the assessment obsession - whatever happened to teaching?

THE ASSESSMENT OBSESSION – WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TEACHING?

Michael CoghlanNewLearning

5/9/14

ASSESSMENT OVER-REGULATION↔

Creative Commons image https://www.flickr.com/photos/intrepidflame/8431952864/sizes/n/

2003: I KNEW WE WERE IN TROUBLE

• “Can’t come to the PD session today Michael. Sorry – we’re being audited next week.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD TEACHER?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER?

Care

patience

understanding

empathy

Good listener

Able to motivate

Knows their subject

flexible

fair

punctual

reliable

Good communication skills

Sense of humour

EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS FOR

TEACHERS/TRAINERS

TEACHING AND LEARNING OUTCOMES(circa 2000)

Cert IV TRAINING And Assessment Units of Competence

Cert IV TRAINING And Assessment Outcomes – 2014

HOW WE’VE CHANGED:

• The focus of VET has shifted from LEARNING to ASSESSMENT.

Victor Callan (The University of Queensland) Berwyn Clayton (Victoria University)

http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/files/Eassessment_AQTF_final.pdf

TIME SPENT ON ASSESSENT – the last 5 years -

TEACHER COMMENTS:• wasting a huge amount of time on bureaucracy to meet auditors needs rather than

on delivery of outcomes to students• the Audit /ASQA requirements for VET and Tafe training has increased the time

needed prepare and assess in training• a lot of the time is spent on the quality requirements now e.g. filing assessments,

tracking training plans etc• marking, documenting, recording, student information systems, fulfilling auditable

requirements takes the largest proportion of our time• Very little time available for research, and development of materials past what is

already available due to the increased demands time for assessment ... Too much time spent doing tasks that should be done by administrative staff.... Quality system also demands multiple records of many outcomes and this takes significant time also

• Administration and compliance requirements, especially in relation to assessment, have significantly reduced the time available for quality lesson planning and resource development

What an assessor in the Australian VET sector needs to show!

• Provide evidence to support your decision to approve student X competent in unit of competence Y on day Z last semester

• extreme cases: need to report on every student on every unit of competence for every day

WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED?

because a couple of kids mucked around in class

• Sugata Mitra:

"the stupidity and short-sighted self-interest of politicians combined with the laziness and

cowardice of many who work in education is a powerful and deadly brake upon change."

(Sugata Mitra)

WHERE DID THE ASSESSMENT OBSESSION COME FROM?

• RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) – you could be assessed without doing the course - GOOD

• National standards > regulator > auditing to ensure consistent outcomes - GOOD

• The whole class must stay in at lunchtime (or we all suffer for the sins of a few); weeding out the bad guys (Dodgy Brothers RTOs; lazy, entrenched, permanent TAFE employees) – NEEDED BUT WENT TOO FAR

• RESULT: Risk aversion ↔ culture of compliance – JUST REALLY SAD

• New funding models are outcome focused – THE LAST STRAW

STEMMING THE TIDE

Two questions:

1. Will this improve my teaching?

2. Will it reduce the amount of time I have to prepare lessons?

Greg Whitby

THE PROBLEM:

"The dominant culture of education has come to focus not on teaching and learning, but testing...this...leads to a culture of compliance rather than creativity.“http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html

Skills of the VET Teacher/Trainer

Many practitioners not sure

what is acceptable to auditors –

results in a culture of meek

compliance > unwillingness to

innovate

In Addition.....

• Auditor’s comment:

“I suggest you steer away from collaborative assessment.” (2013)

The Australian (23/7/14)

Gunningham:Gunningham said the reforms were being driven by Treasury and were “all about reducing costs … Is it really that good to be bottom of the barrel on costs? At the end of the day, quality costs money.”

“Many of my counterparts feel quite inhibited saying things because we’re public servants. You’ve got to pay the mortgage and all that kind of stuff. I’m past that.”

OTHER ISSUES

• No time for PD – audits and new TPs - unless it’s about compliance and regulation

• The history of public VET (TAFE) v private VET• Deskilling/dumbing down of the workforce• Intellectually bereft• Ann Dening:

"across the VET system as a whole there has been little focus on pedagogy, and particularly on VET pedagogy."http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2014/06/183-workforce-development-in-the-vet-sector

KWALITY WITH A ‘K’

Under the guise of Kwality I saw:

• an increasing lack of trust in dedicated professionals• a growing obsession with assessment and auditing• the amount of time people had to prepare for teaching

drastically reduced• the amount of time needed for assessment and reporting

drastically increase• a noticeable drop-off in attendance at PD sessions (because

staff had no time for such things)• all in the name of ‘kwality’!

KWALITY IS ABOUT SYSTEMS

QUALITY IS ABOUT PEOPLE

HOW CAN TEACHING BE RESTORED

TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE?

No strings attached funding

END OF TODAY’S SESSION

Unless otherwise stated all images used in this presentation are Creative Commons images by mikecogh - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/

Michael CoghlanNewLearningmichaelc@chariot.net.au

Slides available from http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/