1 “ Assessment for Learning: Developing Autonomous Learners in Childhood Studies ” Prof. Kay Sambell, Northumbria University Improving Student Learning Through Assessment The 13th Improving Student Learning Symposium, Imperial College, London, UK, 5-7 September 2005

2 Childhood Studies- emergent field that… attracts high numbers of ‘non-traditional’ students requires students to negotiate a range of disciplines aims (at Northumbria) to enable students to question implicit values and ideologies in a range of child- contexts e.g. module on picture books MEDAL FDTL PROJECT WEBSITE

3 Rationale for case study’s use of AfL Conscious attempt to develop autonomous learners, enabling students to Direct own learning Evaluate own progress Support learning of others

4 AfL According to Black and Wiliam (1998) If assessment is to be formative for learners they must do more than simply receive feedback Learners must actively consider and use the information in some way Hence, learners will be engaged in evaluating and managing their own learning

5 Lecturer’s Aims emphasise authenticity and complexity in the content and methods of assessment rather than simply rehearsal of declarative knowledge ; give students opportunities to practise and develop, with others, the kinds of understanding and skills that they need to demonstrate in summative assessment; provide a learning environment which is rich in informal feedback from tutors, external stakeholders and peers.

6 Strategies included.. Group posters designing books and libraries according to theoretical views of the child Debates and seminar discussions evaluating particular texts Peer evaluation of examples of student writing Summative assessment offering choice of authentic tasks, including theorised design of a children’s library or stakeholder views of particular texts

7 Forms of Autonomy Ecclestone (2002) Procedural autonomy Managing time, meeting deadlines, knowing requirements Critical autonomy Ways of thinking, searching for meaning, using evidence Subject-matter autonomy (Candy, 1991) Contesting or reworking existing knowledge

8 Student perspectives Poster helped locate self in relation to material [At first] when you looked at the picture books you couldn’t relate it to what you’d learnt previously [about diverse constructions of childhood]…but now I look at the picture books and think ‘that is really sugary and that’, and you can immediately understand where and what the child is in that context. You could make the connections to Year 1 stuff, which you couldn’t if you hadn’t done the posters.

9 Locating self in relation to lecturer’s expectations ‘It can get a little bit static when you’re doing your small group, specifically in the beginning, because, quite honestly, at the beginning when I looked at a book, I didn’t really see it for myself until the lecturer said it, and then it would be ‘ah, yes, that’s what you mean’, and so it grew over the semester so that you could start doing that yourself, but at the beginning I really relied on their (lecturer’s) input to start off. So it needs to be more directive at the start.’

10 Value of peers’ views ‘Because everybody did a poster and they all did different posters different ideas came out. You sit and you listen and you think ‘Oh yeah! I like that idea, that’s really clever. I would never have thought that.’ But afterwards, you think about it…I said to myself, yeah, that’s right, but it’s a different way of looking at it…so it’s good to get a range of ideas. But you tend not to want to go up to somebody else and say ‘What do you think about this?’ So it’s good when the lecturer makes you sit by different people and gives you a role…

11 Fun, informality and peer communities “That [doing the poster work] was really good, because it allowed your imagination to run riot. We did the Romantic child. There was no right nor wrong. I’ll never forget the ones who did the poster where the kids were in bubble-wrap! I mean, I thought, well, that surprised me… and I thought ‘hey that’s really good!’ …That’s one of the only times I thought everybody worked well in the group- everyone. But when we did the library and school thing, that was fun! And so that was really good, because everyone had a go. “

12 Peer feedback as confirmation of knowledge claims I think because it is such a relatively short unit and because we are just coming to grips with the concept of it, when you look through the books you need to have confirmation from other people that what you are seeing is what it is. So when you look at a book and you are reading it and you are thinking. Like that [picture book]: we’ve just gone through that, haven’t we? looking at the colours and everything and what we need is someone else to say, ‘yeah, that’s what we think’, its verifying what you can see and making it real, that other people can see that. You are rehearsing arguments. …and testing things out.

13 The role of authentic communities I’ve done the unit with my daughter, who is 15. It can help you explain the ideas and what you study When I was reading Granpa with my husband at first he said ‘ it doesn ’ t tell you anything ’ and that was because he was only reading the words and the words don ’ t tell you an awful lot. Once he ’ d learned to look at the pictures too, it was different.

14 Implications? Teachers can use activities to support autonomy competencies E.g. Peer Assisted Learning; encouraging students to ‘teach’ their subject Need to build up autonomy gradually & purposively Paradoxically tutor-direction might help in early stages Sophisticated views of autonomy take time and experience to develop Students’ sense of ‘social relatedness’ (Boekaerts and Minneart, 2003) vital