1. Association for Achievement and Improvement through Assessment Conference 2004 Thinking about Assessment From a Culture of Accountability to a Culture of Responsibility Professor B J McGettrick University of Glasgow

2. In present day society, the education system may play an increasingly significant role in terms of social cohesion and cultural leadership. If they are to be successful in this regard schools must be aware of how they are to develop those human assets for which they have responsibility. They must feel empowered to state their priorities and be supported in their development. Are we looking for attainment or for creativity… or both?

3. Assessment is the formal process of collecting evidence about the success and progress of students as they learn.

4. Education in the service of Human Development Education is often thought about for learning Why are we learning? … To think … Why are we thinking?... To be human. What is it to be human?... Autonomous, dignified and free …?

5. “Amongst the other blessings (which God gives) it is to be reckoned not least that by assiduous study man may win the pearl of knowledge. This shows him the way to live well and happily and its preciousness opens the door for him to understand the mysteries of the universe; it helps and raises to distinction those that were born in the lowest places.” (Nicholas V, Bull of 7 January 1451, Glasgow University Archives)

6. “Education thus presents itself as at once preparation for life and an irreplaceable part of life itself: Hence the good school is to be assessed not by any tale of examination successes, however impressive, but by the extent to which it has filled the years of youth with security, graciousness and ordered freedom, and has thus been the seed-bed for the flowering in due season of all that is of good report.”S A A Report of The Advisory Council on Education in Scotland, Advisory Report on Secondary Education in Scotland, 1947

7. Amongst the most significant purposes of education are: Forming people  Of love, care and compassion  With a deep sense of hope  Who appreciate beauty and wonder  Who will serve the world by their gifts

8. Are we to value what we assess or Assess what we value?

9. Education is deeply concerned with humanity....to raise people to distinction...to make the most of human assets in the service of others. It is an enterprise which, of course, has both a value and a price. We ought not to lose sight of both these attributes in a world which pays more attention to prices than to values; more attention to employment than to critical curiosity; and more attention to the individual than the collective spirit.

10. The curriculum is not the purpose of education. Assessment is not the purpose of education. Achievement and attainment are not the purposes of education. These are means to the end, and not the ends in themselves.

11. Knowing the difference between ends and means Do both means and ends reflect our values? Are we losing the capacity to know the essential purposes in education in our society?

12. Planning Teaching Recording Reporting Evaluating Assessment in Education

13. A challenge for the educational leader is to move from a culture of accountability to a culture of co-responsibility.

14. Good practices recognise that to be educated is, to a large degree, a corporate act. Education is not always about decisions taken by a single person but is concerned with facilitating what is required “in the common good”. This will be the common good of the school community as well as the good of society more generally. Consider the role of teamwork in Ferrari!

15. A Model for Learning Content – Principles, Knowledge, Concepts, Ideas, Skills Dispositions to Learning – Learning to Love Learning RelationshipsEmotional and Spiritual Space

16. The content The disposition The relationships, or The emotional or spiritual need. Assessment should pay special attention to the quality of relationships… a key to learning. What seems to be the case that each person will have their interest in learning driven by one of these aspects

17. Assessment will have a relationship with qualifications and awards. The nature of this relationship has to be clear, when it exists. It is likely that the future will be one in which there are “hybrids” of awards, rather than monolithic schemes as at present. These will be characterised by being person-centred (not just learner-centred) flexible internationally-referenced partly “mobile” in their style etc

18. Assessment should promote effective relationships. Weak assessment patterns can create relationships which are fragile uncertain threatening Effective education is based on relationships which are robust confident give positive feelings

19. making meaning critical curiosity creativity learning relationships strategic awareness resilience changing and learning The Seven Dimensions of Learning Power (Ruth Deakin-Crick, Guy Claxton etc)

20. The excessive concerns for NARROW targets and standards set by others outside the school can become paralysing to creativity and the pursuit of new ideas. Schools are not at their best when the have become places of compliance and conformity to detail. This is the antithesis of the open, creative and investigative mind fostered within the community of scholars.

21. There is evidence to suggest that a plateau is reached by seeking to raise attainment through externally imposed change. The real need is to develop a culture of professional co-responsibility in which change and improvement are developed by the intrinsic motivation of the learner… facilitated by the teacher.

22. Hierarchy of Learning Learning how to become Learning how to be Learning how to do Learning how to learn Learning how to repeat

23. Educating to serve society through just assessment The great human need of our time is justice in our society. This is not a legal concept, or one based on a kind of superficial fairness. It is a deep desire to treat each person with dignity, respect, and seeing each person as a source of human progress serving all people through their gifts for a better world.

24. We need to show that learning has vibrancy and vitality in the pursuit of truth. It is not inert and anachronistic, but alive in the formation of each student and of a better community. The emphasis is always on quality enhancement and the improvement of learning. Education is not just about “the good”. In certain circumstances the good is the enemy of the great. Schools should encourage and support great thoughts, and not simply comply with the good ones.

25. Some Challenges Are we producing the kinds of ideas which are relevant and which dignify the lives and times of young people? We desperately need more imagination, and more creativity in assessment to inspire young people. Self-assessment has its place; peer assessment has its place; group assessment is important; ….

26. There is a need to move beyond e-assessment to mobile assessment. Some principles of mobile assessment : 1Adds value. 2Avoids imposing limitations on creativity and developing personal qualities. 3Is complementary to and not an alternative to more traditional approaches. 4Is developed by and with practitioners. 5Maintains concerns for reliability and validity.

27. We need to find a way of motivation of young people through offering hope and care. Assessment is a means to the end, not the end in itself. The centrality of assessment in promoting hope, justice and dignity cannot be over-estimated. Assessment needs to be concerned with knowledge, understanding, skills, as well as the values and virtues of humanity.

28. There is a need for international mobility across educational systems The international referencing of a framework of awards and qualifications should be comprehensive, and encompass the field from 3years old – PhD awards There is a greater need for understanding the power of assessment in relation to learning confidence building human growth and development.

29. The greatest need among professionals is to have the professional courage to serve those whom we are entrusted to serve by our values and our professional commitment. Assessment can contribute to change in ways that are dramatic and lasting. Professional Ethical Courage

30. Grounds for hope in educational assessment: hope in a better future in which ethical standards allow us to focus on the common good hope in a more just society, where assessment is relevant and supportive of the learner; hope in the application of ethical practices in all assessment;  hope that the profession will sustain society in justice and for the good of all.