Principles of Assessment – Part 4 (Validity) - International Teacher Training Academy (Australia) (2024)

The Principal of Validity is a complex process, but necessary to ensure learners are actually competent in each facet of each unit.

Principle of Validity is important to make sure assessments are fair and reasonable for all people being assessed.

Principle of Validity ensures that we can effectively, accurately and fairly measure the desired outcome for the specific skill and doesn’t go off track measuring a different skill that hasn’t been mentioned or measured prior.

Meeting the principle of validity means that there is further authentication that the assessment process is fair, specific and effective in producing the outcomes required of the unit.

The Principle of Validity equals repeatability of performance.

Validity & reliability as solid foundations of how we build on what we do over time. Enjoyed relearning this.

In practice the principle of validity – to assess unit requirements – often requires a range of assessment types to demonstrate these requirements eg from practical observations/reports in workplace or simulated to oral or written/short answer knowledge questions/scenarios.

Validity ensures assessments are linked to criteria and effectively measure learner attainment of indented outcomes, at the desired level.

The only way to ensure that there will be standardisation within the assessment process is to adhere to these Principles of validity. Doing so will allow for consistency and for a target group to be adequately assessed in a fair and transperant fashion, using instruments that have been proven or validated to be the appropriate tools for the job.

Mapping a unit to ensure assessment validity is crucial to make sure all outcomes and performance criteria are met there is and a consistent result from every assessment.

The Principle of Validity is essential when assessing as it links what is supposed to be taught ( i.e. the unit of competency or cluster of units) to the assessment process. This ensures that the content and the learning is exactly what is stated in the units.

The Principle of Validity is proven to be key when it comes to creating, keeping up to date and assessing assessment instruments. It maintains the boundaries for both the Assessor and Candidate that what they are either assessing or learning is to the benchmark of the unit or unit cluster.

Implementing procedures to implement valid assessments makes sense for all industries and particularly situations where safety is critical. There are rigorous procedures within VET programming to encourage valid assessment, but it is most important that trainers are following procedures carefully and creating time for meaningful student assessment.

Validity and mapping ensure all criterion are met and there is both a level playing field and a consistent result from every assessment. This allows industries to trust and understand what they get from all applicants that have a specific qualification.

The process of mapping and the principle of validity is imperative to effective assessment. Without ensuring that the process is valid and claims to assess competence, where relevant, then what is the point of calling it “competent”?

For me, validity is a clear guidepost for the RTO. as humans, with our own preferences, experiences and biases, the risk is always that an RTO focuses on parts that are more relevant or important to him/his experience.. and mapping always brings it back to the actual goal of the unit.

Having tools that are valid – assess what they are meant to assess is important as it also helps the learner know that they are taking on a course that is what they actually want it to be – and not setting them up for failure

As a school teacher, I can appreciate that assessment validity is extremely important in maintaining quality assessment that is consistent and fair. If an assessment is not valid it does not enable students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and application as it does not assess what it is asking.

How would you check that the assessor has assessed the candidate on all three levels of competence (foundational, practical and reflexive

I appreciate that going through the mapping to ensure a tool is valid gets me thinking more deeply about making sure each and every criteria is met.

I like the fact that meeting the principle of validity means that there is another check and balance to ensure that the assessment process is fair and accurate and effective in producing competency outcomes.

Mapping the instrument or tasks back to the unit gives me confidence that what I’m designing is on the right track. I look forward to being involved in the validation process.

Ensuring that an assessment measures what it is intended to measure is a critical component in education. Validity expresses the degree to which a measurement measures what it says it’s going to measure. It is an important part of the assessment process and one that needs to be understood clearly.