Seminar highlighting how an explicit focus on Critical Thinking can enhance the attainment of pupils of all backgrounds and abilities, following recent research. Importantly, the research showed that pupils who study Critical Thinking as a discrete subject at AS level tend to do better in their other A level subjects, whether they are taking sciences, languages or humanities.

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Guest speaker Randy Bennet looks at six inter-related issues in formative assessment (aka, ‘Assessment for Learning’). The issues concern the definition of formative assessment, the claims commonly made for its effectiveness, the limited attention given to domain considerations in its conceptualisation, the underrepresentation of measurement principles in that conceptualisation, the teacher-support demands formative assessment entails, and its place in the larger educational system.

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Concerns that ‘standards are falling’ continue to dominate public debate. What are the sources of data to which we should turn to illuminate issues of standards, and what degree of confidence should we have in the different explanations of trends in standards?

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Guest speaker Professor David Raffe explains how caution and care is essential in order to draw robust conclusions from international comparisons about different national education systems.

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It is often not recognised that the form of an assessment can have as much influence on outcomes as the construct being assessed. We often use traditional assessment techniques without recourse to the available evidence base. This talk, by Professor Peter Tymms, Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, Durham University, explores issues involved with the form of assessments and their link to function.

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Despite successive failures in administration and accumulating evidence of extreme washback effects into the curriculum, national assessment and associated accountability measures remain a solid part of English education policy. This presentation reviews the history of development in national testing in England, and looks at alternatives which are and aren't being considered, and at the most likely direction of future developments.

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For many years, assessment has shaped the way we learn and the way we teach. But, claims a top educational expert, the use of ‘labels’ in testing can make it a destructive process. Speaking at a recent forum ‘Testing and Identity’ hosted by the Cambridge Assessment Network, guest speaker Gordon Stobart – of the Institute of Education, University of London – delivered a thought-provoking talk that explored how the power of testing can determine how we think about ourselves and others, and how we learn.

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A recent seminar ‘Formative Assessment Revisited’ hosted by the Cambridge Assessment Network explored some of the reasons why people are becoming adherents to Assessment for Learning in the light of the amount of evidence available.

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A panel of experts gathered at the RSA, London, on 7 May to debate a hot topic in education; whether emotional intelligence affects educational attainment and could – and should – be taught in schools.

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Clara Kenyon, Qualifications Director at OCR, describes some of the key changes taking place in England's education system today.

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