AMEP Assessment Task BankProfessional Development Kit

General Issues and Principles

Developed by Marian Hargreaves for NEAS 2013 © NEAS Ltd 2014 1

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Workshop aims

• To review the key issues in assessment• The principles of assessment and how they

apply in the context of the AMEP

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Part 1. Key issues

• The stakeholders: who has an interest in this activity of assessment?

• The different purposes of assessment: why do we assess anyway?

• The stages of assessment: when do we assess?

• How do we assess?• The focus of assessment: what do we assess?

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The Stakeholders (who?)

• Students• Teachers• Management• Administrators• DIAC (sponsors)• Rest of the world (eg employers)

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Purposes of Assessment (why?)

• Assessment prior to learning– diagnostic or placement

• Assessment as learning– progress, formative or continuous

• Assessment of learning– summative

• Assessment for learning– continuous, inclusive, student-centred© NEAS Ltd 2014

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Stages of assessment (when?)

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The focus of assessment (what?)

• What exactly is it that we are trying to assess?

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Styles of assessment (How?)

• Self assessment• Formal tests/exams• Informal, in-class and/or observation• Group assessment• Peer assessment• Continuous

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• Certificate I Module D Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate understanding of written information text –

requires a formal test• Certificate II Module A Learning Outcome 2:

Participate in and contribute to the formal learning environment –

calls for more informal, in-class observation with a checklist

• Certificate III Module A Learning Outcome 3: Demonstrate capacity for independent learning –

suggests the need for a portfolio and some self assessment

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Part 2. Best practice• Identify clear learning outcomes.• Promote active student engagement in

learning.• Recognise and value student diversity. • Provide an opportunity for success for all

students. • Embody high quality, timely feedback. • Meet expectations and standards.• Require the involvement of leaders and

managers.© NEAS Ltd 2014

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The three cornerstones

•Validity•Reliability•Practicality

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Validity

Does the assessment task measure what you want it to measure?

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Validity

• Construct• Cognitive• Context• Face

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Reliability

• Internal: Is the assessment consistent across tasks and raters and assessors?

• External: Are the results of the assessment reliable predictors of performance in the real world?

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Learner card 1You want information about English classes for yourself. You inquire at a local teaching centre.Ask about the following and write the information in the spaces provided.

Cost _______________________________________________________________________________________

Starting dates_______________________________________________________________________________

Class times _________________________________________________________________________________

Length _____________________________________________________________________________________

Class size __________________________________________________________________________________

Certificate __________________________________________________________________________________

Learner card 2You want information about English classes for yourself. You enquire at a local teaching centre.Ask for the information you need and write it on the lines below.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________© NEAS Ltd 2014

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Scoring a test: Marking and Rating

• Marking(receptive skills, reading and listening)

• Rating(productive skills, writing and speaking)

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Practicality

How practical is it to develop, administer and mark the tasks?

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Impact and Fairness

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Task-based language performance assessment (TBLPA)• Using language in an appropriate and

effective way– Language ability in general– Language ability for specific tasks

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Authenticity

• situational • interactional

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Questions

• Essential part of tasks to assess reading and listening skills

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Feedback

• An essential part of the teaching and learning cycle

• For everyone involved in assessment -“Assessment is only useful if it leads to appropriate action – at the level of the individual student, the class, the school, or the system”

(Westwood, 2008)

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and finally …

• You need to be humble to write assessment tasks!

• Always get a new task evaluated by other teachers, and

• Piloted by the students themselves.• Modify the task and it’s ready for use.• Send the task to the Assessment Task Bank

for further development and use by teachers across Australia.

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References• Alderson, J. C. (2000). Assessing reading. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,

69.• Bachman, L.F. & A. S. Palmer (1996) Language Testing in Practice, Oxford

University Press.• Brindley, G.P. (1995) Language Assessment in Action. NCELTR.• Hughes, A. (1989). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge, Cambridge

University Press, pp. 59–140.• Khalifa, H. & C. Weir (2009) General Marking: performance management, in

Examining Reading: Research and practice in assessing second language reading(Studies in Language Testing, vol 29, pp. 276-280.

• Manual for Language Test Development and Examining (2011) Language Policy division, Council of Europe.

• Messick, S (1989) Validity, in Linn, R.L. (Ed) Educational Measurement (3rd Ed.) New York; Macmillan, pp.13-103.

• Mislevey et al. (2001) Design and Analysis in Task-Based Language Assessment. Language Assessment.

• Shohamy, E. (1985). A practical handbook in language testing for the second language teacher. Israel: Internal Press.

• Weir, C. J. (1997). The testing of reading in a second language. In C.Clapham & D. Corson (Eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education (pp. 39-50). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

© NEAS Ltd 2014