Government and Corporation Collaboration in Large-Scale Assessment

• In Event: Roundtable Session 60
  In Roundtable Session: Assessment of Technology-Based Collaborative Skills: Transforming Assessment for the 21st Century

Abstract

Objectives

This presentation will report on how governments and corporations collaborate with the academy to develop new ways of assessing performance of individuals in collaborative groups. It examines the way that the project’s frameworks were established so that they could to influence curriculum and assessment.

Theoretical framework

The ATC21S project is a multi-year, multinational public-private partnership project that aims to change assessment practices towards a more digital approach using current technology. During 2009, a series of papers explored the effect of the emergence of the information society on the way we work, the tools we use in the workplace, the way we live, and to what extent our thinking needs to adjust. These pressures for change coincide with governments changing school curricula, multinational corporations changing employment selection criteria, and large scale surveys of school output, such as PISA, exploring new kinds of skills and influencing governments to modify school curricula. In the ATC21S project, innovative assessments were developed. This presentation explores the intersection of changing forms of assessment, conceptualisations of 21st century skills, and the methods of large scale innovative and technology-rich assessment. We examine the project’s structure, governance, team composition, and stated roles of expert panels and field workers. We identify two broad classes of skills that have become the focus of this innovative change. The presentation sets the framework for an assessment development process set in a technical context. It also explores the potential for changes in assessment to influence educational futures.

Methods sources

The ATC21S project developed approaches to assessment that involve the use of ambiguity and problems that are characterised by incomplete information and are poorly defined. A governance structure was established to monitor and evaluate the progress made by the administrative using and the developing agencies.

Data sources

The project’s target population was students aged 11-15. The data were collected by reviewing records of meetings and documents prepared by participating organisations. These were used to understand how the various parties collaborate at the policy level.

Results and substantive conclusions

The project demonstrates how corporations and governments can work collaboratively. Their common goal was to create assessment and teaching strategies that could impose curriculum and improve student performance in 21st century skills in an era of increased technology use.

Scientific and scholarly significance

The ATC21S project has pioneering work on the way corporations work with governments and academia, and on the assessment and teaching of collaborative skills. Shifts in thinking about assessment and teaching, and new forms of both, have emerged from this process. The skills chosen for development, collaborative problem-solving and learning in a digital network, had not been previously explored for assessment purposes.

Author

• Horn Mun Cheah, Singapore Ministry of Education