Ruth Sutton’s view of current assessment developments in Canada, NZ, Scotland, and the...
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Transcript of Ruth Sutton’s view of current assessment developments in Canada, NZ, Scotland, and the...
Ruth Sutton’s view of current assessment developments in Canada, NZ, Scotland, and the
implications for us in England
Started with an interest in the connection between classroom assessment, meta-cognition, and students’ personal development
1982-87 practical immersion, as Director of Manchester Assessment Project
‘Technical’ assessment immersion, as member of JMB’s Research Advisory Committee
International immersion through regular work in NZ and Canada since 1992
1. “The provision of effective feedback to students
2. The active involvement of students in their own learning
3. Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment
4. Recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students, both of which are crucial influences on learning
5. The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve”
Alberta : provincial tests and results managed by Alberta Education
AFL encouraged through ‘Alberta Initiative for School Improvement’ (AISI) over several years
This approach has encouraged districts to see AFL as an ‘Initiative’, an add-on, not a shift in the norms of teaching
No provincial report card: districts have to devise their own, based on curriculum outcomes
Current public row about ‘no zeros’ policy in some schools: an example of the emotional/cultural underpinnings of assessment
Ontario : assessment through Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), Math and Literacy at Grades 3, 6, 9 (Maths) and 10 (literacy, graduation requirement)
Results published and used for review and improvement
Assessment principles and practice guidelines in ‘Growing Success’, 2010
Much progress recently, currently stalled by union action over pay, pensions etc
Manitoba : weak provincial control, policy dominated by Winnipeg
Winnipeg Comprehensive Assessment Programme (2000- present): classroom-based assessment, at the start of the year, results returned to schools but not publicly shared
AFL encouraged but patchy: secondary assessment still dominated by ‘grading’ issues
Using the term ‘assessment’ brought with it unhelpful negative baggage for teachers, students and the community
‘Feedback for Learning’ was the key to the project
Our development focus was on teaching strategies, to enable and encourage the provision and use of effective feedback to improve student learning and outcomes
Mostly within the realm of ‘2nd generation’ learning and assessment (cf Mary James’ analysis), although we wanted to push it further, into collaborative meta-cognitive tasks
1. Learning intentions: what do we want the students to learn, including ‘learning how to learn’?
2. Evidence of learning/success criteria: what will we look for to show that these goals have been achieved? Discuss and exemplify these with your students.
3. Assessment activities: how will students show what they know, and get feedback to decide their next steps?
4. Teaching: what teaching activities will enable and encourage students to learn and practice the things we want them to learn?
5. What’s the starting point? Check for prior learning and misconceptions.
‘Ten Steps to Heaven’
1. Teacher is clear about purpose and task (backwards planning)
2. Teacher plans to discuss and exemplify learning expectations 3. Teacher designs and explains learning tasks 4. Teacher and students develop success criteria together5. Students check their work, while the learning is in progress 6. Students say what’s OK and what’s not7. Students identify a next step8. Students continue, or correct work so far9. Students reflect periodically on what they’ve learned, and
how they learned it10. Students present learning and achievement to someone else
1. Task (fist) 2. Purpose
(heart)3. Share4. Small Steps 5. Get Working
6. Look and check7. Idea for
improvement8. Take a step towards9. Look back to reflect10.Present learning
1. AFL techniques sometimes detached from original principles
2. Grade 7 onwards obsessed with %, with no understanding of ‘margin of error’
3. Secondary assessment dominated by high-staking regular grading and reporting 3 or 4 times per
year.
4. Reliability of teachers’ grading undermined by concept of ‘individual professional autonomy’
5. System leadership stronger at district level than at school level, plus frequent movement of
Principals (who are called ‘Adminstrators’!)
