
A Report of The Advisory Council on Education in
Scotland,
Amongst
the
most
significant
purposes of education are:
Forming people
 Of love, care and compassion
 With a deep sense of hope
 Who appreciate beauty and wonder
 Who will serve the world by their gifts
Are we to value what we assess
or
Assess what we value?
Education is deeply concerned with humanity....to
raise people to distinction...to make the most of
human assets in the service of others. It is an
enterprise which, of course, has both a value and a
price.
We ought not to lose sight of both these attributes in a
world which pays
more attention to prices than to values;
more attention to employment than to critical
curiosity;
and more attention to the individual than the
collective spirit.
The curriculum is not the purpose
of education.
Assessment is not the purpose of
education.
Achievement and attainment are
not the purposes of education.
These are means to the end, and not
the ends in themselves.
Are we losing the capacity to know the
essential purposes in education in our
society?
Knowing the difference between ends and
means
Do both means and ends reflect our values?
Assessment in Education
Planning
Evaluating
Teaching
Reporting
Recording
A challenge for the educational leader is to move
from
a culture of accountability
to
a culture of co-responsibility.
Good practices recognise that to be educated is,
to a large degree, a corporate act. Education is
not always about decisions taken by a single
person but is concerned with facilitating what is
required “in the common good”.
This will be the common good of the school
community as well as the good of society more
generally.
Consider the role of teamwork in Ferrari!
A Model for Learning
Content – Principles,
Knowledge, Concepts,
Ideas, Skills
Relationships
Dispositions to
Learning – Learning
to Love Learning
Emotional and
Spiritual
Space
What seems to be the case that each person
will have their interest in learning driven by one
of these aspects
The content
The disposition
The relationships, or
The emotional or spiritual need.
Assessment should pay special attention to the
quality of relationships… a key to learning.
Assessment will have a relationship with qualifications
and awards. The nature of this relationship has to be
clear, when it exists.
It is likely that the future will be one in which there are
“hybrids” of awards, rather than monolithic schemes
as at present.
These will be characterised by being
person-centred (not just learner-centred)
flexible
internationally-referenced
partly “mobile” in their style
etc
Assessment should promote effective relationships.
Weak assessment patterns can create relationships
which are
•
fragile
•
uncertain
•
threatening
Effective education is based on relationships which are
•
robust
•
confident
•
give positive feelings
The Seven Dimensions of Learning Power
(Ruth Deakin-Crick, Guy Claxton etc)
•
making meaning
•
critical curiosity
•
creativity
•
learning relationships
•
strategic awareness
•
resilience
•
changing and learning
The excessive concerns for NARROW targets and
standards set by others outside the school can become
paralysing to creativity and the pursuit of new ideas.
Schools are not at their best when the have become
places of compliance and conformity to detail.
This is the antithesis of the open, creative and
investigative mind fostered within the community of
scholars.
There is evidence to suggest that a plateau is
reached by seeking to raise attainment through
externally imposed change.
The real need is to develop a culture of
professional co-responsibility in which change
and improvement are developed by the
intrinsic motivation of the learner… facilitated
by the teacher.
Hierarchy of Learning
Learning how to become
Learning how to be
Learning how to do
Learning how to learn
Learning how to repeat
Educating to serve society through just assessment
The great human need of our time is justice in our
society. This is not a legal concept, or one based on a
kind of superficial fairness.
It is a deep desire to treat each person with dignity,
respect, and seeing each person as a source of human
progress serving all people through their gifts for a
better world.
We need to show that learning has vibrancy and vitality
in the pursuit of truth. It is not inert and anachronistic,
but alive in the formation of each student and of a better
community.
The emphasis is always on quality enhancement and the
improvement of learning. Education is not just about
“the good”.
In certain circumstances the good is the enemy of the
great. Schools should encourage and support great
thoughts, and not simply comply with the good ones.
Some Challenges
Are we producing the kinds of ideas which are
relevant and which dignify the lives and times
of young people?
We desperately need more imagination, and
more creativity in assessment to inspire young
people.
Self-assessment has its place;
peer assessment has its place;
group assessment is important; ….
There is a need to move beyond e-assessment to
mobile assessment.
Some principles of mobile assessment :
1 Adds value.
2 Avoids imposing limitations on creativity and
developing personal qualities.
3 Is complementary to and not an alternative to
more traditional approaches.
4 Is developed by and with practitioners.
5 Maintains concerns for reliability and validity.
We need to find a way of motivation of young
people through offering hope and care.
Assessment is a means to the end, not the end in
itself.
The centrality of assessment in promoting hope,
justice and dignity cannot be over-estimated.
Assessment
needs
to
be
concerned
with
knowledge, understanding, skills, as well as the
values and virtues of humanity.
There is a need for international mobility across
educational systems
The international referencing of a framework of
awards and qualifications should be comprehensive,
and encompass the field from 3years old – PhD awards
There is a greater need for understanding the power of
assessment in relation to
•
learning
•
confidence building
•
human growth and development.
Professional Ethical Courage
The greatest need among professionals is to have
the professional courage to serve those whom we
are entrusted to serve by our values and our
professional commitment.
Assessment can contribute to change in ways that
are dramatic and lasting.
Grounds for hope in educational assessment:
hope in a better future in which ethical
standards allow us to focus on the common
good
hope in a more just society, where assessment is
relevant and supportive of the learner;
hope in the application of ethical practices in all
assessment;

hope that the profession will sustain society in
justice and for the good of all.