Developing "Assessment Capable" Learners

Assessment Matters, 2014

The report Directions for Assessment in New Zealand (Absolum, Flockton, Hattie, Hipkins, & Reid, 2009) envisages an "assessment capable" system where students are empowered to become selfregulated learners. This article explores the concept of assessment capability. It considers what it means to be an assessment-capable teacher in New Zealand, the lessons that have been learned in this area, and why the realisation of the assessment-capable student may be challenging. It examines the critical roles that teachers play in meeting three key conditions (Sadler, 1989) needed for students to acquire evaluative and productive knowledge and skills. Finally, it suggests ways that teachers may be supported to become assessmentcapable professionals.

Frontiers in Education, 2017

Research over several years has found that "effective learners tend to monitor and regulate their own learning and, as a result, learn more and have greater academic success in school" (Andrade, 2010, p. 90). In New Zealand primary schools, the primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve students' learning and teachers' teaching as both respond to the information it provides. To bring this purpose to fruition, teachers need to be educated to facilitate genuine engagement by learners in assessment processes; known in New Zealand as having assessment capability. In this study, we investigated to what extent, and how, teacher candidates learn to involve their students in formative assessment of their own work. Participants were a cohort of undergraduate, elementary school teacher candidates in a 3-year undergraduate program taught across three campuses at one university in New Zealand. Surveys and interviews were used to investigate assessment capability. Although the survey results suggested the teacher candidates may be developing such capability, the interviews indicated that assessment capability was indeed an outcome of the program. Our findings demonstrate that these teacher candidates understood the reasons for involving their students and are beginning to develop the capability to teach and use assessment in these ways. However, developing assessment capability was not straight forward, and the findings demonstrate that more could have been done to assist the teacher candidates in seeing and understanding how to implement such practices. Our data indicate that a productive approach would be to partner teacher candidates with assessment capable teachers and with university lecturers who likewise support and involve the teacher candidates in goal setting and monitoring their own learning to teach.

Routledge eBooks, 2017

The thesis of this chapter is that college-and career-ready students must be active agents in their own learning. Skills related to student agency are developed in assessment contexts, specifically through formative assessment practices, modeled at first in teacher-student interactions, and subsequently applied by students themselves in self-regulation and peer-to-peer feedback (Clark, 2012; Cowie, 2012). Agentive self-regulation is developed in classrooms where the skill is valued by teachers, time is set aside for its development, and a classroom culture is created that forwards its emergence (Paris & Paris, 2001). Assessment has two fundamental purposes: summative and formative (National Research Council [NRC], 2001). The key difference between them is how assessment information is used-either to guide and advance learning during the process of learning or to obtain evidence of what students have learned after a period of teaching and learning, typically after several weeks, at the end of a semester, or annually. While results of assessment for summative purposes are often used beyond the classroom (e.g., accountability, making decisions about student placement, certification, curriculum, and programs), formative assessment rests entirely with teachers and students in order to advance learning day by day in their classrooms (Heritage, 2010, 2013; Klenowski, 2009; Swaffield, 2011). Notably, formative assessment is not just for teachers; students are actively involved in the assessment process. A key practice in formative assessment is for students to monitor their progress against established learning goals and performance criteria, to compare a current learning state with the goal and criteria, and then to make judgments about how they can attain their goals (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Sadler, 1989). The student role in formative assessment is consistent with contemporary perspectives on learning that acknowledge the importance of learner agency, understood as the ability to actively manage one's own learning through setting goals, monitoring progress toward those goals, and adapting learning approaches to optimize learning (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011). If learner agency is to be supported, the assessment relationship between teacher and students must change from vertical to horizontal. Most often, assessment operates in a vertical relationship, as for example, when students take a test at the end of a period of instruction and are just informed of their results, or when they are assigned a grade. In formative assessment, the relationship becomes a horizontal one, where students receive feedback about their learning from teachers, peers, and their own self-monitoring process, so that they can make judgments about the actions they need to take to advance learning. This chapter examines how, when the assessment relationship is changed in formative assessment, students can be empowered to be active agents in their own learning. The first section provides background on formative assessment, which is followed by a discussion of the "spirit" and the "letter" of formative assessment that has direct bearing on student agency. The chapter then addresses feedback as a core practice of formative assessment and of student

2021

The process of classroom assessment can serve an important role in enhancing student motivation and achievement. Teachers can help enhance student performance by sharing clearly defined learning goals Through student involvement in the assessment process, students learn to take responsibility for their own learning. This feeling of accountability and control may increase the students' intrinsic motivation to learn and can heighten success. Also, teachers have the opportunity to help students succeed through the implementation and communication of quality assessments.

2004

Assessment"s power in bettering learning and rising achievement is widely recognized in recent years. However, recent studies on assessment practices in sub-Saharan African countries clearly indicate that in reality the assessment"s actual power in improving learning remain unharnessed! As current assessment practice is limited to the use of snapshots written tests and examinations which mainly measure memorized facts and provide very little information (in form of grades/scores) on how to improve instructions and learning in schools. This article proposes ways through which assessment can used by teachers to improve teaching and learning in secondary school classrooms. Proposed ways are embedding assessment with teaching and learning process, sharing learning intentions with students, sharing success criteria with students, informing instructions using assessment data, promoting students" self-assessment and peerassessment, giving opportunities for students to express their understanding, providing effective feedback and building confidence for success in teachers and students. The article concludes by highlighting the implications of the proposed ways for policy practices.

Mathematics Education Research Journal, 2005

2013

This chapter has as its focus the assessment of learning. Assessing learning has taken many forms, and understanding its history helps to explain the educational systems that are in place currently. Defining the term, assessment, can be difficult because some definitions focus on diagnostic approaches that learning specialists use to assess learning disabilities or differences while others take it to mean evaluation. More recently, assessment has taken on an accountability emphasis. Assessment of learning may mean standardized testing that is mandated by the state. In higher education, assessment has a distinctly bureaucratic flavor, as it is required for accreditation. With assessment taking on this administrative focus, some of its value to improve the learning/teaching process is lost. This chapter addresses the history of assessment in education and provides examples of authentic assessment tools. Future trends in assessment are also presented.

TEACHING Exceptional Children, 2005