Equitable assessment interactions in the ‘Open Learning Environment’ (OLE)

Abstract

In 2009, Warwick Mansell, Mary James and the Assessment Reform Group (ARG) wrote a commentary on assessment policy on behalf of the UK's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). The report, entitled 'Assessment in Schools: Fit for Purpose?', remarked on the confusion among assessment experts from Canada, America, UK, Continental Europe, Australia and New Zealand who convened to discuss methods for supporting thinking and learning. In that event, there was a consensus among the delegates that the term 'formative assessment' lacked clarity, and that the confusion was 'exacerbated by some policy-makers appropriating and using it in ways that contradict its true intentions' (Mansell et al., 2009, p. 23). In our briefer discussion, we attempt to bring some clarity to those Japanese policies, perspectives and practices that support interactive styles of classroom assessment. More specifically, we discuss a policy-initiative designed to facilitate interactive assessment which is gaining momentum in MEXTthe Open Learning Environment (OLE). In the Japanese context, it is gathering political impetus as a collective space in which learners may cultivate self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies or the meta-strategies (planning, monitoring and reflection) that support 'good learning'.OLEs are learning environments that reduce the psychological 'risks' associated with competitive interactions designed to focus students on the attainment of pre-defined outcomes or standards. In Japanese culture, OLEs are therefore founded upon the value attached to kankei (the Japanese word for inter-relationships) and the fundamental concept of 'good living'. In Japan, social and learning interactions are considered 'successful' when they can be described as equitable, reciprocal, harmonious, stable and balanced. The emphasis on the quality of relationships promotes effective interaction, revealing the recondite knowledge of learners to their teacher, and to each other. In considering the quality of classroom interaction, we may rely on Black and Wiliam's (2009) theory of the 'formative interaction' as one in which an 'interactive situation influences cognition'. They explain that it 'is an interaction between external stimulus and feedback and internal production by the individual learner which involves looking at the three aspects, the external, the internal and their interactions. (p. 11). This 'three aspect' conception of 'formative interaction', or 'formative feedback' is a relevant heuristic structure in any context where classroom interaction takes place.The cross-cultural clarity on the underlying logic of the 'three aspects' of formative interaction creates comparative policy-directions around the world, just as the use of formative-type (interactive) OLE models has spread throughout Europe and internationally. MEXT is attempting to create more opportunities for OLEs, as exemplified by curricula approaches to inquiry-based learning in Japan. Progress towards this goal began in the 1950s when MEXT moved away from the rote-learn...

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