Colleges lecturers professional standards

Initial Professional Standards for Assessment

Context and Rationale

Lecturers review current evidence based practice and pedagogical research to develop assessment strategies. Lecturers assess learners to support and enable progression in learning, to affirm learners' achievement as an integral and essential aspect of the learning and teaching process and to provide evidence for certification claims. They use formative and summative assessment strategies, design and select assessment instruments, make judgements on the evidence presented and provide constructive feedback on learners' progress. Lecturers operate within the confines of the internal and external assessment environment and, therefore, must adhere to compliance regulations. Lecturers assess in a range of environments including classrooms, workshops, flexible learning centres, online, social media, outdoor environments and in the workplace. Lecturers may adopt holistic approaches to assessment which can be used as evidence from more than one outcome.

Standards

The lecturer should be able to:

1. Devise suitable assessment strategies based on a critical understanding of the principles, purposes, means and terminology of assessment.
2. Design, produce and use a range of assessment instruments taking account of individual learners' needs.
3. Evaluate and justify a range of assessment instruments having taken account of individual learners' needs.
4. Measure and record progress and attainment of learners.
5. Use assessment feedback to and from learners to inform practice and promote learning.
6. Use performance indicators to inform the evaluation of learning and teaching.
7. Comply with internal and external policies and procedures for assessment and verification.

Indicative Content

• assessment for learning; assessment as learning (motivation); assessment of learning including for certification
• principles of currency, validity, reliability, practicability, accessibility and fairness in assessment
• formative and summative; peer and self; formal and informal; continuous and terminal; internal and external assessment
• assessment methods, e.g. assignment, case study, performance, portfolio, practical activity, project and test (or question paper) of knowledge and understanding
• norm-referenced, grade-related criteria, criterion-referenced, self-referenced, folio based and diagnostic assessment
• legal considerations, e.g. health and safety, equality, copyright and data protection
• local and national Government initiatives
• policies, procedures and standards of awarding bodies, colleges and other relevant agencies, e.g. schools, in relation to assessment, re-assessment, appeals, alternative assessment arrangements and plagiarism
• timing of, and conditions for, assessment including holistic approaches and the integration of assessment
• criteria for evaluation and selection of assessment instruments, e.g. variety, good practice, performance indicators, own skill set and e-assessment
• adaptation of assessment instruments to meet learners' diverse needs, e.g. sensory impairment, dyslexia
• literacy and language issues which impact on assessment including aspects of numeracy
• appropriate use of assessment instrument choices for students and consideration of peer assessment, partnership learning and levels of support
• the development and use of ICT, e-learning and assessment technologies
• transparency and use of criteria, marking, marking schemes and sample solutions to measure learning
• oral and written feedback to learners
• reporting to other agencies, e.g. employers, schools
• record keeping: checklists and schedules, attainment records
• moderation/verification: awarding body requirements, sampling criteria, documentation
• approaches to evaluate and record wider achievement.