Rethinking and reassessing the construct of authentic intellectual quality in the Singapore context
This paper examines the lexicogrammatical realization of the construct of authentic intellectual quality (AIQ) proposed by Koh, Wong, Tan, Guo, Lee, & Lim (2004). Following Newmann and Associates (1996), and Luke et al., (2003), Koh, et al. have argued that student work be assessed on eight standards, including depth of knowledge and understanding, knowledge criticism, and knowledge manipulation. In December 2004, student work in a number of subjects collected from Singapore Primary and Secondary schools were scored by experienced school teachers. This paper draws upon systemic functional linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004) and explores how student work which has been assigned a particular set of scores on the AIQ scale is expressed through a particular cluster of lexicogrammatical features. Such analyses will identify the linguistic profiles of student work, provide a link between teacher judgement and its linguistic evidence, and hopefully enhance the capacity and accuracy of automated essay scoring.
Looking collaboratively at the quality of teachers' assessment tasks and student work in Singapore schools
Student success in the 21st century requires not only the mastery of basic classroom-type knowledge and skills but also the ability to engage in higher-order thinking, reasoning, and real-world problem solving. This will enable our students to become productive workers and responsible citizens who can also actively participate in lifelong learning. A number of researchers in the United States and Australia have systematically examined the authentic intellectual quality of the teachers’ assessment tasks/assignments and student work in response to the tasks/assignments (e.g., Newmann & Associates, 1996; Luke et al., 2000; Lingard & Ladwig, 2001). These studies have shown that when teachers design and use highintellectual quality assignments that demand higher-order thinking, in-depth understanding of knowledge, elaborated communication, and making connections to students’ lives beyond school, students produce higher quality intellectual work. This paper reports the preliminary findings from teacher-moderated judgments of written assignments or assessment tasks and student work in Singapore. The teachers’ assignments/assessment tasks and student work were collected from 36 Singaporean schools across four major subject areas: English, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science at the Primary 5 and Secondary 3 levels. Subject-specific panels were formed by a group of experienced teachers. They were trained to understand the authentic intellectual standards and to use the scoring rubrics collaboratively prior to their actual scoring of the teachers’ assignments and student work. The paper will report the outcomes of the statistical comparisons of authentic intellectual quality of the teachers’ assignments and that of related student work across subject areas, grade levels, and streams.