Assessment and Learning: Examples of emerging practices from South East Asia

This paper describes the evolution of a major new regional assessment - the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metric (SEA-PLM), led by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and UNICEF. The initiative... [ view full abstract ]

This paper describes the evolution of a major new regional assessment - the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metric (SEA-PLM), led by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and UNICEF. The initiative started in 2012 with a series of consultations and technical analyses of curricula across the region provided by the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

The goal of SEA-PLM has evolved over time due to both political and technical considerations, including growing concerns over the need to link assessment to education improvement and to enhance in-country capacity. SEA-PLM aims to “contribute towards improving and redefining learning outcomes by providing a regional culturally appropriate metric and thereby towards a more equitable and meaningful education for all children in the region”. It assesses learning across three domains at Grade 5: reading, writing, and mathematics (based on Southeast Asian values). There are also questionnaires for students, teachers, principals and parents which aim to provide contextual information to provide an indication of the factors that may be associated with enhanced student learning. Students are also asked about their interest and attitudes to global citizenship. The paper will draw on documentation from technical analyses, and committee and technical review panel reports, describing the tensions around the need for regional metric, utility at country level and potential linkages between the regional metric and a proposed global metric for monitoring learning.

This paper discusses how literacy assessment was introduced into two provinces in Indonesia – Papua and West Papua – as the basis for enhancing approaches to the teaching of literacy in early grades. It describes how a... [ view full abstract ]

This paper discusses how literacy assessment was introduced into two provinces in Indonesia – Papua and West Papua – as the basis for enhancing approaches to the teaching of literacy in early grades. It describes how a baseline study was established and how the data was used to inform the programme design from the classroom to the district policy level and how a monitoring and evaluation framework was developed to enhance the project and ensure its success and potential replication across rural and remote areas of Tanah Papua.

Indonesia was one of only eight countries whose Programme for International Student Assessment reading results improved significantly over 2000-2009, while narrowing the gap between the highest and lowest performing students. However, the progress is not even across Indonesia and key education indicators for Tanah Papua lag behind the national average. Enduring challenges in the region include: high teacher and school principal absenteeism; inappropriate teacher distribution; inadequate skills of teachers to provide quality instruction that ensures a high standard of learning outcomes for children; a lack of culturally relevant materials; poor community support for education; and inadequate infrastructure and unsafe learning environments.

Only a comprehensive programme that simultaneously addresses crucial impediments to the creation of an enabling environment for reading can contribute significantly to improving learning outcomes in Tanah Papua. Still, a modest programme implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the government and the local NGOs and funded by the Government of Australia is attempting to demonstrate effective strategies to addresses these challenges.

As part of the Quality Basic Education Programme (QBEP) – UNICEF Myanmar supported the Ministry of Education to carry out an array of school-based and system level strengthening activities to improve learning in primary... [ view full abstract ]

As part of the Quality Basic Education Programme (QBEP) – UNICEF Myanmar supported the Ministry of Education to carry out an array of school-based and system level strengthening activities to improve learning in primary school. As a contribution to the QBEP base line, learning achievement tests in Grade 3 and 5 were conducted in 880 schools across the country with over 50,000 children. The tests included Myanmar language and mathematics and were linked to data on facilities, teachers and contextual factors. The tests were developed using SOLO Taxonomy, with questions prepared using uni-structural, multi-structural and relational item design, allowing that Item Response Theory could explore depths of competence and correlations with school and teacher related factors. In February 2015, the end line data collection process was carried out in the same 880 schools, which represent control groups with no interventions and other schools which received various support from QBEP activities to improve the quality of learning. School and teacher data was also collected, including Teacher Classroom Behaviour data based on structured observations in 200 of these schools. The session will focus on the main outcomes of the study, how the findings are being used to influence Ministry of Education policy and practice, and the key issues affecting quality and learning achievement in the context of Myanmar.

All three of the papers are explicitly linked to the conference sub-theme: How can pedagogy and assessment support learning? There is now a global and regional consensus, in SEA, that the Post 2015 agenda should focus on... [ view full abstract ]

All three of the papers are explicitly linked to the conference sub-theme: How can pedagogy and assessment support learning? There is now a global and regional consensus, in SEA, that the Post 2015 agenda should focus on learning and equity. There is also a shared assumption that enhanced assessment can be an important contribution to the new global goals. However, there is often inadequate attention given to whether and how assessment in its various forms does contribute to enhanced learning and how it informs initiatives such as curriculum review, planning and teacher education. These three papers explore this tension between generating better data and using it, from different, complementary angles. The first discusses issues evolving in the design of a regional assessment metrics linked to standards, but also education improvement in country and across the region.

The second describes challenges in addressing the various factors that affect low learning outcomes in Tanah Papua, including, but going beyond classroom process issues, and describes how baseline data has informed the design of programmatic approaches, including the teaching of reading.

The third paper investigates how various forms of assessment, including testing and structured classroom observation (to explore deeper causalities) informed programme development for a major Basic Education Quality Improvement project in Myanmar, including project baseline and impact evaluations. The papers should generate discussion around how assessment can be used to enhance learning, including tensions between 'assessment of' and 'assessment for learning', as well as the value of assessment to national and regional standards.