AEA Europe 2025

Designing tomorrow’s assessment landscape for positive impact on learning

Assessment and learning are fundamentally intertwined. It is widely acknowledged that the design and implementation of educational assessments directly and indirectly impact how teaching and learning are approached in the classroom. In high-stakes assessments like pre-university qualifications, final grades significantly impact students’ future academic and career paths. These assessments also have major implications for teachers, schools and other stakeholders, and feed into broader issues of public trust in educational systems. Pressures and tensions associated with high-stakes assessments therefore inevitably create a backwash (or washback) effect on classroom-based activities, and risk practices of ‘teaching to the test’. Assessment for Learning (AfL) influences very directly and intentionally the interactions between the teacher (assessor) and learner in the classroom. Other low-stakes assessments can also impact classroom practices. This is seen in international large-scale assessments – for example, with ‘PISA shock’ reverberating through national education policymaking and curriculum-based decisions in many countries. Thus, whether assessments are designed for summative or formative purposes, whether they are intended to reflect content in a particular curriculum, or to measure skills considered to be generalizable across different groups of students – assessment and learning are inexorably interconnected. Yet, despite the symbiotic relationship of assessment and learning, they are so often dealt with separately – in both theory and practice (Baird et al, 2017). Yet, if assessment and learning are not consciously integrated from the point of design, intended learning outcomes can be undermined. Thus, the theme for the 26th annual AEA Europe conference in 2025 focuses on: Designing tomorrow’s assessment landscape for positive impact on learning. Several focal points within this overarching theme demonstrate the myriad of connections between and avenues for integration of assessment and learning.

The first focal point of the conference theme is: Integrating assessment and curriculum design. Assessment is the means for students to demonstrate their learning in relation to certain curricula. However, an artificial disconnect between assessment and learning can be exacerbated by conflicting priorities from curriculum and assessment specialists, as well as the lack of established, underlying theory to unite them (Newton, 2024). Despite the best intentions in assessment design, practices of ‘teaching to the test’ can risk superficial learning experiences, such as a disproportionate focus on rote memorization over critical thinking skills (Hamer & van Rossum, 2017). It can also result in increased anxiety, decreased motivation, and negatively impact students’ wellbeing. The onus is therefore on assessment specialists to strive for a positive backwash effect, one example being consciously designing authentic assessments that provide opportunities to demonstrate learning outcomes that are valued. This can include encouraging the development of higher order thinking skills or supporting inquiry-based learning. This strand may include areas such as approaches to uniting theories of learning and assessment, designing curriculum-based assessments, backwash effect, and assessing authentic skills with real-world application. With the recent explosion of generative AI, this latter area in particular also connects with emerging technologies, which is the focus of the next strand.

The second focal point of the conference theme is: AI and authentic assessment. Here, the 2025 conference theme also builds on the AEA-Europe 2024 theme: ‘Advances in Educational Assessment Practices: Considering the use of Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Process Data for Assessment in the 21st Century’. In the rapidly evolving world of digital technologies, challenges and opportunities related to AI and large language models (LLMs) are a reality faced by teaching and learning settings around the world. As authentic assessments are intended to reflect real-life learning, the impact of AI in the classroom cannot be ignored in assessment design. Concerns have naturally been raised about authenticity of student work, and the risks to academic honesty and malpractice issues posed by easily available AI tools, so new approaches are needed to determine the veracity of assessed work. However, emerging technologies also offer new opportunities, such as more adaptive, personalised assessment approaches and the inclusion of interactive elements and simulations requiring more integration with the learning itself (Bennett, 2015). New and innovative assessment designs may also allow students to engage critically with AI generated materials, such as by encouraging them to fact-check sources, investigate possible AI hallucinations, and question biases that may be perpetuated or reinforced in AI-generated content. Assessment task design can play an important role in these aims, such as by encouraging critical thinking skills, and the ethical use of AI. Carefully designed summative assessments, that promote critical thinking skills, awareness of inherent biases in and limitations of AI-generated content, will equip learners for the future where AI and AI generated content will be embedded in daily life. Similarly, there is a need for research on and development of guidance and frameworks for educators on how to design formative tasks for AI use and embed the ethical AI practices in the classroom.

However, it is also important to recognize the limitations of AI tools in educational contexts, such as inconsistencies in the quality and availability of resources in LLMs across different languages. This brings us to the third and final focal point: Inclusive assessments for all learners. Educational assessments offer social value in that they can contribute to the improvement of student learning, whilst also contributing to a more equitable society (Sireci, 2021). However, to do so, they must be underpinned by core values, such as recognizing that there are no inherent differences in the capacity to learn across different groups, such as cultural, linguistic or racial (ibid). The final strand therefore focuses on designing assessments that are inclusive and valid for all groups of learners. This may include exploring validity in cross-lingual and cross-cultural assessment, such as how exams are developed for use in different languages, and how scores are evaluated and compared across different language versions. Research into accommodations that can support student learning in the classroom as well as in assessments would be relevant here, as would universal design approaches that aim to reduce barriers for all learners. This may also include exploring how systematic biases against subgroups of students (e.g., race, gender or neurodiverse) can be avoided in assessments design, thereby supporting and creating a positive impact on the learning experience and outcome for all students.

References

Baird, J. A., Andrich, D., Hopfenbeck, T. N., & Stobart, G. (2017). Assessment and learning: Fields apart? Assessment in Education: Principles, policy & practice, 24(3), 317-350.

Bennett, R. E. (2015). The changing nature of educational assessment. Review of Research in Education, 39(1), 370–407.

Hamer, R., & Van Rossum, E. J. (2017). Students’ conceptions of understanding and its assessment. In Innovative practices for higher education assessment and measurement (pp. 140-161). IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Newton, Paul (2024). (In search of) Educational Certification Theory. The 24th annual meeting of the Association for Educational Assessment-Europe (AEA-Europe). 6-9 November, 2024. Paphos, Cyprus.

Sireci, S. G. (2021). NCME presidential address 2020: Valuing educational measurement. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 40(1), 7-16.

For the Annual Conference of the Association for Educational Assessment Europe 2025, in The Hague, Netherlands, we encourage submissions that delve into various aspects of assessment. We are excited to invite practitioners, researchers, students, and policymakers to submit research proposals in particular that relate to the conference theme.