Pages: 16

This chapter refers to thinking in the millennium, with optimism about more international connectedness and the opportunities of technology. Caroline Gipps wrote in 1994, seeking to reconceptualise educational assessment. This book aims to take stock of assessment some thirty years on and to identify lessons learned and areas for further work. The material brought together for this purpose is very wide-ranging and derived from a range of academic disciplines. It has, therefore, been necessary to be selective in the issues explored in detail later in the book. This introductory chapter outlines the content and main themes of each of the chapters that follow. It then sets the scene by describing major developments and changes in the first quarter of the new century. It then outlines some of the debates and disagreements about education and assessment in theory and practice.

Pages: 41

This chapter gives an overview of developments in education and assessment, which are particularly important for a stocktake of educational assessment. The developments in education that are discussed include globalisation and increased participation in education; initiatives to extend literacy and basic skills; the realisation that learning needs to be lifelong and attempts to make that possible; and the production of lists of “21st century skills”. The chapter also charts descriptions of “Generation Z” and “Generation Alpha” and their experiences and requirements for education. The section on developments in education ends with a discussion of the “information deluge”. The developments in assessment that are discussed include the “Assessment for Learning” movement, the impact of technology on assessment practice and the recent and rapid, development of artificial intelligence. The assessment world is cautious about change. But there is a balance between prudent caution and maintaining relevance and supporting progress.

Pages: 38

This chapter considers in detail two “new priorities” in the first quarter of the 21st century (climate change and well-being) and an “unexpected shock” (the Covid-19 pandemic). Climate change and well-being are not new issues but have come to the forefront of public attention, and both have implications for education and educational assessment, including what should be assessed in relation to each topic and how. The shock of the Covid-19 pandemic hit education hard. It exacerbated problems that had been evident before, including “learning poverty” and inequalities of opportunity to learn. There were also challenges to the accepted methods of assessment in many countries. The chapter includes a case study of how national school examinations in the UK were affected by Covid-19.

Pages: 26

This chapter identifies some recent trends in thinking about society that have come to the forefront in the first two decades of the 21st century. It surveys theoretical and popular challenges from critical theories and examines in more detail the challenges from Critical Race Theory. The rest of the chapter is devoted to two case studies, which are described in some detail, with questions raised about the implications for educational assessment, both in the country where the case study was situated and further afield. The first case study concerns the legal and policy challenges to race-conscious college admissions policies in the USA, with a significant decision by the US Supreme Court in 2023 that will have implications for the future. The second is the debate about “decolonising” the university curriculum in the UK. Many of the issues discussed are controversial and have proved divisive. One general theme relevant to assessment is the importance of the contexts in which assessments are set, taken and used.

Pages: 48

The first part of this chapter considers changes to thinking about education, starting with the purposes of education and then reviewing theories of learning, with a 20th-century move from behaviourism to different forms of constructivism, followed by challenges to any constructivist consensus and a revival of support for “knowledge”. It then considers “competence” as an aim of education and a subject for assessment, and finally discusses “big data” and artificial intelligence. The second part considers thinking about assessment itself. It describes the impact of technology on conceptual ideas about assessment, and then outlines some approaches to assessment that reflect an increased recognition of the importance and relevance of the social context in which assessments take place. The authors support the view that it may be necessary to rethink the relationships between - and comparative priority of - fundamental assessment principles, including validity, reliability and fairness.

Pages: 21

This chapter considers the moral justification for educational assessment, moral challenges to assessment and possible moral principles to govern assessment. It starts by considering what is meant by “morality” (taking into account contemporary “postmodern” critiques) and proceeds to consider the moral justification for education. That is an essential preface to considering the moral justification of assessment as part of education. The chapter then considers attempts made to justify assessment, including Antony Flew’s argument based on the concept of “sincerity”. It subsequently considers two moral challenges to educational assessment: first, that it is an abuse of power, and second, that mark schemes used in some high-stakes school examinations are designed to create failures. The chapter suggests two possible moral principles to govern assessment practice: “First, do no harm” (borrowed from medical ethics) and “Context always matters”. It concludes with a moral challenge of the mid-21st century about the use of information to make assessment judgements. The application of the moral compass is timely and important.

Pages: 17

This concluding chapter restates the purpose of the book: to discuss and synthesise developments and thinking about society, education, and assessment, to identify lessons learned and make recommendations for the future of educational assessment. The chapter summarises the content of the previous chapters and suggests three themes linking the wide range of material brought together. The first is that context always matters. The second is a tension between constructs for assessment that are thought to be relevant to the needs of the 21st century and traditional methods of assessment. The third is a challenge to the traditional caution and risk-nervousness of the assessment world. For the path ahead, the chapter compares two approaches to assessment. The first is a narrow, analytic approach, focusing strictly on clearly defined rubrics and emphasising comparability and relational fairness. The second is a broader, synthetic view, with the aim of making evidence-based judgements on each individual, drawing on sources of evidence that may be rich and varied. The chapter argues for a shift in emphasis from the first to the second approach. It proceeds to recommend revisiting the model for the theoretical “assessment argument” and further work on moral principles that should govern assessment.