The Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, Seán Ó Foghlú, will today (Tuesday 19
th March) open a conference in Dublin Castle on the role of evaluation and assessment in education.
This conference, ‘Better Evaluation and Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning’, is being held as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Department of Education and Skills is hosting the conference.
The conference will explore how assessment and evaluation can best support the acquisition of key competences for learning. It will draw from research carried out by the European Commission and the OECD. In particular, it will explore how elements of evaluation and assessment frameworks can be combined successfully to promote improved learning for students. Typical elements of an evaluation and assessment framework include student assessment, teacher appraisal, school inspection, school self-evaluation, appraisal of school leaders and education system evaluation, including the use of national and international surveys.
The EU Commission and the OECD have identified evaluation and assessment as playing a very important role in overall quality within education systems.
Nonetheless, a number of challenges have been identified, particularly the need to ensure that evaluation and assessment do not narrow the learning of students.
There is a growing consensus across educational systems on the key knowledge, skills and attitudes that are necessary for learning and living both now and in the future. The European Commission has developed a Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong learning which identifies eight key competences. These include not just traditional competences such as mother tongue, foreign languages and mathematical competence, but modern competences such as digital competence, learning to learn and a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.
This conference will address a range of questions including:
What are the key competences that we want young people to acquire?
How can evaluation and assessment of key competences influence what and how teacher teach and students learn?
What challenges does the assessment of key competences pose, especially in relation to attitudes, skills and creativity?
What forms of evaluation and assessment are most effective in supporting improvement in learning?
How can the different forms of evaluation and assessment be combined to enhance students’ learning?
What can be learned from the experience of other countries?
ENDS
Further information can be found at:
The website of the Dept of Education and Skills:
http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Events/Ireland-s-Presidency-of-the-Council-of-the-EU/Irish-Presidency-2013.html
The website of the Irish Presidency:
http://www.eu2013.ie/events/event-items/betterlearningandteaching-20121201/
The website of the OECD:
http://www.oecd.org/education/school/oecdreviewonevaluationandassessmentframeworksforimprovingschooloutcomesobjectivesandmethodology.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/education/school-education/competences_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/school_en.htm