Year
2023Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitPrerequisites
NilUnit rationale, description and aim
Assessment and assessment-related functions make up a significant proportion of a teacher's time.
This unit provides the context for pre-service teachers to develop a deep and critical understanding of major assessment concepts and gain relevant skills in the design of assessment tools and the use of assessment data to facilitate student learning. Assessment is viewed as an integral component of the process of learning. Pre-service teachers will be provided with opportunities through lectures, tutorials and workshops 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 assessment and learning.
This unit aims to assist pre-service teachers to develop relevant skills to design and manage assessment tasks and to make use of the generated data to help their students learn.
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 to guide learning and teaching (GA4, GA5, GA8; APST 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.5)
LO2 - research and critically evaluate assessment policies and commonly-used assessment practices and strategies in the secondary classrooms (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10; APST 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5)
LO3 - design and construct relevant paper-based and online assessment tasks to measure a range of targeted learning outcomes in major or minor teaching areas (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10; APST 5.1, 5.3, 5.4)
LO4 - demonstrate critical skills to enable researching and evaluating the processes of standard-setting and moderation and their application to support consistent and comparable judgments of student learning (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8; APST 5.1, 5.3)
LO5 - demonstrate the application of advanced computer-based analytical skills in generating appropriate feedback and reports that guide student learning and decisions that facilitate learning (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10; APST 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5).
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:
5.1 Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. |
5.2 Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their 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 and purpose of assessment;
- Quality and characteristics of modern and traditional forms of assessment;
- Development, specification and design of assessment tools and strategies that facilitate student learning;
- Evaluation of methods and procedures of standard-setting, and moderation of assessment;
- Methods and procedures of organising and analysis of assessment data;
- Usage of assessment data for reporting, generating feedback and improvement of learning and teaching;
- Accountability regimes that are based on external assessment programs; and
- Current assessment issues and future directions
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. Participants will be involved in a variety of teaching-learning strategies to support learning, including: lectures and tutorials with discussion, written activities, workshops 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 across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video, workshops, and assignments etc.
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.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1: A critical examination of an assessment issue in a teaching area Construct an essay of 3000 words that critically examines a practical issue in the assessment of students’ learning in a teaching area in secondary schools. The essay should incorporate input from various sources that include:
The essay should incorporate the organisation, analysis and integration of the data derived from the above sources to support the expected discussion and conclusions. | 40% | LO1, LO3, LO4, LO5 | GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10 |
Assessment Task 2: Class Test: This is a formative assessment task. It is designed in the first place to provide participants, tutors and lecturer-in-charge with constructive feedback to support self-assessment. The test will cover the main concepts, readings, class discussions and activities that have been addressed up to its due date. It may include a variety of question types such as select-type, short answer and restricted response questions. | 20% | LO1 LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5 | GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8 |
Assessment Task 3: Construction of an assessment task: Using a substantial unit of work from one of their teaching areas, participants will be required to construct a written assessment task to assess secondary students’ problem-solving skills in a key learning area. The task should be designed for summative purposes that would be administered at the end of a substantial unit of work in the participants’ teaching area. Task 3 should include the following elements:
| 40% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5 | GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10 |
Representative texts and references
Required Text
McMillan, J. (2014). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective standards-based instruction (International 6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
References
Relevant Australian, state and territory curriculum documents.
Anderson, L. (Ed). (2014). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's . (Pearson new international ed.). Essex, UK: Pearson.
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2019). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement (5th ed.). Melbourne, Vic: Pearson Australia
Brown, G. T. L., Irving, S. E., & Keegan, P.J. (2014). An introduction to educational assessment, measurement, and evaluation: Improving the quality of teacher-based assessment (3rd ed.). Auckland, NZ: Dunmore Publishing.
James, M., Black, P., Carmichael, P., et al (2007) Improving learning How to learn in classrooms, schools and networks. London: Routledge.
Marzano, R., & Kendall, J. (2007). The new taxonomy of educational objectives (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Miller, M., Linn, R., & Gronlund, N. (2013). Measurement and assessment in teaching (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Stiggins, R. J. (2008). Student-involved classroom assessment (5th 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.