Assessment for Learning

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Assessment for Learning

• Mark Thompson
• Assessment Advisory Teacher

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Improving learning through assessment depends on
5, deceptively simple, key factors

• The provision of effective feedback to pupils.
• The active involvement of pupils in their own
  learning.
• Adjusting teaching to take account of the results
  of assessment.

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• A recognition of the profound influence
  assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem
  of pupils, both of which have crucial influences
  on learning.
• The need for pupils to be able to assess
  themselves and understand how to improve.

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This can be be broken down further to include

• Sharing learning goals with pupils.
• Involving pupils in self-assessment.
• Providing feedback which leads to pupils
  recognising their next steps and how to make
  them.
• Underpinned by the confidence that every student
  can improve.

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• Assessment for learning is the process of seeking
  and interpreting evidence for use by learners and
  their teachers to decide where the learners are
  in their learning, where they need to go and how
  best to get there.
• Assessment Reform Group 2002

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Key features of sharing learning objectives

• Make it an expectation
• Separate the learning objective from the activity
  instructions.
• Create success criteria alongside the pupils.
• Ask the children to repeat it and read it back to
  you.
• Display the learning objective.
• Fluent writers may write down the learning
  objective as a title.

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Marking

• Research has proved that grades or marks have a
  negative effect.
• It is the nature rather than the amount that is
  critical.
• Collaboration between teachers to share effective
  comments is valuable.
• Opportunities for students to follow up comments
  should be planned as part of the overall process.

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• Comments only become useful if they are used to
  guide further work.
• To be effective, feedback should cause thinking
  to take place.

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Feedback sandwich

• Reference to the learning objective e.g. I like
  your description of
• Now/Next time.
• Follow up statement, e.g. a statement.

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Now next time.. prompts

• Reminder prompt e.g. say more how you feel
  about..
• Scaffold prompt e.g. Can you descibe how this
  person is a good friend?
• Example prompt, give the child an example of
  actual words or phrases

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Points to consider when training pupils to
self-evaluate

• Provide pupils with examples of the right
  questions to ask.
• Guide them with typical answers.
• Follow up points of difficulty with what helped
  them move on.
• Encourage small group self-evaluation and provide
  time for this to take place.

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• Encourage written self-evaluation from time to
  time.
• Accept oral feedback from the pupils.
• Make a note of some comments the pupils may make.
• Give time for it in your daily planning.

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Possible self-evaluation questions

• What really made you think/did you find difficult
  while you were learning to?
• What helped you when something got tricky about
  learning to?
• What do you need more help with about learning
  to.?
• What are you most pleased with about learning
  to..?

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• What have you learnt that is new about..?
• How would you change this activity for another
  group/class who were learning to?

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• A common misconception among teachers is that
  pupils marking their own work amounts to
  self-assessment. In fact this is often no more
  than an administrative device to save the teacher
  time, and there is frequently little
  encouragement by the pupils in the process.
• Secondary Education review 1993-1997

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Individual pupil target setting will be
successful if

• Targets work upwards from a pupils actual
  achievement.
• Targets are ones that the pupil is close to
  achieving.
• Target setting is teacher guided.
• There is a consistent whole school approach.

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• The system is manageable.
• Target information is easily accessible.
• It is set in the context of a whole school agreed
  policy for ARR.

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• Pupil performance is not improved by being
  assessed. What matters, is the use made of the
  information gained to improve learning and
  teaching.