Confidence in Competence

1. Confidence in Competence Patrick Griffin March 19, 2004

2. Expectations of Education • Clarity of outcomes • Frameworks • Systematic assessment

3. Inferences and prediction • Assessments inform inferences and predictions about learning • The evidence of learning is usually a count or comment on outcomes demonstrated • observations have to be considered as approximations • the set of observations are usually of a sample of possible outcomes • generalisation is required beyond the sample of outcomes • need to link to future and transferred learning • relies on an underlying variable (continuum, progression) • the generalisation is based on professional judgement regardless of the assessment data provided. • It is assumed that the performance, the process, the observation and interpretation (assessment) is undisturbed by outside factors Assessment Outline

4. Vygotsky’s research • Development of human beings and the role that formal education can play in the development

5. Zone of proximal development • ….a state of readiness in which the pupil will be able to make certain kinds of conceptual connections, but not others; anything too simple will quickly become boring; anything too difficult will become demoralising

6. A zone in which an individual can learn more with assistance than he or she can manage alone

7. Interpretation Criterion - (demands of tasks) • ".. the development of procedures whereby assessments of proficiency could be referred to stages along progressions of increasing competence. (Glaser, 1981; p.935). Assessment Outline

8. Position on a developmental continuum to an interpretation of what a pupil or group of pupils can learn with assistance rather than focussing on a score or performance relative to a group of percentage.

18. Conclusions • Definitive statements about pupil performance and capabilities cannot be made. It is only a probabilistic context. • Strategies need to be developed to enable probabilistic statements to be made about learning • Item response modelling, criterion referenced interpretation and zones of proximal development come together in a single approach to teaching learning and assessment. • Assessment is best used to identify the intervention strategy associated with the ZPD. • Identification of the Intervention strategy and the ZPD implies that different teaching strategies are needed for each ZPD and this is turn implies differential allocation of resources. • When this is applied at a system level the allocation of resources has implication for curriculum and resource policies. • Teachers can readily adapt the logic of the probabilistic models of assessment to develop and implement the Criterion referenced, IRT and ZPD approaches to teaching assessment and learning in their classroom without large scale adoption of sophisticated computer models. • A criterion references and ZPD approach to teaching and assessment demands a reporting morel than enables this to be communicated to a range of stakeholders and reports that illustrate scores, grades or comments unrelated to the criterion, latent trait and proximal approach are of limited use

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