256 Rita Berry
T&F Proofs: Not For Distribution
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THE ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING LANDSCAPE IN HONG KONG
In the last two decades, the call in education worldwide for a change of
assessment culture has been echoed by some AfL advocates in Hong Kong.
These advocates criticized that the then prevailing curricula in Hong Kong
schools were primarily academic, teacher- and textbook-centred and driven
by high-stakes, norm-referenced examinations. Biggs (1996), for example,
criticized that, for years, educators had based their assessment practices on
assumptions inappropriately adopted from psychology and from the testing
establishment. He drew people’s attention to the education function
of assessment—using assessment as the means to support learning. The
SAR government responded positively to the AfL movements. In the 1990s,
the government introduced the TOA in its large-scale curriculum reform.
The TOA was the assessment component of the TOC. Based on the TOC
Assessment Guidelines (Education Department [ED], 1998), Morris et al.
(1999) elaborate the purposes and characteristics of TOA, as follows:
Purposes of target-oriented assessment:
Target-oriented assessment is an integral part of the Target Oriented
Curriculum. Its fundamental purpose is to promote learning. TOA
involves:
making considered judgement of learner performance, based on
explicitly stated criteria;
recognizing learners’ strengths and areas for improvement in learning;
and
assisting learners to make further progress and charting the
changes in their learning.
TOA allows for continuity in assessment of learner progress which
can be monitored and supported over time, within and across stages.
Characteristics of target-oriented assessment:
Target-oriented assessment
is based on criterion-referencing principles;
is valid and reliable;
covers a comprehensive range of purposeful and contextualized
assessment activities and reporting strategies;
requires teachers to include a range of well-planned assessment
activities and recording/reporting formats in the teaching/learning
plan; and
acknowledges that the complexity of learner performance cannot
be described by a single test score.
These characteristics highlight the integration of teaching, learning &
assessment and holistic learning in TOC. (p.3)
Marsh