Re-organization of assessment during the educational emergency in primary and secondary teaching: an Italian case

Titolo Rivista EDUCATION SCIENCES AND SOCIETY
Autori/Curatori Andrea Tinterri, Maka Eradze, Anna Dipace, Martina Fava
Anno di pubblicazione 2021 Fascicolo 2021/2 Lingua Inglese
Numero pagine 15 P. 478-492 Dimensione file 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/ess2-2021oa12520
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Vedi l'articolo Scarica l'articolo open access

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

The educational crisis caused by the pandemic created an unprecedented need to reorganize teaching and learning processes, and the educational assessment became one of the thorniest issues in this rapid change; assessment re-organization entails layered complexities on micro, meso and macro levels. This research is contextualized in a larger digital ethnographic study of three different Italian teacher online communities, uncovering the experience from mixed-methods research. Following this research, a survey instrument was developed and launched. Current paper reports on the survey aiming to uncover the change in assessment practices during the educational emergency while reflecting on teachers’ beliefs on the assessment, the use of remote assessment methods before and during the pandemic, and its re-organization. Findings suggest a significant reorganization of assessment during the COVID-19 educational emergency in all school orders. Through all school orders, teachers perceived a reduction in the importance of assessment during the pandemic and, consequently, used most assessment techniques significantly less than before. However, different methods changed differently, with oral examinations diminishing dramatically and increased use of closed-question quizzes.

The educational crisis caused by the pandemic created an unprecedented need to reorganize teaching and learning processes, and the educational assessment became one of the thorniest issues in this rapid change; assessment re-organization entails layered complexities on micro, meso and macro levels. This research is contextualized in a larger digital ethnographic study of three different Italian teacher online communities, uncovering the experience from mixed-methods research. Following this research, a survey instrument was developed and launched. Current paper reports on the survey aiming to uncover the change in assessment practices during the educational emergency while reflecting on teachers’ beliefs on the assessment, the use of remote assessment methods before and during the pandemic, and its re-organization. Findings suggest a significant reorganization of assessment during the COVID-19 educational emergency in all school orders. Through all school orders, teachers perceived a reduction in the importance of assessment during the pandemic and, consequently, used most assessment techniques significantly less than before. However, different methods changed differently, with oral examinations diminishing dramatically and increased use of closed-question quizzes.

Keywords:; Assessment; Covid-19; Primary school; Secondary school; Distance learning; Emergency Remote Teaching

  1. Albó L., Beardsley M., Martínez-Moreno J., Santos P. and Hernández-Leo, D. (2020). Emergency remote teaching: Capturing teacher experiences in Spain with SELFIE. European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, 318-331.
  2. Beardsley M., Albó L., Aragón P. and Hernández-Leo, D. (2021). Emergency education effects on teacher abilities and motivation to use digital technologies. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(4): 1455-1477. DOI: 10.1111/bjet.13101.
  3. Bozkurt A., Jung I., Xiao J., Vladimirschi V., Schuwer R., Egorov G., Lambert S., Al-Freih M., Pete J. and Olcott Jr D. (2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1): 1-126. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3878572.
  4. Eradze M., Bardone E. and Dipace A. (2021). Theorising on Covid-19 Educational Emergency: Magnifying Glasses for the Field of Educational Technology. Learning, Media and Technology. DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2021.1961802.
  5. Fullan M., Quinn J., Drummy M. and Gardner M. (2020). Education reimagined: The future of learning. A Collaborative Position Paper between New Pedagogies of Deep Learning and Microsoft Education. [Online] available at: https://edudownloads.azureedge.net/msdownloads/Microsoft-EducationReimagined-Paper.pdf [accessed on 5/11/2021].
  6. Gamage K.A.A., de Silva E.K. and Gunawardhana N. (2020). Online Delivery and Assessment during COVID-19: Safeguarding Academic Integrity. Education Sciences 2020, 10(11): 301. DOI: 10.3390/EDUCSCI10110301.
  7. Giovannella C., Passarelli M., Alkhafaji A.S.A. and Negrón A.P.P. (2021). A comparative study on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on three different national university learning ecosystems as bases to derive a Model for the Attitude to get Engaged in Technological Innovation (MAETI). Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal - IxD&A, 47: 167-190. DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2020.1286.
  8. Harlen W. (2007). Assessment of learning. Sage. DOI: 10.4135/9781446214695.
  9. Hodges C., Moore S., Lockee B., Trust T. and Bond A. (2020). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review, 27.
  10. Johnson T. (2020). Participant observation of a teachers’ online community during the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia. The university of Tartu.
  11. Johnson T., Eradze M. and Kobakhidze M.N. (2022). Finding a silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic: Participant observation of a teachers’ online community in Georgia. In: Loureiro M.J., Loureiro A. and Gerber H.R., eds., Global Education and the Impact of Institutional Policies on Educational Technologies (p. In print).
  12. Luik P., Lepp M. (2021). Changes in activity and content of messages of an Estonian Facebook group during transition to distance learning at the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12602.
  13. Rapanta C., Botturi L., Goodyear P., Guàrdia L. and Koole M. (2021). Balancing Technology, Pedagogy and the New Normal: Post-pandemic Challenges for Higher Education. Postdigital Science and Education. DOI: 10.1007/s42438-021-00249-1.
  14. Wiliam D. (2011). What is assessment for learning? Studies in Educational Evaluation, 37(1): 3-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.stueduc.2011.03.001.

Andrea Tinterri, Maka Eradze, Anna Dipace, Martina Fava, Re-organization of assessment during the educational emergency in primary and secondary teaching: an Italian case in "EDUCATION SCIENCES AND SOCIETY" 2/2021, pp 478-492, DOI: 10.3280/ess2-2021oa12520