Assessment, Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness

The assessment of students’ learning, behaviour, feelings and interactions happens all the time, every day, within education settings. This can range from an informal observation right through to a high-stakes, formal assessment. From assessment follows actions and interventions along with the monitoring of change and progress towards desired goals.

Within this thematic cluster, we conduct research across the stages of assessment, monitoring and educational effectiveness. The impact of a range of educational interventions have been evaluated, through qualitative and quantitative methods. The information generated from this range of research activity has informed educational practice and policies in the UK and internationally. Two broad areas in which we have been involved are:

• Assessment development; our research covers the development of assessments across many areas that are connected with learning and development which have been used with extensively around the world. These include (but are not limited to) reading, vocabulary acquisition, mathematics, personal and social development, behaviour, motor skills. We have research interests in many aspects of assessment development, including understanding constructs and innovative approaches towards collecting reliable and valid measurements. Prof Tymms established the UK’s Rasch User Group over ten years ago and it continues to be active (http://rasch.org.uk ) (Christine Merrell, Peter Tymms, Nadin Beckmann, Jens Beckmann, Qi, Ziaofei Julie Rattray)
• Research into educational effectiveness; we make use of longitudinal data to study the long-term educational trajectories of students. We have used cross-sectional data to study trends over time, including the effectiveness of local interventions through to national policies. We have also conducted trials to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of interventions and have expertise in experimental design with a particular focus on trial methodology. (Christine Merrell, Peter Tymms, Helen Cramman, Stephen Gorard, Nadia Siddiqui, Beng Huat See, Steve Higgins, Carole Torgerson, Karen Jones, Adetayo Kasim)

For further information contact the cluster leads Dr Oakleigh Welply or Dr Xiaofei Qi

For information about our members and publications, see the research directory: Assessment, Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness