1. Assessment Professional Learning Module 3: Assessment FOR Learning
• The whole series of 5 modules is called: “Assessment Professional Learning”.
• This third Module is called: “Assessment FOR Learning”.

2. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
Assessment AS Learning
Assessment OF learning
• The DE&T Assessment Advice centres on these three purposes of assessment.
• The focus of this Module is Assessment FOR Learning.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

3. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
Assessment FOR learning: occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching.
Assessment OF learning:
occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards.
Assessment AS learning:
occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress
to inform their future
learning goals.
• A reminder from Module 1 of the definitions of the three purposes of assessment.
• The highlighted box at the top is the focus for this module.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

4. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
occurs when teachers use inferences
about student progress to inform
their teaching.
It is frequent, formal or informal (e.g. quality questioning, anecdotal notes, written comments), embedded in teaching and provides clear and timely feedback that helps students in their learning progression. It has a summative use, providing evidence that informs, or shapes, short term planning for learning.
• This slide gives the definition and a more detailed explanation of assessment for learning focus.
• Assessment FOR learning is about gaining evidence of student learning against the Standards and to inform short term planning.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

5. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
“makes a significant difference to … [students’] progress - in their ability to be confident, critical learners, to achieve more than ever before and in raising their self-esteem. In a world of continuing pressure, it is good to know that we are making a real difference…”
(Shirley Clarke 2001, p. 139)
• Assessment for learning is important because it has been shown to make a big difference for students.
• e.g. In the United Kingdom assessment for learning actions on the part of teachers have been shown to make up to a grade difference in the General Certificate of Secondary Education results - apart from the other important differences such as self-esteem and so on.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

6. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
The most important purpose of classroom assessment is to improve student learning. The learner is at the centre.
• Reminder from Module 1.
• Assessment FOR learning purposes is focussed on actions the teacher can take to improve all students learning.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

7. The Teacher’s Role is to:
make arrangements to gain evidence on students’ learning progression
provide timely feedback
modify the learning and teaching program in light of the assessment evidence
• Ask: What else could be a part of the teacher’s role if the focus is
assessment FOR learning?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

8. Gaining evidence FOR learning can happen in these four ways:
Informal
Formal
Before new learning starts
asking questions
brainstorming
(informal diagnostic)
“Torch” test
quick quiz
(formal diagnostic)
During learning process
observe class work
and see where problems occur
(informal formative)
read and give feedback on homework
(formal formative)
• Ask: What other examples might fit in each of the boxes (with black font)?
• The technical terms in brackets are not important here.
• For your information: diagnostic and formative assessment are not mutually exclusive, because diagnostic assessment is a particular type of formative assessment.
• Diagnostic assessment diagnoses what students do and do not know, what they can and cannot do and what conceptions or misconceptions they may have developed - before new learning begins.
• Formative assessment - of a range of types - is the crux of assessment for learning. It is about finding evidence through a range of strategies and sources about students’ learning progress in order to make changes in your teaching that helps students’ learning improve.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

9. Means of gaining evidence of students’ learning
Ask quality questions that probe students’ understandings and help them think in different ways about their learning.
Observe and record student actions and learning progression to modify teaching plans.
Listen to what students have to say (and hear the message).
Closely watch individual students who differ from the majority - who signal to you when it is time to try something different.
• Ask: What other suggestions do you have for gaining evidence of student learning - before or during new learning?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

10. Means of giving feedback to students
Have a conversation (formal or informal) about the quality of the students’ work.
Give written feedback - this can be detailed and focused on what the student can do to improve.
Talk with students about your analysis of their individual learning progression against the Standards at an interim point (i.e. not at the end).
• Ask: What other suggestions do you have for how we can give feedback - during the process of students undertaking new learning?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

11. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
Quality questions
• Wait time more than 3 seconds
(Count if need be: one thousand, two thousand, three thousand). Produces extended responses and students are less concerned with being “right” and more concerned with ideas.
Ask, pause, use a name to direct
Ensures all are attending to the question - and thinking …
Open-ended
Where hypotheticals, possibilities and creative responses are encouraged
Challenging
Beyond remember and ‘understand’ (in a simplistic way)
Distributed evenly
Around the room - no “hands up” (allows some to disengage)
• This is a taster of Activity 3-5 Quality Questions. It is about using questions to gain information about students’ learning - and to assist in the learning process.
• You could give an example of wait time:
- Version 1: ask a question with no names and no wait time
e.g “Why does it rain?”
What happens? Either no response, or call outs.
- Version 2: Name someone first: “Maria, why is the sky blue?”
What happens? She shrugs, laughs and/or someone else calls out.
- Version 3: Ask the question, wait 3 seconds, then add a name:
“When and why do we see rainbows… Pause … John?”
What happens? Everyone pays attention in case they are asked.
• You can go further and give no time for “John” (or whoever) to answer and immediately call on another staff member. Or you could just wait and give “John” thinking time. Even wait after the ‘student’s’ response - in case a further elaboration is forthcoming.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

