Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives Upon successful completion of this subject, students should have developed understanding of the concepts of competitive, descriptive and goal-based assessment; preparative, formative and summative assessment; assessment in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains; reliability and validity of assessment methods; item and test analysis. Students should have expanded their knowledge of the wide range of available assessment methods, and developed their competence in devising, employing and improving such methods. Students' ability to consider topical issues related to assessment policies (eg grading procedures for VCE, use of externally-imposed accountability procedures, methods of reporting pupil achievement to parents) and come to an informed judgement about those policies should be enhanced.
Synopsis This subject will include competitive, descriptive and goal-based assessment; preparative, formative and summative evaluations; diagnostic techniques for assessing the quality of student learning; measurement in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains; methods for reporting assessments. The emphasis will be upon practical applications with the aim of improving the quality of assessment procedures used in the relationship of these concepts to the implementation of current assessment policies (eg grading procedures for VCE, common assessment tasks, measurement of key competencies, and identifying profiles of learning) will also be explored. Those enrolled in the subject should preferably be currently teaching; if not they should have ready access to a group of learners.
Assessment Three assignments: 33% each