EDC3001

Assessment of learning

Associate Professor G L Rowley

6 points - 3 hours per week - First semester - Clayton - Prerequisite: Completion of first two years of program

Objectives Upon successful completion of this subject, students should be familiar with a wide range of assessment techniques suitable for secondary schooling; be able to formulate objectives appropriate to the subjects that they are likely to teach; be able to construct and use assessment tasks that are suitable for the assessment of those objectives; understand the concepts of norm- and criterion-referencing, and their implications for the construction of assessment tasks and the interpretation of students' performance on those tasks; understand the concepts of reliability and validity, and know how they can be determined in common assessment formats; be able to evaluate the quality and suitability of tests and other assessment tasks for specific purposes; be familiar with assessment and reporting policies for schools; be informed about issues of public concern or debate in relation to assessment; be able to reflect on their own experience with assessment, and use this to inform the assessment decisions that they will have to make in the future.

Synopsis This subject provides an introduction to the study of assessment, beginning with the assessment that students have experienced in their own formal education, and moving on to consider the broad range of tasks than can be used to assess school learning. Students will be introduced to a range of formal and informal techniques for assessment, and given practice both in constructing and performing suitable assessment tasks. They will be provided with frameworks for considering the purposes for which assessments are used, the uses to which they are put and the means by which they are interpreted. They should learn ways to evaluate the success of a single assessment task and of a program of assessment for a subject. Different types of assessment lend themselves better to different purposes, uses and interpretations, and the subject is designed to help students understand these links and use them as they make decisions about assessment. The subject will also serve to introduce students to the assessment and reporting requirements that they will encounter in secondary schools, and to understand the bases upon which such requirements are formulated.

Assessment Examination (1.5 hours): 25% - Essay (1500 words): 25% - Project: 25% - Journal (1500 words): 25%

Prescribed texts

Oosterhof A C Developing and using classroom assessments Merrill 1996

Recommended texts

Airasian P W Assessment in the classroom McGraw-Hill, 1996
Griffin P and Nix P Educational assessment and reporting Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991
Linn R L and Gronlund N E Measurement and assessment in teaching Prentice-Hall, 1994
Victorian Board of Studies Curriculum and standards framework VBOS, 1995
Victorian Department of Education Assessment and reporting home page World Wide Web: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/assess.htm
White R T and Gunstone R F Probing understanding Blackwell, 1992

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