Context
The module discusses principles of assessment and offers examples of good practice but does not prescribe solutions. Each school group has the opportunity to reflect on and develop their own practice, thus being responsive to their own students and curriculum. At the heart of this process are two principles:
1. Reflective practice
2. Differentiation
Thus, outcomes will derive from deep reflection on assessment in your school/college and will be differentiated in response to your particular setting. An outline of what this module intends to do can be found here. Outline
Assessment: principles and aims
This section provides a brief introduction to the principles of assessment and to assessment for learning (AfL), in particular.
Assessment is the process of eliciting, interpreting, recording and making use of information concerning students’ performance on a task or tasks (Harlen and James, 1997). The way in which the information gained is used determines the type of assessment: either summative or formative.
Summative assessment (assessment OF learning) tends to occur at the end of a course or module of work, the information gained regarding attainment being used for the purpose of characterising the level of competence demonstrated by the student. This process is often referred to as ‘high stakes’ testing, as it is often a selection barrier to further study. Summative assessment is also used for the purpose of standard setting, accountability, and systems monitoring and management.
Formative assessment (assessment FOR learning) is undertaken within the body of a course or module, in lessons, and can occur at various intervals, but always as an integral part of the learning process. This results in assessment tasks that provide students with information as to how they can add to their learning, and improve on past levels of understanding and performance. This sees assessment as an integral element of day to day teaching, including the use of questioning, dialogue, and reflection on the part of the students concerning their learning. This process includes the use of teacher feedback and feed-forward, as well as self and peer assessment.
Formative assessment focuses on the small-scale, classroom led use of assessment as a diagnostic process which includes the active participation of the student. The summative (measurement focus), on the other hand, is a centralised product-focused process which provides ‘easily’ understood outcome data. However, another way of conceptualising this tension, is to consider the audiences which interact with assessment (Figure 1 above).
The impetus for change in the perception of the use of assessment in England came in part from a research report (Black and Wiliam, 1998), as a consequence of which ten core principles of Assessment for Learning were developed (Assessment Reform Group, 1999), stating that assessment for learning should:
1. be part of the effective planning of teaching and learning;
2. focus on how students learn;
3. be recognised as central to classroom practice;
4. be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers;
5. be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact;
6. take account of the importance of learner motivation;
7. promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed;
8. help learners receive constructive guidance about how to improve;
9. develop the learners’ capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing;
10. recognise the full range of achievement of all learners.
Assessment for Learning – Considering practice
Assessment for learning in the classroom takes many forms, but principally the following elements:
Making learning objectives clear
When an assessment is given to students, they need to know what is expected of them, so they know how to tackle and complete the work, and begin to understand the level of competence expected of them. This element of assessment should involve two essential features:
1) Discussion about the work allows students to query anything they do not understand, and also helps to build a deeper understanding of what is required. It may also be relevant to model outlines or answers to give a strong sense of what a good answer, and possibly a poor answer, look like.
2) Mark schemes can be given to each student, written in 'studentspeak' so that they have full access to it. This will begin to give them a clear framework from which to work, so that they begin to construct a mental image of what is expected of them.
Setting short and long term targets
Target setting has become one of the many core activities undertaken by all schools within
England. However, target setting with students should not be seen as an end in itself, rather it should serve the development of learning, working out with students what should be achieved.
Effective use of questions
Teachers make effective questioning strategies in order to:
For example, in foreign language lessons, questions provide students with opportunities to use language at a range of levels, e.g.
Questioning strategies include posing a question and giving time for reflection e.g. think, pair, share; hot potato; or use of mini-whiteboards to help check all students’ responses.
The use of feedback
Feedback is a central element in assessment for learning and must be specific, to help individuals to develop. This means that any comments should be related to targets set before completion of the assessment, so as to focus on the skills and understanding highlighted as important, and there should be praise as well as more critical comments (Weeden and Hopkins, 2006; Wood, 2009b).
