Mediating Assessment Innovation: Why Stakeholder Perspectives Matter

Abstract

As part of recent curriculum and assessment reforms in New Zealand, the assessment of foreign language (FL) students’ spoken communicative proficiency has undergone a major shift. A summative teacher-led interview test has been replaced by the collection of learner-focused peer-to-peer interactions that take place in the context of learning programmes throughout the year. The innovation brings with it significant changes to practice, and initially invoked strong teacher reaction. This chapter sets the scene for a 2-year study focused on stakeholder views about the new assessment in comparison with the former assessment. The chapter interweaves the New Zealand case with global arguments about teaching, learning and assessment in order to situate the case in question within on-going international debates. The chapter outlines the essence of the reforms. It articulates the centrality of assessment to effective teaching and learning and describes the evidence that assessment developers would normatively draw on to determine validity. A broader approach to validation is proposed. The chapter concludes with an overview of the study in question.