Erduran Sibel, El Masri Yasmine, Cullinane Alison, Ng Ypd
Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
The Norwegian Centre for Science Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Int J Sci Educ. 2020 Aug 6;42(9):1544-1567. doi: 10.1080/09500693.2020.1769876.
High stakes examinations can have profound implications for how science is taught and learned. Limitations of school science such as the 'cookbook problem' can potentially be addressed if high stakes assessments target learning outcomes that are innovative. For example, less mindless procedural engagement and more thoughtful consideration of practical science can potentially improve science learning. In this paper, we investigate how practical work is represented in the assessment frameworks of several countries that demonstrate above average performance in the latest PISA science assessments. The main motivation is the need to understand if there are aspects of high stakes summative assessments in these countries that can provide insight into how best to structure national examinations. Assessment documents from a set of selected countries have been analysed qualitatively guided by questions such as 'what is the construct of practical science' and 'what is the format of assessment?' The examined jurisdictions used different approaches from traditional external pen-and-paper tests to internal teacher assessments that included different formats (e.g. laboratory report). Innovative approaches to the assessment of practical skills (e.g. PISA computer-based tasks) do not seem to be represented in these high-stakes assessments. Implications for innovative assessments for high-stakes purposes are discussed.
高风险考试会对科学教学与学习方式产生深远影响。如果高风险评估针对的是创新性学习成果，那么诸如“菜谱式问题”等学校科学教育的局限性就有可能得到解决。例如，减少机械的程序操作，更多地对实践科学进行深入思考，可能会提高科学学习效果。在本文中，我们研究了在最新的国际学生评估项目（PISA）科学测评中表现高于平均水平的几个国家的评估框架是如何体现实践活动的。主要动机在于需要了解这些国家高风险终结性评估的哪些方面能够为如何优化国家考试结构提供见解。我们以诸如“实践科学的构成要素是什么”以及“评估形式是怎样的”等问题为指导，对一组选定国家的评估文件进行了定性分析。所考察的司法管辖区采用了不同的方法，从传统的外部纸笔测试到包括不同形式（如实验报告）的内部教师评估。这些高风险评估中似乎没有体现出对实践技能评估的创新方法（如PISA计算机化任务）。本文还讨论了高风险目的下创新评估的意义。
