Need for a Paradigm Shift for Student Assessment for Human Flourishing

• In Event: Education for Human Flourishing: Perspectives Across Cultures and Disciplines

Abstract

Objectives or purposes:
Student assessments have long been intended to inform decisions and actions by learners, teachers and policy makers at different levels of education systems to improve learning outcomes. This presentation will highlight the limitation of assessments designed for groups to inform individual learners and the need for aligning assessments to individuals’ cultural, language backgrounds and educational journeys for optimal impact on learning.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:
The presentation will argue for personalization to advance equity and promote engagement, motivation and optimize performance on assessments. Personalized assessment approaches can take into account the individual examinee and some combination of their prior knowledge, motivations, goals, beliefs, interests, skills, experience, and culture (and likely other factors) and provide an assessment experience that is flexible and responsive to these features in ways that should promote superior engagement in the assessment task and performance on it.

Author

• Kadriye Ercikan, Educational Testing Service