Abstract:

Assessment literacy is believed to include an awareness and appreciation of assessment’s relationship to learning in addition to principles such as reliability and validity; assessment techniques and methods; assessment criteria, standards and policies and possession of the intellectual ability to select and apply appropriate approaches and techniques to assessed tasks (Price et al, 2012). Assessment literacy has also been contextualised as a differentiated and situated professional competency in teachers (DeLuca et al., 2019).
Price et al. (2012) demonstrates assessment literacy to encompass lecturers’ and learners’ shared understanding of assessment, their purpose and how they are measured, in order to have a better comprehension of teaching and learning. This is important because lecturers and learners may have a different expectation from assessments.
To ensure learners are enabled to progress in their academic studies by connecting formative feedback to learning outcomes, it is important that academic staff are assessment literate in order to be able to deliver high quality design and application of assessment and to model good assessment practices to learners. (Price et al., 2012).
This presentation will explore perceived beliefs and practices of academic staff within their own practice in a Higher Education setting, to understand;
• What assessment literacy means to them?
• How staff connect their assessment practices to learning?
The presentation will begin with an interactive exploration of assessment literacy and its perceptions from participant perspective and followed by a visionary Lego activity to understand how assessment literacy informs good teaching and learning practices to achieve expected learning outcomes.
To ensure our pedagogical practices are evidence based and research informed, the presentation will encourage attendees to reflect on their beliefs and practices to inform assessment literacy and proficiency in building knowledge and understanding of assessment.

References:
[1] Deluca, C., Coombs, A., MacGregor, S., and Rasooli, A. (2019) Toward a Differential and Situated View of Assessment Literacy: Studying Teachers’ Responses to Classroom Assessment Scenarios.
[2] Price, M., Rust, C., O’Donovan, B., Hindley, K. & Bryant, K. (2012) Assessment literacy: foundation for improving student learning. Wheatley: Oxford Brookes University.

Keywords:

Assessment, relationship, methods, literacy, expectation, competency, validity, reliability.