This Springer Brief provides theory, practical guidance, and support tools to help designers create complex, valid assessment tasks for hard-to-measure, yet crucial, science education standards. Understanding, exploring, and interacting with the world through models characterizes science in all its branches and at all levels of education. Model-based reasoning is central to science education and thus science assessment. Current interest in developing and using models has increased with the release of the Next Generation Science Standards, which identified this as one of the eight practices of science and engineering. However, the interactive, complex, and often technology-based tasks that are needed to assess model-based reasoning in its fullest forms are difficult to develop. Building on research in assessment, science education, and learning science, this Brief describes a suite of design patterns that can help assessment designers, researchers, and teachers create tasks for assessing aspects of model-based reasoning: Model Formation, Model Use, Model Elaboration, Model Articulation, Model Evaluation, Model Revision, and Model-Based Inquiry. Each design pattern lays out considerations concerning targeted knowledge and ways of capturing and evaluating students' work. These design patterns are available at http://design-drk.padi.sri.com/padi/do/NodeAction?state=listNodes&NODE_TYPE=PARADIGM_TYPE. The ideas are illustrated with examples from existing assessments and the research literature.

This book discusses competence, teacher competence, and professional error competence of teachers, and emphasizes the need for a training programme that supports the latter. The book starts out by presenting results from previous studies that underline the necessity to train professional error competence of teachers, especially in the field of accounting. The studies analysed include research in the field of accounting, and on the efficacy of teacher training. Next, considerations on training programmes are presented. From these analyses, a training programme was designed to support professional error competence in accounting. This training programme aims for increased knowledge about students' errors (content knowledge) and offers strategies to handle these errors (pedagogical content knowledge). Both are central facets of professional error competence. The book describes the development, characteristics, implementation, and evaluation of this programme. It details the test platform that was developed and used for the assessment of professional error competence, and critically discusses the results from the evaluation of the training programme from various perspectives. The current discussion on teacher training and expertise is influenced by empirical results obtained in international large-scale studies such as PISA and TIMSS. The findings of the studies underpin the discussion on teaching quality and teachers' professional competences. The key issue is that teacher competence has an impact on teaching quality and this, in turn, influences students' achievements. International comparative studies reveal that teachers often lack central competence facets, and therefore it is assumed that standard teacher training programmes may fail to successfully prepare student teachers for their tasks. Therefore, customized training programmes are currently being discussed. Their focus is mostly on pedagogical content knowledge and classroom practices, because these competence facets are essential for teaching quality.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Technology Enhanced Assessment, TEA 2016, held in Tallinn, Estonia, in October 2016. The 16 full papers presented were carefully selected from 38 submissions. They are centered around topics like measurement of higher order skills; collaborative problem solving or presentation skills; the development of guidelines for authentication control; the role of self-assessment.

Systematic Classroom Assessment promotes a fresh vision of assessment for student learning and achievement. Using a framework that positions assessment as both an iterative, purposeful cycle of inquiry for teachers as well as a coherent system of activities through which students engage in their own learning, this framework for classroom assessment is unique in incorporating self-regulated learning, motivation, and non-cognitive processes. Key components such as assessment for learning, feedback, emerging technologies, and specific content areas are treated in depth, and fundamental principles like reliability, validity, and fairness are approached from the classroom perspective.

Providing insight into the background, theory and practical applications of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Transforming Higher Education through Universal Design for Learning: An International Perspective examines and shares best practice in UDL implementation worldwide to provide strategies for strengthening student accessibility, engagement and learning outcomes through the development of flexible learning environments. Drawing upon insightful, research-based contributions from educators and student service specialists in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Spain, the UK and all across the USA, this book: considers diversity in the form of disability, minority ethnic groups, gender identities, first generation university students and varying socio-economic backgrounds; brings together key thinkers and actors in the field of UDL and expertly maps its practices to the higher educational domain; explores the multiple means of representation, expression and engagement that combine to create a successful UDL framework. Each chapter not only provides a different perspective of how UDL has helped meet the needs of all students to ensure that education is accessible, culturally responsive and socially just, but also considers how this can then be implemented into higher education environments the world over. This book is a crucial read for those who want to make a positive difference in higher education provision and outcomes.

