This study examines Chinese tertiary award-winning tutors' perceptions and reported practices of classroom-based assessment. Seventeen tutors in the final stage of a national university teaching contest were individually interviewed. An interview framework was developed using three process dimensions of assessment for learning (AfL). A sequential and iterative analysis of resulting data was conducted based on Miles and Huberman's protocols for qualitative analysis. Participants demonstrated a complex set of connections between perceptions and practices around issues of sharing standards, delivering feedback and response to external assessments. Results deviate from widely promoted principles of AfL and classroom-based assessment espoused in the international literature; in doing so, they challenge existing research and assumptions about the standardised and international nature of award-winning instructors' assessment practices. Findings are discussed in relationship to understanding best practices in tertiary assessment, given emerging tertiary education markets. Practical implications for the further development of learning and assessment practices and theoretical implications for the AfL theory are also discussed.
[Copyright of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1066306]

The present study adapted the abbreviated version of Swanson-Cognitive Processing Test (S-CPT) (Swanson, 1996) to be used in Hong Kong. The S-CPT, a North American standardised dynamic working memory assessment, was used to measure 215 students' cognitive ability from four primary schools Hong Kong. The abbreviated S-CPT had five subtests of verbal and visuospatial tasks, which were suggested by Swanson as suitable for individual administration on students above 8 years old. The five S-CPT subtests were adapted and translated into Cantonese in order to suit the Hong Kong context and to minimise the effect of participants' language ability on their performance in the assessment. Students were individually administered the adapted versions of the S-CPT. The adapted English version was administered to students from English-medium schools whereas the adapted Cantonese version administered to students from Chinese-medium schools. The obtained data was Rasch analysed using the Partial Credit Model (Masters, 1982). Two subtests were discovered to have disordered categories during the testing period and the categories in these subtests were collapsed to improve the categories structure, and hence, the measurement scale. Fit measures and reliability estimates for both the English adapted and Cantonese adapted S-CPT showed acceptable values to the Partial Credit Model, indicating that the adapted S-CPT was a valid and reliable measure of cognitive constructs of students within the four schools in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has an assessment for learning policy and a cultural context that emphasizes examinations. In addition to associating student grading with improvement, important improvement-oriented conceptions have been identified among Hong Kong teachers and which were not fully instantiated in Brown’s Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment (TCoA) inventory. An expanded Chinese-TCoA inventory was administered to 601 teachers (85% primary school) in Chinese. The intended 10 factor structure had poor fit to the data. Exploratory factor analysis (MLE, oblimin rotation) identified 7 factors. Confirmatory factor analysis of 7 inter-correlated factors, with 28 items, had acceptable fit (χ2=1061.87; df=329; χ2/df =3.23, p=.07; gamma hat = .92; RMSEA=.061; SRMR=.056). The strongest inter-correlation (r=.74) was between assessment is for school quality & control and assessment is for teacher quality & control. Correlations >.60 were seen between assessment is examinations and assessment is for student personal development and teacher quality & control and between assessment is for school quality & control and assessment is for student personal development. Factor inter-correlations among these 4 factors and the remaining three (assessment is irrelevant, assessment has error, assessment improves learning) were less than .60. Teachers gave mean scores over moderately agree to Improve Learning and Error, weak agreement was given to Personal Development, School Quality & Control, and Examinations. Disagreement was given to Irrelevance and Teacher Quality & Control. We conclude that, in keeping with the highly selective system, Hong Kong primary school teachers predominantly conceived of assessment as examinations for improved learning, rather than as a means of personal development and reject it as a means of teacher quality assurance.

School-based assessment (SBA) refers to the assessments conducted in the process of learning within the school. In Hong Kong, SBA has been promoted in the education system. Through analyzing a case study, this paper aims to explore: (1) the current practices of SBA in the case study school, (2) the support for and effects of SBA practice; and (3) the issues emerging in SBA practice. The purpose is to provide a living example for those teachers and policy makers who favour the use of SBA to enhance students' learning in schools.

