Blogs by The Assessment Network

Stephen Ives has been on an incredible journey in the world of assessment. Having spent over 12 years teaching English to adults both in the UK and abroad after completing his Cambridge DELTA qualification, Stephen has gone on to support the implementation of assessment processes across the globe. Here, Stephen discusses how completing CPD training with Cambridge Assessment Network is supporting his career development.

Creative Education Trust (CET) is a UK network of 17 schools in postindustrial and coastal urban centres, educating 13,500 children and young people. They recently completed a bespoke project with the team at Cambridge Assessment Network which involved 60 teachers, 13 subjects and 5 weekly webinars, to reimagine the Trust's assessment framework.

One of our Cambridge Assessment Network members suggested a 'Day in the life' feature' to learn more about different careers in assessment. So for this Member Spotlight we spoke with Trudy Augustin, Testing and Evaluation Officer for the Ministry of Education in St Lucia about a typical day, what she enjoys the most about her role and how developing her understanding of assessment supports her career.

Assessing competence and skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration are high on the agenda for educators, employers, and policymakers looking to reimagine an education system fit for the future. In this blog, we discuss the advantages and challenges of assessing competence and so-called '21st-century skills', and how they might be integrated into the curriculum.

Desislava Dimitrova is an assessment expert with over 30 years’ experience in the educational sector. Having developed her knowledge base through both study and as a teacher in Bulgaria, Desislava was keen to get the answers to some of her most pressing questions around assessment – with the help of Cambridge Assessment Network she has been on a journey to find them.

Anthea Hollist is Head of Qualifications and Assessment for the University of the Arts, London, as well as a current student on the Cambridge Postgraduate Advanced Certificate in Educational Assessment course. We spoke with Anthea about her ‘assessment identity’, the challenges of creating 'engaging and meaningful' performance based assessments, and how assessment study has given her 'the language to talk about assessment with confidence.'

Paul Kelly is Qualifications Director at Professional Assessment Ltd (PAL), where he leads the Resource Development Team and oversees the assessment design and production process. PAL provides end-point assessment for a wide range of apprenticeship standards for training organisations and employers and also audit and compliance services for training providers. We spoke with Paul about how psychology can be applied to pedagogy and assessment, considerations for accessibility in end-point assessments and the flexibility offered by remote assessments for professional discussions.

Members of Cambridge Assessment Network work in a variety of sectors and are based around the world. We spoke with member Dr Fadi Munshi, Executive Director of Assessment for the Saudi Commission for Health Specialities (SCFHS) about challenges and insights from assessment in the world regulated healthcare. He shares his thoughts on the importance of the exam centre experience for the wellbeing of the test taker and how a 'programmatic' approach to assessment could reduce assessment stress.

Introducing one of our new Cambridge Assessment Network Ambassadors - Gwyneth Toolan. In this feature Gwyneth, Innovation Product Manager at RM in the UK, talks about teaching in Thailand, her "gratifying" experience on the Postgraduate Advanced Certificate, innovation and digital assessment, and why working on a "living topic" like assessment never gets dull!