In response to growing pressure on early years practitioners to adopt a 'tick-box' approach to recording children's progress, Celebrating Children's Learning sets out a bold, alternative vision for assessment in the early years. Drawing upon an inspiring collaboration between London nursery schools, this book explores and reconsiders the purpose of observation in early years settings. Contributors provide a range of examples to guide early years practitioners as they develop their own methods of observation. Play, social interaction, and cooperation with parents are shown to be valuable opportunities for keen observation. Chapters discuss: - moving beyond data-focussed assesment - Characteristics of Effective Learning - ensuring inclusive assessment - collaborating with parents from diverse backgrounds - outdoor learning - a Forest School approach. Inspiring and empowering, Celebrating Children's Learning is essential reading for teachers, practitioners, and students involved in early education.

In response to growing pressure on early years practitioners to adopt a 'tick-box' approach to recording children's progress, Celebrating Children's Learning sets out a bold, alternative vision for assessment in the early years. Drawing upon an inspiring collaboration between London nursery schools, this book explores and reconsiders the purpose of observation in early years settings. Contributors provide a range of examples to guide early years practitioners as they develop their own methods of observation. Play, social interaction, and cooperation with parents are shown to be valuable opportunities for keen observation. Chapters discuss: - moving beyond data-focussed assesment - Characteristics of Effective Learning - ensuring inclusive assessment - collaborating with parents from diverse backgrounds - outdoor learning - a Forest School approach. Inspiring and empowering, Celebrating Children's Learning is essential reading for teachers, practitioners, and students involved in early education.

This book explores teaching and learning in lower secondary classrooms in the three PISA domains science, mathematics and reading. Based on extensive video documentation from science, math and reading classrooms in Norwegian secondary schooling, it analyzes how offered and experienced teaching and learning opportunities in these three subject areas support students' learning. The in-depth investigations of video documentation are combined with analysis of the Norwegian PISA results in order to understand how teaching and learning in science, mathematics and reading can be improved. Recent reviews indicate that instructional practice does make a difference to students learning - and is more important than other factors including students' socioeconomic background, class size, classroom climate, and teachers' experience and formal training. This book opens the discussion on a European basis about contemporary challenges in teaching and learning in secondary schooling. Norway as a test bed is particularly interesting due to its long tradition with national curricula, and its unitary and non- streamed structure. Furthermore, ideas of educational progressivism and students' active ways of working (such as individualized teaching, adapted teaching, inquiry based teaching etc.) have for a long time been actively promoted within Norwegian educational policies. The book draws on analyses that combine expertise in psychometrics and video-based micro genetic classroom studies with expertise in domain-specific instruction (math, science and reading). It feeds the conversation how issues of communication patterns are dealt with and made productive within different instructional formats, and presents possibilities to compare and analyze instructional formats and discursive practices for students' learning.

This publication focuses on competency orientation in higher education, illustrating international assessment practices for measuring student learning outcomes. For Germany, the Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHs) research program contributes exemplary approaches, and solutions to current challenges in higher education. KoKoHs models and tests can be used for entrance examination, formative and summative assessment of domain-specific and generic competencies and as a basis for developing new teaching-and-learning tools and formats promoting these competencies.

In this book, the authors provide readers with a straightforward approach to doing assessment in a way that is meaningful, manageable and sustainable over time. Including a straightforward overview of assessment concepts and principles, as well as practical, easy-to-follow instructions for multiple assessment tools and key steps in the assessment process, this book is a handy, all-in-one how-to guide. In addition, the text guides readers toward the development of a culture of assessment. Writing in a conversational tone that has helped the authors to successfully teach assessment principles and practices to faculty and administrators from a variety of academic disciplines and institutions, the book reads as if a friendly, supportive assessment professional is by your side. The book begins with an overview of the assessment process, and key assessment concepts and principles. Subsequent modules provide detailed instructions and specific tips for carrying out each step of the process, including three modules focused on creating and implementing specific assessment measurement tools. The authors recommend readers begin by reading Module 1, which provides a framework that will enhance understanding of each of the steps of the process that are spelled out in detail in subsequent modules. However, after that, each of the modules is designed to stand alone. Readers need not read the modules in order, nor do they need to read all of them, in order to benefit from the authorsaEURO (TM) guidance. In addition, the authors have created a video to accompany Module 10, in which they take readers step-by-step through the use of Excel spreadsheets to organize and present assessment data.

