In this seminar a panel of key staff will discuss the issues surrounding comparability and will engage in debate with the audience about methods for establishing comparability, public understanding of the issues and directions for the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A frequent claim of awarding bodies is that standards are comparable across assessments in different subject areas. And if they are not, the awarding bodies can make them comparable through appropriate statistical techniques, or so the argument goes. It is not surprising that in many countries such brave statements are received with suspicion and mistrust by the stakeholders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Assessment industry (awarding bodies) should refocus its activities on applied research and development in assessment methodology. The industry should produce assessment tools and professional development for teachers and a much slimmed down external verification service. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we improve the quality of mark schemes and their use? Ayesha will outline a taxonomy of the kinds of mark schemes that are currently used in examining in the UK and discuss what makes a good mark scheme, based on the best practice observed in the study quoted above. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This seminar will present the findings from a research project analysing students' performances and attitudes towards modularisation in two GCSE subjects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Research findings suggest that, due to a lack of appreciation for the rationale behind the modular system, no control of resits and the highly competitive nature of selection by universities, the resit policy has produced some undesirable effects when it comes to actual practice in sixth-form education. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Widening participation in Higher Education crucially depends upon recruiting more young people from vocational pathways. But what sorts of opportunities do such learners access in Higher Education? Do these offer real opportunities for increasing social mobility and raising earnings? Is there any parity of esteem between academic and vocational progression routes? What are the challenges that students from more vocational programmes face when they enter Higher Education? How can we better support their learning and so improve success rates? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interpreting test performance (against the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in this case) is at the heart of test validity. Thus if CEFR alignment is important for an exam, it should impact every relevant stage of design and administration. It cannot be a one-off exercise. Cambridge ESOL's approach will be presented as an illustration of this. We will also present the SurveyLang project coordinated by Cambridge ESOL, due to deliver the European Survey on Language Competences in 2011. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This seminar will trace the history of investigations into inter-subject comparability in England, aiming to shed light on implicit and, occasionally, explicit statements of principle. It will analyse the emergence of early implicit conceptions and will illustrate how potential alternative conceptions have largely remained unrecognised, despite their potential utility. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ofqual's regulation stretches from the early years through the key stages, GCSEs, A levels and diplomas to vocational and occupational qualifications. Ofqual monitors assessments, reviews standards and has a major programme focused on reliability. What has the regulator found in its regulatory work on the significant developments that 2010 has brought? How do the outcomes help Ofqual fulfil its mission to ensure that these assessments are valued and trusted by learners, users and the wider public? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.