Educational Assessment In The 21st Century

Signs of Change: Assessment Past, Present and Future Another Time, Another Place...Examinations Then and Now In the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, Vietnam, a series of stone stelae records the names of the handful of illustrious examination candidates who, in each century, passed the national examination to become a Doctor of Literature. Beginning in the 11thcentury,theexamswereconductedpersonallybysuccessivekingswhopursued Confucian ideals that found expression in the enormous value placed on the pursuit of wisdom and learning. In the 21st century we are both puzzled and impressed by this tradition. Puzzled by such an explicit commitment to a meritocracy in an essentially feudal society; impressed by this enthusiasm for learning and the pursuit of wisdom at the highest level of society. Yet, there are also important similarities between the 11th and 21st centuries. Then, as now, assessment was associated with excellence, high standards, pr- tige and competition—success for the chosen few; disappointment for the majority. Then, as now, the pursuit of excellence was embedded in a social context that favoured the elite and determined success in terms of the predilections of the p- erful. Then, as now, the purpose of the assessment, the way it was conducted and its impact on society all re ected the social and economic priorities of the day.

This second volume of papers from the ATC21STM project deals with the development of an assessment and teaching system of 21st century skills. Readers are guided through a detailed description of the methods used in this process. The first volume was published by Springer in 2012 (Griffin, P., McGaw, B. & Care, E., Eds., Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, Dordrecht: Springer). The major elements of this new volume are the identification and description of two 21st century skills that are amenable to teaching and learning: collaborative problem solving, and learning in digital networks. Features of the skills that need to be mirrored in their assessment are identified so that they can be reflected in assessment tasks. The tasks are formulated so that reporting of student performance can guide implementation in the classroom for use in teaching and learning. How simple tasks can act as platforms for development of 21st century skills is demonstrated, with the concurrent technical infrastructure required for its support. How countries with different languages and cultures participated and contributed to the development process is described. The psychometric qualities of the online tasks developed are reported, in the context of the robustness of the automated scoring processes. Finally, technical and educational issues to be resolved in global projects of this nature are outlined.

There are two common purposes in educational evaluation which are, at times, in conflict with one another. Educational institutions usually require evaluation data to demonstrate effectiveness to funders and other stakeholders, and to provide a measure of performance for marketing purposes. Educational evaluation is also a professional activity that individual educators need to undertake if they intend to continuously review and enhance the learning they are endeavouring to facilitate. This book presents new research on issues of vital importance to this field.

Assessment and evaluation have always been an integral part of educational process. Quality and purposeful assessment can assist in students’ learning and their achievement. While there has been a rapid growth in international, standardized student assessments in the past few decades, a large number of education systems participating in these assessments are now focusing their attention on developing new national, within-country assessments to evaluate educational standards and to modify the curriculum to better suit to the demands of the 21st century. Education systems that are successful in linking the national curriculum and assessments directly to international standards are performing better on international standardized assessments of reading, mathematics, and science. This book covers studies related to educational assessment in addressing quality of education and performance improvement. The book presents the distinguished and exemplary works by educators and researchers in the field highlighting the contemporary trends and issues, creative and unique approaches, innovative methods, frameworks, pedagogies and theoretical and practical aspects in assessment processes in various educational settings.

In today’s rapidly changing and information-rich world, students are not acquiring adequate knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers in mathematics, science, and technology with the traditional approach to assessment and instruction. New competencies (e.g., information communication and technology skills) are needed to deal successfully with the deluge of data. In order to accomplish this, new "educationally valuable" skills must be acknowledged and assessed. Toward this end, the skills we value and support for a society producing knowledge workers, not simply service workers, must be identified, together with methods for their measurement. Innovative Assessment for the 21st Century explores the faces of future assessment—and ask hard questions, such as: What would an assessment that captures all of the above attributes look like? Should it be standardized? What is the role of the professional teacher?

An emerging body of research suggests that a set of broad "21st century skills"-such as adaptability, complex communication skills, and the ability to solve non-routine problems-are valuable across a wide range of jobs in the national economy. However, the role of K-12 education in helping students learn these skills is a subject of current debate. Some business and education groups have advocated infusing 21st century skills into the school curriculum, and several states have launched such efforts. Other observers argue that focusing on skills detracts attention from learning of important content knowledge. To explore these issues, the National Research Council conducted a workshop, summarized in this volume, on science education as a context for development of 21st century skills. Science is seen as a promising context because it is not only a body of accepted knowledge, but also involves processes that lead to this knowledge. Engaging students in scientific processes-including talk and argument, modeling and representation, and learning from investigations-builds science proficiency. At the same time, this engagement may develop 21st century skills. Exploring the Intersection of Science Education and 21st Century Skills addresses key questions about the overlap between 21st century skills and scientific content and knowledge; explores promising models or approaches for teaching these abilities; and reviews the evidence about the transferability of these skills to real workplace applications.

This book provides a detailed description of research and application outcomes from the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project, which explored a framework for understanding the nature of these skills. The major element of this new volume is the presentation of research information from the global assessment of two 21st century skills that are amenable to teaching and learning: collaborative problem solving, and learning in digital networks. The outcomes presented include evidence to support the validity of assessment of 21st century skills and descriptions of consequent pedagogical approaches which can be used both to teach the skills and to use them to enhance key learning goals in secondary education systems. The sections of the volume are connected through a focus on the degree to which innovative assessment tasks measure the constructs of interest. This focus is informed by conceptual and methodological issues associated with affordances of 21st century computer-based assessment. How understanding of the nature of the skills, as derived from these assessments, can guide approaches to the integration of 21st century skills in the classroom, is informed by initiatives adopted by participating countries. The guiding questions in this volume are: "Do the assessment tasks measure the constructs?" and "What are the implications for assessment and teaching in the classroom?" It is the third volume of papers from this project published by Springer.

Performance-based assessments can provide an adequate and more direct evaluation of teaching ability. As performance-based assessments become more prevalent in institutions across the United States, there is an opportunity to begin more closely analyzing the impact of standardized performance assessments and the relationship to variables such as success entering the workforce, program re-visioning for participating institutions, and the perceptions and efficacy of teacher candidates themselves. Performance-Based Assessment in 21st Century Teacher Education is a collection of innovative research that explores meaningful and engaging performance-based assessments and its applications and addresses larger issues of assessment including the importance of a balanced approach of assessing knowledge and skills. The book also offers tangible structures for making strong connections between theory and practice and offers advice on how these assessments are utilized as data sources related to preservice teacher performance. While highlighting topics including faculty engagement, online programs, and curriculum mapping, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, principals, school boards, professionals, researchers, faculty, and students.