More than 500 school leaders and teachers attend ACER’s online workshop

In collaboration with the National Progressive Schools’ Conference, the Australian Council for Educational Research (India) conducted an online workshop for more than 500 school leaders and teachers on developing test questions for assessments.

Online workshops have been shown, especially recently, to have several advantages including wider reach – school leaders and teachers with a stable internet connection and access to smartphones can easily join the discussions from any location. The ACER India workshop had participants from 189 schools across India.

Teachers spend a significant amount of time in developing weekly, monthly or annual assessments. Scientific rules for writing assessments help teachers ensure that assessment instruments are able to test what they aim to measure.  

This workshop was focused on five key topics:

• the role of assessment in supporting teaching and learning
• the difference between summative and formative assessment
• the components of validity, reliability and fairness in assessment
• the process and science of test-item writing
• the application of test item development principles to the creation of assessment items.

The workshop began with opening remarks from Malini Narayanan, Chairperson, NPSC India, and Principal, Army Public School, Shankar Vihar, Delhi Cantonment. Dr Anju Tandon, Principal, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Mehta Vidyalaya, New Delhi, moderated the sessions.

Dr Mee Young Han, Director, Research and Assessment, ACER India, addressed the participants on the use of large-scale assessments such as OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for assessing the health of education systems and improving the quality of education.

The most popular part of the workshop was the hands-on session on application of the principles of question writing to developing high-quality assessment questions. Participants were helped to create sample questions that they could use in day-to-day teaching and learning, and there were stimulating discussions on the different types of questions that can be included in student assessments.

ACER India has previously conducted similar workshops on competency-based assessment and test question development.

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