Realistic forms of assessment
Change need not be complex. The alternative forms of assessment are already here and practised widely. He foresees the use of digital portfolios, teacher observation and moderation, self-assessment, oral assessment and peer assessment, all methodologies which shift “the purpose of assessment from judging past performances to supporting future growth.”
And AI? Doesn’t this undermine the very premise of valid project work? Not, according to Sommer, if the right things are assessed.
“We should be looking at the quality not so much of the output as of the input in an AI supported piece of project work. There needs to be full acknowledgement of how AI has been used and the steps taken in the form of prompts given. What questions have been asked? What instructions have been given? Therein lies the rigour.”
He is under no illusions about how difficult it will be to get the exam boards to move. They are, by their nature, conservative, but it is not as if there has been no movement. Sommer is an enthusiastic fan of the Extended Project Qualification or EPQ, which is widely respected and involves an approach that must now move from the wings of educational assessment to centre stage, across the whole curriculum and for every age group.
Collaborating for change?
Sommer also sees a coalition of mutual support emerging between groups already taking the initiative: borrowing and sharing ideas has to be an important way of promoting change.
One thinks of course of the IB’s Approaches to Learning, John Taylor’s development of the EPQ, Sarah Fletcher’s work at the Girls’ School Trust and St. Pauls, Conrad Hughes and the Learning Passport emerging from Ecolint, Kevin Bartlett and the Common Ground Collaborative and Christopher Pommerening’s initiatives at LearnLife in Barcelona.
Different groups will have different ideas. It would surely be self-defeating to try and achieve a single, grand educational construct to be distilled from so many different ideas. But listening to each other, while considering different insights must be an important part of what needs to be done.
Meanwhile, Steffen Sommer will be focusing on Assessment 3.0 and seeking to persuade exam boards that they have a special responsibility to change things. Not sooner rather than later, but now. Expect a pilot to emerge quickly.