The traditional assessment landscape in Hong Kong has been changed since a large scale educational reform was launched six years ago. Recommendations for change encouraged more diverse forms of student assessment. However, the traditional examination-oriented culture within a Chinese context has added difficulty to the implementation of assessment reform in Hong Kong. This paper reports a case study of four project schools. It investigates how teachers experimented with assessment reform in school policy and practice. The focus lies on how teachers express their understanding of student assessment reform in classroom practice. The findings show how teachers understand student assessment, how they put their ideas of formative assessment into practice, and the challenges they face in the reform process.

Assessment has taken the centre stage in the Asia Pacific Region in the last two decades which has witnessed many education reform initiatives. Due to historical as well administrative, technical and statistical reasons in the past, examinations in the Region are generally construed as top-down with little input from the persons assessed and out of their control. That situation does little to enhance learning, which needs ownership by the assessed in order to realize the full potentials of assessment for and as learning. With norm reference as its trademark, the sole purpose of high stake examination is to select the best for the next levels of advancement, be it in education or career. Nevertheless, there is a strong trend within the Region and elsewhere striving to replace the unitary purpose of assessment with a new paradigm entitled the Self-directed Learning Oriented Assessment (SLOA), which holds that assessment should be learning oriented and self-directed. Within the SLOA paradigm, assessment not only has multiple roles in support of learning; it is an integral part of learning. Assessment is to collect evidence of performance and to match the results against preset criteria or standards. The objectives are to evaluate, to inform and to effect learning: assessment of, for and as learning. Modern advancement in assessment design, delivery, statistical models and reporting systems has enabled the assessed to be nearly fully in control of the process of assessment and to self-evaluate against objective criteria. The persons being assessed can, therefore, have full ownership of the assessment. SLOA is a perspective and an assessment design, delivery and reporting that implement the above scenario in assessment. Initial attempts to carry out SLOA in a number of schools in Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China, albeit still in its initial stage, have amply demonstrated its validity, feasibility and benefits.
[Copyright © 2009 The Hong Kong Institute of Education]

In recent years, educators in Hong Kong have raised concerns about the examination culture that pervades the school system. Their arguments have focused on the detrimental effect that examination preparation has on student learning, and they advocate the introduction of less formal alternative practices that promote assessment for learning. The government, prompted by the impact of globalization and new technology on the economy that demand a more sophisticated workforce, has encouraged schools to adopt these new approaches to assessment. However, early indications suggest that there is considerable resistance to these moves from teachers and parents. Teachers tend to have difficulty in assimilated the new philosophy of assessment into their pedagogical beliefs and practices, while parents are concerned that informal assessment will undermine the value of standard, formal testing as a fair and objective means for determining social advancement. This paper discusses these tensions and presents a small-scale study that provides insights into current assessment practices in the classroom. It concludes that, given the tensions, informal assessment for learning needs to be implemented gradually in Hong Kong to ensure acceptance and sustainability.
[Copyright © 2012 North-West University.]

The Hong Kong primary English curriculum has shifted from an emphasis on oral proficiency in the 1970s through a focus on functional competence in the 1980s to a goal of developing learners' ever-improving capability to use English in the 1990s. This chapter applies a multi-level framework, based on Richards and Rodgers' (1986) model for curriculum discussion and comparison, to review and analyze the three syllabi available in the local teaching context in the past two decades. It describes and analyzes the changes in the aims, objectives, and methodology of the primary English curriculum under the "fads" of different approaches recommended in the respective curriculum documents. Attempts are made to capture the theoretical and methodological developments in the primary English curriculum. The main purpose is to explicate the underlying assumptions on the nature of language and language teaching and learning to formulate a basis for understanding curriculum implementation at the classroom level. It is argued in the chapter that congruence between the intended and implemented curriculum relies on the mapping of the underlying assumptions about language and language teaching and learning. Evaluation of classroom implementation, teachers' practices, and classroom research should be related to such deeper level of theoretical orientation. Implications for policy makers, teacher educators, teachers, and classroom researchers are sought.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]