EDET460 - Effective Teaching 5: Understanding and Implementing Assessment and Data Informed Practice

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

EDET211 Effective Teaching 3 Positive Environments to Engage Young Learners

Incompatible

EDET400 Effective Teaching 5: Assessment and Data Informed Practice , EDFD471 Assessment Practices and Evaluation

Unit rationale, description and aim

Pre–service teachers must develop assessment literacy as integral to effective curriculum decision–making.

This unit builds on pre–service teachers’ knowledges and understandings about the nature and purposes of assessment, and the roles assessment plays in teaching and learning. Students examine theories, policies, practices and technologies related to educational assessment, and apply these to understand and implement assessment strategies that meet the learning and development needs of diverse children, families and communities. Pre–service teachers are provided with opportunities to form advanced understandings about educational assessment, including what constitutes relevant and effective data. They gather, analyse, interpret and moderate relevant and effective data to arrive at credible conclusions and to make recommendations for the improvement of children’s learning. Students will draw on understandings about diversity and partnership to identify strategies that engage parents/carers in the educative process, and ways to report meaningfully to parents/carers and other significant stakeholders.

This unit aims to develop pre–service teachers’ understanding and skills for designing effective assessments and gathering, interpreting and reporting assessment data in order to improve learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Describe purposes and forms of educational assessment, and the ways in which teachers use educational assessment to support curriculum decision-making (GA4, GA5, GA8; APST 5.1, 5.2, 5.3; ACECQA E2)

LO2 - Apply theorised strategies for a range of assessment purposes to promote children’s engagement in learning (GA4, GA5, GA8, GA10; APST 2.1, 2.3, 3.1, 5.1, 5.2; ACECQA A6, B1, B2, B9, C4, C5, E2)

LO3 - Evaluate processes for documenting, analysing and moderating evidence of learning and development and make judgements about their usefulness for supporting children’s learning in their area of specialisation (GA3, GA4, GA5, GA8; APST 3.6, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 7.1; ACECQA B9, E3)

LO4 - Explain a range of strategies for reporting to parents/carers and engaging them in the educative process, in the design of a parent/carer communication strategy (GA4, GA5, GA8, GA9, GA10; APST 3.7, 5.2, 5.5, 7.2, 7.3; ACECQA D1)

LO5 - Complete a successful professional experience in a primary/secondary/early childhood setting by engaging in critical reflection and responding to feedback from colleagues and supervisors to improve teaching practice (GA1, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA9; APST 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.2, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2; ACECQA C4, F3)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should be able to:

ACECQA Curriculum Specifications

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following specific knowledge:

Content

Topics will include:

• The role of assessment in curriculum decision-making
• The purposeful nature of assessment and major concepts, approaches and purposes related to areas of specialisation, including assessment for, of and as learning; formal, informal, diagnostic assessment, formative and summative assessment, authentic assessment; alignment; folio-based assessment, performance assessment, )
• The role of assessment in the continual evaluation and improvement of teaching and learning and the challenges associated with this process
• The use of assessment to monitor and improve children’s learning and development
• Construction of quality and diverse assessment tasks informed by assessment theories, policies, approaches and curriculum
• Differentiating assessment tasks to meet the specific needs of diverse learners
• Approaches for providing timely, focused and constructive feedback to learners
• Documentation of children’s learning and the roles documentation plays in making children’s thinking visible.
• Processes for gathering, organising and interpreting evidence of learning and development, and provision of feedback
• The information processing cycle in the school context: acquisition, validation, processing, storage, output and archiving/deletion
• Documentation, data storage and ethical practice related to storage and communication of assessment information and data
• The use of relevant technologies to document, record, access, aggregate and evaluate assessment information and data
• What constitutes relevant and effective data in the area of specialisation
• How the interpretation of assessment data informs the construction of quality learning sequences
• The affects assessment data may have on children, families and the broader community.
• A range of communication strategies to engage sensitively and confidentially with parents/ carers and involve them in the educative process
• Reporting student learning to learners, colleagues, parents/carers and other significant stakeholders
• Understanding the role of formal and informal external and commercially prepared assessment programs.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit applies a social constructivist approach to develop pre-service teachers’ understanding of principles and practices of assessment and their skills in developing assessment tasks. They will have the opportunity to build on their understanding of assessment concepts and strategies through critical reading, lecturer modelling, active engagement and rehearsing in tutorials. Teaching skills of professional communication will be developed through class discussions and the construction of a parent/carer communication plan. Understanding of assessment, and the ability to locate and synthesise information, will be developed through designing assessment plans for a specific group of learners. Placement in a school/centre will enable preservice teachers to engage with experienced practitioners and to make links between theory and its application to primary/secondary/early childhood settings. Pre-service teachers will continue to gather and reflect upon evidence of their attainment of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: Graduate, in the Digital Portfolio.