The second edition of Assessment for Excellence arrives as higher education enters a new era of the accountability movement. In the face of mandates such as results-based funding and outcomes-based accreditation, institutions and assessment specialists are feeling increasingly pressured to demonstrate accountability to external constituencies. The practice of assessment under these new accountability pressures takes on special significance for the education of students and the development of talent across the entire higher education system. This book introduces a talent development approach to educational assessment as a counter to prevailing philosophies, illustrating how contemporary practices are unable to provide institutions with meaningful data with which to improve educational outcomes. It provides administrators, policymakers, researchers, and analysts with a comprehensive framework for developing new assessment programs to promote talent development and for scrutinizing existing policies and practices. Written for a wide audience, the book enables the lay reader to quickly grasp the imperatives of a properly-designed assessment program, and also to gain adequate statistical understanding necessary for examining current or planned assessment policies. More advanced readers will appreciate the technical appendix for assistance in conducting statistical analyses that align with a talent development approach. In addition, institutional researchers will benefit from sections that outline the development of appropriate student databases.

This book provides an introduction to test equating, scaling and linking, including those concepts and practical issues that are critical for developers and all other testing professionals. In addition to statistical procedures, successful equating, scaling and linking involves many aspects of testing, including procedures to develop tests, to administer and score tests and to interpret scores earned on tests. Test equating methods are used with many standardized tests in education and psychology to ensure that scores from multiple test forms can be used interchangeably. Test scaling is the process of developing score scales that are used when scores on standardized tests are reported. In test linking, scores from two or more tests are related to one another. Linking has received much recent attention, due largely to investigations of linking similarly named tests from different test publishers or tests constructed for different purposes. In recent years, researchers from the education, psychology and statistics communities have contributed to the rapidly growing statistical and psychometric methodologies used in test equating, scaling and linking. In addition to the literature covered in previous editions, this new edition presents coverage of significant recent research. In order to assist researchers, advanced graduate students and testing professionals, examples are used frequently and conceptual issues are stressed. New material includes model determination in log-linear smoothing, in-depth presentation of chained linear and equipercentile equating, equating criteria, test scoring and a new section on scores for mixed-format tests. In the third edition, each chapter contains a reference list, rather than having a single reference list at the end of the volume The themes of the third edition include: * the purposes of equating, scaling and linking and their practical context * data collection designs * statistical methodology * designing reasonable and useful equating, scaling, and linking studies * importance of test development and quality control processes to equating * equating error, and the underlying statistical assumptions for equating

Today we are seeing a new form of blended learning: not only is technology enhancing the learning environment but formal and informal learning are combining and there is self- and peer-assessment of results. Open learning cultures are challenging the old and long-practiced methods used by educators and transforming learning into a more student-driven and independent activity , which uses online tools such as blogs, wikis or podcasts to connect resources, students and teachers in a novel way. While in higher education institutions most assessments are still tied to formal learning scenarios, teachers are more and more bound to recognize their students' informal learning processes and networks. This book will help teachers, lecturers and students to better understand how open learning landscapes work, how to define quality and create assessments in such environments, and how to apply these new measures. To this end, Ehlers first elaborates the technological background for more collaborative, distributed, informal, and self-guided learning. He covers the rise of social media for learning and shows how an architecture of participation can change learning activities. These new paradigms are then applied to learning and education to outline what open learning landscapes look like. Here he highlights the shift from knowledge transfer to competence development, the increase in lifelong learning, and the importance of informal learning, user generated content, and open educational resources. He then shows how to manage quality by presenting a step by step guide to developing customized quality concepts for open learning landscapes. Finally, several methods dealing with assessment in these new environments are presented, including guidelines, templates and use cases to exemplify the approaches. Overall, Ehlers argues for assessment as an integral part of learning processes, with quality assurance as a method of stimulating a quality culture and continuous quality development rather than as a simple controlling exercise.

This book offers a detailed analysis and assessment of the state of education round the world. The argument is made that education and curriculum practices are deficient for two reasons. The first is the adoption by governments, policy-makers and practitioners of a set of knowledge practices that can be broadly characterised as empiricist and technicist, and which has come to dominate how curricula are constructed and certainly how education systems and their work can be described. The second is the adoption of a model of curriculum that is both backward-looking and, in its own terms, confused and muddled. This book then sets out an alternative model, which is more cogent and better focused on human wellbeing.

