Building Better Bridges to Better Learning

 

Bridges Connect. Bridges Transport.

Bridges are Avenues to New Vistas, Opportunities, and Outcomes.

But are all new bridges necessarily “better”?

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In the domain of educational assessment, new bridges are being built, but where are they leading us? Consider these questions:

 

1. The state-of-the-art of technology-enhanced items (TEIs) and learning analytics hold great promises of efficiency, objectivity, and the mapping of prescriptive learning progressions, but how does the increasing use of these innovations alter the role of teacher judgement and pedagogical practice?
    

2. Tests of international comparison play an increasingly important role in gauging the quality of educational systems, but can these consequential assessments have a meaningful role in informing instructional decision-making by teachers at the classroom level?
    

3. As nations and schools establish broad education aims of transversal competencies, do teachers and education leaders possess the expert skills necessary to create, administer, integrate, and teach through the use of authentic performance assessments?
    

4. And, in an era of increasing demands for monitoring progress, accountability for learning, and high-stakes assessment, are we giving sufficient credence to the need to monitor and care for the social-emotional wellbeing of our students?

Clearly, these questions and others reflect the evolution and complexity of educational assessment practices, policies, and programs. Just as clearly, the “answers” can be nuanced and complex…but also potentially innovative and exciting!

 

Whether you are a policymaker, executive-level leader, school-level leader, classroom teacher, or researcher, come participate in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Educational Assessment Conference and be a part of our collective efforts to build better assessment bridges to student learning!