Initial Use of the Perceptions of Assessment Tasks Inventory (Pati) in English Secondary Schools

Initial Use of the Perceptions of Assessment Tasks Inventory (PATI) in English Secondary SchoolsAs in most aspects of school life, students hold clear views on how they are assessed.Do assessments tasks connect with the learning activities of the classroom?Do the tasks relate to real-life situations?Despite these types of questions, few studies have ascertained systematically students' perceptions of assessment tasks.This article reports the results of a preliminary English study of students' perceptions of assessment tasks.In particular, this article introduces the Perceptions of Assessment Tasks Inventory (PATI: Dorman & Knightley, 2006) and uses data collected with it to group and describe students who hold similar views on assessment tasks.According to the OECD (2005), assessment is integral to the education process, with formative assessment shown to promote high student performance, equity in outcomes, and learning-to-learn skills.Assessment is also crucial to informing teachers about their work.Importantly, assessment that is genuinely integrated with teaching and learning enhances classroom teaching (Shepard, 2000).Despite these pronouncements, much school-based assessment remains rooted in an assessment of learning rather than an assessment for learning paradigm, an issue that has concerned the Assessment Reform Group (2002) in the United Kingdom.Assessment is often used by teachers and educational authorities to indicate the perceived quality of teaching.There is a belief that if the assessment process is improved, then the resultant learning will improve (Black & Wiliam, 1998).Historically, teachers have received substantial levels of supportive educational advice on assessment practices (Harlen, 1998).By contrast, ideologicallydriven politicians and educational bureaucrats have politicized assessment with many Western countries implementing widespread standardized testing procedures.In schools in the UK and Australia today, benchmarking, testing, and reporting to authorities assume great importance.

Mathematics education · Medical education · Pedagogy · Perception · Applied Psychology · Educational and Psychological Assessments · Psychology · Reflective Practices in Education · Student Assessment and Feedback

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