Self-assessment
Boud (1993) defines self-assessment as:
‘Self-assessment requires students to think critically about what they are learning, to identify appropriate standards of performance and to apply them to their own work. Self-assessment encourages students to look to themselves and to other sources to determine what criteria should be used in judging their work rather than being dependent solely on their teachers or other authorities…’
Students need time to identify any gaps between their actual and potential performance (Sadler, 1989), to be able to work out why these gaps occur and identify strategies about how such gaps can be closed. However, whilst teachers should be involved in developing such a dialogue, the students need to know how to work out the answers for themselves. As a result, self-assessment becomes very important. This includes giving the students the opportunity to mark an assessment before their teacher does, giving their own comments, upon which a teacher can base their own observations. This gives opportunity for personal ownership of work, and can foster a supportive climate where students can admit problems without risk of loss of self-esteem (Klenowski, 1995).
Peer assessment
Peer assessment gives students the opportunity to not only reflect on their own performance, but to develop alternative perspectives on the assessment material, therefore developing flexibility and:
However, once again, the skills required to do this need time to develop, both in the classroom to complete the exercise, and over a longer time period to develop such skills. So, students need to know how tasks are assessed, that is, they need to acquire similar understanding to that of their teachers.
To see examples of AfL in action read the next section.
AfL at work: some examples of practice
The use of AFL as standard classroom practice has been a feature of good and outstanding teaching for a number of years. Here are some examples of how it can be used to raise standards and ensuring that students are engaged in their own learning.
For example in Science students complete a series of exam style questions on their own in exam conditions. Once completed and before marking, they do some self-analysis of their paper - areas of sound understanding, areas of less confident understanding, key foci for revision in future, questions types they need most practice on etc. Then, they get into clusters of 2-3 students of similar ability. Each cluster is given a copy of the mark scheme for their questions. They then use coloured pens to mark their own papers. They are encouraged to annotate their papers with the correct answers and hints etc. where they got things wrong. They are encouraged to discuss amongst their cluster if they think a peer's answer is worth the mark(s). It is important to emphasise that the conversations they have whilst trying to agree are key to establishing their understanding
In a practical PE lesson peer assessment: Using the same example above the students become the teacher/coach and are given around 3 teaching points to focus on, some less, some more depending on their ability; this could be timing, movement and driving towards the ball. Students will comment and assess how well each other are performing the skill linked to the specific points mentioned. They then give their partner feedback on the teaching points given. Students will also share this with the class commenting on how effective their peer assessment was and why. Students will also give areas to improve and suggest ways this can be done. However in PE Theory lessons students will be given an exam question to complete and once they have completed the question students will be given the mark scheme to assess and mark their own and peers’ work. They find this useful as they can see how questions are marked and answered and how much detail should be included. They are able to identify why they have been awarded the mark, why they might have missed marks and what they need to do differently next time to ensure marks are not missed.
In Modern Foreign Languages Year 7 pupils had to present their school to the rest of the class. They were given a self-assessment sheet and had to tick off the things they had included, or alter their scripts if things were missing. During the presentation, pupils were given a peer assessment sheet for each group and had to assess the other groups. The tick-list allowed to pupils to keep track of what was/wasn't included and then they had to include 2 things that went well and one suggestion for improvement and give a score out of 10. The teacher copied both on different coloured paper, so it would stand out and pupils could go back in their books to see how they need to improve on the next speaking task. It is pretty simple, but the pupils did very well in working out what they needed to do to improve and gave valuable feedback to the other groups.
In Science students complete a self-assessment sheet that not only identifies how each individual worked in on a task but also how well the group worked as a whole, how each individual contributed to the overall success of a practical task e.g. What did I do to help the group? What did I do that didn’t help the group? What did others do in our group to help? What could our group have done better? What could I have done better to help my group?
There are a significant number of AFL techniques developed by Mike Gershon which can be used in all lessons (70) and they can be found at this hyperlink. Here below is an example of the use of mini-whiteboards to check learning:
1. Reflective practice
2. Differentiation
Thus, outcomes will derive from deep reflection on assessment in your school/college and will be differentiated in response to your particular setting. An outline of what this module intends to do can be found here. Outline
Assessment: principles and aims
This section provides a brief introduction to the principles of assessment and to assessment for learning (AfL), in particular.
