November 13-14, Eurasian Association for Educational Assessment (EAOKO) held the IX Annual International Online Conference. Scholars of the Laboratory of Activity-based Education Design gave speeches on the results of their research in the topical issues of the Conference. They introduced innovative approaches to educational assessment.
Head of Laboratory Vladimir Lvovsky presented the report ‘Prospects of SAM for the assessment of school students’ natural science literacy.’ At the introduction, Associate Professor Lvovsky gave the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) definition of natural science literacy. Elaborating on the idea, the speaker highlighted Student Achievement Monitoring (SAM) as one of the promising means for the assessment of school students’ natural science literacy. He dwelled on each of its three levels of acquisition and defined the key issues of the assessment of school students’ natural science literacy. In conclusion, Associate Professor Lvovsky introduced the frame of the subject content and the model for task design.
Junior research fellow Tatiana Mysina and research assistant Anton Agapov presented their research ‘Activity-based Exam at the Master’s course: Assessment in the Context of Developing Norm of Professional Activity.’ The speakers, first of all, compared the definitions of developing and developed activity. The objective of the report was to design an external-expertise-free assessment, which would ensure reflection through the participants’ positional distribution. Anton Agapov commented:
In conclusion, Tatiana Mysina explained the possible implementations of such a format of the exam.
Leading research fellow Alexander Aronov gave a speech on ‘Special Aspects of Development Management in the Context of Improving Quality of Secondary Education.’ He highlighted that ‘quality of education’ is not universally defined so that “the attempts to independently assess education face differences of the principles.” The speaker noticed that the mainstream method of the management of academic performance quality undeniably impedes individualization and personalization. As an alternative, he suggested using the method of the management of academic performance quality based on the unbiased diagnosis of expertise in a subject, accordingly with the Nezhnov’s SAM principle. The method employs the results of the diagnosis of academic performance remediation to improve the academic performance of school students’ groups. Conference Chair Victor Bolotov appreciated the report and suggested to hold a seminar on the raised topic.
Chief research fellow Mikhail Klarin presented the report ‘Corporate Education and Managers’ Development in the Context of New Economic Reality: Issues of Metrics.’ Professor Klarin mentioned the questions of orientation and quality of corporate education, differentiated between the results and effects, and explained the Kirkpatrick-Phillips model of evaluation. Drawing on the examples of business coaching, the speaker considered the Return on Investment (ROI) calculation and shifted the focus from the results to the effects.
Expert of Laboratory Maria Yanishevskaya reported on ‘Assessment of Fifth-grade Students Ability to Comprehend Academic Writing.’ She dwelled upon reading literacy in learning natural sciences and presented the results of her research. The speaker highlighted that the Elkonin-Davydov developing training, characterized by careful attention to the sign and symbolic ways of work with texts, contributes to the formation of critical thinking in students.