Unit rationale, description and aim
Assessment and assessment-related functions make up a significant proportion of a teacher's time.
This unit provides the context for pre-service teachers to develop a deep and critical understanding of major assessment concepts and gain relevant skills in the design of assessment tools and the use of assessment data to facilitate student learning. Assessment is viewed as an integral component of the process of learning. Pre-service teachers will be provided with opportunities through lectures, tutorials and workshops to develop their skills in gathering informal and formal information about students learning, analysing and interpreting such information and using it to facilitate and communicate informed decisions about assessment and learning.
This unit aims to assist pre-service teachers to develop relevant skills to design and manage assessment tasks and to make use of the generated data to help their students learn.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitLearning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Critically analyse and apply major concepts in ass...
Learning Outcome 01
Research and critically evaluate assessment polici...
Learning Outcome 02
Design and construct relevant paper-based and onli...
Learning Outcome 03
Demonstrate critical skills to enable researching ...
Learning Outcome 04
Demonstrate the application of advanced computer-b...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- Nature and purpose of assessment;
- Quality and characteristics of modern and traditional forms of assessment;
- Development, specification and design of assessment tools and strategies that facilitate student learning;
- Evaluation of methods and procedures of standard-setting, and moderation of assessment;
- Methods and procedures of organising and analysis of assessment data;
- Usage of assessment data for reporting, generating feedback and improvement of learning and teaching;
- Accountability regimes that are based on external assessment programs; and
- Current assessment issues and future directions
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks and their weightings are designed to allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement against the unit learning outcomes and demonstrate attainment of professional standards.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: A critical examination of an...
Assessment Task 1:
A critical examination of an assessment issue in a teaching area Construct an essay of 3000 words that critically examines a practical issue in the assessment of students’ learning in a teaching area in secondary schools.
The essay should incorporate input from various sources that include:
- Review of research in the assessment in the targeted teaching area;
- Analyses of accumulated school and/or external evidence on student learning related to the targeted issue;
- Formal or informal input from practicing teachers; and
- Participant’s reflections on their own assessment experience that is relevant to the selected issue.
The essay should incorporate the organisation, analysis and integration of the data derived from the above sources to support the expected discussion and conclusions.
40%
Assessment Task 2: Class Test: This is a forma...
Assessment Task 2:
Class Test: This is a formative assessment task. It is designed in the first place to provide participants, tutors and lecturer-in-charge with constructive feedback to support self-assessment. The test will cover the main concepts, readings, class discussions and activities that have been addressed up to its due date. It may include a variety of question types such as select-type, short answer and restricted response questions.
20%
Assessment Task 3: Construction of an assessmen...
Assessment Task 3:
Construction of an assessment task:
Using a substantial unit of work from one of their teaching areas, participants will be required to construct a written assessment task to assess secondary students’ problem-solving skills in a key learning area. The task should be designed for summative purposes that would be administered at the end of a substantial unit of work in the participants’ teaching area. Task 3 should include the following elements:
- Analysis of the problem-solving skills in the selected key learning area with clear links to the syllabus;
- Specifications of the assessment task that incorporates content and elements of thinking skills;
- Marking rubric relevant to the task;
- Plans for providing students with constructive and forward looking feedback;
- Plans for the moderation of the results;
- Justification of the specified task and the proposed rubric; and
- How results can be used to inform teaching. <
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Pre-service teachers will be involved in a variety of teaching-learning strategies to progress and demonstrate their understandings in this unit. Participants will be involved in a variety of teaching-learning strategies to support learning, including: lectures and tutorials with discussion, written activities, workshops and on-going assessment tasks. The unit will include a Canvas site with resources and online links, announcements, and a discussion board to post questions and reflections that are related to the unit. There may also be online activities associated with readings.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video, workshops, and assignments etc.
AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL
On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should be able to:
Representative texts and references
Required Text
McMillan, J. (2014). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective standards-based instruction (International 6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
References
Relevant Australian, state and territory curriculum documents.
Anderson, L. (Ed). (2014). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's . (Pearson new international ed.). Essex, UK: Pearson.
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2019). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement (5th ed.). Melbourne, Vic: Pearson Australia
Brown, G. T. L., Irving, S. E., & Keegan, P.J. (2014). An introduction to educational assessment, measurement, and evaluation: Improving the quality of teacher-based assessment (3rd ed.). Auckland, NZ: Dunmore Publishing.
James, M., Black, P., Carmichael, P., et al (2007) Improving learning How to learn in classrooms, schools and networks. London: Routledge.
Marzano, R., & Kendall, J. (2007). The new taxonomy of educational objectives (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Miller, M., Linn, R., & Gronlund, N. (2013). Measurement and assessment in teaching (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Stiggins, R. J. (2008). Student-involved classroom assessment (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill-Prentice Hall.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design: Supporting teaching and learning in real classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.