Assessment is the process of eliciting, interpreting, recording and making use of information concerning students’ performance on a task or tasks (Harlen and James, 1997). The way in which the information gained is used determines the type of assessment: either summative or formative.
Summative assessment (assessment OF learning) tends to occur at the end of a course or module of work, the information gained regarding attainment being used for the purpose of characterising the level of competence demonstrated by the student. This process is often referred to as ‘high stakes’ testing, as it is often a selection barrier to further study. Summative assessment is also used for the purpose of standard setting, accountability, and systems monitoring and management.
Formative assessment (assessment FOR learning) is undertaken within the body of a course or module, in lessons, and can occur at various intervals, but always as an integral part of the learning process. This results in assessment tasks that provide students with information as to how they can add to their learning, and improve on past levels of understanding and performance. This sees assessment as an integral element of day to day teaching, including the use of questioning, dialogue, and reflection on the part of the students concerning their learning. This process includes the use of teacher feedback and feed-forward, as well as self and peer assessment.
Formative assessment focuses on the small-scale, classroom led use of assessment as a diagnostic process which includes the active participation of the student. The summative (measurement focus), on the other hand, is a centralised product-focused process which provides ‘easily’ understood outcome data. However, another way of conceptualising this tension, is to consider the audiences which interact with assessment (Figure 1 above).
The impetus for change in the perception of the use of assessment in England came in part from a research report (Black and Wiliam, 1998), as a consequence of which ten core principles of Assessment for Learning were developed (Assessment Reform Group, 1999), stating that assessment for learning should:
1. be part of the effective planning of teaching and learning;
2. focus on how students learn;
3. be recognised as central to classroom practice;
4. be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers;
5. be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact;
6. take account of the importance of learner motivation;
7. promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed;
8. help learners receive constructive guidance about how to improve;
9. develop the learners’ capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing;
10. recognise the full range of achievement of all learners.
Assessment for Learning – Considering practice
Assessment for learning in the classroom takes many forms, but principally the following elements:
- Making learning objectives clear.
- Setting short and long term targets.
- Effective use of questions.
- The use of feedback and feed forward.
- Self-assessment.
- Peer assessment.
Making learning objectives clear
When an assessment is given to students, they need to know what is expected of them, so they know how to tackle and complete the work, and begin to understand the level of competence expected of them. This element of assessment should involve two essential features:
1) Discussion about the work allows students to query anything they do not understand, and also helps to build a deeper understanding of what is required. It may also be relevant to model outlines or answers to give a strong sense of what a good answer, and possibly a poor answer, look like.
2) Mark schemes can be given to each student, written in 'studentspeak' so that they have full access to it. This will begin to give them a clear framework from which to work, so that they begin to construct a mental image of what is expected of them.
Setting short and long term targets
Target setting has become one of the many core activities undertaken by all schools within
England. However, target setting with students should not be seen as an end in itself, rather it should serve the development of learning, working out with students what should be achieved.
Effective use of questions
Teachers make effective questioning strategies in order to:
- Assess students learning
- Reinforce learning
- Stimulate learning
- Promote discussion
- Summarise key points
- Stimulate students’ questioning skills
- Evaluate the impact of teaching
For example, in foreign language lessons, questions provide students with opportunities to use language at a range of levels, e.g.
- give factual information
- display existing knowledge and understanding (low order)
- carry out classroom routines
- take part in everyday communication
- give opinions
- predict what might happen
- recall past events (high order)
- explain how language works
- explain a learning strategy
- evaluate the quality of their own work and the work of others
- apply their existing knowledge in order to create new meanings.
Questioning strategies include posing a question and giving time for reflection e.g. think, pair, share; hot potato; or use of mini-whiteboards to help check all students’ responses.
The use of feedback
Feedback is a central element in assessment for learning and must be specific, to help individuals to develop. This means that any comments should be related to targets set before completion of the assessment, so as to focus on the skills and understanding highlighted as important, and there should be praise as well as more critical comments (Weeden and Hopkins, 2006; Wood, 2009b).
