The First
International Conference on Educational Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment
organized by the Emirates College for Advanced Education, in association with
the Ministry of Education, under the patronage of H.E. Jameela Bint Salem
Mesbah Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Public Education, commenced its work
in Bab Al Qasr Hotel in Abu Dhabi under the logo “Development of Evaluation
& Assessment Mechanisms in Education through Applications and Research”
with the participation of over 350 researchers and academics from 40 countries to
explore the latest developments on the mechanisms for educational evaluation
and assessment.
The Conference was
inaugurated by H.E Dr. Ahmad Bin Abdullah Humaid Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of
State for Higher Education and Advanced Skills. The Conference highlights the
latest developments in the mechanisms for monitoring educational quality in
order to efficiently assess the performance of education institutions, and to
assess students’ performance and academic achievements, to measure them
according to international assessment standards, for the purpose of improving
the educational system in general. This will in turn contribute to the
appropriate preparation of future generations in meeting the demands of the
twenty first century. The Conference will
also afford educators the opportunity to benefit from presentations and
discussions made by experts in the field of development of educational systems
from all over the world.
H.E Dr. Ahmad Bin
Abdullah Humaid Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Higher Education and
Advanced Skills, stressed during the two-day conference opening speech that
education today is more specialized and less stereotyped, since we are all
aware of the continuous need to adopt immediate practices to support our
children’s educational journey, and such practices must be responsive and
capable of adapting information to form a unique and exceptional learning
experience that can be customized according to requirements and needs.
His Excellency
stated “The stories of success attributed to people who have greatly impacted
and influenced our world are plenty. When following their stories, and in
particular their educational course, we find that they possess something that
distinguishes them from others, being their way and approach towards learning
in the first instance, a fact that results in their varying contributions towards
the benefits of humanity”. His
Excellency added: “Outstanding education opens broader horizons and provides
greater opportunities to achieve valuable human accomplishments”.
His Excellency
explained that in our present time, education focuses on the achievement of a
comprehensive approach aimed at creating individuals that possess a complete
set of multi skills, in a manner that can guarantee the independence of thought
and analysis, and at the same time can guarantee the ability to work within
groups and keep pace with constant changes and developments.
He indicated that
the world is constantly changing and along with that comes the change in human
knowledge. Our first duty as supervisors of the educational process is to keep
pace with the educational experiment of the rapid developments surrounding
us. He stated “Today, I am addressing
you as facilitators, not merely teachers, because you are the facilitators
behind the educational process that will ensure the best outcomes for our
students, on both an academic and personal level”.
He continued:
“When looking around the world, we find that each educational system differs
according to the philosophy and mechanism on which it was built, and despite
the fact that high quality educational systems usually vary on what they
consider as the main elements of the assessment and measurement processes
related to them, they ultimately agree on the importance of availability of
specific and effective assessment systems which can achieve a balance between
formative and summary assessment methods.
He added that
unless clear processes for assessment, examination and measurement of education
are identified and teachers and educators are aware of the objectives behind
the various assessment methods, then educational systems will remain at a risk
for failure. In order to achieve such
comprehensiveness, we need to have teachers who are fully aware of the dynamics
behind this comprehensive approach and who recognize the importance and
magnitude of their valuable role in ensuring the consistency of this modern
approach”. H.E Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al
Falasi said: “We live in a world of accelerated changes in all knowledge fields.
These changes are accompanied by the emergence of new skills, and we are all
faced with one goal which is to guarantee the ability of our systems to measure
such new skills. There is a major difference between assessing students’
knowledge and assessing the skills they possess. It is because of this that we
need to modify the assessment systems so that we can measure these emerging
skills”.
In conclusion of
his speech, His Excellency added that the emerging generation today is interacting
with a world of information, creativity, capabilities and increased
technological developments, and the assessment systems we apply must motivate
students to reach and release their best capabilities. The time of traditional assessment systems is
long gone, and our approach for the future is to focus on assessment and
measurement systems that are flexible, clear and effective.
