Responding to Assessment for Learning

A pedagogical method, not assessment

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/nzaroe.v26.6854

Keywords:

assessment for learning, psychometrics, pedagogical practices, error, assessment

Abstract

Assessment for learning (AfL) is a major approach to educational assessment that relies heavily on pedagogical practices, such as involving students in assessment, making transparent objectives and criteria, and asking open-ended questions that provoke higher order thinking. In this perspective piece, I argue that without the possibility of opening classroom activities to systematic and rigorous inspection and evaluation, AfL fails to be assessment. AfL activities happen ephemerally in classrooms, leading to in-the-moment and on-the-fly interpretations and decisions about student learning. In these contexts, determination of the degree of error in those judgements does not happen. Because human performance is so variable and because the samples teachers use to make judgements are not robustly representative, there is considerable error in their judgements about student learning. Nonetheless, despite the difficulties seen in putting AfL into practice, they appear to be good classroom teaching practices. In contrast, assessment proper requires careful inspection of data so that alternative explanations can be evaluated, leading to a preference for the most valid and reliable interpretation of performance evidence. Psychometric methods not only quantify amounts or qualities of performance, but also evaluate the degree to which judges agree with each other, leading to confidence in the validity and reliability of insights. Consequently, because AfL activities lack the essential characteristics of paying attention to error and methods of minimising its impact on interpretations, I recommend we stop thinking of AfL as assessment, and instead position it as good teaching.

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Author Biography

Gavin Brown, University of Auckland

Gavin Brown is a Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. He is also Associerad Professor in Educational Sciences at Umeå University, Sweden and an Honorary Professor in Curriculum and Instruction at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is a world leader in educational assessment, testing, and applied measurement. He has over 200 research publications, examining teacher and student psychology of assessment in cross-cultural contexts. His most recent books include Using self-assessment to improve student learning and Assessment of student achievement, both Routledge (2018).

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Published

2021-07-01