Assessment for learning is a process where teachers seek and use evidence to decide where learners are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there. The emphasis here is on using assessment practices to gather information, which can then be used to make judgements about teaching decisions and directly improve learning. The emphasis is on those assessments, which are used to directly help with learning. The term ‘assessment’ is being used in the general sense of ‘gathering information to make a judgement’. Much of this evidence will come from the daily classroom activities – an unexpected answer to a question may alert the teacher to a misunderstanding, puzzled looks on students’ faces may mean a need to clarify some instructions. Continue reading →
Assessment for learning (AfL) is a catchphrase with which many
teachers may be familiar and yet may not feel confident that they know what it
means in terms of classroom practice. Here I outline the basic ideas behind it
and the kinds of classroom practices AfL may involve.
At heart, it’s what good teachers do every day:
they gather information about where learners are
in their learning, what they know and don’t know;
they help their students understand what, and
why, they are learning and what successful performance will look like;
they give feedback which helps learners ‘close
the gap’ between where they are in their learning and where they need to get
to;
they encourage learners to become more
self-regulating and reflective.
The evidence is that, done well, these practices are among
the most effective ways of improving learning and outcomes.
Assessment in this process is essentially informal, the
information teachers gather comes in many forms, for example, through classroom
dialogue, following up on unexpected answers, or recognising from puzzled looks
that the students have not understood. Tests play a part, but only if they are
used to feed directly into the teaching and learning process.
What would we expect to see in an AfL classroom?
Diagnostics. There
would beevidence of teaching and
learning that is active, with
students involved in dialogue with their teachers and classmates. This goes
beyond simple recall questions and will include seeking out students’ views
(‘what do you think….) and giving them time to think about their answers –
often with a classmate (‘pair and share’).
Clarity about learning
intentions. This requires teachers to be clear about what is to be learned,
how the lesson activities will encourage it, and where it fits in the learning
progression. They then seek to make this clear to their students by linking it
to what they have learned already and showing why it’s important. Expert
teachers will use imaginative ways of introducing the learning intentions (‘why
do you think we’re doing this?’) rather than routinely writing out the learning
objectives.
Teachers will also clarify what a successful performance
will look like, so that the learners can see the standard they need to achieve.
Teachers may do this by negotiating
with the class about what the learners think a good performance might involve
(for example: ‘what would you look for in a good oral presentation?’). Another
approach may be to exemplify the
standard by using examples of work (best as anonymous work from other
students). A teacher may give the class two pieces of work, she may then give
the class the criteria for assessing the work (no more than two or three key
criteria) and ask them, in groups, to make a judgement about their relative
quality. This also provides a vital step in being able to evaluate the quality
of their own work and become more self-regulated learners.
Giving effective feedback.Providing feedback that moves learning forward is a key, and complex, teaching skill. We know from research that feedback is hard to get right. Good feedback ‘closes the gap’ between a learner’s current performance and the standard that is to be achieved. Some of the key features in quality feedback are:
It recognises what has been done well and then
gives specific advice on what step
the learner can take next. General comments such as ‘try harder’, ‘improve your
handwriting’, or 7/10, do not provide the detail needed.
It is clear
and well-timed. The teacher gives feedback
in language the learner understands and it is given when it is most useful.
It relates
to the success criteria and focuses on the key next steps. We may sometimes
give too much feedback if we start to comment on presentational features (e.g.
spelling) when these were not part of the learning intention.
It involves action
and is achievable.
In all this, the aim of
assessment for learning is to encourage our students to increasingly think for
themselves, and have the ability and desire to regulate their own learning.
Gordon Stobartis an assessment expert that has contributed to the latest Position Paper for Oxford University Press, ‘Assessment for Learning’. Download the paper today to learn about effective feedback, close the gap between where your learners are and where they need to be, and get access to exclusive professional development events!
Gordon Stobart is Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University College London, and an honorary research fellow at the University of Oxford. Having worked as a secondary school teacher and an educational psychologist, he spent twenty years as a senior policy researcher. He was a founder member of the Assessment Reform Group, which has promoted assessment for learning internationally. Gordon is the lead author of our Assessment for Learning Position Paper.
What is Assessment for Learning?
