The SEAB-ling Editorial Team

EDITORIAL TEAM: Fong Sum Yi, Rachelle Lim, Ng Siok Leng, Ong Aik Leng

ADVISORS: Raymond Lim, Tan Eng Hong, Toh Poh Guan

The highlight of this issue is the Primary School Leaving Examination

(PSLE) Seminar. It was an event organised to inform primary school leaders

of matters related to assessment. The seminar also provided an opportunity

for the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) to show its

appreciation to key personnel for their contribution to the smooth running of the

PSLE marking exercises.

Primary school Principals, Vice-principals and key examination personnel from

schools are crucial to the conduct of the PSLE. They have the experience,

expertise and authority to safeguard the reliability and integrity of the PSLE and

are leaders looked upon to provide leadership in the conduct of the PSLE.

At the seminar, topics such as principles of assessment, roles of Principals and

Vice-principals in the conduct of the PSLE and interpretations of PSLE results

were shared with the participants. They were also provided with a glimpse into

future possibilities in assessment.

For in-house events, we have the SEAB Seminar and the SEAB Day celebration.

Both events provided opportunities for SEABlings to interact and strengthen

bonds with one another.

We hope you will have an enjoyable time reading this event-full issue!

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The 2007 PSLE Seminar was successfully organised by SEAB on 3 April 2007 at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. The theme of the seminar was ‘Connecting Primary School LEaders - Preparing Our Children’s Future’.

More than 300 Principals and Vice-principals from primary schools attended the event.

Objectives of the PSLE SeminarThe seminar aimed to share with our invited participants: 1. the key roles that Principals and Vice-principals play in the conduct of the PSLE,

PSLE Seminar

2. a better understanding of principles of assessment, and3. how PSLE statistics support teaching and learning in schools.

What are some good assessment practices?

• Use Table of Specifications to guide test assembly• Use multiple independent measures to gauge pupils’ performance• Validate test content by checking the test against the

Principles of Assessment

How can schools reduce the negative consequences of assessment?

• Reduce “drilling” and “teaching to test”• Avoid using national examination formats and durations at lower levels of assessment/education• Avoid setting tests and examinations that are harder than the PSLE or the level intended• Emphasise understanding of concepts and application of knowledge and skills during instruction

What are the assessment principles that schools should be mindful of?

• Validity defines the extent to which the inferences made from test scores are

Table of Specifications and syllabus• Check the appropriateness of mark scheme• Review the performance of borderline cases• Interpret results on the basis of evidence of performance

appropriate, meaningful, and useful• Reliability measures how consistent, stable, and predictable the test scores are when pupils are re-tested or when the test is marked by another marker• Fairness is when every pupil takes the same test under the same conditions

The seminar began with the handbells ensemble from Haig Girls’ School. They entertained the audience with melodious pieces entitled Quando Quando, Diana, Burong Kaka Tua and Ye Lai Siang.

Keynote Address by Director-General of EducationFollowing the performance by Haig Girls’ School, SEAB was honoured to have Ms Seah Jiak Choo, Director-General of Education, to give the keynote address. Ms Seah pointed out four main functions of national examinations. She mentioned that the national examination offers a:

1. gauge of how much our students have mastered our curriculum objectives,2. benchmark of our students’ academic attainments compared to that in other systems around the world,3. form of feedback to parents and the public on our students’ academic attainments, and 4. source of pertinent information for placing our students in the appropriate course of study at the next stage of education.

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As the PSLE is a placement examination, there is a need to rank the candidates using certain performance indicators. The performance indicators will need to ensure that candidates’ performance in each and every subject counts. These indicators should be weighed equally and reflect the level of overall achievement across the subjects.

PSLE Results – Interpretations and insights Why use grades and not raw marks?

Grades provide a sense of continuity of the standard over the years as the grading process takes into consideration the comparability of the examinations across years. This ensures that each candidate’s achievement in a subject is fairly and reliably graded regardless of the year of examination.

Adding the raw marks for the various subjects does not provide meaningful results because different subjects have different total marks. In addition, the various subjects may have different levels of difficulty and different spread of marks around the average mark (i.e., the standard deviation). Hence, the raw marks for the various subjects have to be transformed or standardised so that they can be placed on a common scale before they are added to derive the aggregate score. The T-score is a widely used statistical process that converts all score distributions to a common scale.

At the PSLE seminar, one of our assessment specialists, Mr Wong Cheow Cher, gave a presentation on the use of IT in assessment. In his presentation, he mentioned that IT is powerful when it comes to automating processes and executing mass customisation of teaching, learning and assessment in innovative ways. He also noted that SEAB consistently explores emerging technology to make examination and assessment processes more efficient.

