Process
review of practice – assessment in the classroom.
To begin your action research, you should listen to and watch the narrated Powerpoint about the action cycle. Having done that, begin the process by engaging in a review of your existing practice in your school/college.
This review of practice is intended to be adapted for use in a variety of ways, depending on the audience and purpose of the activity. It could be used
a) by individual teachers to assess their own practice in order to identify areas for development
b) groups of teachers to facilitate the sharing of good practice across departments
c) as a focus for a principal/headteacher to identify areas within a school where formative assessment techniques could improve outcomes.
It is a developmental activity which is in itself both reflective and formative.
A suggested sequence would be:
These activities are explored in the following sections.
Reconnaissance: Starting out
Review and audit of own practice and that of the institution.
This section follows on from the general review that you have just completed.
Key questions for this phase of the collaboration are:
Key question: how does our use of assessment relate to student progression and curriculum?
Having completed the REVIEW of PRACTICE In order to begin the process of improving formative assessment, we begin by suggesting a detailed exploration of existing practice. This involves observing colleagues/ practice and discussing what kind of strategies are used and then what can be done to improve practice. You can design your own approach to observing and discussing the current practice. Or, you can use the examples presented in English or Spanish from the project, as in the sequence listed above.
They will allow you to focus on the core features of assessment for learning (AfL) that lie at the heart of effective pedagogy:
Observe – record – review – discuss – identify an area for development.
Having shared insights from observations and reflections in review of your context, move to identifying possible aspects for development e.g.
• Sharing success criteria with students
• Feedback
• Peer assessment
• Self-assessment
• End of unit assessments: making them more sharply related to curriculum expectations
• Effective use of questions in class
This should form the basis of your Action Plan, as in the sequence above.
To begin your action research, you should listen to and watch the narrated Powerpoint about the action cycle. Having done that, begin the process by engaging in a review of your existing practice in your school/college.
This review of practice is intended to be adapted for use in a variety of ways, depending on the audience and purpose of the activity. It could be used
a) by individual teachers to assess their own practice in order to identify areas for development
b) groups of teachers to facilitate the sharing of good practice across departments
c) as a focus for a principal/headteacher to identify areas within a school where formative assessment techniques could improve outcomes.
It is a developmental activity which is in itself both reflective and formative.
A suggested sequence would be:
- An initial analysis of current practice with evidence noted (see link)
- A summary of initial findings
- A proposed schedule of activity
- Lesson observations (see link) for guidance on what to look for
- Evidence collection (see link) for observation pro-forma
- Action plan (see link)
- Revisit of initial analysis and reflection on progress and impact (see link)
- Dissemination of good practice
These activities are explored in the following sections.
Reconnaissance: Starting out
Review and audit of own practice and that of the institution.
This section follows on from the general review that you have just completed.
Key questions for this phase of the collaboration are:
- How is assessment done?
- How do you assess? Why?
- How do your approaches support learning?
Key question: how does our use of assessment relate to student progression and curriculum?
Having completed the REVIEW of PRACTICE In order to begin the process of improving formative assessment, we begin by suggesting a detailed exploration of existing practice. This involves observing colleagues/ practice and discussing what kind of strategies are used and then what can be done to improve practice. You can design your own approach to observing and discussing the current practice. Or, you can use the examples presented in English or Spanish from the project, as in the sequence listed above.
They will allow you to focus on the core features of assessment for learning (AfL) that lie at the heart of effective pedagogy:
- How teachers and students share expected learning outcomes
- Use of question types by teachers: lower to higher order
- Questioning strategies by teachers: to individuals, with thinking time; hands up/down
- Effective feedback by the teacher: spoken and written
- Peer-assessment: students assessing one another
- Self-assessment: students reflecting and evaluating their own work
Observe – record – review – discuss – identify an area for development.
Having shared insights from observations and reflections in review of your context, move to identifying possible aspects for development e.g.
• Sharing success criteria with students
• Feedback
• Peer assessment
• Self-assessment
• End of unit assessments: making them more sharply related to curriculum expectations
• Effective use of questions in class
This should form the basis of your Action Plan, as in the sequence above.