Capacity and opportunity in creating effective summative assessment: The practice based perceptions of early career teachers in Queensland

Capacity and opportunity in creating effective summative assessment: The practice based perceptions of early career teachers in Queensland

Summative assessment is often the primary source of evaluation used by teachers in junior secondary education and a vital aspect of a teacher’s role. It is essential that primary and secondary classroom teachers can create summative assessment items with confidence regarding their quality as well as their ability to capture the fullness of their students’ knowledge and/or skill acquisition. The current landscape is somewhat changing with the development of the SATE review in Queensland whereby senior secondary assessment is becoming more externally driven. Therefore the function of assessment in the junior secondary classroom is becoming more important in preparing students for the increased rigours of senior external assessment in addition to the innate importance of assessment practice. A systematic literature of what defines an ‘effective’ assessment item and describing the principles that guide practice is rare. Based on the outcomes of the review it was proposed that in order to assist early career classroom teachers to confidently create summative assessment items, practice guidelines were needed. With the primary intention of contributing to professional practice in developing such evidence-based guidelines, the study sought to test a model for developing effective summative assessment in junior secondary education. The model is based on the principles of validity, reliability, authenticity, fairness and flexibility as dimensions of effective summative assessment. The model suggests that the capacity and opportunity of early career teachers are fundamental considerations in the creation of summative assessment items. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the study which sought to investigate the perspectives of early career teachers related to their current experiences and perceived utility of the model. The study found that practice based on building capacity and increasing opportunity would be helpful. The study also validated the principles identified in the model as perceived by the early career teacher participants.

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