This volume documents international, national, and small-scale testing and assessment projects of English language education for young learners, across a range of educational contexts. It covers three main areas: age-appropriate 'can do statements' and task types for teaching and testing learners between the ages of 6 to 13; innovative approaches to self-assessment, diagnostic testing, self- perception, and computer-based testing; and findings on how young learners perform on vocabulary, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and reading comprehension tests in European and Asian contexts. Early language learning has become a major trend in English language education around the globe. As a result of the spread of teaching English to a growing number of young children, assessment of and for learning have emerged as key issues. In line with this development, there is a clear and emerging need to make early language programs accountable and to assess both the progress children make over time and to quantify their achievement at various stages of development. This volume informs stakeholders about the realistic goals of early language learning, their efficiency, and how much progress children make over time.

This book is based upon three interrelated open naturalistic studies conducted to better characterise the motivational orientation of students in higher education. Open semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with undergraduates, students at community colleges and students in taught postgraduate courses in Hong Kong. The analysis used an exploratory grounded theory approach and resulted in a motivational orientation framework with six continua with positive and negative poles. On enrolment students had positions on the six facets of motivation, which shifted as they progressed through their degree according to their perceptions of the teaching and learning environment. The framework can, therefore, be used to explain both initial decisions to enrol and motivation to continue studying. The interviews included descriptions of teaching approaches and learning activities and their effects on motivation. This made it possible to describe a teaching and learning environment conducive to motivation, with eight supportive conditions. Each facet of the teaching and learning environment is illustrated with quotations from the three groups of students, resulting in a guide to configuring a teaching and learning environment conducive to motivating students. The emerging community-college sector in Hong Kong is used as a case study of the effects on student motivation of the expansion of the higher education sector through private colleges. Cultural issues are discussed, particularly the performance of Asian students relative to those in the West.

"Teachers will want to run-not walk-to get a copy of this book. Test preparation is an important real-life skill, and this book provides step-by-step guidance to help students learn how to prepare for tests and demonstrate what they know." -Linda B. Gambrell, Distinguished Professor of Education Clemson University "If you want to help students become test-smart, this is the book for you. Rona Flippo is masterful at making a potentially difficult task-taking tests-easy to teach." -Richard T. Vacca, Professor Emeritus Kent State University "All teachers and parents should read this book! It is one of the best I've read about practical approaches to test taking and studying in the current high-stakes era." -Rosalie Fink, Professor of Literacy Lesley University Help students master test taking through preparation strategies that lead to academic success! As the stakes on high-profile student tests such as the SAT continue to rise, student preparedness is becoming increasingly important. As a result, helping students do well on tests and succeed in school has become a top priority for teachers. This indispensable guide responds to this need by providing resources to promote content learning and test-taking abilities in middle and secondary school students. This practical text provides charts, checklists, Internet resources, and sample exercises for teachers to use with students, plus a final test covering content from each chapter. Using research-based practices, educators will be able to help students develop Strategies for dealing with test anxiety Effective time management and organizational skills Note-taking and study techniques applicable across content areas Methods for taking essay and objective tests Use these proven tools and strategies to help your students develop the skills and confidence that lead to positive academic experiences.

The educators are dedicated and concerned. The curriculum is successful. Yet some students aren't reading at grade level, and meetings air problems without making progress. Many students continue to flounder, leading to more meetings with the same lack of meaningful results. The Practitioner's Guide to Curriculum-Based Evaluation in Reading gives researchers and professionals the means to break this frustrating cycle, crafted by authors who have not only been there and done that, but can explain in depth how to replicate the method. Focusing on reading but applicable across subject areas, this highly accessible guide defines curriculum-based evaluation (CBE), provides conceptual background, and analyzes its component steps. Assessment and intervention are given equal attention within a problem-solving model featuring tools for skill assessment, progress monitoring, goal setting, and other bedrock tasks. Chapters build to lead readers beyond classroom strategies to guidelines for problem solving and decision making to effectively address individual student needs. Included in the coverage: The curriculum-based evaluation process. Relating CBE to the Multi-Tier System of Support model. Using CBE in daily practice, both in classwork and schoolwide. Decoding, early literacy, and reading comprehension. Progress monitoring and decision making. Plus FAQs, handouts, and other supplemental materials. This level of educational insight and pedagogical detail make the Practitioner's Guide to Curriculum-Based Evaluation in Reading a clarion call for researchers, graduate students, and professionals in school and clinical child psychology; assessment, testing, and evaluation; applied linguistics; language education; special education and allied education; educational psychology; and social work.

