Changing Assessment
How to Design Curriculum for Human Flourishing
Published on 3. April 2025
Book
Hardback
118 pages
978-90-04-71419-9 (ISBN)
Description
Since the Delors report, education reformers have been working to create curricula that allow human beings to flourish. Schools should not only be places where we learn to be and learn to live together, but also places where the way we assess students valorises the diverse range of human gifts within them.
Yet, most schools remain locked in a 19th-century assessment structure that prevents young people from exploring the full variety and extent of their talents, forcing them to perform on a narrow, high-stakes track. When will this change?
In this remarkable book, Conrad Hughes gives an overview of the assessment problem affecting schools and creates a path to take to broaden assessment and potentially reposition the whole purpose of schooling. It is a brave, beautifully written treatise that anyone interested in education and assessment should read.
- Georges Haddad, Honorary President of Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Former Director at UNESCO (Education Sector)
Yet, most schools remain locked in a 19th-century assessment structure that prevents young people from exploring the full variety and extent of their talents, forcing them to perform on a narrow, high-stakes track. When will this change?
In this remarkable book, Conrad Hughes gives an overview of the assessment problem affecting schools and creates a path to take to broaden assessment and potentially reposition the whole purpose of schooling. It is a brave, beautifully written treatise that anyone interested in education and assessment should read.
- Georges Haddad, Honorary President of Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Former Director at UNESCO (Education Sector)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Weight
345 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-71419-9 (9789004714199)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2025
Brill
€46.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Conrad Hughes (PhD, EdD) is the Director General of the International School of Geneva, where he teaches Theory of Knowledge. He has published three major books on education including Education and Elitism: Challenges and Opportunities (Routledge, 2021).
Content
Foreword
?Svein Osttveit
1 The Problem with Schools Today
?1 Human Intelligence Is Not a Single, Narrow Construct
?2 Human Beings Possess a Wealth of Experiences and Gifts but Few of Them Are Recognised in Formal Assessment Systems
?3 A Problem That Can Be Solved
2 The Sociology, Ideology, and Perpetuation of 19th-Century Assessment Models
?1 The Origins of IQ Testing: A Zero-Sum Game
?2 Normal Distribution as a Fundamental Socioeconomic and Psychometric Principle
3 Checkerboards and Straightjackets: The Organisation of the Timetable and Grading Systems
?1 The Carnegie Unit
?2 Standardised Curriculum Design
?3 Grading: Technical, Emotional, and Psychological Effects
?4 Placement Tests and Cut-offs
?5 Why Breaking the Checkerboard Is So Difficult
4 The One-Size-Fits-All World of Mass Testing
?1 The Origins, Purposes, and Development of Large-Scale Learning Assessments
?2 Assessment Problems Created by Mass Testing
?3 The Cultural Hegemony of Assessment Centralisation and How This Affects Learners in Different Parts of the World
?4 The Language of Testing: Pitfalls and Inequities
5 Covid-19 and the General Collapse of Traditional Assessment Systems
?1 An Analysis of the Inability of Examination Boards to Survive 2020
?2 The Return to "Normal": No Lessons Learned
?3 The Future of High-Stakes Assessments in an Increasingly Unpredictable World
6 Politics and University Admissions: The Chokehold
?1 National Assessment Qualifications and University Recognition: Politics and Networks
?2 University Recognition of Different Diplomas
?3 Releasing the Chokehold
7 Primary and Middle School Models
?1 Inquiry-Based Learning
?2 Project-Based Learning
?3 Creativity
?4 Rest, Pacing, and Wellbeing
?5 Why Do These Models Not Transfer into Secondary Schools?
8 Alternative High School Models
?1 Vocational Programmes
?2 Microcredentialing and Digital Badges
?3 Alternative Transcripts
?4 Creative School-Based Projects
?5 Challenges and Opportunities
9 Higher Education Efforts at Broadening Assessment
?1 College Board
?2 Test-Optional Pathways
?3 Interviews
?4 Personal Statements
?5 Sports and Arts Scholarships
?6 Assessment Constructs
10 Assessment of Talent in the Workplace
?1 Personality Tests
?2 Growth and Evaluation: Different Approaches
?3 Replacing Performance Reviews with Ongoing Feedback: Implications for Learning and the World of Work
11 Competences
?1 UNESCO IBE's Work and Vision of Curriculum and Competences
?2 The Significance of Competences for the Future of Work
?3 Assessing Competences
12 The International School of Geneva and UNESCO International Bureau of Education
?1 The Ecolint Learner Passport
?2 The Coalition to Honour All Learning
Index
?Svein Osttveit
1 The Problem with Schools Today
?1 Human Intelligence Is Not a Single, Narrow Construct
?2 Human Beings Possess a Wealth of Experiences and Gifts but Few of Them Are Recognised in Formal Assessment Systems
?3 A Problem That Can Be Solved
2 The Sociology, Ideology, and Perpetuation of 19th-Century Assessment Models
?1 The Origins of IQ Testing: A Zero-Sum Game
?2 Normal Distribution as a Fundamental Socioeconomic and Psychometric Principle
3 Checkerboards and Straightjackets: The Organisation of the Timetable and Grading Systems
?1 The Carnegie Unit
?2 Standardised Curriculum Design
?3 Grading: Technical, Emotional, and Psychological Effects
?4 Placement Tests and Cut-offs
?5 Why Breaking the Checkerboard Is So Difficult
4 The One-Size-Fits-All World of Mass Testing
?1 The Origins, Purposes, and Development of Large-Scale Learning Assessments
?2 Assessment Problems Created by Mass Testing
?3 The Cultural Hegemony of Assessment Centralisation and How This Affects Learners in Different Parts of the World
?4 The Language of Testing: Pitfalls and Inequities
5 Covid-19 and the General Collapse of Traditional Assessment Systems
?1 An Analysis of the Inability of Examination Boards to Survive 2020
?2 The Return to "Normal": No Lessons Learned
?3 The Future of High-Stakes Assessments in an Increasingly Unpredictable World
6 Politics and University Admissions: The Chokehold
?1 National Assessment Qualifications and University Recognition: Politics and Networks
?2 University Recognition of Different Diplomas
?3 Releasing the Chokehold
7 Primary and Middle School Models
?1 Inquiry-Based Learning
?2 Project-Based Learning
?3 Creativity
?4 Rest, Pacing, and Wellbeing
?5 Why Do These Models Not Transfer into Secondary Schools?
8 Alternative High School Models
?1 Vocational Programmes
?2 Microcredentialing and Digital Badges
?3 Alternative Transcripts
?4 Creative School-Based Projects
?5 Challenges and Opportunities
9 Higher Education Efforts at Broadening Assessment
?1 College Board
?2 Test-Optional Pathways
?3 Interviews
?4 Personal Statements
?5 Sports and Arts Scholarships
?6 Assessment Constructs
10 Assessment of Talent in the Workplace
?1 Personality Tests
?2 Growth and Evaluation: Different Approaches
?3 Replacing Performance Reviews with Ongoing Feedback: Implications for Learning and the World of Work
11 Competences
?1 UNESCO IBE's Work and Vision of Curriculum and Competences
?2 The Significance of Competences for the Future of Work
?3 Assessing Competences
12 The International School of Geneva and UNESCO International Bureau of Education
?1 The Ecolint Learner Passport
?2 The Coalition to Honour All Learning
Index