Assessment validation – a journey
NAVAL Changing the tide!
INTERVIEW | Jo Fuller, Manager Teaching and Learning, Community Services Faculty, TAFE NSW South Western Sydney Institute
The key is to get people involved, to share ideas and resources - to really talk about what we are doing and to value each other's views.
Jo Fuller
This is the first of a series of exemplars with a focus on assessment. They will be published in successive eZines.
The aim of assessment validation is to provide consistency to assessment tools, processes, evidence and professional judgement, yet assessment validation still remains an issue for many teachers, especially in the context of recent AQTF audits.
Initially Assessment Validation was all about making sure every box was ticked and every assessment was validated, but now it is the process that is much more important…If you have the process right, the tools will fall out of that process.
Jo Fuller
‘Initially assessment validation was all about making sure every box was ticked and every assessment was validated, but now it is the process that is much more important,’ Jo Fuller commented. ‘If you have the process right, the tools will fall out of that process.’ As Manager of Teaching and Learning for the Community Services Faculty, Jo Fuller is recognised across South Western Sydney Institute (SWSI) for her proactive work in the field of assessment validation.
‘It is our process now!’
Jo advocates a team approach to building quality tools that support confident, consistent, and transparent decisions about assessment outcomes. For Jo the key elements in building a successful assessment validation process are communication and collaboration - really sharing views so that everyone knows they have a stake in it… ‘It is our process now!'
…the key elements in building a successful assessment validation process are communication and collaboration…
Jo Fuller
When Jo took on managing assessment validation for her faculty, she thought a lot about how to bring energy and excitement to the assessment validation process. ‘The key is to get people involved, to share ideas and resources - to really talk about what we are doing and to value each other's views.’ Jo’s colleague Rob Young agrees. ‘If you try and beat people over the head with this, you are not going to succeed.’
Making meaning
Jo tells, ‘I tried to get away from the 'AV' word as it was a negative in many minds, and I came up with the idea of NAVAL (Network of Assessment Validation Assessor Leaders). At our meetings now we hardly talk about AV, but we certainly talk about NAVAL!
‘Initially I started NAVAL with a very small group of volunteers and we just brainstormed lots of ideas. We talked about the issues around assessment validation and came up with a range of strategies we could use, and developed a 12 month action plan with three priorities:
- Standardise our processes and forms
- Develop a bank of assessments to share across the faculty
- Determine professional development needs for our AV leaders
‘For each of these categories we prioritised what was really important. We developed flowcharts, policy, procedures and all the forms we needed. Then we put all these resources on a CD - Navigating Assessment Validation (NAV). In addition, we added other resources – templates, links to websites, links to resources on the ICVET website and elearning games. Now every new teacher in our faculty receives their own copy of NAV.
Showcasing and celebrating
Showcasing your achievements is really important…As well as sharing our learning and our new resources, this also enabled people to be recognised for the huge effort they had put into NAVAL…Everyone was really inspired and now it is 'Let's see what else we can do!
Jo Fuller
‘Showcasing your achievements is really important. At the end of 2005, we held our own Big Day Out to showcase NAVAL. Several teachers shared their learning journeys about assessment validation and everyone involved was very proud of what we had actually achieved. As well as sharing our learning and our new resources, this also enabled people to be recognised for the huge effort they had put into NAVAL. It meant so much to everyone. Even I was surprised at how much it meant. Everyone was really inspired and now it's 'Let's see what else we can do!'
‘We also had a great day showcasing NAV at the 2005 TAFENSW Quality Awards. Lots of interest and we have sent copies of NAV out across TAFE NSW.
What else?
‘This semester NAVAL is building an assessment bank to facilitate the sharing of assessment tools across different sections. We are doing this online. As teachers we need to all share our assessments with each other. Sharing will make it much easier to then look at the consistency of the tools.
‘One thing I have found with critiquing assessments is that if a teacher has their name on the tool, whatever is critiqued about that assessment tool is taken very personally. To guard against this happening, all tools are presented as a section's submission. That way no one takes the critiquing personally.
'As a manager of teaching and learning, I need to recognise that assessment validation is only one of the many important tasks performed by teachers. I think at times this does need to be kept in perspective.
My learning
‘For me assessment validation is a journey - you never really get there. It is a long term process and change takes time to filter down. You can develop wonderful procedures and processes but it takes time and patience before people will embrace and accept these as practice.
‘NAVAL has changed the perception of assessment validation for the Community Services Faculty. At my first meeting for NAVAL I had six or maybe seven people at the meeting. Now I have a representative from each section – people are chafing at the bit to be there! They want to be a part of NAVAL.
‘My advice? Keep going and don’t lose the momentum!’
Also see
For more about NAVAL ‘Are we there yet?’, don't miss Jo Fuller's presentation at The Learning Powerhouse Conference on 4 August 2006.
Next Zine: Rob Young's talks about CAVN
Assessment Validation | A-Z Resources