The unit will involve lectures and tutorials with discussion, written activities and on-going assessment tasks. Teaching strategies may include:

• Formal online weekly input by the teaching team
• Hands-on tutorials and discussion sessions that promote peer learning; and
• Online activities.

Technology Enhanced Learning

The unit will include a Learning Environment Online (LEO) site with resources and online links, announcements, and a discussion board to post questions and reflections that are related to the unit. The learning and teaching strategies may include:

• Online videos and readings to help students prepare for the weekly schedule
• Discussion board to exchange ideas and refine learning
• Online exercises
• Additional resources such as a range of data analysis tools.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks and their weightings allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement against the course learning outcomes by demonstrating academic and professional standards. The Effective Teaching sequence of units in this course focus on developing understanding of, and skills across the professional knowledge, practice and engagement needed to meet expectations of ACECQA criteria and the APST: Graduate level. In this unit the assessment focuses on the construction of informed assessment procedures and practices which incorporate contemporary educational thought, understandings of the psychology of learning, and modern technologies. As well as employing the practices of collecting, analysing, interpreting and actioning quantitative and qualitative student assessment data to evaluate student learning.

The three assessment tasks are sequenced to allow feedback and progressive development of knowledge in purpose and forms of assessments and communicating with parents/carers in the educative process. Task 1 assesses pre-service teachers’ knowledge of assessment concepts. It is an early low-weighted assessment task which provides feedback to pre-service teachers within the first six weeks of the standard semester. This task enables the teaching staff to identify pre-service teachers who are experiencing difficulties understanding the purpose assessment and the importance of quality data. These students will be advised to seek assistance from their tutor. The knowledge assessed in Task 1 is then applied in the development of an assessment portfolio for Task 2 which enables the collection of quality assessment resources for teaching. Task 3 allows pre-service teachers to use their creativity in the developing communication strategies to parents and carers. 

A range of assessment procedures are used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes and professional standards and criteria consistent with University assessment requirements.(http://www.acu.edu.au/policy/student_policies/assessment_policy_and_assessment_procedures)

Minimum Achievement Standards

The assessment tasks and their weighting for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each learning outcome. In order to pass this unit, students are required to submit all assessment tasks, meet the learning outcomes of the unit and achieve a minimum overall passing grade of 50%.

Assessment in EDET460 includes two Critical Tasks. These tasks are core to the demonstration of a number of Australian Professional Teacher Standards. Pre-service teachers must demonstrate mastery of every summative Graduate Teacher Standard identified and attain a score of at least 50% in these Critical Tasks in order to pass this unit. Learning Outcome 4 (Explain a range of strategies for reporting to parents/carers and engaging them in the educative process, in the design of a parent/carer communication strategy) is only assessed in Assessment Task 3. A pass in Task 3 is an additional requirement for passing the unit overall.

Electronic Submission, Marking and Return

Assessment task submission and return of marked assessment will be done through Turnitin on LEO. Tasks will be marked and returned three weeks after the assessment is completed. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Required text(s)

Australian Curriculum https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. Early Years Learning Framework https://www.acecqa.gov.au/acecqa-approved-learning-frameworks-version-2.0-communications-toolkit

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) www.acara.edu.au 

Relevant State and Territory curriculum documents. 

Recommended references

Cameron, M., McLachlan, C., Rawlins, P., & McLaughlin, T. (2018). Assessment of, as and for learning: The challenges of assessment terminology. Early Education. 64, 18-23.

Ewing, R., Kervin, L., Glass, C., Gobby, B., Le Cornu, R., & Groundwater-Smith, S. (2019). Teaching : Dilemmas, challenges and opportunities (6th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia.

Fleer, M. (2017). Play in the early years (2nd ed). Cambridge University Press

Fleet, A., Patterson, C., & Robertson, J. (2017). Pedagogical documentation in early years practice seeing through multiple perspectives. Sage.

McLachlan, C. (2018). Te Whariki revisited: How approaches to assessment can make valued learning visible. He Kupu The Word, 5, 45-56.

McLachlan, C., Fleer, M., & Edwards, S. (2018). Early childhood curriculum: Planning, assessment and implementation (3rd ed). Cambridge University Press.

Shearer, A., & Klenowski, V. (2019). Assessment as Discursive Practice in the Early Years. In A. Woods & B. Exley (Eds.) Literacies in Early Childhood: Foundations for Equity and Quality (pp. 273–289). Oxford University Press.

South Australian Government Department for Education. (2020). Respect, reflect, relate: Assessing for learning and development in the early years using observation scales. Author.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2019). Assessment of children as confident and involved learners in early childhood education and care: Literature review. Author.