(Re)thinking Assessments for the new year: Priorities and possibilities
Firstly, Happy 2025 to all! The beginning of a new year often brings with it a sense of reflection and anticipation, a chance to revisit the current to consider the future. As such, this 1st AFAL bulletin for 2025 is based on the theme of (Re)thinking Assessments for the new year: Priorities and possibilities.
It is also in this same spirit that the bulletin is piloting new ways of engaging our readers. One is through multimedia e.g., podcasts that you can listen to during your long commute to/from work will help you to continue learning. There is also a delightful storybook which you can use as a springboard for professional discussions in your institution.
Another new feature is to accompany key articles with readers’ responses or accompanying reflection questions. It is hoped that these will be a sounding board for making sense of the ideas in your context.
Lastly, we will also feature two articles that are a follow-up to previous articles:
(a) with a contribution by a school on how they enacted The Feedback Pedagogy Cycle
(b) a Physics Lead Teacher’s use of Generative AI in his class following the article “Chat GPT-assisted Learning: Self-assessment and Feedback Generation“
(c) we dive deeper into the idea of student agency to act on feedback presented previously “Jan 2024 Editorial“
Let us know if and how these new features have been helpful.
Let me now highlight what you can look forward to in this Jan 2025 issue:
(1) Conversation with Assistant Professor Tanmay Sinha
How to leverage failure for learning?
We often hear that both parents and students only care about getting good results. I am wondering if we, as teachers, are complicit in this by always teaching to successful performance. In this podcast, we invite you to rethink the assumption that students learn best through direct instruction and repeated practice for optimal results. This podcast also asks us to rethink what “joy of learning” is through exploring the role of negative emotions in learning.
(2) A storybook “The Squirrel, His Acorns, and the Oak Tree” by the 2024 Leaders in Education Programme
This contribution invites readers to rethink our priorities in the whole educational process. It is a delightful storybook and is not just a wonderful resource for classroom discussions on personal growth, resilience, and the long-term benefits of education. It also offers a refreshing approach to generating professional dialogue on how school policies support long-term student success, beyond just academic outcomes. It comes with a manual on how to use it.
We encourage you to read/listen to these pieces as well as the other contributions with an open mind and a reflective heart, considering how these ideas might spark new insights within your own teaching. As you explore the articles, we invite you to engage in your own reflections on assessment.
How can we ensure that our assessment practices are truly student-centred, equitable, and meaningful? We believe that by engaging in this collective dialogue, we can create more purposeful and impactful assessment experiences for all learners.