The opening
ceremony was attended by Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of Emirates College for Advanced Education, a number of executive
directors and representatives from the Department of Education & Knowledge
in Abu Dhabi, in addition to a number of undersecretaries, assistant
undersecretaries, directors and representatives from the Ministry of Education
and members of the Board of Trustees and Higher Management of Emirates College
for Advanced Education, along with directors and members of the teaching
faculty, researchers and experts from different universities, schools,
educational centres and institutions inside and outside the State, a host of
guests and participants, as well as students and faculty members of the college.
The Conference
affords the opportunity for educators, leaders and researchers in the
educational field to communicate with and benefit from the experiences of
international and local experts in the field of educational measurement,
evaluation and assessment.
Today’s conference
events included various sessions, research papers and dialogues where Dr. Scott
Paris, a professor and researchers at the Australian Council for Educational
Research delivered an opening research paper entitled “Global Trends in
Large-Scale Assessments”, during which he discussed global trends in
large-scale assessments which influence the selection and training of
individuals in the educational field. He
discussed positive and negative elements of each trend and paid special
attention to the role of technology and measurements in this field.
He stated that
many countries around the world seek to use more effective evidence for
national policies on education and human capital, such evidence are
increasingly based on large-scale assessments of cognitive, linguistic and
personal characteristics. He also
presented the data provided by tests such as “TIMSS” and “PISA”, which can be
used to develop new educational curriculums, and the benefits gained from the
use of English proficiency tests such as TOFEL and IELTS as the criteria for
admission to university programs.
The second
research paper delivered by Dr. Peter Adams from the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development in France and Senior Manager, PISA-based Test for
Schools, presented what we can learn from the Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA), where he discussed the main features of the program and the
latest developments made on it, mentioning that the increase of participating
countries in the program from 43 in 2000 to 80 countries in 2018 is a clear demonstrator of its effectiveness in
the development of educational standards.
The third research
paper delivered by Dr. Osama Obeidat from the Department of Education and
Knowledge in Abu Dhabi entitled “Evaluating the quality of education in
schools: the experience of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi”, where he indicated the
efforts exerted by the Department of Education and Knowledge in Abu Dhabi to
improve the quality of education in all schools within the Emirate. He also discussed the historical background
and theory of inspection or school assessment, and discussed the objectives of
the Department’s assessment system, the performance criteria, the indicators
used to measure quality, and the impact it had on improving policies of the
Department’s schools over the past 8 years.
The fourth
research paper delivered by Dr. Mark Russel, a professor at Khalifa University
presented some of the challenges faced by students’ academic assessment and the
methods to develop assessment designs to reach a programmatic and holistic
educational systems.
The fifth research
paper included what every teacher should know about international large-scale
assessment, where Dr. Therese Hopfenbeck from the Centre for Educational
Assessment at Oxford University in the United Kingdom presented the results of
654 experimental studies on PISA and 114 studies on PIRLS and explained how to
use the data and results of these tests to enhance students' reading and
writing efficiency.
From his side, Dr.
Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Emirates College
for Advanced Education, emphasized the college’s keenness to organize the most
important educational conferences, which encourage exchange of ideas and
discuss the latest best practices which can be applied and developed to create
a sustainable high quality educational system.
He stated that the
organization of this conference comes within the College’s strategy to support
scientific research in the field of educational measurement, evaluation and
assessment, to provide training opportunities for educators, and to develop
their skills in this field as the conference is considered an important
platform to present the latest researches and benefit from their results in the
development of the educational system, to conform with the wise leadership’s
vision and the comprehensive strategic plans aimed at raising the level of
educational outcomes, in line with the qualitative and comprehensive development
in the State. He praised the cooperation
between the Ministry of Education and the college in organizing this
conference, which serves their common objectives in placing the UAE at the
forefront of countries that embrace global discussions aimed at shaping the
future of education.
09/11/2017