Year
2023Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitPrerequisites
NilUnit rationale, description and aim
This unit provides the context for pre-service teachers to develop a deep understanding of major assessment concepts and gain relevant skills in classroom assessment. Assessment is viewed as an integral component of the process of learning and teaching, and pertains to a content area as well as the literacy and numeracy essential to achievement in that content area. Pre-service teachers will be provided with opportunities through lectures, discussions and tutorials to develop their skills in gathering informal and formal information about students’ learning, analysing and interpreting such information and using it to facilitate and communicate informed decisions about continual improvement in teaching practices, assessment and learning. Pre-service teachers will be exposed to effective ways of using classroom information to provide feedback and reporting to students, parents, and other stakeholders in the educational process.
This unit aims to assist pre-service teachers to develop skills in designing and administering appropriate assessment tasks, processing and analysing assessment data, and making informed decisions to improve learning and teaching.
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 - Critically analyse and apply major concepts in assessment including assessment strategies (i.e. formal, informal, diagnostic, formative and summative) and the role of assessment in the processes of learning and teaching (GA4, GA5, GA8; APST 5.1, 5.3, 5.4)
LO2 - Write, construct and critically evaluate a variety of classroom assessment tasks to measure a range of targeted learning outcomes, including literacy and numeracy required for achievement in a particular content area (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10; APST 5.1, 5.4)
LO3 - Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgments of student learning (GA4, GA5, GA6; APST 5.3)
LO4 - Analyse and interpret students’ scores effectively (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA10; APST 5.1, 5.4)
LO5 - Demonstrate understanding of how assessment procedures can strengthen informed decision-making with regard to student learning and contribute to the improvement of teaching programs, including timely reporting to students, parents and other stakeholders (GA4, GA5, GA8; APST 3.6, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5)
LO6 - Demonstrate understanding of a range of ethical strategies for keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement, and how that data is accessed and used to provide timely information to students, parents and other stakeholders in a range of modes (GA4, GA5, GA8; APST 5.5)
LO7 - Utilise ICT and other relevant technologies, as appropriate, to access, synthesise and evaluate information and claims relevant to professional learning and practice contexts (GA10)
Graduate attributes
GA4 - Think critically and reflectively
GA5 - Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession
GA6 - Solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account
GA8 - Locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information
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:
3.6 Demonstrate broad knowledge of strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning. |
5.1 Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. |
5.3 Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning. |
5.4 Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice. |
5.5 Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement. |
Content
Topics will include:
- Nature of assessment and major concepts, (including formal, informal, diagnostic, formative and summative forms)
- The role of assessment in the continual evaluation and improvement of teaching and learning and the challenges associated with this process
- Construction of quality and diverse assessment tasks
- The gathering of data, and provision of feedback associated with the literacy and numeracy required for achievement in a particular content area
- Data storage and ethical practice related to storage and communication of assessment data (including formal and informal approaches, written, oral and multimodal formats)
- The use of relevant technologies to access, synthesise and evaluate information and claims relevant to professional learning and practice contexts
- Analysis of assessment data for improvement
- Reporting student progress
- System-wide assessment
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Pre-service teachers will be involved in a variety of teaching-learning strategies to progress and demonstrate their understandings in this unit, including: lectures and tutorials with discussion, written activities and on-going assessment tasks. 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. There may also be online activities associated with readings.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total with a normal expectation of 36 hours of directed study and the total contact hours should not exceed 36 hours. Directed study might include lectures, tutorials, webinars, podcasts etc. The balance of the hours then become private study.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks and their weightings are designed to allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement against the unit learning outcomes and demonstrate attainment of professional standards.
Minimum Achievement Standards
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each learning outcome. Assessment tasks will amount to the equivalent of 4,000 words.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1: Review of a system-wide external examination administered to secondary schools. This review will consider the relevance of the examination questions to targeted curricular content and learning outcomes. The review will include also the quality of the questions and the marking guidelines if applicable. It will also consider the alignment of the examination to the expected performance levels of the targeted grades and stages. It will include organisation and analysis of available data, utilising ICT and other relevant technologies as appropriate, into patterns that allow meaningful interpretation of these data and allow for demonstration of how teaching would be modified in response to that data. The review should be supported by relevant evidence from the syllabus, support documents, supporting examination reports, analysis of available data sets and any information gathered through talking with teachers. | 30% | LO1, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO7 | GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10 |
Assessment Task 2: Class Test: This is a formative assessment task that is designed in the first place to provide feedback to students and tutors during the semester. It will cover the main concepts, readings, class discussions and activities that have been addressed up to its due date (including formal, informal, diagnostic, formative and summartive forms). The test may include a variety of question types such as select-type, short answer and restricted response questions. | 20% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6 | GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8 |
Assessment Task 3: Construction Project: Using a substantial unit of work from one of their teaching areas, pre-service teachers will be required to construct written assessment tasks as part of an overall assessment strategy. This will include:
| 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7 | GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10 |
Representative texts and references
Required Text
Miller, M., Linn, R., & Gronlund, N. (2013). Measurement and assessment in teaching (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.
References
Relevant Australian, state and territory curriculum documents.
Anderson, L., & Krathwohl, D. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2012). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement (4th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Brown, G. T. L., Irving, S. E., & Keegan, P.J. (2008). An introduction to educational assessment, measurement, and evaluation: Improving the quality of teacher-based assessment (2nd ed.). Auckland, NZ: Pearson Education NZ.
Ewing, R. (2010). Curriculum and assessment: A narrative approach. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
Gardner, J. (Ed.). (2012). Assessment and learning (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Gipps, C. (2012). Beyond testing: Towards a theory of educational assessment (Classic Ed.). London: New York: Routledge
Marzano, R., & Kendall, J. (2007). The new taxonomy of educational objectives (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Popham, W. J. (2014). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Readman, K., & Allen, B. (2013). Practical planning and assessment. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
Stiggins, R. J. (2001). Student-involved classroom assessment (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill-Prentice Hall.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design: Supporting teaching and learning in real classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Wyatt-Smith, C., & Cumming, J. (Eds.) (2009). Educational assessment in the 21st century: Connecting theory and practice. Dordrecht; New York: Springer.