teacher assessment literacy - unsw global...global assessments’ flagship product icas as well as...

Teacher Assessment

LiteracyAn inaugural event for primary

and secondary educators.

Melbourne: March 22

Just what the modern educator needs to support students in achieving their best.Introducing assessments which can be seamlessly incorporated into your school’s existing strategy.

Harnessing our expertise in delivering quality assessments, UNSW Global offers accredited professional learning that supports your school’s assessment strategy. Delivered in person or online through a flexible, modular format, these courses benefit educators at all stages of their careers.

Visit unsw.global/pl

http://unsw.global/pl

Group Executive’sWelcomeOn behalf of UNSW Global Assessments, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Assessment Evolution Conference, 2019.

This inaugural event brings together experienced educators, educational specialists and educational researchers. We are delighted that you are joining us in 2019 as we explore the current and future state of teacher assessment literacy.

We understand that identifying and being responsive to student needs is a key aspect of effective teaching. Quality assessment is a vital tool in identifying these. Today’s presentations aim to provide a deeper understanding of quality assessment as well as approaches which can be integrated into your school’s assessment strategy.

UNSW Global has been providing educational assessment solutions for over 20 years, supporting learning in over 20 countries around the world partnering with teachers like you, delivering over 9 million student assessments and providing quality achievement data.

I’m proud to lead a talented team of educational specialists and data analysts. People who know what it takes to develop a purposeful assessment that provides the rich data you require to identify learning and inform teaching. We’re excited to share this expertise with you.

Martin SpearsGroup Executive, Assessments UNSW Global

Melbourne Program*

9:00am – 10:00am | Morning PlenaryIntroduction & welcome | Martin Spears

Keynote - ‘Teacher assessment literacy: Are we there yet?’ | Dr. Dennis Alonzo

10:00am – 10:20amMorning tea

10:20am – 11:05amUsing rubrics for differentiated assessment | Courtney Nelson

11:10am – 11:55amUsing the Hess CRM to enhance cognitive rigour in the classroom through effective use and interpretation of cognitive verbs | Chelsea Bernal

12:00pm – 12:45pmLunch

12:50pm – 1:20pmTeacher-based assessment validation framework: Teacher assessment literacy and teachers as sources of evidence | Seun Ijiwade

1:25pm – 1:55pmGiving feedback to students: helpful or harmful? | Maryanne Kefaloukos

2:00pm – 2:30pmNetworking round table: Can you measure progression? | Juanita De Souza

2:30pm – 2:50pmNetworking Afternoon tea

2:50pm – 3:45pm | Afternoon Plenary Panel‘What does assessment best practice look like now and in the future?’ | Dr. Dennis Alonzo, Dr Brad Campbell, Glenda Harry

3:45pmConference close

*Program subject to change

Dr. Dennis Alonzo

Teacher assessment literacy: Are we there yet?

Dennis is a test and scale developer, program evaluator, curriculum designer, and applied statistician.

His area of interest revolves around Assessment for Learning (AfL) particularly in supporting teachers to make highly contextualised, consistent, fair and trustworthy assessment decisions to effectively support student learning.

He has been involved in a number of national and international research projects in improving teachers’ assessment literacy. He also researches on a broad range of topics including student IT experiences, blended and online learning, standards-based assessment, and learning analytics to help inform curriculum design, professional development and policy.

He has received various scholarships from the Philippines and Australian governments and a public diplomacy scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea. He was a former Dean of Education at the University of Southeastern Philippines before joining UNSW.

Teacher assessment literacy is widely seen as the centrepiece of effective learning and teaching.

Despite its prominence, it is an ill-defined construct due to competing conceptualisations internationally and nationally of what is the most important assessment knowledge and skills for teachers.

In this talk, we argue that teacher assessment knowledge and skills are inherently context-based and need to be defined based on the socio-cultural and educational factors that influence assessment for effective learning. We will highlight the multidimensional aspects of teacher assessment literacy that require them not only to identify, develop and implement assessment strategies to collect and analyse data to make highly contextualised and trustworthy decisions to effectively support student learning, but more importantly to work closely with students to prepare them to better engage in and monitor their learning.

We will conclude by emphasising the critical roles of teachers in meeting the assessment information needs of school leaders, colleagues and parents/carers to help these stakeholders actively contribute to improving student learning.

Assessment Evolution Conference 2019 | unsw.global/2019assessments

http://unsw.global/2019assessments

Courtney Nelson

Using rubrics for differentiated assessment

Courtney is a Project Officer at UNSW Global, specialising in assessment projects. She holds a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education (2010) and a Master’s in Business Administration (2014).

