Assessment for learning in a Norwegian context

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Central areas in the Knowledge Promotion Reform;LK06

• competence aims (subjects)

• basic skills and learning strategies (5)

• free choice of methods

• assessment

• adapted education (personalized learning)

Student assessment in Norway

• balanced approach

• mix of teacher based assessment and central examination

• teachers hold the key responsibility for both formative and summative assessment

Formative assessment

• has gained increasing prominence in both policy and practice

• focus were strengthened in the new regulations

• same regulations at all levels of schooling

Continuous assessment

• should have a clear intention to promote student learning through feedback from teachers and advice about ways to improve

• should be seen as an ongoing process with a view to providing adapted teaching and feedback

• should also focus on developing student´s self assessment

The Assessment for Learning Program 2010 -2014

Four key principles:

Students learn best when they:

• understand what they are supposed to learn and what is expected of them

• receive feed back that informs them about the quality of their work

• receive advice on how they can improve

• are involved in the assessment of their own work

SMUL:

• “The relationship between teaching and learning. Ways of working, development of skills and learning in Norwegian, science and social studies”

• SMUL’s main focus is the way in which teachers understand, interpret and put into practice the current national curriculum, LK06.

What do teachers think about the reform?

• The teachers generally support LK06’s focus on competence aims

• Teachers think that they have become more aims oriented in their teaching after the implementation of LK06.

• Teachers also generally support the focus on basic skills and learning strategies in LK06. LK06 has led to an enhanced focus on digital skills.

• less cross-curricular work and greater focus on subjects, including more usage of subject specific ways of working

But there are some concerns:

• Development of concrete learning aims, combined with detailed assessment criteria and frequent tests may in some cases lead to a negative fragmentation of the learning process.

• Teachers claim that they are more aware of basic skills and learning strategies. But it is hard to find traces of the claimed awareness in the teachers´ plans and in the rationales for their teaching

• The analyses of teachers´ practices show raised concern about the quality of the pupil activities when pupils work in groups or individually

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