Self-assessment
Boud (1993) defines self-assessment as:
‘Self-assessment requires students to think critically about what they are learning, to identify appropriate standards of performance and to apply them to their own work. Self-assessment encourages students to look to themselves and to other sources to determine what criteria should be used in judging their work rather than being dependent solely on their teachers or other authorities…’
Students need time to identify any gaps between their actual and potential performance (Sadler, 1989), to be able to work out why these gaps occur and identify strategies about how such gaps can be closed. However, whilst teachers should be involved in developing such a dialogue, the students need to know how to work out the answers for themselves. As a result, self-assessment becomes very important. This includes giving the students the opportunity to mark an assessment before their teacher does, giving their own comments, upon which a teacher can base their own observations. This gives opportunity for personal ownership of work, and can foster a supportive climate where students can admit problems without risk of loss of self-esteem (Klenowski, 1995).
Peer assessment
Peer assessment gives students the opportunity to not only reflect on their own performance, but to develop alternative perspectives on the assessment material, therefore developing flexibility and:
- social skills through discussion between students about their work (Weeden et al 2002)
- reflection on the assessment without negative impact on self-esteem as students are able to use criticism of a piece of work that is not their own.
However, once again, the skills required to do this need time to develop, both in the classroom to complete the exercise, and over a longer time period to develop such skills. So, students need to know how tasks are assessed, that is, they need to acquire similar understanding to that of their teachers.
To see examples of AfL in action read the next section.
AfL at work: some examples of practice
The use of AFL as standard classroom practice has been a feature of good and outstanding teaching for a number of years. Here are some examples of how it can be used to raise standards and ensuring that students are engaged in their own learning.
For example in Science students complete a series of exam style questions on their own in exam conditions. Once completed and before marking, they do some self-analysis of their paper - areas of sound understanding, areas of less confident understanding, key foci for revision in future, questions types they need most practice on etc. Then, they get into clusters of 2-3 students of similar ability. Each cluster is given a copy of the mark scheme for their questions. They then use coloured pens to mark their own papers. They are encouraged to annotate their papers with the correct answers and hints etc. where they got things wrong. They are encouraged to discuss amongst their cluster if they think a peer's answer is worth the mark(s). It is important to emphasise that the conversations they have whilst trying to agree are key to establishing their understanding
In a practical PE lesson peer assessment: Using the same example above the students become the teacher/coach and are given around 3 teaching points to focus on, some less, some more depending on their ability; this could be timing, movement and driving towards the ball. Students will comment and assess how well each other are performing the skill linked to the specific points mentioned. They then give their partner feedback on the teaching points given. Students will also share this with the class commenting on how effective their peer assessment was and why. Students will also give areas to improve and suggest ways this can be done. However in PE Theory lessons students will be given an exam question to complete and once they have completed the question students will be given the mark scheme to assess and mark their own and peers’ work. They find this useful as they can see how questions are marked and answered and how much detail should be included. They are able to identify why they have been awarded the mark, why they might have missed marks and what they need to do differently next time to ensure marks are not missed.
In Modern Foreign Languages Year 7 pupils had to present their school to the rest of the class. They were given a self-assessment sheet and had to tick off the things they had included, or alter their scripts if things were missing. During the presentation, pupils were given a peer assessment sheet for each group and had to assess the other groups. The tick-list allowed to pupils to keep track of what was/wasn't included and then they had to include 2 things that went well and one suggestion for improvement and give a score out of 10. The teacher copied both on different coloured paper, so it would stand out and pupils could go back in their books to see how they need to improve on the next speaking task. It is pretty simple, but the pupils did very well in working out what they needed to do to improve and gave valuable feedback to the other groups.
In Science students complete a self-assessment sheet that not only identifies how each individual worked in on a task but also how well the group worked as a whole, how each individual contributed to the overall success of a practical task e.g. What did I do to help the group? What did I do that didn’t help the group? What did others do in our group to help? What could our group have done better? What could I have done better to help my group?
There are a significant number of AFL techniques developed by Mike Gershon which can be used in all lessons (70) and they can be found at this hyperlink. Here below is an example of the use of mini-whiteboards to check learning: