Kiran Nellure is Cambridge - Chief at Gitanjali School, Hyderabad, India. He has been teaching Economics for IGCSE and A levels for last 16 years. Kiran started his “marking journey” as a Diploma Examiner of Economics for the IB and then worked with Cambridge as Assessment Specialist for Economics and Global Perspectives, and as a Cambridge International trainer.
“I always enjoyed marking as it really helped me in my professional development, and at the same time helped me to support my students understand the needs of the questions.
When marking I always had a curiosity to know the science behind assessments. Fortunately, I came across A101: Introducing the Principles of Assessment course and immediately I booked a place. I was excited by the option to write an assignment to demonstrate knowledge and the online forum is great – you can challenge and be challenged on your views about assessment with other learners all over the world. Learning more about assessment practice has given me a lot more professional confidence.
I have recently completed the Advanced Assessment Practitioner Award with The Assessment Network. In my report, I discovered that developing teacher understanding of assessment principles can significantly help teachers frame better questions for students and apply assessment knowledge effectively, leading to improved results in the school.
My assignment compared school mock grades with final exam grades and then measured the difference with statistical tools to understand how far students’ grades had improved after the teachers had learnt more about assessment principles.
What surprised me was that I initially thought it would be challenging to align mock exam grades with final exam grades for a subject like IGCSE Mathematics. However, we were able to achieve mock results that closely matched the final exam grades. This success was possible because our teachers possessed a strong understanding of assessment principles.”
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