In recent decades physical education has moved from the margins, redefining itself as an academic subject. An important component of this transformation has been the introduction of high-stakes examinations at key points in a student's school career and the emergence of 'examination physical education' as the dominant paradigm in many educational systems around the world. This book is the first to explore the growing international literature on examination physical education and draw on research to extend the political, academic and professional debates around the subject to explore its limitations and possibilities. Addressing key topics such as curriculum development, assessment methods, and teacher education, it seeks to assess how our existing knowledge of examination physical education can be best translated into pedagogical practice in the classroom. Complementing other texts in the Routledge Studies in Physical Education and Youth Sport Series, it makes an original and informed contribution to current discussions of physical education. Examination Physical Education: Policy, Practice and Possibilities is important reading for any student, researcher or teacher educator with an interest in physical education, sports pedagogy and education policy.

This book describes the design, development, delivery and impact of the mathematics assessment for the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). First, the origins of PISA's concept of mathematical literacy are discussed, highlighting the underlying themes of mathematics as preparation for life after school and mathematical modelling of the real world, and clarifying PISA's position within this part of the mathematics education territory. The PISA mathematics framework is introduced as a significant milestone in the development and dissemination of these ideas. The underlying mathematical competencies on which mathematical literacy so strongly depends are described, along with a scheme to use them in item creation and analysis. The development and implementation of the PISA survey and the consequences for the outcomes are thoroughly discussed. Different kinds of items for both paper-based and computer-based PISA surveys are exemplified by many publicly released items along with details of scoring. The novel survey of the opportunity students have had to learn the mathematics promoted through PISA is explained. The book concludes by surveying international impact. It presents viewpoints of mathematics educators on how PISA and its constituent ideas and methods have influenced teaching and learning practices, curriculum arrangements, assessment practices, and the educational debate more generally in fourteen countries.

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) reflects a new direction in understanding the complex interactions among content, pedagogy, learners and technology that can result in successful integration of multiple technologies in teaching and learning. The purpose of this edited volume is to introduce TPCK as a conceptual framework for grounding research in the area of teachers' cognitive understanding of the interactions of technology with content, pedagogy and learner conceptions. Accordingly, the contributions will constitute systematic research efforts that use TPCK to develop lines of educational technology research exemplifying current theoretical conceptions of TPCK and methodological and pedagogical approaches of how to develop and assess TPCK.

This book provides an overview of current research on a variety of topics related to both large-scale and classroom assessment. First, the purposes, traditions and principles of assessment are considered, with particular attention to those common to all levels of assessment and those more connected with either classroom or large-scale assessment. Assessment design based on sound assessment principles is discussed, differentiating between large-scale and classroom assessment, but also examining how the design principles overlap. The focus then shifts to classroom assessment and provides specific examples of assessment strategies, before examining the impact of large-scale assessment on curriculum, policy, instruction, and classroom assessment. The book concludes by discussing the challenges that teachers currently face, as well as ways to support them. The book offers a common language for researchers in assessment, as well as a primer for those interested in understanding current work in the area of assessment. In summary, it provides the opportunity to discuss large-scale and classroom assessment by addressing the following main themes: *Purposes, Traditions and Principles of Assessment *Design of Assessment Tasks *Classroom Assessment in Action *Interactions of Large-Scale and Classroom Assessment *Enhancing Sound Assessment Knowledge and Practices It also suggests areas for future research in assessment in mathematics education.

This textbook provides in-depth instruction for conducting psychoeducational assessments of children in grades K-12 and conveying results through detailed, well-written reports. It takes readers step by step through the assessment process - collecting data, writing reports, and communicating conclusions - for students with conditions spanning the range of IDEA classifications such as autism, learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, and conditions covered by Section 504. The book offers not only a broad understanding of assessment and communication skills, but also of the ethical, legal, cultural, and professional considerations that come with psychoeducational evaluation. And its sample reports model clear, well-organized results accessible to parents and caregivers as well as teachers and colleagues. Key areas of coverage include: * Assessment basics: the testing environment and protocols, interviewing, and observation. * Report writing section by section, from reason for referral to summary and recommendations. * Guidelines for oral reporting, with case examples. * Special issues in psychoeducational assessment and report writing. * Sample psychoeducational reports using this framework. Psychoeducational Assessment and Report Writing is an essential text for graduate students, researchers, professors, and professionals in child and school psychology; assessment, testing, and evaluation; social work; and psychological methods/evaluation.