Claire Wyatt-Smith & Joy Cumming 
Educational Assessment in the 21st Century 
Connecting Theory and Practice

Signs of Change: Assessment Past, Present and Future Another Time, Another Place…Examinations Then and Now In the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, Vietnam, a series of stone stelae records the names of the handful of illustrious examination candidates who, in each century, passed the national examination to become a Doctor of Literature. Beginning in the 11thcentury, theexamswereconductedpersonallybysuccessivekingswhopursued Confucian ideals that found expression in the enormous value placed on the pursuit of wisdom and learning. In the 21st century we are both puzzled and impressed by this tradition. Puzzled by such an explicit commitment to a meritocracy in an essentially feudal society; impressed by this enthusiasm for learning and the pursuit of wisdom at the highest level of society. Yet, there are also important similarities between the 11th and 21st centuries. Then, as now, assessment was associated with excellence, high standards, pr- tige and competition—success for the chosen few; disappointment for the majority. Then, as now, the pursuit of excellence was embedded in a social context that favoured the elite and determined success in terms of the predilections of the p- erful. Then, as now, the purpose of the assessment, the way it was conducted and its impact on society all re ected the social and economic priorities of the day.

Table of Content

Framing Assessment Today for the Future: Issues and Challenges.- Framing Assessment Today for the Future: Issues and Challenges.- Creativity and Innovation in Assessment: New Skills and Capabilities, and Changing Communication Practices.- Assessment in the Perspective of a Social Semiotic Theory of Multimodal Teaching and Learning.- Transforming K–12 Assessment: Integrating Accountability Testing, Formative Assessment and Professional Support.- Assessment Issues and New Technologies: e Portfolio Possibilities.- Towards Theorising Assessment as Critical Inquiry.- Building Social Capital: Difference, Diversity and Social Inclusion.- Fairness in Assessment.- Assessment, Gender and In/Equity.- Assessment, Disability, Student Engagement and Responses to Intervention.- Assessment Challenges, the Law and the Future.- Assessment in a Context: Geography, Policy and Practice.- Teachers’ Use of Assessment Data.- A Problematic Leap in the Use of Test Data: From Performance to Inference.- Educational Assessment in Norway—A Time of Change.- Articulating Tacit Knowledge Through Analyses of Recordings: Implications for Competency Assessment in the Vocational Education and Training Sector.- Defining Standards for the 21st Century.