Designing Quality Authentic Assessments

Tay Hui Yong is Senior Lecturer with the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She has previously served in secondary schools as a teacher, a head of department, the dean of curriculum and as vice principal. Currently, she teaches courses to a wide range of learners in her areas of expertise, particularly authentic assessment and self-regulated learning. She has published on other areas of assessments e.g., use of technology. Above all, she is interested in all things that will enhance a student’s learning experience in school.

• Acknowledgement, Introduction, Part 1: Principles of Authentic Assessment (AA) Design, 1. What is “authenticity” in AA?, 2. Why bother with “authenticity” in assessments?, 3. How do you design quality AA?, 4. How do you design quality rubrics to accompany the AA? (Pam Hook), 5. What is the place of AA in 21st Century Competencies?, Part 2: Theory into Practice, 6. AA in Humanities, 7. AA in Languages, 8. AA in Mathematics, 9. AA in Sciences, 10. AA in Character and Citizenship, 11. Personalising Assessment in Sport Science (Ben Jenkinson), 12. Developing Empathy through AA (Eric Chong King Man), 13. Conclusion, Index

'Authentic assessment is assessment that mirrors what it is in the real world we want students to learn. We want students to enact performances that show they have understood and can use what we have taught them at an acceptable level. Just telling us back what we have taught them – typical assessment practice fr a long time – just doesn’t cut it. The practical issues are: to make clear what outcomes we want students to achieve, to design tasks that mirror those outcomes, and to be able to judge what an acceptable level of performance or of understanding is. Thus book is in two parts: the principles of authentic assessment design and their application to a wide range of school subjects.This is an important work for without properly designed authentic assessment we cannot be really sure if we have successfully taught what we wanted students to learn. And what could be more important than that to a teacher? One of the critical aspects of this form of assessment is designing rubrics or criteria for judging quality of performance: this is handled by Pam Hook using her well known work on the SOLO Taxonomy. Tay Hui Yong and her team are to be congratulated in making the principles so clear and the applications to so many subjects so available to teachers.' - John Biggs, Honorary Professor of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong