The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Specia... more The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) is to contribute to current initiatives and debates pertaining to the development and implementation of assessment systems for improving learning and teaching. In particular, the SIG's members aim to address dominant performativity discourses impacting schools and universities by (1) providing a common understanding of the purpose and use of assessment, (2) locating the different assessment applications across the broader system within which learning and teaching occurs, and (3) highlighting recent initiatives impacting on assessment policy and practices. We think it essential to highlight critical policy and practice questions, while simultaneously acknowledging ongoing challenges for implementing enabling assessment systems that support the specific pedagogical needs of learners, teachers, students, and lecturers. Notwithstanding the complexities of effecting...
Paper presented at the Education Quality and Development Workshop at the Global Development Netwo... more Paper presented at the Education Quality and Development Workshop at the Global Development Network (GDN), Annual Conference in Brisbane, Australia, 28 January
Background: Formative assessment has been reported to improve learners’ learning in affluent cont... more Background: Formative assessment has been reported to improve learners’ learning in affluent contexts. However, very few studies have reported the impact of formative assessment on teachers’ knowledge and understanding in no-fee public schools located in a low socio-economic context.Aim: This article investigates the impact of the Assessment for Learning Capacity Development Programme (AfL CDP) on teachers’ formative assessment knowledge and understanding pertaining to the five formative assessment strategies: learning intentions and success criteria, questioning, feedback, peer and self-assessment.Setting: This study was conducted as part of the Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Africa project in one Gauteng district involving 20 Grade 3 teachers from six no-fee public schools.Methods: Teachers in this study participated in the AfL CDP, implemented using the reflect, mediate, acquire and adapt, plan, prepare, present, support (ReMAPS) intervention framework. Baseline and endline dat...
The study reported on here contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the use of standard se... more The study reported on here contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the use of standard setting methods for improving the reporting and utility value of assessment results in South Africa as well as for addressing the conceptual shortcomings of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) reporting framework. Using data from the “verification” version of the Annual National Assessments (ANAs), we explored relevant technical and conceptual factors to consider for the application of standard setting methods. Two sets of panellists were trained to generate cut scores for Grade 6 mathematics and English First Additional Language (FAL), one using the Angoff method and the other the Objective Standard Setting (OSS) method. The findings indicate that the 2 methods generated different sets of cut scores across the performance levels for both subjects. While these cut scores had significant implications for the percentage of learners classified at each performance level, they...
CHAPTER 7 Comparing and standardising performance trends in the matric examinations using a matri... more CHAPTER 7 Comparing and standardising performance trends in the matric examinations using a matrix sampling design Anil Kanjee Introduction National public examinations are a key feature of education systems all over the world. In Africa alone, at least 65 examinations are ...
The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special In... more The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) is to contribute to current initiatives and debates pertaining to the development and implementation of assessment systems for improving learning and teaching. In particular, the SIG's members aim to address dominant performativity discourses impacting schools and universities by (1) providing a common understanding of the purpose and use of assessment, (2) locating the different assessment applications across the broader system within which learning and teaching occurs, and (3) highlighting recent initiatives impacting on assessment policy and practices. We think it essential to highlight critical policy and practice questions, while simultaneously acknowledging ongoing challenges for implementing enabling assessment systems that support the specific pedagogical needs of learners, teachers, students, and lecturers. Notwithstanding the complexities of
The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Specia... more The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) is to contribute to current initiatives and debates pertaining to the development and implementation of assessment systems for improving learning and teaching. In particular, the SIG's members aim to address dominant performativity discourses impacting schools and universities by (1) providing a common understanding of the purpose and use of assessment, (2) locating the different assessment applications across the broader system within which learning and teaching occurs, and (3) highlighting recent initiatives impacting on assessment policy and practices. We think it essential to highlight critical policy and practice questions, while simultaneously acknowledging ongoing challenges for implementing enabling assessment systems that support the specific pedagogical needs of learners, teachers, students, and lecturers. Notwithstanding the complexities of effecting...
Paper presented at the Education Quality and Development Workshop at the Global Development Netwo... more Paper presented at the Education Quality and Development Workshop at the Global Development Network (GDN), Annual Conference in Brisbane, Australia, 28 January
Background: Formative assessment has been reported to improve learners’ learning in affluent cont... more Background: Formative assessment has been reported to improve learners’ learning in affluent contexts. However, very few studies have reported the impact of formative assessment on teachers’ knowledge and understanding in no-fee public schools located in a low socio-economic context.Aim: This article investigates the impact of the Assessment for Learning Capacity Development Programme (AfL CDP) on teachers’ formative assessment knowledge and understanding pertaining to the five formative assessment strategies: learning intentions and success criteria, questioning, feedback, peer and self-assessment.Setting: This study was conducted as part of the Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Africa project in one Gauteng district involving 20 Grade 3 teachers from six no-fee public schools.Methods: Teachers in this study participated in the AfL CDP, implemented using the reflect, mediate, acquire and adapt, plan, prepare, present, support (ReMAPS) intervention framework. Baseline and endline dat...
The study reported on here contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the use of standard se... more The study reported on here contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the use of standard setting methods for improving the reporting and utility value of assessment results in South Africa as well as for addressing the conceptual shortcomings of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) reporting framework. Using data from the “verification” version of the Annual National Assessments (ANAs), we explored relevant technical and conceptual factors to consider for the application of standard setting methods. Two sets of panellists were trained to generate cut scores for Grade 6 mathematics and English First Additional Language (FAL), one using the Angoff method and the other the Objective Standard Setting (OSS) method. The findings indicate that the 2 methods generated different sets of cut scores across the performance levels for both subjects. While these cut scores had significant implications for the percentage of learners classified at each performance level, they...
CHAPTER 7 Comparing and standardising performance trends in the matric examinations using a matri... more CHAPTER 7 Comparing and standardising performance trends in the matric examinations using a matrix sampling design Anil Kanjee Introduction National public examinations are a key feature of education systems all over the world. In Africa alone, at least 65 examinations are ...
The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special In... more The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) is to contribute to current initiatives and debates pertaining to the development and implementation of assessment systems for improving learning and teaching. In particular, the SIG's members aim to address dominant performativity discourses impacting schools and universities by (1) providing a common understanding of the purpose and use of assessment, (2) locating the different assessment applications across the broader system within which learning and teaching occurs, and (3) highlighting recent initiatives impacting on assessment policy and practices. We think it essential to highlight critical policy and practice questions, while simultaneously acknowledging ongoing challenges for implementing enabling assessment systems that support the specific pedagogical needs of learners, teachers, students, and lecturers. Notwithstanding the complexities of
Using formative assessment to improve learning and teaching: Practical guidelines for teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020
This booklet is intended to support teachers enhance their use of formative assessment to improve... more This booklet is intended to support teachers enhance their use of formative assessment to improve their lesson planning, preparation and presentation to identify what learners know, understand and can do, and to better support ALL learners to address their learning needs. It is intended to serve as a practical and user-friendly introduction to support teachers and subject advisors implement the new Department of Education guidelines (DBE, 2020) regarding the use of formative assessment during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Section 2 discusses relevant definitions and clarifies terminology regarding the purpose and uses of assessment within the South African context; Section 3 provides an introduction to the formative assessment strategies and techniques; Section 4 outlines practical steps on how the different formative assessment strategies and techniques can be implemented during lessons; Section 5 contains a template for developing materials for the Learner Activity Packs; Section 6 lists key references and additional readings on assessment
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Section 2 discusses relevant definitions and clarifies terminology regarding the purpose and uses of assessment within the South African context;
Section 3 provides an introduction to the formative assessment strategies and techniques;
Section 4 outlines practical steps on how the different formative assessment strategies and techniques can be implemented during lessons;
Section 5 contains a template for developing materials for the Learner Activity Packs;
Section 6 lists key references and additional readings on assessment