Courtney spent six years as a classroom teacher and teacher mentor in Denver, Colorado (USA) at a Competency Based school district, with a major focus on differentiation. She has taught Gifted and Talented and Special Education. As an educator she spent time conducting state, district and school professional development sessions, focusing on differentiation and success for all learners.

Differentiation can best be summarised as recognising that all learners have differences in their learning abilities, whether it be in their learning progress in literacy and numeracy skills or other areas in the curriculum.

Differentiation can be a very difficult topic to tackle in daily practice, and can become increasingly difficult implementing in assessments.

An incredibly useful tool for differentiation is the rubric, for both teachers and learners. The benefits of a well set up, specific rubric far outweigh the challenges. A well-structured rubric with clear task values makes it very easy to determine what skills are needed, can be improved on, or how challenges can be implemented to further learning outcomes.

This session will focus on how the matrix of a rubric is set up in a manner that allows for differentiation and how this can be used for a variety of tasks in the classroom.



Chelsea Bernal

Using the Hess CRM to enhance cognitive rigour in the classroom through effective use and interpretation of cognitive verbs

Chelsea holds a Masters in Language Testing and has worked in education and assessment for over 17 years.

Until recently she lead the Literacy test development teams that write the English, Spelling and Writing assessments for UNSW Global Assessments’ flagship product ICAS as well as the new computer adaptive Grammar & Punctuation Assessment.

Chelsea is now based in the ACT and whilst continuing to work with UNSW Global, she is teaching at the University of Canberra College and writing items for the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.

It has long been realised that although learning is a combination of both passive and active learning, student outcomes are improved when they are cognitively engaged in active learning or higher order thinking.

Cognitive rigour can be defined as the amount of time that students spend engaged in those higher order thinking activities that require the transfer of knowledge (Paige, Sizemore & Neace, 2013).

Cognitive taxonomies, such as Bloom’s revised taxonomy, Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DoK) and Karin Hess’ Cognitive Rigor Matrix (CRM), give us a means to evaluate the level of thinking that students are engaged in. As Hess’ CRM takes the best from both Bloom’s cognitive dimensions and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, it provides a detailed structure that can assist teachers in planning activities that encourage and scaffold higher order thinking in their classrooms.

As well as deciding on the breadth and depth of the cognitive thinking that their students are engaging in, teachers are also expected to create or evaluate and/or report on assessments that assess these forms of cognition. For this reason, it is vital for teachers to understand and appropriately use a range of cognitive verbs, especially with recent changes in senior syllabi and the focus on 21st century learning skills.



Oluwaseun (Seun) Ijiwade

Teacher-based assessment validation framework: Teacher assessment literacy and teachers as sources of evidence

Seun Ijiwade is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, UNSW Sydney.

Seun’s PhD thesis focuses on the evaluation of an externally designed reading and vocabulary assessment for EAL students (RVEAL) developed for EAL teachers in Victoria under the leadership of Prof. Chris Davison.

Prior to his PhD, Seun has a Master’s Degree in Measurement and Evaluation and worked as a Planning Officer for over 5 years in the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics with the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria. Seun is currently a casual staff member of the Psychometrics team at UNSW Global, Assessments.

Seun’s area of research interest are: language assessment, classroom-based assessment evaluation, computerised multistage testing, teacher assessment for learning literacy, and teacher involvement in assessment validation/evaluation.

Evolving views about assessment validation have been evident in research literature since the formal conception of validity in educational assessment, nearly a century ago.

Traditionally, the approach to validity mainly focused on ensuring that a test ‘measured what it was supposed to measure’. One weakness of this approach is the elusive search for the ‘gold standard’ to determine the validity of a new test, despite employing various techniques in the collection of validity evidence.

About three decades ago, researchers continued to expand the theory of validity, to include the ‘social consequences’ of a test. Arguably, evaluating the ‘social consequences’ would later form the foundation of understanding validity and influence the design of frameworks for articulating assessment validation. Hence, in recent times, the field of educational assessment has witnessed some fascinating discussions on assessment evaluation, particularly from classroom-based assessment researchers.

Therefore, the goal of this paper is to synthesise these stimulating ideas about assessment evaluation and propose a teacher-based assessment validation framework which can influence the design, development and evaluation of assessment programs. In addition, the paper conceptualises ‘teacher assessment validation literacy’ and ‘teachers as sources of evidence’ as important phenomena in the articulation of classroom-based assessment validation.



Maryanne Kefaloukos

Giving feedback to students: Helpful or harmful?

