Upcoming Events
In addition to the following events, our exam boards each have a full calendar of events throughout the year and information relating to these can be obtained from their individual websites: OCR, CIE and Cambridge ESOL.
We also have a selection of podcasts from previous events available.
| High-stakes testing at the school/university interface: experiences from the former socialist states of central and eastern Europe (Seminar) Date: 8 Feb 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge This presentation shows some of the assessment solutions that have evolved in central and eastern Europe and, in particular, describes how the young examining agencies of the post-socialist states have adopted innovative technological solutions which may be of interest to our own 'heritage' boards. |
| Basic statistics (Course) Date: 14 Feb 2012 Time: 14:00 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road This introductory seminar (with examples in the context of scores on a test) is aimed at people with little or no knowledge of statistics. It looks at basic summary statistics, such as the mean, mode, median, range and standard deviation, and graphical ways of displaying data, such as frequency distributions, cumulative frequency curves, histograms and boxplots. It also looks at the properties of the normal distribution curve. |
| Consensus, what consensus? (Seminar) Date: 29 Feb 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road This session will examine the evolution of thinking on validity, from the early 20th century to the present day. It will attempt to identify the central tenets of modern validity theory and to determine how it departs from validity theory of yesteryear. |
| What is the purpose of public assessments? (Course) Date: 8 Mar 2012 Time: 10:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge This seminar seeks to describe the part that examinations play in modern societies. Are they part of a widespread system of rules and regulations which constrain individuals? Or are they a route to new opportunities which lead to growth and self-fulfillment? |
| Current issues with National Curriculum assessment: lessons from school music education (Seminar) Date: 15 Mar 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge In this session, Professor Martin Fautley will describe a number of issues with assessment practices in education drawing on his research in secondary schools. He will describe the ways in which the original purposes of formative and summative assessment have become misunderstood by school assessment managers, and how the emphasis on data collection has, in many cases, hindered the development in school music lessons of appropriate music-learning and music-making activities during KS3. |
| Making the most of our assessment data (Seminar) Date: 21 Mar 2012 Time: 14:30 Venue: OCR, Progress House, Coventry As new technologies penetrate every part of educational assessment, data are being collected as never before. For example, many of Cambridge Assessment’s examinations are now marked by examiners working on computers, resulting in marks captured right down to question-part level. In this talk the speaker will outline Cambridge Assessment's solution to providing flexible, dynamic, on-demand statistical information for use by assessment managers responsible for the validity, reliability and timely delivery of assessments. He will include a summary of findings from a survey of senior examiners who used one of the new statistical services based on item level data. |
| Making the most of our assessment data (Seminar) Date: 4 Apr 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge As new technologies penetrate every part of educational assessment, data are being collected as never before. For example, many of Cambridge Assessment’s examinations are now marked by examiners working on computers, resulting in marks captured right down to question-part level. In this talk the speaker will outline Cambridge Assessment's solution to providing flexible, dynamic, on-demand statistical information for use by assessment managers responsible for the validity, reliability and timely delivery of assessments. He will include a summary of findings from a survey of senior examiners who used one of the new statistical services based on item level data. |
| Question writing (Course) Date: 11 Apr 2012 Time: 10:00 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road This session will provide an introduction to some of the principles of question writing. Topics covered will include ensuring content and skill coverage, features affecting question difficulty and fairness, and the process involved when a student answers a question. |
| What is the purpose of public assessments? (Course) Date: 12 Apr 2012 Time: 14:00 Venue: OCR, Progress House, Coventry This seminar seeks to describe the part that examinations play in modern societies. Are they part of a widespread system of rules and regulations which constrain individuals? Or are they a route to new opportunities which lead to growth and self-fulfillment? |
| Just how closely should textbooks link to public examinations? (Seminar) Date: 18 Apr 2012 Time: 16:30 Venue: Downing College, Regent Street, Cambridge There is considerable controversy in the English educational system over the relationship between textbooks and public examinations. Tim’s presentation will take a look at the international evidence and suggest that while questions might be raised about the quality of textbooks and the precise form of the relationship between these and examinations, the development and maintenance of an effective relation is critical to the functioning of a high quality education system. Dr Mary Bousted will respond to Tim’s arguments. |
