Summer 2025 Journal pdf

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Another season, another journal! With so much of our media these days producing worry and anxiety, it’s such a relief to hear the thud of this journal arriving in the letterbox. Not only is it one of the few physical magazines I still receive, but it’s the perfect antidote to the news around us.

While some of us are busy finishing our academic year, this edition arrives at the perfect moment to allow us to look back at our annual conference in Luzern. Our topic, both between these pages and at our conference, is assessment – a “marmite topic” if ever there was one! While some of us might consider assessment a necessary evil and we hear comments such as “I don’t like testing” or “we should be able to learn without assessing,” I ask you to consider the following: Have you counted your steps recently? Your reps in the gym or kilometre-long run? Weighed yourself or beaten your quickest time to complete a crossword? Have you then compared these numbers with previous ones in order to see if you are progressing or not? Surely this is assessing, too, and necessary to see if our skills are developing as we would wish. Perhaps, like myself, in that case you’ve been wondering how to get it right; in that case look no further.

Thanks to the articles in this journal, those of you who attended our conference will be reminded of the excellent quality of the talks and presentations—as well as the festival atmosphere and wonderful catering—and those who were not so fortunate are in for a treat; many of our amazing presenters, including our plenary speaker, Annie Altamirano, have kindly written for us. You can find a trove of ideas to put into practice. If you take advantage of summer downtime to reflect upon your teaching,  you’ll discover plenty to think about between these pages.

Finally, don’t forget the saying, “Teachers change the world, one student at a time.” It’s a small relief to think we are making a difference, however insignificant it may seem, through our teaching, and here at ETAS HQ we’d like to think that, through our association, events and publications, we too are doing our bit and supporting you in making that difference.