1. Our Research Into Assessment

2. Research drivers: local context - issues.

3. Research Stage 1: The Issue – Can we do this better?
The policy has been significantly updated at least 4 times in the last 8 years and reflects a range of objectives.
One is to provide clarity about their responsibilities for teachers, managers and external bodies. This is often achieved with explicit targets and turnaround times such captured in statements such as “detailed, comment based marking must be provided for students after a period of 6 lessons”.
This links to accountability which is a running theme throughout the policy: the relevant teachers’ standards are listed on the first page.
Clearly the importance of assessment in supporting students’ progress is also recognised, with the policy stating “we also aim for every student to develop independent learning skills, and in order for this to happen, students need to know what they are capable of, what they are required to learn, and how they can make progress”.
Specific school development objectives are also entrenched into the policy, with an extensive section on ‘Marking for Literacy’ which lists specific symbols teachers are required to use to identify errors of literacy.
There is an effort to capture best-practice models of assessment as understood by the policy makers, which includes commitments to aspects such as self and peer assessment…
…whilst also directing the colours of pen to be used in self and peer assessment (green), teacher marking (red) and student self-reflection (purple) (Appendix 1: Assessment Policy of Case Study School).
Research Stage 1: The Issue – Can we do this better?
Why does no-one follow our policy?
Is it helping?
What should we be asking teachers to do?
Is it worth it?
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4. EET v. Practitioner Research
Research Stage 2: The Reading!
NB Value of accessing original research.
Clear questions
What does research suggest are the key principles of effective marking?
Which strategies have greatest impact on student learning?
How can we create an assessment policy that balances best practice and accountability?
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5. Research driver: Not quite that simple…!
What does research tell us about ‘best practice’ for feedback and formative assessment?
Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) offer seven principles of effective feedback based on a model of self-regulated-learning that considers internal processes such as the student’s goals, motivation, behaviour and internal learning strategies. These include:
clarity about good performance,
facilitation of self-assessment,
high-quality feedback information,
encouraging dialogue,
encouraging motivation,
providing opportunities to close the gap
using feedback to improve teaching.
Research driver: Not quite that simple…!
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6. Research driver: inconsistency. Questions generated:
What does research tell us about ‘best practice’ for feedback and formative assessment?
Research driver: inconsistency. Questions generated:
Do students always need the same thing? Who is in the best position to decide what the students need?
Clarity about good performance.
Black
Torrance and Pryor
Stanford / Barker & Pinard
Detailed questions even in essay tasks that “specify the type of reasoning needed”
Desired outcome should be a “mediated activity” with “engaged participation”
Open ended tasks without clear models promote creative thinking and new ways of thinking.
Convey the criteria used in marking.
Formulate shared success criteria.
Iterative feedback (redrafting).
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7. Research driver: local reaction vs context of research
What does research tell us about ‘best practice’ for feedback and formative assessment?
Barker and Pinard (2014): iterative feedback – a ‘recursive cycle’ of assessment dialogue and “feedback loops” over a series of drafts. Student feedback: boring!
Research driver: local reaction vs context of research
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8. What do the students tell us?
Carless (2006): students viewed comments on drafts as a “particularly important source of feedback because they provided an immediate opportunity to act on advice.”
JMS: drafts are helpful and help to improve. Very well used in English. But they can be boring. PAH/PAM/PAL. Girls more positive; its good to be able to ‘get it right’.
(KS3): Hate them in subjects where they don’t have many lessons: do not find them engaging.
KS4/5: Better on Chromebooks, less boring and can make targeted changes. Hate doing a third draft (though know they have to for coursework.
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9. Research driver: local context - values.
Theories of Assessment Match Theories of Learning: Social Constructionist
Research driver: local context - values.
Learning is a process by which learners are integrated into a community. Learning is essentially a social experience; through interaction with peers, teachers, experts and their intellectual products (e.g. texts) learners interpret new material. Motivation is inherently intrinsic and so learning depends partly upon the learner’s drive to understand. Collaborative learning, including dialogue, is key to building success, understanding and the skills needed to enter the knowledge community.
Assessment has to respond to the particular needs of the students and is context-specific Understanding what they currently believe is vital. Feedback is the basis for an ongoing dialogue between learner and teacher that build an iterative loop of cognitive and skills development.
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10. What does research tell us about ‘best practice’ for feedback and formative assessment?
Dialogue
Response (DIRT)
Mistakes and errors
Literacy
Creativity
Workload
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11. Research driver: evaluating innovation
Research Stage 3: Interventions and actions NB
Twitter/Blogs
Creative thinking
Tried and tested
Research driver: evaluating innovation
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13. Research Stage 4: Measuring Impact
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