ABSTRACT

Assessment in education occurs for different purposes – formative, summative, diagnostic, and each with different focus on educational process, education outcomes, and developmental reasons. Researchers in Singapore have documented the existence of tensions between the entrenched high-stakes examinations and attempts to introduce new modes of assessments such as Assessment for Learning practices, partly because policy attempts to change assessments invariably clash with the examination culture in Singapore. This article reviews and critically analyses assessment policies and their attendant precedents and consequences in order to better understand why these tensions around assessment exists. Drawing from institutional theory and the model of gradual institutional change, the review covers an extended period of over 150 years of assessment policies in order to show how the policy layering and conversion processes are attempting to drive both assessment changes and systemic tensions. The article will discuss how parents as a significant policy actor not only constrain policy intentions but create new institutional mechanisms that perpetuate these tensions.

摘要

在教育中进行评估的目的各不相同-形成性，总结性，诊断性，并且每个人对教育过程，教育成果和发展原因的关注不同。新加坡的研究人员已证明，根深蒂固的高分考试与尝试引入新的评估模式（例如学习评估实践）之间存在紧张关系，部分原因是政策改变评估的尝试总是与新加坡的考试文化发生冲突。本文对评估政策及其伴随的先例和后果进行了回顾和批判性分析，以便更好地理解为什么围绕评估存在这些紧张关系。借鉴制度理论和渐进式制度变迁模型，审查涵盖了超过150年的评估政策期限，以显示政策分层和转换过程如何试图推动评估变更和系统性紧张。本文将讨论作为重要政策参与者的父母如何不仅限制政策意图，而且创建新的制度机制以使这些紧张关系永久化。