Technology - Data: the golden opportunity

Freedom

within limits

How feasible are the latest innovative approaches to assessment? The
Futurelab think-tank is investigating

Words Julie Nightingale

 

ill students still be ranged in rows in exam halls? Will handwritten tests continue to be the norm? What skills will teachers need to assess students' work? How will the evidence of their performance be gathered and how will it be presented for Ofsted?

The answers to some of these questions are what researchers at the independent technology thinktank Futurelab are hoping to explore in a project now underway. Titled New Assessment Scenarios, the study is funded by Becta (and is expected to continue until December).

Through interviews and workshops with practitioners, academics and technology specialists, it is exploring what assessment practice could and should be over the next decade, and the role technology might play in supporting and driving innovation.

The project focuses on three, overlapping visions of the future which, as project leader Carlo Perrotta explains, have been drawn from a combination of current trends, plus some theorising about the likely shape of education in England in the next five to
10 years and what some professionals hope it might be.

"For example," Perrotta says, "the first scenario looks at interpretive assessment. It assumes that in the next five to 10 years there is going to be consensus within the educational community about 21st century skills and how they can be observed
and measured.

"And at the heart of this consensus is the idea that, in order to assess 21st century skills, educational practitioners will evaluate whole bodies of evidence, as opposed to isolated bits of information. It will be a new type of 'holistic assessment', not based largely on tests any more but on the collation of pieces of evidence through portfolios or e-portfolios."

Scenario two - labelled 'Community/ecological assessment' - has the most implications for school leaders and decision-makers, as it is predicated on schools gaining much more independence in the next decade, with models such as academies and free schools becoming more widespread and LA influence diminishing.

Perrotta says: "For assessment, this has implications in terms of the kinds of approaches and tools that schools will be able to use to gather evidence to present for inspections or other purposes.

"Schools would be able to collect different types of evidence from local employers, for example, or about [extra-curricular] activities in which students learn outside school, perhaps using social networking technology. It's about gathering evidence to present it in new and interesting ways to add value and context to the basic figures on attainment."

 The third scenario examines 'Enhanced instructional planning'. It looks at what the increased use of formative assessment will mean for the training and CPD needs of teachers, and the skills they will need in order to develop formative practices, such as feedback through marking, peer- and self-assessment.

"This scenario assumes that teachers will be taking on a new role as facilitators and orchestrators of complex learning situations, rather than as presenters of content,"
Perrotta says.

All three scenarios are subject to change and are being reviewed in the light of feedback from the profession, academics and technology specialists as they develop over the next three months.

Of the three, the second is perhaps the most contentious, given schools' wariness of technologies such as social networks. The idea of using Facebook, for example, to gather evidence from a community of a student's skills or experience is difficult to envisage, as most schools in England currently ban access to Facebook in school time for safeguarding reasons.

Perrotta acknowledges the obstacles. "But the scenarios assume that in future there is going to be a clear context for using these technologies and that schools will have a rationale for using them as they will be part of the evaluation process. So that will be the main driver. It's about developing a more complex notion of evidence, linked to the belief that schools will be more independent and so will be at liberty to draw on different types of evidence."

An expert panel, made up of teachers, school leaders, awarding body representatives, academics and technology specialists, is supporting the project. They include Marius Frank, a former head of Bedminster Down 11-16 school in Bristol, and now chief executive of awarding body Asdan. He welcomes the wider use of technologies and is already an enthusiast for wider use of e-portfolios.

"At Asdan, we tested and developed an e-portfolio that linked to mobile devices. Instead of paper-based witness testimonies to support evidence-based attainment, it could just as easily be 20 seconds of video, downloaded from the mobile phone, of the boss or manager saying what a good job has been done, supported similarly by pictures of the activity, or short sound files of discussions, group activities, oral presentations or events. Really
powerful stuff."

Dave Mellor, on-screen test programme manager for the awarding body AQA, agrees that involving employers and others in recording their assessment of candidate's performance and approach taken "has some real merit," though may be better suited to vocational qualifications.

He says: "I can see no reason for a candidate's performance not to be recorded while on work placement and then used as evidence towards a qualification - as long as it meets the assessment objectives/criteria. Having said that, the use of controlled assessments in GCSE and A-level and the relatively limited work placements available for candidates studying general qualifications, which allow them to do something which will meet the assessment objectives/criteria, is something I think would be hard to overcome."

He also has practical reservations about the role of e-portfolios.

"One of the major hurdles, which needs to be overcome, is how assessment presented in e-portfolios can be managed to allow learners a free rein to record their work in whatever media are most suitable and still allow access by assessors, moderators and verifiers to use it without them having to buy dozens of different software packages."

Dave White, advanced skills teacher (AST) in design and technology for North Somerset, pointed to the project's focus on technologies such as social networking, as enabling the kind of collaborations schools should be encouraging.

"We are locked into a mindset that considers 'working together' to be cheating, however in the 'real world' almost everyone shares ideas or works collaboratively. Designers rarely tackle problems sitting alone at a desk, they work in teams, brainstorming and similar activities are commonplace and the result is better products and outcomes."

Assessment in future should be "heading online..." he believes, "...captured in 'real time', evidence-based, looking at
personal, learning and thinking skills,
be personalised and ongoing."

Currently, he adds, it is going "slowly along traditional routes... we are too frightened of change."   N

 

Through interviews and workshops with practitioners, academics and technology specialists, researchers are exploring
what assessment practice could and
should be over the next decade

 

~

Brave new world?

Graham Herbert, spokesman for the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA), welcomes the research interest in assessment but has some doubts about
its hypotheses.

"The freedom for schools to operate in this manner opens up the possibility of markedly different assessment methods being developed, and things like crowd-sourcing could open up whole new worlds where we can collect evidence about pupils and add to the richness we have gathered about learners," he says. "However, I do have some concerns over e-portfolios, for example, which can become very unwieldy, and potentially universities and colleges will have to spend time going through them to find the relevant information.

"Similarly, with social networking sites, the richness of evidence is there but can you authenticate material that is on Facebook? Probably not. So the concept is quite appealing but the downside is the difficulty surrounding authentication and the fact that a school would have to validate its own materials from sites that are not permitted in school.

"It would be good for the learner experience but would prospective employers or universities give credence to these sources? I think probably not."

For updates on the Futurelab project see www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/assessment