Have you given feedback to students on their assessment results with the best intentions but received an unexpected or negative response from your students or their parents?

Students require timely, effective feedback from their teachers in order to understand their own assessment results and to improve their study habits, but it isn’t always taken as helpful advice. Giving the ‘Goldilocks’ feedback – comments that are not too harsh, but are also not too vague – can be achieved!

This workshop aims to provide participants with an overview of effective ways to give feedback to improve student learning. The session will explore some examples of giving effective (and not so effective) feedback taken from research and the presenter’s own practice.

Maryanne is passionate about education and improving student outcomes. She started in 2018 at UNSW Global as an assessment writer on Primary Science and for UNSW Global’s special projects.

For 6 years prior, she worked as the Years K-6 Specialist Primary Science Teacher at a Selective Independent Boys’ School in Sydney, where she wrote and developed all Science and Technology teaching programs for each grade in the school, ran weekly Science clubs and held a scientific research license to keep reptiles in the school to raise awareness about the conservation of native Australian animals.

Maryanne’s work was widely recognised in the professional community and was the focus of a study into good practice of Primary School Science teaching, conducted by the University of Technology, Sydney. In 2016, she was awarded a place in national competition on the BushBlitz Teach live scientific expedition to Bruny Island, Tasmania, where she conducted lessons via Skype to each of her classes.

Maryanne has written several articles and delivered workshops for teachers and pre-service teachers on maths and science teaching.



All delegate roundtable Can progress be measured?

UNSW Global invites all delegates to participate in the roundtable discussion. It is an opportunity to network with colleagues and share thoughts on the ideas presented at the conference. With an educational landscape that has been focused on measuring achievement, we invite delegates to share their ideas on whether progress can be measured and how it can be done.

Roundtable convenor – Juanita De Souza, Professional Learning Manager, UNSW Global Assessments

All delegate roundtable Can progress be measured?

Dennis AlonzoDennis is a test and scale developer, program evaluator, curriculum designer, and applied statistician. His area of interest revolves around Assessment for Learning (AfL) particularly in supporting teachers to make highly contextualised, consistent, fair and trustworthy assessment decisions to effectively support student learning. He has been involved in a number of national and international research projects in improving teachers’ assessment literacy.

Dennis also researches on a broad range of topics including student IT experiences, blended and online learning, standards-based assessment, and learning analytics to help inform curriculum design, professional development and policy.

Dennis has received various scholarships from the Philippines and Australian governments and a public diplomacy scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea. He was a former Dean of Education at the University of Southeastern Philippines before joining UNSW.Pa

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Assessment Evolution Panel What does assessment best practice look like now and in the future?

The Assessment Evolution Conference panel features experienced educators, educational researchers and assessment specialists. They will tackle the challenging question of assessment best practice both in its current state and future state. What changes need to be made in assessment practices that will ensure that data gathered on students is meaningful and is best placed to serve learning and teaching programs?

Panel Chair - Juanita De Souza, Professional Learning Manager, UNSW Global Assessments

Assessment Evolution Panel What does assessment best practice look like now and in the future?

Glenda HarryGlenda has over 35 years’ experience in education, 12 of these as a Principal. Holding a Masters in Education specialising in learning difficulties and gifted education, Glenda is a firm believer in providing an educational environment that allows each child to access their learning at their point of need. Coupled with her many years of experience in education (and during a brief hiatus from teaching), Glenda ran two successful Bridgestone Tyre Centres. Glenda turned these business around from bankruptcy and sold them as viable ongoing concerns. This experience has informed her role as a principal and assisted Glenda in running an effective and successful school.

As the Principal of Orchard Grove Primary in Blackburn South, with nearly 700 students and 50 staff, Glenda has transformed Orchard Grove from a cruising school to one of influence. Orchard Grove is considered a high achieving school with a parent community with high expectations.

Brad CampbellBrad has enjoyed over 35 years of involvement in education, most of that in high schools. His major teaching area is English although he taught across many different disciplines including junior Science. During that time he has also worked on school development projects with teachers and parents at primary, high school and tertiary level. Before moving to UNSW Global, Brad’s last 9 years in schools were as a Principal where his focus was on how to use data to inform student learning and school improvement.

Brad has presented at a number of international conferences in Australia and overseas, the most recent being October, 2018 in China where he presented a paper on student wellbeing. Brad’s Doctoral Thesis examined the link between leadership, learning and student engagement and has informed the implementation of integrated learning programmes in a number of NSW high schools.



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teacher assessment literacy - unsw global...global assessments’ flagship product icas as well as...

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