Future Possibilities

Currently, SEAB is exploring a more efficient way to record marks for the PSLE. One way is through the use of the Digital Pen. The Digital Pen will be able to capture written marks and transfer marks to a computer system when examination papers pre-printed with special grids are used. This will help to eliminate the need to record marks using the Optical Mark Reader (OMR). Given the ubiquity of mobile phones in Singapore, SEAB conducted a

study to use mobile phones for assessment. A fifteen-item grammar quiz was first administered internally by SEAB using mobile phones last year. This trial system allowed teachers to capture pupils’ responses as well as provide instant feedback to pupils. When it comes to the exploration of emerging technology, SEAB adopts an approach that begins with experiments in low-stake assessments to make sure that the technology works and that the stakeholders’ interest are not compromised.

Ms Seah also stressed the important roles of Principals in national examinations. She mentioned that, as school leaders, the Principals are the ones with stature, experience and expertise to ensure the proper conduct of the PSLE. They are also the ones who will know what steps to take to resolve a crisis and preserve the integrity of the examination system. She strongly encouraged all Principals to consider offering their schools as Group Headquarters or Marking Centres for the PSLE.

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we Value your Views

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We invite SEAB-ling readers to give us your feedback on this issue. Let us know how to make SEAB-ling a publication truly worth reading. Please write in to: SEAB_Seabling@seab.gov.sg

On the morning of 16 March 2007, SEABlings were spotted streaming into The Legends at Fort Canning Park in chic black SEAB tee shirts. Amidst the lush greenery surrounding The Legends, SEABlings embarked on “Charting the Journey towards 2012”. It was a day-long seminar which got SEABlings to:• review and propose SEAB’s strategic directions for 2008 to 2012• discuss and formulate Work Plan for implementation• learn from one another and reinforce team building

Our SEAB Day celebration, with the theme ‘One Team, One Vision’, was held on 30 March 2007. Highlights of activities for that day included a treasure hunt-cum-games session in the morning which spanned the grounds of our Bukit Ho Swee premises and the Tiong Bahru Examination Centre, a darts competition in the afternoon and a lucky draw session. These activities were held to celebrate the third anniversary of SEAB and to provide a time for all officers to mingle and strengthen their bonding with one another.

SEAB Seminar 2007

SEAB Day 2007

The SEABlings’ enthusiastic participation in the various activities was very encouraging. We started with envisioning the future, followed by bridging the present and the future. With joint effort, we identified key priorities and suggested plans to achieve the desired future 2008 – 2012 for SEAB.

Service Excellence Award Recipients

Ms Goh Lin NginMr Vincent Lim Wee Heng

Mdm Kow Cheok HuiMr Khoo Cher Khiang

Mdm Martini Tan

SEAB would like to thank the following persons for providing an exceptional level of service:

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct NovEL / FEL / MT / BMT 16 - 17 AugNTIL / BNTIL 17 Aug

14 Sep3 - 9 Oct

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov28 May

MTLMTLB 24 SepForeign Languages 1 - 8 OctMTL 17 JulMTLB 12 NovFrench (A & H2) 29 OctFrench (AO & H1) 07 NovGerman (A, AO, H1 & H2) 07 Nov

Japanese (A, AO, H1 & H2) 09 Nov

Music Performing 2 - 3 OctScience Practical 17 - 25 Oct

15, 22, 26 Oct (Geman)

19, 24 Oct (French)

For details (i.e. date, time and duration of papers), please visit our website at www.seab.gov.sg.

Project Work (Oral Presentation) 30 Oct - 6 Nov

Written (Year End)

29 Oct - 29 Nov

Oral29 Jun - 13 Jul

Listening Comprehension

Practical Examination

Examination Calendar 2007

PSLE Examination DatesExam Event

Oral

Listening ComprehensionWritten

GCE A-Level Examination DatesExam EventMid-year MTL Exams (Written Exams)

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct NovEL 3 - 16 JulMTL, BMTL 18 - 31 JulEL (Syll T) 03 SepMTL, BMTL 04 SepComputer Applications 11 Sep

Elements of Office Administration 13 Sep

3 - 5 Sep 1 - 9 Oct

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov28 May

EL 13 - 24 AugMTLMTL (Special Programme) 27 - 31 Aug

MTLB 24 SepForeign Languages 1 - 8 OctMTL 16 JulMTLB / MTL (Special Programme) 31 Oct

Foreign Languages 19, 25 OctMusic / Music (MEP) 07 NovMusic Performing 8 - 10 OctScience Practical 9 - 18 Oct

For details (i.e. date, time and duration of papers), please visit our website at www.seab.gov.sg.

Practical ExaminationWritten (Year End) 10 Oct, 17 Oct - 13 Nov

Mid-year MTL Exams (Written Exams)

Oral

28 Jun - 12 Jul

Listening Comprehension

Practical Examination

Written

GCE O-Level Examination DatesExam Event

GCE N-Level Examination DatesExam Event

Oral

Listening Comprehension

Examination Calendar 2007