Assessment

Dr. Rosie Martin10th January, 2012

Teaching as Inquiry

What has been the impact on student outcomes of our

changed actions as learners, teachers and

leaders? What capabilities do we as leaders/ facilitators need to better promote

the learning of our teachers to bridge the gap for our students?

What capabilities do we as teachers need to better promote the

learning of our students?

What capabilities do we as students need in

order to achieve more as self-regulated learners?

What educational outcomes are valued for our students? and How are our students

doing in relation to those outcomes?

Engage students in new learning experiences

Deepen our capabilities as students, teachers and leaders through

further learning

Assessment

● How do you know what learners need? Where does data collection and analysis fit into our inquiry cycle?

● Why collect data? When is it appropriate to collect data? Assessment data or information is time limited in terms of its value to support students with their current learning.

● We often use ‘data’ or ‘assessment information’ interchangeably, but what do we mean? Discuss with the people around you.

Purposes of Assessment

1. The use of assessment to help build pupils’ understanding, within day-to-day lessons.

2. The use of assessment to provide information on pupils’ achievements to those on the outside of the pupil- teacher relationship: to parents (on the basis of in-class judgments by teachers, and test and examination results), and to further and higher education institutions and employers (through test and examination results).

3. The use of assessment data to hold individuals and institutions to account, including through the publication of results which encourage outsiders to make a judgment on the quality of those being held to account.

Another important way to understand the different uses and impacts of assessment is to see the assessment system as a structure which both provides information and influences what people do.

Formative and Summative Assessment

What a pupil does or says will be observed and interpreted by the teacher, or other learners, who build on that response to develop a dialogue aimed at helping learners to take their next steps. This is formative assessment, which contrasts with summative assessment.

There are characteristic differences between the two uses of assessment:• Summative comes at the end of learning episodes, whereas formative is built in to the learning process;• Summative aims to assess knowledge and understanding at a given point in time, whereas formative aims to develop it;• Summative is static and one-way (usually the teacher or examiner judges the pupil), whereas formative is on-going and dynamic (feedback can be given both to the pupil and the teacher);• Summative follows a set of pre-defined questions, whereas formative follows the flow of spontaneous dialogue and interaction, where one action builds on (is contingent upon) an earlier one.

Formative and Summative Assessment

● How and when do you, as a classroom or subject teacher, employ each of these strategies?

● What do you do with the information that you gain from the assessments?

● What are the difficulties associated with each?

ASSESSMENT for Learning

“…the term ‘assessment’ refers to all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by their students in assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.”

‘Inside the Black Box’, 1998

However, frequent summative testing is not, of itself, formative.

A teacher may set pupils some questions, whether in a test or in routine written work, and in the light of their results tell them what they need to do to reach, for example, the next target or level. This is not formative unless the interaction is designed to help pupils to learn.

This crucial point can be illustrated by a boy’s response to the marking of his homework. The teacher had written on the work “use paragraphs”, to which he retorted: “If I’d known how to use paragraphs, I would have done”. Marks, levels, judgmental comments or the setting of targets, cannot, on their own, be formative. Pupils may need help to know how they can improve.

Self Assessment

● Learners of any age self-assess when they have the required information

● Learners need to be taught how to use that information in order to self-assess accurately

● Clear learning intentions, success criteria and exemplars support learners to self assess

● Self-assessment encourages learners to take responsibility for their learning

Peer Assessment

● Assessing the work of others against given criteria compels learners to understand more comprehensively and supports the development of their own metacognition.

● “Pupil groups can mark each other’s work, and thereby learn to think about the aim of a piece of work and to understand the criteria of quality” (Black and Wiliam, 1998).

● If pupils merely compete to prove who is right or dismiss one another’s comments rather than taking them seriously, they are again being judgmental rather than formative. Thus the ideal is that pupils engage in formative assessment for one another (ARG, 2012)

Think, Pair, Share

● Describe a lesson/topic where learners engaged in self or peer assessment

● What information did you give them in order for them to successfully carry this out?

● What happened as a result of the self or peer assessment?

● What would you do differently?

In summary

Effective Assessment:● Benefits students● Involves students● Supports teaching and learning

goals● Is planned and communicated● Is suited to the purpose● Is valid and fair