In Conversation with Ms. P Durka Devi, Teaching Fellow, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

Could you tell us about your background? 

I began my teaching career as a primary school teacher and held the posts of head of science department and school staff developer. Prior to joining NIE, I had a stint as a Senior Academy Officer at the Academy of Singapore Teachers. There I was involved in the design and facilitation of professional learning programmes and school-based consultation for key personnel and teachers.  

What prompted you to join NIE as a teaching fellow? What do you hope to accomplish through your stint here? 

As a doctoral student in my last lap towards the finish line, a secondment to NIE offers an excellent opportunity to not only to connect with like-minded people but also to hone my skills as a teacher educator and a researcher. Most importantly, I am in a position to impact teaching and learning through my courses which bring theory closer to the practitioner— something I worked hard at doing as a curriculum leader in school. Through my courses, I hope to engage teachers, teacher leaders and key personnel in making meaningful links between theory and practice. As a strong believer of inquiry into practice, I hope to encourage more educators to experiment with research-informed practices collaboratively and in partnership with experts and knowledgeable others.  

What are your areas of focus for your research and courses? 

At NIE, I teach pre-service, in-service, post-graduate and graduate professional learning courses. My courses focus on areas ranging from general pedagogy to leadership in assessment and feedback practices in schools. Particularly, I teach courses in effective feedback practices as this is also an area of focus for my doctoral research. My research study focuses on primary science teachers conceptions and use of formative feedback through discourse analysis. I believe that research on the practices of feedback in classroom discourse can provide a more holistic view of teacher feedback literacy. 

What are your beliefs towards assessment?  

I believe that assessment should enable learning and learners. As a student, I experienced assessment as high-stakes examinations, the results of which determined what subjects I was good at and what courses I would be offered. I remember vividly how I got a fail score for Art in lower secondary. It was the last time I attempted to draw anything with confidence. Now that I look back, perhaps I would have been motivated to try again if the assessment had been formative and if feedback had been provided. It is heartening to see a shift in the national direction towards assessment in recent years. With this shift, my hope is that teachers can use assessment as an enabler for learning instead of for the purpose of testing alone.

In Conversation with Mr. Tan Ken Jin, School Staff Developer, Bartley Secondary School

Please refer to the link below for the “In Conversation” podcast with Mr. Tan Ken Jin, School Staff Developer, Bartley Secondary School.

Link to video: In Conversation with Mr. Tan Ken Jin

In conversation with Ms Sheree Kuek, Principal, Choa Chu Kang Primary School

 

Could you share with us a little about your background?

Prior to my appointment as Principal of CCKPS, I was HOD/Humanities, SSD and subsequently VP at Regent Secondary School. Following my LEP, I was posted as VP to Yishun Secondary for a year and eventually appointed as Principal of CCKPS in December 2017.

How did you get interested in assessment?

I attended an assessment seminar in 2011 and heard Prof Kelvin Tan share his thoughts on assessment for learning. It was indeed eye-opening and from then on, I started to re-discover assessment as a motivating force which could change the culture of learning.

Is there one memorable event in your assessment journey that you would like to share?

My first experience as a new Principal observing a Primary 2 class was most memorable. It was a ‘Show and Tell’ assessment session. As part of creative assessment, we had provided our eager-eyed little ones with a set of rubrics to peer assess their friends. There were 3 criteria:

(i)    My friend made eye contact with the audience.

(ii)   My friend spoke loudly and clearly.

(iii)  My friend had an interesting presentation.

The peers were instructed to award either a ‘big thumbs up’, a ‘smiling face’, or a ‘face with no smile’ to each friend. They seemed satisfied enough with their assessment of their peers…until the paper was returned to the peer. A few peers were pleased with their friend’s assessment. However, I overheard a few shy comments like ‘I want you to be happy so I only gave you a big thumbs up!’ At the corner, one pair got into an argument. Student A was displeased with Student B who had awarded him a ‘face with no smile’ for the third criteria. In an attempt to appease her friend, Student B quickly amended her assessment to a ‘smiling face’.  

In my follow-up conversation with these 8-year-olds, they were candid in sharing their dislike for this exercise. These were some of their thoughts:

‘My friend got angry with me because I did not give a smiling face. This was hard because I like my friend very much.’
‘It was very hard to use because I don’t know what is interesting and what is not interesting.’
‘I think my friend did not make eye contact but he insisted that he did.’
‘I did not want to change the face, but I think my friend hates me now.’

It was a sobering moment for me. I realised that these were emotional moments for the young learners. Any mode of assessment, even at its most creative, with the best of intentions, evokes deep emotional reactions from our children. How much of this does the adult truly understand?

I vowed to myself that I will look into critical issues which affect the child’s learning, and invest time to go into the children’s world, to understand learning through their eyes. That day, I learnt that the joy of learning can only take place if our feedback evokes a positive emotional response in the child.

What is one piece of advice you would like to give to teachers starting on their assessment journey?

Assessment must give hope to the child. Assessment feedback is not a tactical issue for any child - it is emotional, and, as teachers, we can make the difference. Let us be bold to do only what is purposeful and meaningful, and what encourages the child’s heart. May your work be fueled by a deep conviction that every child can learn. We, teachers, hold the key.

 

 

In Conversation with Dr Rachel Goh

 

What prompted/persuaded you to join NIE as a teaching fellow four years ago?

As a newly-minted doctoral graduate, the opportunity to work in a higher education context was a godsend. My original intent was to apply the learning from my doctoral research in facilitating teacher professional development in the context of lesson study. The opportunity to work with NIE faculty enabled me to build my curriculum and assessment expertise and participate in cutting-edge research on assessment feedback in schools, which far exceeded my expectations. 

