Assessment – A Continual Learning Journey

Amirhossein Rasooli,
Assistant Professor in Educational Assessment,
Learning Sciences and Assessment Department,
Am*****************@ni*.sg

Welcome to the July 2025 issue of AFAL

It is never too late to deepen our understanding of assessment! No matter where we are in our teaching journey, assessment continues to evolve—and so must we.

This issue of AFAL offers a rich “assessment buffet” that reflects the wide-ranging, dynamic, and often complex landscape of assessment in Singapore schools. We’ve curated this issue with the aim of capturing key challenges and opportunities that educators face in designing assessments that support both academic learning and students’ social and emotional development.

In this issue, you will find articles that tackle diverse and timely topics: from assessment leadership and 21st Century Competencies, to Character and Citizenship Education (CCE), Generative AI (GAI), early childhood assessment, and feedback partnerships. While this collection does not claim to cover all assessment issues in our schools today, it offers a modest yet meaningful contribution—highlighting principles, practices, and strategies that can guide and support school-based assessment work.

We hope you’ll enjoy reading these articles contributed by fellow educators and share them with your colleagues. More importantly, we hope they inspire continued reflection, dialogue, and contribution to our collective learning.

In this issue

• Our first article, by Amirhossein Rasooli and Sheree Chong, shares a multi-year narrative of a primary school principal leading assessment reform. The piece highlights practical strategies and mechanisms used to drive sustainable assessment leadership.
• Eunice Tang and Yap Chong Chieh, in the second and third articles, present classroom-based case studies that offer insights into assessing 21st Century Competencies (21CC) through sound assessment design.
• In the fourth article, Suzanne Cho introduces three guiding principles for integrating values into assessment—an especially timely resource as schools continue to grapple with how best to assess learning in the CCE domain.
• Wang Ruoying, in the fifth article, discusses the ethical implications of using Generative AI in assessment contexts, and outlines responsible approaches for integrating GAI to enhance student learning.
• In another insightful piece, Chua Jer Lin explores assessment practices in early childhood education, offering practical ways to leverage self-assessment to build young learners’ agency.
• Jessica To shares insights from her recent publication to guide professional learning around feedback partnerships. Her article focuses on how feedback can become a two-way, collaborative process that empowers students as active participants in their learning.
• Finally, a forthcoming handbook “Fundamentals of Assessment: Principles and Practices for the Classroom” edited By Kah Loong Chue, Amelia Yeo, Kelvin Heng Kiat Tan, Tay Hui Yong curated 19 chapters by local and international scholars to support teachers in their navigation of assessment practices in schools.