Framing Assessment
Processed Information: The Impact of Popular Movements on Literacy Teacher Knowledge
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Julie L Pennington
Recent movements to improve the reading scores of students in the United States, have revisited previous trends by emphasizing fundamentalist views of literacy as reading skills. Narratives appealing to political and administrative entities have created an environment that repositions teacher knowledge as a secondary component of student learning. The most recent movement includes the use of technology where teachers are positioned to respond to technology programs and assessments. Technology aligns well with the current reading skills emphasis and creates AI based instruction and assessment spaces reducing teacher and student interactions. This study examines how classroom teachers understand literacy instruction and assessment in the current context of reading instruction. A case study design was used to analyze thirty teachers’ definitions of literacy and descriptions of their classroom instruction and assessment. Data included multiple interviews with teachers across one academic year. Cross case analysis was utilized to examine the teacher group as an instrumental case. Results indicate that many of the teachers were repeating movement language and relying on processed information as filtered through media outlets, professional development programs, required curriculum, and assessment programs. The concept of processed information was salient due to the teachers’ overreliance on sources that process how research is interpreted, reframed and delivered through professional development, programs and assessments, and the media. Therefore, notions of teacher literacy knowledge are crucial to continue to examine in a context where technology is the primary mode of instructional and assessment delivery and processed information influences teacher knowledge.
Authentic Assessment of 21st Century Skills - Employing Open-World Games: What Can Children Tell Us through Their Play? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kim Balnaves
This paper explores how authentic game-based assessment can be utilised to assess 21st Century Learning skills in the classroom. Focussing on the assessment of "soft" skills through games where children can be assessed in environments in which they are familiar and comfortable. The discussion interrogates how the OECD Framework for assessing the soft Skills of Computational Thinking in Learning in the Digital World (2025) can be adapted and combined with the goal setting and self-reflection aspects of the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile framework (2021) to develop an innovative way for teachers to assess the 21st Century skills. The Soft Skills assessment framework has been developed through Doctor of Philosophy research data analysis which has led to the development of an overall framework that has emerged from this analysis. The prototype framework has been trialled with children whilst playing open world games of Minecraft or Zelda: Breath of the Wild in their own environment (eco-cultural ethnographic fieldwork). There is an identified need to assess children in places and spaces they are familiar with particularly regarding the development of 21st learning skills and the development of post digital future facing authentic assessment. This paper discusses the development of the Authentic Game-Based Assessment Framework and the trials of utilising the prototype with children playing games in their own familiar environments.
Exploring Option Placement Biases in Newly Written Test Items: Understanding the Influence of Item Writer Practices on Answer Placement View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Séverin Lions
Multiple-choice questions are widely used in educational assessment. While they offer many advantages, they also present a significant shortcoming: examinees may guess the correct answers, especially if clues are unintentionally provided. One potential clue is the correct answer position, as studies have shown that answer keys’ distribution in educational tests often exhibits a middle bias. A position bias at test level has also been observed in distractor positions, with more frequently selected distractors typically placed earlier in the options list. Based on these findings, it has been hypothesized that item writers tend to place the correct answer in a middle position and develop more plausible distractors before less plausible ones. However, the position of options often shifts between item creation and final test assembly, and no study has reported the placement of answers and distractors in freshly crafted items. This study investigates option placement in a pool of 5,291 newly written 4-option items created by one of 140 item writers for standardized test development. Results confirm a clear pattern across all subject areas (mathematics, reading, history/social science, and basic science): item writers typically place the correct answer in a middle position, the distractor they consider most attractive in position A, the second-most attractive in B or C, and the least attractive in D. These findings suggest that item writers likely position options based on the order in which they first come to mind but then move the correct answer to a central position to make it less conspicuous.
