Assessment Literacy for Teachers
Learn how to use data from assessments
This program of six online modules support teachers’ engagement with, and understanding of, student-assessment mechanisms and the use of data to inform teaching and learning.
Whether you are seeking to maintain your skills at the level of Proficient Teacher, wish to expand your knowledge of various assessment methods and the data they generate, or are interested in building towards a postgraduate qualification, each module in this course will provide you with 4–6 hours of professional learning.
The Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment, in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, has developed a suite of fully online Professional Learning modules focusing on Assessment Literacy for Teachers. Any number of modules may be studied, in any order, and – most importantly – at your own pace, in your own space. Each module meets the descriptors published for Proficient Teachers by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.
Teachers who successfully complete all six modules will be eligible to undertake an extension assessment module for an additional fee, and can then use their statement of completion to apply for credit toward a Master of Education program. Successful completion of the complete program is equivalent to the University of Sydney postgraduate unit of study Assessment Literacy for School Teachers (EDPZ6011).
It is important to note that the modules are not, individually, higher-education awards and not qualifications recognised under the Australian Qualifications Framework.
Enrolment in this program is not available to international student-visa holders but international students in Australia on other visas with study rights may apply. The modules may also be studied offshore.
By the end of this module, teachers should be able to understand that assessment involves professional judgement based upon an image formed by the collection of information and used to locate student performance on a developmental continuum; contextualise the role of assessment in teaching; and know, understand and be able to use assessment-related terms and strategies including: reliability, validity, assessment for learning, assessment of learning, standards, performance standards and norm-referenced assessments. The content of the module is directly related to Standard 5.1.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Assessment Literacy for Teachers – Module 1 comprises three lectures (about 6 hours in total), each with four topics (video recordings and presentation downloads provided), followed by a short formative assessment quiz. Progression through the module is sequential.
By the end of this module, teachers should be able to construct selected responses and short-answer items to more validly and reliably assess the outcomes of the curriculum. This module will also focus on writing items to assess higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) as defined by the upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Teachers will also be introduced to Webb’s Depth of Knowledge and the SOLO Taxonomies as tools for helping to write HOTS for use in their classroom. The content of the module is directly related to Standard 5.1.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Assessment Literacy for Teachers – Module 2 comprises three lectures (about 5 hours in total), each with video recordings and presentation downloads provided. Each lecture is followed by a short formative assessment quiz. Progression through the module is sequential.
By the end of this module, teachers should be able to construct and use constructed-response and performance-based items (not including questioning and observation which are covered in a later module) for the assessments associated with a range of educational purposes related to student learning, including higher-order thinking skills. A focus for this module will also be on developing analytic and holistic rubrics for such items/tasks. Teachers should also be able to construct assessments and rubrics to assess non-cognitive skills. The content of the module is directly related to Standard 5.1.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Assessment Literacy for Teachers – Module 3 comprises 2 lectures (about 4 hours in total), each with video recordings and presentation downloads provided. Each lecture is followed by a formative assessment quiz. Progression through the module is sequential.
By the end of this module, teachers should be able to carry out some of the basic test and item-level calculations that are necessary to evaluate the functioning of an assessment; consider how the various statistics might be interpreted and used; describe how test results can be used to improve learning; and, consider some of the ways that feedback can be used to improve learning. The content of the module is directly related to Standards 5.1.2, 5.2.2 and 5.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Assessment Literacy for Teachers – Module 4 comprises two lectures (about 4 hours in total), each with video recordings and presentation downloads provided. Each lecture is followed by a formative assessment quiz. Progression through the module is sequential.
Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning. Its power is frequently mentioned in articles about learning and teaching, but surprisingly few recent studies have systematically investigated its meaning. The focus of this module is to provide teachers with ways in which feedback can be used to enhance learning effectiveness in classrooms. The second part of the presentation will focus more on formative assessment, and teachers will consider some practical strategies for feedback from formative assessment used in the classroom. The content of the module is directly related to Standards 5.1.2 and 5.2.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Assessment Literacy for Teachers –Module 5 comprises a brief introduction and two lectures (about 4 hours in total), each with video recordings and presentation downloads provided. Each lecture is followed by a formative assessment quiz. Progression through the module is sequential.
By the end of this module, teachers should be able to know and understand the moderation practices (as quality-control measures) that are used to make assessments comparable in a standards-referenced system; understand the meaning and need for moderation; know how to use moderation techniques to obtain consistent judgements across students and classes; and, use standards packages or common assessment-support tasks to align assessments with state-based performance standards.
They should also be able to know and understand how to prepare written reports that report accurately, clearly and respectfully to parents/carers; know and understand how to collect reliable and valid summative and formative assessment data about the achievement of students and report it in a manner which is consistent with the reporting strategy(ies) used within a school; understand, how to transform assessment data from various assessments into a form that can be used to report accurately against standards using grades, bands or marks; accurately interpret the meaning of grades/marks on (school and national level) reports. The content of the module is directly related to Standard 5.3.2 and 5.5.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Assessment Literacy for Teachers – Module 6 comprises two lectures (about 4 hours in total), each with video recordings and presentation downloads provided. Each lecture is followed by a formative assessment quiz. Progression through the module is sequential.
Each module costs $330, inclusive of GST. Administrative enquiries should be emailed to nina.goodwin@sydney.edu.au.
| Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3 | Module 4 | Module 5 | Module 6 |
During registration, you are required to use your individual teacher email address and create a 9-character password to access your selected module in Canvas. Payment by credit card is required to complete registration and be granted access to your course. In the table above, click on the module you wish to study, to be taken to its individual registration page.
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