| Vocational assessment – valid and manageable? (Seminar) Date: 2 May 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge This seminar will explain how OCR has responded to the removal of the NVQ Code of Practice, the requirements of the General Conditions of Recognition, and the issues presented by the Qualifications Credit Framework. |
| How can assessment support learning? (Course) Date: 10 May 2012 Time: 10:30 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road What do people mean when they claim that summative assessment 'damages learning'? And what are the recommendations of groups which champion greater reliance on 'Assessment for Learning'? This seminar will look at some of the arguments which have been put on both sides of this debate. |
| International Study Programme 2012: the development and administration of examinations (Course) Date: 14 May 2012 - 25 May 2012 Time: 09:00 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road This two-week study programme in Cambridge is for anyone involved in the design and delivery of public examinations. International delegates review best practice and share their experiences of examination development and administration. Participants debate the principles of assessment design and how they can be carried forward into practice. |
| (De-) Formative assessment: is formative assessment as benign as we think? (Seminar) Date: 15 May 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge Formative assessment has been taken up in many institutionalised learning contexts over the last decade, often in the guise of ‘Assessment for Learning’ (AfL). Both terms have largely positive associations – it seems to be assumed that formative assessment or AfL will simply be a ‘good thing’. Drawing upon data from a recent research project involving in-depth case studies of two Scottish primary school classrooms, the presentation will argue that such assumptions misrecognise the possibility of undesirable learning and the work of formative assessment in securing the internalisation of rather problematic norms. |
| Francis Galton, measurement, psychometrics and social progress (Seminar) Date: 21 May 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge In this talk Harvey Goldstein looks at the work of Francis Galton, a pioneer of modern social measurement, and traces the influence he has had over the century since his death. The talk looks at the scientific status of Galton’s work and subsequent developments within psychometrics and education, including the use of factor analysis and item response models. Links are made to current debates concerning league tables and data freedom. |
| Identifying the boundaries of validity theory: what's in and what's out? (Seminar) Date: 29 May 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road This session will explore arguments for and against the integration of 'consequences' alongside similar debates regarding reliability, fairness, social policy and the law. |
| Question writing (Course) Date: 31 May 2012 Time: 14:00 Venue: OCR, Progress House, Coventry This session will provide an introduction to some of the principles of question writing. Topics covered will include ensuring content and skill coverage, features affecting question difficulty and fairness, and the process involved when a student answers a question. |
| Test and item evaluation (Course) Date: 13 Jun 2012 Time: 10:30 Venue: Cambridge Assessment, 1 Hills Road An introduction to test and item evaluation covering the item level statistics used across a range of Cambridge Assessment's qualifications. |
| Students’ and teachers’ views and experiences of A level unit re-sits (Seminar) Date: 19 Jun 2012 Time: 15:30 Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge This presentation will explore the issue of A level unit re-sits with two different approaches. A quantitative analysis looks at the number of candidates choosing to re-sit units in some popular A levels and how many improved their overall grade through re-sitting. These numbers will then be put in some context by presenting the results of a survey of mathematics and psychology A level students and teachers, exploring their views and experiences of re-sits. |
| Cambridge Assessment Conference 2012: Examining risk: deeper analysis of the pressures on assessment in England (Seminar) Date: 10 Oct 2012 Time: 09:00 Venue: Downing College, Cambridge Our attitudes to risks are changing. If something goes wrong, surely someone, somewhere must be to blame. But this tends towards a focus on human error – which is only one form of the many sources of risk in public assessment. Human error can be reduced, with increased diligence, monitoring and cost. Risk can, and should, be attenuated. But who is running what sort of risk? Are the risks for learners, who rely on the robustness of increasingly technicised assessment, different to the risks for governments, who use the outcomes of assessment in increasingly elaborate accountability arrangements? This important conference will explore both obvious and hidden risk, ranging from the risks associated with the processing of tests and examinations, to the risks associated with frequent structural change, to the risks associated with regulation and the communication of risk itself. We should never underestimate the challenges of risk management in the context of national assessment systems. Examining risk – the first Cambridge Assessment Conference under our new biennial model – will provide an opportunity to reflect upon lessons from events of the past; to consider what might be learned from insights within other fields; and to reflect upon how best to confront the reality of risk in the future. |
