Education Commons^™

Learning Assessments: Designing The Future, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Processes for assessing student learning are undergoing fundamental transformation.This presentation will consider three developments which can be expected to shape how student learning is assessed in the future. First is fundamental change in how assessment is conceptualised and approached, with a focus on monitoring learning. Second is growing interest in the assessment of a broader range of skills and attributes than those addressed in most current assessment efforts. Third is advances in technology which are opening the door to new ways of gathering information about student learning, including through records of real-time interactions in online learning environments. In ACER’s Centre …

Towards A Unified Theory Of Assessment, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Attempts to categorise educational assessments as either ‘formative’ or ‘summative’ no longer serve us well and the time has come to develop a more unified theory of assessment.

Addressing The Learning Needs Of All Students, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Year-level curriculum expectations in our schools sometimes impose artificial ceilings on student learning, and many of Australia’s most able students are not achieving their true potential as a result. Geoff Masters explains why.

Understanding And Addressing The Learning Needs Of Our Highest-Performing Students, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Learning Assessments, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Processes for assessing student learning are undergoing fundamental transformation, according to Geoff Masters.

Review Recommends Tertiary Entrance Changes, Geoff Masters, Gabrielle Matters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A review by Gabrielle Matters and Geoff Masters of senior assessment and tertiary selection processes in Queensland has recommended changes to meet future education needs.

Stretching To Reach High Standards, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

In order to raise achievement, teachers need to stretch their students with tasks that are neither too easy nor difficult, according to Geoff Masters.

Getting To The Essence Of Assessment, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Assessments in education can be made, interpreted and used in different ways, but all serve the same fundamental purpose, as Geoff Masters explains.

Why A To E Grades Paint The Wrong Picture, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters makes the case for a new approach to assessment so that teachers can better monitor the progress their students make and the effectiveness of their own teaching.

Towards A Growth Mindset In Assessment, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Assessment and reporting processes shape student, parent and community beliefs about learning – sometimes in unintended ways.

Towards A Growth Mindset In Assessment, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Measuring Progress, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters discusses the need for a system of educational assessment that provides long-term pictures of student progress.

Education Assessment In The 21st Century, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The author argues that there is a need for significant reform in educational assessment. Instead of judging student success only in terms of year-level expectations, assessment needs to recognise the progress that all students can make in their learning, regardless of students' starting points.

Reforming Educational Assessment: Imperatives, Principles And Challenges, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

AER 57 reviews research into assessment, especially in schools; it analyses the pivotal role of assessment in learning and argues for its reconceptualisation by practitioners and policy makers to better support learning. The genesis of this AER was the ACER Research Conference Assessment and Student Learning: Collecting, interpreting and using data to inform teaching, held in Perth in August 2009. Section 1 outlines some current pressures for assessment reform, introduces the concept of a learning assessment system designed to establish where learners are in their progress within an empirically mapped domain of learning, and sketches a set of design principles …

Put Assessment Reform In The Must-Do Basket, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The reform of assessment thinking and practice has the potential to lead and drive improvements in teaching and learning, but assessment reform is likely to be difficult without broader educational reforms. For example, assessment to establish where individuals are in their learning is largely pointless if teachers intend to deliver exactly the same content to all students in a class regardless of their current levels of achievement.

Adaptive Testing For Psychological Assessment: How Many Items Are Enough To Run An Adaptive Testing Algorithm?, Michaela Wagner-Menghin, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Although the principles of adaptive testing were established in the psychometric literature many years ago (e.g., Weiss, 1977), and practice of adaptive testing is established in educational assessment, it is not yet widespread in psychological assessment. One obstacle to adaptive psychological testing is a lack of clarity about the necessary number of items to run an adaptive algorithm. The study explores the relationship between item bank size, test length and measurement precision. Simulated adaptive test runs (allowing a maximum of 30 items per person) out of an item bank with 10 items per ability level (covering .5 logits, 150 items …

Using The Partial Credit Model To Identify And Adjust For Differences Among Assessors, Geoff Masters, Siek Khoo

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

The Contribution Of Iea Research Studies To Australian Education, John Ainley, John Keeves, Jan Lokan, Petra Lietz, Geoff Masters, Sue Thomson

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This chapter is concerned with the contribution of the research studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) to Australian education. During a period of 50 years education across the world has undergone a remarkable transformation. Many of the changes that have occurred have been initiated by the United Nations Organization and its agen¬cies, particularly UNESCO. From its origins within the UNESCO Institute in Hamburg, IEA and its programs have evolved to develop the worldwide conduct of research in education both through the undertaking and reporting of studies as well as the informal training of …

Assessing Student Learning: Why Reform Is Overdue, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Progression And Assessment; Developmental Assessment, Margaret Forster, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

Assessment: Lessons From Learning Research?, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Keynote Address 1 - (includes video).

Advances In Measurement In Educational Research And Assessment, Geoff Masters, John Keeves

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Over the last three decades, there have been marked developments in the field of measurement in education and psychology. "Advances in Measurement in Educational Research and Assessment" presents the developments that have occurred and puts them into perspective. It discusses the continuing challenge to improve measurement both for research and for the assessment of student performance and learning in schools, and looks at the substantial advances that are likely to continue to occur in the future. The volume specifies procedures that have been developed to cover a wide range of situations in both research and the assessment of student learning. …

Setting And Measuring Performance Standards For Student Achievement : Australian Experience., Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

New Views Of Student Learning: Implications For Educational Measurement, Geoff Masters, R Mislevy

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Recent research in cognitive psychology has drawn attention to the important role that students' personal understandings and representations of subject matter play in the learning process. This chapter briefly reviews some of this research, and contrasts the kind of learning that results in an individual's changed conception or view of a phenomenon with the more passive, additive kind of learning assessed by most traditional achievement tests. To be consistent with a view of learning as an active, constructive process, educational tests are required that focus on key concepts in an area of learning, and that take into account the variety …

Assessing Achievement In Australian Schools, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper considers the educational and technical feasibility of introducing a comprehensive system of student performance measures which will allow valid and reliable national and international comparisons. The conclusion reached is that a useful system of student performance measures can be established in this country, and some specific recommendations are made for the implementation of such a system. But the discussion that follows also contains important caveats and warnings. Difficulties in establishing valid and reliable measures of student achievement are not to be underestimated. Many education systems, particularly large systems in Europe and the United States which have had performance …

Competency Based Assessment In The Professions, Geoff Masters, D Mccurry

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A Sense Of Direction In Criterion-Referenced Assessment, Geoff Masters, John Evans

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper describes some experimental work undertaken by the authors with teachers in a number of Australian schools to provide criterion-referenced assessments of student achievement. In these investigations we work closely with individual teachers using assessment materials developed within each school. We analyze students' performances on these materials, provide teachers with computergenerated reports, and assist teachers to use these reports to monitor the progress of their students and to diagnose individual strengths and weaknesses.

A Comparison Of Latent Trait And Latent Class Analyses Of Likert-Type Data, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper brings together and compares two developments in the analysis of Likert attitude scales. The first is the generalization of latent class models to ordered response categories. The second is the introduction of latent trait models with multiplicative parameter structures for the analysis of rating scales. Key similarities and differences between these two methods are described and illustrated by applying a latent trait model and a latent class model to the analysis of a set of 'life satisfaction' data. The way in which the latent trait model defines a unit of measurement, takes into account the order of the …