Skills-based: teachers decide the appropriate content to use as the context for learning
5-14 testing abandoned, after concern about the negative unintended consequences of regular national testing on teaching and learning experiences in schools
Money previously spent on design, distribution, marking of tests diverted into other methods of ensuring reliability, eg. national moderation procedures and the National Assessment Resource (NAR)
Providers of ‘standardised tests’ quickly moved to exploit (or exacerbate) the anxiety about ‘reliability’ among parents, teachers and LAs - a residue of over-reliance on tests
Yes, it costs a lot to organise and run a successful teacher moderation process
It also costs a lot to run a national testing process
BUT, the money spent on moderation leads to very high quality professional development and confidence: the money spent on national testing leads to teacher passivity, anxiety, marginalisation and spurious faith in the ‘objectivity’ of results
Validity Reliability
Manageability(time, cost, and credibility)
Best fit
Regional Ministry of Education oversight of schools abandoned: each school has autonomous locally elected Board of Trustees and directly accountable to central government
National curriculum – too heavy to start with and then refined
National Standards in Literacy and Numeracy recently developed: to be used for reporting to parents, assessed by ‘Overall Teacher Judgement’(OTJ) and moderation
ATOL PD contracts in place for a decade and more
Implementation impressive until late primary but patchy thereafter
PD has tended to be ‘formulaic’, and not deeply understood, beyond the connection with very strong early childhood practice
Oversees National Certificate of Educational Standards at levels 1 and 2 in the schools sector
Tight criteria, loose(ish) moderation, assessed and recorded in ‘units’
Fragmented summative assessment often confused with ‘formative’: secondary ‘too busy’ to focus on systematic involvement of students
Implacable hostility of NZEI (primary teachers’ union) to National Standards has distracted teachers from managing them as effectively as necessary
OTJ’s being introduced ahead of effective moderation: could this result in imposition of national assessment, despite prohibitive costs?
National Education Monitoring Programme (Intensive sampling, like APU) has been phased out
Political uncertainty and 3 year political cycle Education Review Office (OFSTED equivalent) could
become obsessed with National Standards data Charter schools?? What are they thinking of?
Regularly noted by research studies on AFL Raises major issues around ‘traditional’ PD Interest in ‘teaching as a construct of
habits’ What enables/encourages teachers to
change their daily fundamental habits? Without this change, sustainability is a non-
starter
The three-part brain
1.The neo-cortex: intellectual processing
2.The reptilian brain: basic instincts
3. The limbic brain: handles emotions, experiences and habits
We learn how to teach through doing it, (not reading about it), using the limbic brain to establish our professional habits
These habits include planning, questioning, marking
Habits learned ‘limbically’ will be changed the same way, through practice
Changing habits generates problems and potential conflict
Pre-contemplation Contemplation First step Discomfort and
floundering Practice Confidence New habit Coach someone else
The Weight-watchers model for changing teaching and learning habits involves:
Big, important, agreed goalsSmall steps and continual feedbackPerseveranceCollegial support and accountabilityRecognition of success
UK Teaching and Learning Research Project (2009), presented by Mary James in NZ
Learning Autonomy (outcome)
Learning How to Learn (activity)
Assessment for Learning (tools)
Implementing and sustaining AFL requires change in most of the mechanisms of teaching
We need to focus on ‘re-engineering’ teaching, rather than adding something to it
The word ‘assessment’ can confuse the issue, especially in secondary schools
Why not “Feedback for Learning”? Or even “Teaching for Learning” ????
self efficacy
Helpful feedback‘Locus’ of control
-As close to self as possible
Motivation
Achievement
Let’s look at problems pupils can work on
Release the magic, inspire to learn
Share the criteria, provide great feedback
And success you all will earn
Our classroom focus is on the learning
Not just the levels and the test
We give our pupils responsibility
And they reward us with their best
Raise motivation, expect achievement
Observe and listen, to find the clues
And then adjust our next steps in teaching
To reduce those classroom blues
What’s in it for me, I hear you asking
Why should I bother with all this stuff?
I’ll tell you why, dear, learning goes deeper
And behaviour’s not so tough
So there we have it, feedback for learning
We know it works, so why not try
Student involvement, in every classroom
Children’s learning hits the sky
Keep in touch : [email protected]
www.ruthsutton.co.uk
Take a look at the story of Winnipeg’s ‘Feedback for Learning’ in
‘Creating Independent Student Learners’ (2006)
And check out my first novel, ‘A Good Liar’, (2012)