Assessment Matters 9: 2015

Computer-based testing is on the increase, especially for large-scale assessments where there are advantages for manageability, administration, and reporting. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, NZQA has announced plans to move NCEA examinations to an online platform, with a dual-assessment model available for selected levels and subjects from 2016. The dual-assessment approach appears to reflect an assumption that results in either mode are comparable, and that both approaches test the same set of… Read more

A qualitative approach was used to investigate Year 12 secondary school students’ experiences, understandings and uses of written teacher feedback in classical studies. Participants in this small-scale study were eight students from two schools in a large metropolitan city in New Zealand, all of whom were undertaking a Level 2, National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) course of study. Two complementary techniques were used to gather data: semistructured interviews with the… Read more

There is little research that relates formative assessment to writing, particularly in a foreign-language context. Furthermore, few studies have investigated processes of change when teachers and students use a tool to enhance their skills in formative assessment practices. This article reports on an intervention study where portfolio was used to enhance middle-school teachers’ and students’ perceptions and practices of formative assessment of writing in English as a foreign language (EFL)… Read more

An increasingly complex and ambitious conception of assessment that aims to enhance learning has seen the move from formative assessment to assessment for learning (AfL). In this study, an interpretive, qualitative approach was used to compare 21 practising teachers’ understandings of AfL prior to and at the conclusion of an undergraduate course and to investigate the courserelated experiences identified by these teachers as having had an influence on their post-course understandings. Data… Read more

This article advances the argument that a priorities-based approach to assessment in early childhood education offers a middle way between inductive and deductive methods of assessment. A developing dialectic in early childhood assessment discourse is discussed as a background to discussion on inductive and deductive assessment strategies. A middle path between induction and deduction is described by constructing a synthesis of approaches, and authenticity in assessment practice is related… Read more