Saturday, March 28, 2009
Is Multiple Choice the Answer?
How technology is used to improve assessment in the UK depends heavily on what we will choose to assess.
Schools across the UK now have an increasing range of technology available to use in the classroom and although there are concerns that this technology is not always being used to best potential, it is being used more and more. Becta Chief Executive, Steve Crowne recently increased the expectation on schools to use their technology as an integral part of the day to day teaching and learning of the school saying , “schools which still believe that technology should only be used in ICT lessons are missing the point”.
Schools are being challenged and supported to make sure their use of technology is integrated across the curriculum. Times have changed for learners who not so long ago could expect to leave at or at least switch off their mobile phones at the school gate, the same learners might now expect to be asked to use mobiles for research and media applications in lessons. In educational thinking, the mobile phone has transformed from a controlled or banned disruptive object to being commonly described as “the pencil case of the 21st century learner”.
But there is still one area of school life which has remained largely untouched by the progress with technology; a learner arriving at school for “exam day” can expect the experience to be very much the same as it was for their parents or even grandparents, without a piece of technology in sight.
The majority of exam boards still use paper and pen/pencil and the postal system as their toolkit for assessing the skills, knowledge and understanding of “the internet generation”. In fact, for some exam boards 2009 will be the year they replace cassette tapes with CDs for language speaking and listening exams !
Schools are using innovative forms of peer and self –assessment (such as PbyP) in the classroom successfully and government strategies such as AFL and APP advocate the benefits of both peer and self-assessment, but when it comes to the national qualifications schools and learners more often than not find themselves sitting in a single desk in silence in the school hall holding a pencil.
Those exam boards who are incorporating the benefits of modern technology into their assessments are largely keeping the format the same and replacing the person marking the multiple choice answer sheet with an optical scanner, a practice which this month has been criticised by the UK’s first independent qualifications authority, Ofqual. Science achievement in the UK is currently third in Europe but Ofqual have expressed concern about the testing arrangements for the new GCSEs which are approaching their first examinations this summer. Rather than establish new ways of investigating the depth of understanding in Science, computerisation is being used to increase the scope for automated marking and thereby decrease the opportunity for learners to expand on their answers or show their understanding to any depth.
In contrast to this, the new ICT Assessments for Key Stage 3 published this month have been hailed by some as an important development. These build upon the research work started through trials in Northern Ireland in 2003 and more recently through the AQA standardisation initiative in the summer of 2007 which were reported on in April 2008.
For progress in areas other than ICT however we need to look at work conducted in other countries. Probably the most logical ones to choose are those which have consistently outperformed the UK in international comparison tests.
In Finland the use of peer and self-assessment is invested in from an early age with all children being trained in how to reflect on their own learning and understanding in accurate and meaningful ways. Schools are checked for their accuracy of assessment by a sample of learners in each year group from every school being assessed externally by national professional bodies. There have never been standard examinations for all students either during or at the end of compulsory education.
In Norway, ' The Programme for Digital Competence 2004-2008” states, “Schools will be allowed to experiment with the use of portfolio assessment subject to external censoring as an alternative to nationally set exams” in parallel to a national priority of “Integrating ICT in examination, assessment and working methods”. “Assessment practices are difficult to change, but if they remain unchanged, important aspects of a new or emergent learning culture are in danger.” (Dysthe O. 2004). This has led to the widespread development of assessment e-portfolios with teacher training organisations leading the way. Some such as Bergen University have completely replaced examinations with ‘virtual e-portfolios’.
Finally, if we consider the costs of paper printing and posting it is clear to see why five years worth of PbyP use, costs less than a fifth of just one examination entry. Ofqual are clear that the need for e-assessment must be to raise standards not purely to save money and evidence is that the new National Diplomas are developing along these lines. The decision of exam boards, however, to move further towards automated marking for ‘academic subjects’ instead of e-portfolios, peer and teacher assessments mean we may not be learning as quickly as our Scandinavian neighbours.