Talking sense or talking power in cross-cultural assessments?
Professor Ron Hambleton of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently prepared a video (below) on ‘Adapting Psychological and Educational Assessments for Use in Multiple Languages and Cultures’ for the Laboratory of International Assessment Studies ESRC seminar on ‘The Challenges of Diversity’ (Lima, July 2015). In this short blog post, Bryan Maddox writes a reply. […]
Do real-time assessment analytics exert looping effects on learners?
Ben Williamson, University of Stirling The emergence of computer-based assessment twinned with the rise in the collection of big data in education means that international assessment data can increasingly be collected and analysed in real-time and automatically. These big data developments for international assessment techniques are largely being led by major commercial organizations. Pearson plc, […]
Good performers as Bad Examples? International Educational Assessments and the Re-narration of Numbers
What makes good reference societies in International Educational Assessments? Sam Sellar responds to Professor Florian Waldow’s ESRC Seminar Plenary presentation on projections of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ schools among the top performing countries in international educational assessments. Why do some of the top scorers on international educational assessments turn into negative reference societies? In responding to […]
Literacy as Numbers: Researching the Politics and Practices of International Literacy Assessment
One of the powerful aspects of contemporary quantification of literacy – literacy as numbers – is that the evidence produced through quantification seems to offer certainty and closure on what literacy is and who it is for. The technology of numbers and the comparative data-based knowledge produced through international assessments are creating a globally dominant […]
Do International Educational Assessments Help or Hinder an Open Society?
By Bryan Maddox, University of East Anglia In December 2014, an international ESRC seminar on Education Governance in International Assessments was held at the University of Edinburgh. Seven of the participants were asked to comment on video about the politics and potentials of international assessments in education and their role in educational governance. Their replies […]