What were the incidents or experiences that have impacted you the most?

The incidents that have impacted me the most revolved around my interactions with struggling students in the higher degree programme, many of whom were trying to cope with the academic demands as well as manage challenges at work and transitions at home. In sitting beside my students to work out the learning issues with them, I found myself developing greater empathy for learners and being more cognisant of the assessment theory-practice nexus at work. 

How has your philosophy and your pedagogy in assessment changed?

My pedagogy in assessment has become less teacher-directed and more student-driven over the course of time, shaped largely by a deepening belief in the importance of fostering student voice and developing self-regulation. This philosophy informed by my research experience fuelled changes I made in involving students in assessment by way of co-constructing rubrics, having students make feedback requests, peer- and self-assess.

What would be your proudest achievement?

My proudest achievement would be the publication of the book ‘Designing quality assessment feedback in schools’ which I had worked on with middle leaders from the MLS assessment feedback elective and teachers from schools. This book project would not have been possible if not for the encouragement from my mentors, A/P Kelvin Tan and Dr Tay Hui Yong, who also gave invaluable feedback on the manuscript.

What is one thing you would say is most vital for assessment to meet the needs of all learners?

For assessment to meet the needs of all learners, one thing that is vital is to reframe what is deemed as a measure of success. Valuing students’ personal best where we compare their current performance to their past performances places a primacy upon the learners’ individual progress and development. The shift in emphasis can counter the pressures of normative comparison and ensure that intended learning outcomes are achieved by each and every single learner under our care, including those struggling to learn.

What are your future plans for, and with, assessment?

I hope to promote teacher inquiry into assessment practices in schools to challenge ourselves to ensure that all learners benefit adequately from assessment. 

 

 

From the Editor

Our bulletin has evolved through the many years it has been around – first as an email attachment with just text to a pdf with photos and most recently, a change in name. In this issue, we venture to make this bulletin more interactive and involve multi-media to make it a richer experience for our readers. More importantly, the editorial board now includes both NIE faculty and practitioners like yourself (see below). Apart from giving valuable input to shape the direction of this bulletin, they also contribute articles. In this issue, we are delighted to have Shynn Lim and Michelle Foo (a teacher at Chua Chu Kang Pri) share their experiences on catering to the different needs in their classes during the 4 weeks of Home-Based Learning (HBL).

We welcome new members to our editorial board
(from left to right)
Mrs Sheree Chong, Principal, Chua Chu Kang Primary
Mdm Linda Yeo, Vice-Principal, Riverside Secondary
Ms Shynn Lim, HOD Character & Citizenship Education,
Juying Secondary
Mdm Siti Asjamiah Binte Asmuri, Senior Educational Therapist, Dyslexia Association of Singapore

This issue features Differentiated Instruction (DI). Along with Assessment Literacy, it is an area prioritised for professional development in the next few years. As such, the topic is timely and we hope that the discussion here will help shed some light on the practical issues faced by teachers. More importantly, DI is an important area that has implications beyond just competency but our beliefs on educating all learners. We hope to prompt reflections not just on the “How” but the “Why” through the articles we have lined up:
   -An exposition on DI (how it is linked to assessment)
   -Sharing by teachers on their DI practices

This is in addition to our usual features (news of events, noteworthy assignments, recommended readings and coming conferences) that have been the staple of previous bulletins.

We hope this issue will be helpful and a provocative start to thinking about differentiation to serve all learners.

Tay Hui Yong

News

The term ‘assessment for learning’ has become commonly used and widely accepted in Singapore, but is it always understood and used for all learners? After all, one of the intended purposes of assessment is to discriminate between learners, and inferring from their demonstrated learning what learners are good for.

However, this does not always align with the educational imperative of wanting and helping all our students to learn and succeed. At times, some of our assessment policies and practices may in fact deter or disempower our students from learning!

Assessment should be fit for its intended purpose, but what if the primary purpose of assessment is to be fit for all learners? What if we challenge ourselves to ensure that every single learner under our care benefits adequately from assessment? What if we were to rethink and enact assessment to help the least, the last, and the lost amongst our learners?

Previously, we had named this bulletin as the “CTL Assessment Bulletin” to signal the important relationship between Curriculum and Assessment, and underscore the dialectic relationship between assessment and teaching. Organisationally, the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) academic group in NIE has been restructured, and the assessment team is now posited in the Learning Sciences and Assessment academic group.

The AFAL team

More importantly, the assessment bulletin is now headlined as a mission and a motive – Assessment For All Learners (AFAL). We hope that the expertise, experiences, and ideas of the bulletin will address your (assessment) learning needs, and help you ensure that your assessment practices are for all learners under your care. And because you are a learner as well, that your own love and desire for learning will be refreshed in the process.

Motivating Learners through Classroom Assessment

Ms Lin Rongchan delivered a keynote address titled Motivating Learners and Promoting Learning through Classroom Assessment at Manjusri Secondary School Staff Learning Festival on 3 September 2019. Teachers from both Manjusri Secondary School and Maha Bodhi School attended the event.

In her address, Ms. Lin first defined classroom assessment and emphasized the role of classroom assessment in student motivation. Subsequently, she illustrated how teachers could motivate learners and promote learning through meaningful assessment practices such as employing patchwork texts in assessment. She also prompted participants to examine different scoring practices and their impact on student motivation and learning. Finally, the participants engaged in a discussion and explored the possibilities of integrating the relevant assessment frameworks into their curriculum. The discussion was facilitated by Mr. Stanley Yang from Manjusri Secondary School.