This presentation will review the design features to be taken into account if systems of assessment in which teacher judgement has a role are to be robust enough to meet the expectations of students, policy-makers and the wider public. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This seminar examines the implications of international human rights standards for assessment practice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Good science courses provide plenty of opportunities for students to explore and develop their understanding of scientific ideas through practical work. It is often argued that, to encourage school practical work, the students’ practical skills need to be formally assessed by examination or coursework but is this really necessary and if so, what is the best way to do this? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UCAS applications to UK Higher Education institutions, the number of A-levels awarded an A grade and high achieving students exceeding the minimum entry requirements are all on the increase. In this context, the increasing numbers of well-qualified applicants presents institutions with a real challenge: how can they choose between applicants in a way that is consistent, fair, transparent and predictive of their future academic success? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New GCSE qualifications were introduced for first teaching in England, Wales and Northern Ireland September 2009. These new GCSEs included changes such as controlled assessment, unitisation and entry, aggregation and terminal rules. This seminar discusses Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Mary Richardson, Centre for Beliefs, Rights and Values in Education, Roehampton University, considers the value of assessing Citizenship in the context of the findings from an empirical study conducted in secondary schools across England. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seminar highlighting how an explicit focus on Critical Thinking can enhance the attainment of pupils of all backgrounds and abilities, following recent research. Importantly, the research showed that pupils who study Critical Thinking as a discrete subject at AS level tend to do better in their other A level subjects, whether they are taking sciences, languages or humanities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest speaker Randy Bennet looks at six inter-related issues in formative assessment (aka, ‘Assessment for Learning’). The issues concern the definition of formative assessment, the claims commonly made for its effectiveness, the limited attention given to domain considerations in its conceptualisation, the underrepresentation of measurement principles in that conceptualisation, the teacher-support demands formative assessment entails, and its place in the larger educational system. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Concerns that ‘standards are falling’ continue to dominate public debate. What are the sources of data to which we should turn to illuminate issues of standards, and what degree of confidence should we have in the different explanations of trends in standards? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest speaker Professor David Raffe explains how caution and care is essential in order to draw robust conclusions from international comparisons about different national education systems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.