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To identify talent and foster success across society, assessment science and practice along with predictive analytics will need to become drivers for change.
The Salzburg Global Seminar on Education held in Australia in December 2015 involved 41 individuals from across the world representing academic researchers, policy makers and practitioners with a keen interest in education assessment.
Sessions focused on the current gap between standardized assessments and the need to educate and measure for “21st century skills” of creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, from early childhood through formal education and beyond. It explored the power of data of all sorts – data exhaust and predictive analytics as well as educational testing – to reveal new pathways for people to develop these skills, and access work in a transforming labor market.
The seminar explored some of the following key questions:
- In what ways can formal and informal assessment be used as a driver of positive change throughout learners’ lives in education and beyond?
- Which are the most promising new models of assessment, and what makesthem credible?
- Moving beyond the old industrial model of sorting, how can learners be more fully engaged so that a better measure is taken of their potential?
- How do we best address the deficit in empirical evidence around measurement of creativity and interdisciplinary and critical thinking? And around emotional components and social/empathetic skills?
- How far can predictive analytics alert school and college leaders to the true potential and also the challenges which student populations and individuals face, particularly among lower income groups?
- What are the privacy and other regulatory implications of gathering data from students’ apps and online activity – for instance in creating “digital dashboards” – indicating whether they are on track or not?
- How might such digital assessment further empower students across the age and social spectrums to understand and manage their own learning better, diagnosing where difficulties lie and what to do about them, as we move towards the world (as in health) of the quantified self?
- In what ways can we link formal assessment results with big data to understand what works best for individuals, communities, employers and populations?
- How can we move on from assessing skills and knowledge to testing individuals’ potential to adapt and innovate in interdisciplinary settings and across sectors?
- In what ways can employers and others identify informal learning and talent, which has not been revealed through formal education, particularly among more marginalized groups?
- What do we need to better link science, data and policy, in order to tackle political and institutional blockages that delay the translation of cutting-edge research into action?
PAL Network’s Mary Goretti Nakabugo attended the Global Seminar on Education and shared resources from Uwezo in East Africa and from the PAL Network.
As a result of the seminar, participants developed the statement on “Realizing Human Potential through Better Use of Assessment and Data in Education”.
More information about The Salzburg Global Seminar on Education can be found at: http://www.salzburgglobal.org/