12. A checklist for good feedback …
“ 1. clear and unambiguous;
2. specific;
3. supportive, formative and developmental;
4. timely;
5. understood;
6. delivered in an appropriate environment”
(Jonathan Tummons, 2005, p. 76).
• And one more thing: Can students read your writing? (OK if your feedback is via or word processed.)
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

13. Annotations on student work. What do you write?
Question mark
Circling
Underlining or sidebars
Ticks and crosses
^ caret (omission)
Spelling or grammar corrections
Written comments
Are all of these helpful for students’ learning?
• Ask: Which of these types of annotations (or others) do you use?
• Ask: Are these annotations helpful in improving student learning?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

14. Common types of written feedback
• Regulatory instructions
e.g. use Australian spelling conventions
• Advisory comments
e.g. you could elaborate the conditions here
• Descriptive observation
e.g. you have used 3 web sources in this report
• Rhetorical questions
e.g. how does this relate to X’s ideas?
PLUS…
• This is a taster for Activity 3-3 and is one of two slides. The list can be used to analyse the type of comments you give to your students. The question always is: Do these sorts of comments help students improve their learning?
• These terms are technical - but the gist is given in the examples.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

15. Common types of written feedback
• Direct criticism
e.g. you needed to draw on other people’s ideas here
• Praise
e.g. your introduction is clearly written and sets the tone well
• Correctness (it is right - or wrong)
e.g. you have misunderstood the key idea here.
(types from Catherine Haines 2004)
• The second of two slides. Ask: Do these sorts of comments help students improve their learning?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

16. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
Consider:
Legibility
Can students read your feedback?
Can they understand your meaning?
Importance
Are you giving feedback on the highest priority aspects of the work?
Quality
Are your comments constructive, written politely, and with suggestions to help students’ learning?
• This is also a taster for Activity 3-3. The first of 2 slides.
• It is important that your written feedback is about important aspects of the learning (otherwise it wastes your time writing it).
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

17. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
Consider
Quantity
Is there a manageable amount for students to absorb and act upon?
Timing
How often?
How timely?
Style
What types of comments are helpful for students’ learning and which are unhelpful (even destructive)?
• The second of 2 slides.
• Inform staff that some research suggests that people can only cope with three criticisms at a time - so don’t make your feedback too daunting!
• Timing. Ask: How long after students finish their work is it too late to give useful feedback?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

18. Comments without grades
Giving grades or marks was found by the Black et al study (2003) to distract students from the formative feedback. One teacher in their study noted:
“at no time during the first 15 months of comment-only marking did any students ask me why they no longer received grades … I found this amazing” (p. 45)
The students were focused on improving their work through heeding the comments, and no longer needed the mark as a measure of their work quality.
• Paul Black and the Kings College, London team, suggest that giving descriptive feedback that focuses on ways the student can improve their learning is much better than feedback that includes marks or grades - either alone or even with comments (students don’t read the comments when there is a grade/mark as well).
• Ask: are we prepared to try it for a term?
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

19. Using available evidence FOR learning?
What evidence (data) is available to you about students’ learning?
What is accessible and useable?
How can you select the best evidence to use to prepare your teaching plans FOR the purpose of improving students’ learning?
• This module looks at a range of ways of gaining evidence that you can use for the purpose of assessment FOR learning.
• We don’t have to feel guilty about not using every bit of evidence that is available - but we do need to use some evidence better than we currently do.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning

20. Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning
Assessment AS Learning
Assessment
OF learning
Gaining evidence to plan teaching & give feedback is Assessment FOR learning
• A closing reminder of the three purposes of assessment and that we are focussing on assessment FOR learning in this module.
• The two main focus points are: a) ways of gaining evidence about students’ learning progression and b) giving students feedback in a timely, constructive manner.
Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning