Then Seminar 7 task was to:

  1. Read Bruniges (2005)1, Chapters 8 and 9 of Brady and Kennedy (2012)2, and Reid (2013)3.
  2. View the TIMSS PISA Seminar 7 powerpoint (available on CANVAS).
  3. If I were sitting in a school staffroom and asked ``Should we have national and international benchmark testing of Australian students?’’ what would my response be drawing upon the above resources? Write a response using the sentence starter, “I believe…………” in less than 400 words.
  4. Post my response to your e-portfolio.

I believe that international benchmark testing can provide valuable data, but should be used to influence policy and teaching practices only with extreme caution and only after careful and critical interpretation of its meaning. Reid (2013)3 categorises four different ways in which evidence can be used to improve student learning and outcomes:

  • as a diagnostic for were to focus our teaching,
  • to motivate students,
  • to improve planning for teaching, and
  • to communicate student achievements.

In which of these categories does international benchmark testing offer evidence that can be used to improve student learning and outcomes? This is an important question, and one that needs to be considered with a great deal of care. As Bruniges (2005)1 points out with the example of PISA, mistakes in the interpretation of such assessments can be dramatic, and really not good. So I think that in principle, international benchmark testing has the potential to provide useful insights. BUT that the results of such testing need to be considered cautiously, critically, and by experts in teaching and data analysis, not politicians, media, and so on. Failing that, i.e. in the scenario where the misinterpretation of the results cannot be avoided, then I believe that the results should not be published publicly, or worst of all, such testing should be avoided. I don’t think that it needs to come to that, but rather I believe that what is needed (in an attempt to correct the ongoing damage being caused by misinterpretation of such results) is an education campaign on what these results mean, and more importantly do not mean. How they can be interpreted correctly, and what interpretations are not correct.

References:

  1. Bruniges, M. (2005). An evidence-based approach to teaching and learning. Australian Council for Educational Research — Conference Archive. ↩ ↩2

  2. Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. J. (2012). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement. ↩

  3. Reid, Alan (2013, August). Please resist the PISA effect. professional EDUCATOR, 12(4):24-26 ↩ ↩2