Assessment, Teaching and Theories of Learning

Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2009

This paper is based on a study of classroom practice of primary school teachers who were engaged in a programme of professional development to implement formative assessment in their classrooms. The programme sought to develop the skills and expertise of teachers to enable formative assessment to be used to support and improve the learning of students. This study examined changes in practice in these teachers' classrooms, their students' learning experiences, pedagogical decision-making, and the challenges experienced by teachers and students in developing assessment for learning. Activity theory was used as an analytical tool and enabled the identification of important contradictions in the changing system that produced tensions and difficulties but also provided driving forces for change. The development of formative assessment practices was of necessity accompanied by a culture change in the complex classroom systems. For teachers change was characterised as a process of expansive learning that was motivated by a contradiction between the teachers' beliefs about learning and the existing culture in the classroom. The change in classroom practice was enabled by the formative assessment philosophy and a range of mediating artefacts.

Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2017

Educational assessments define what aspects of learning will formally be given credit and therefore have a huge impact upon teaching and learning. Although the impact of high-stakes national and international assessments on teaching and learning is considered in the literature, remarkably, there is little research on the connection between theories of learning and educational assessments. Given the voluminous assessment that takes place annually in systematic ways in most many nations, it is surprising that more has not been gained from these assessments in the development of theories of learning and vice versa. In this article we consider both theories of learning and assessment and draw the main message of the article, that if assessments are to serve the goals of education, then theories of learning and assessment should be developing more closely with each other. We consider fundamental aspects of assessment theory, such as constructs, unidimensionality, invariance and quantifiability, and in doing so, we distinguish between educational and psychological assessment. Second, we show how less traditionally considered cases of a) international assessments and b) Assessment for Learning affect student learning. Through these cases we illustrate the otherwise somewhat theoretical discussion in the article. We argue that if assessment is to serve the learning goals of education, then this discussion on the relationship between assessment and learning should be developed further and be at the forefront of high-stakes, large-scale educational assessments.

This paper examines the dynamics of interaction between assessment, curriculum and pedagogy in the context of classroom based formative assessment practices

Deeply embedded in the current education system is assessment. Within education, assessment is used to track and predict pupil achievement and can be defined as a means by which pupil learning is measured (Ronan, 2015). The delivery of teaching and learning within schools is often predetermined by what is assessed, with pupils actively being taught how to achieve the success criteria (appendix 7a). Recognised as a key professional competency of teachers (GTCNI, 2011) and the 6th quality in the Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2011), assessment can be outlined as ‘the systematic collection, interpretation and use of information to give a deeper appreciation of what pupils know and understand, their skills and personal capabilities, and what their learning experiences enable them to do’ (CCEA, 2013: 4). The aims of the current essay are to venture further into the role of assessment in teaching and learning, paying particular attention to how formative and summative forms of assessment contribute to the discipline; and what impact these have at the classroom and the school level for both teachers and learners. The paper will examine my own experiences of using formative and summative assessment in the classroom, looking specifically at the summative processes I am aware of, before evaluating the purpose of Independent Thinking Time (ITT) and Talk Partners (TP); and how formative assessment can take place within these. In addition to this, the essay will also explore the role of Closing the Gaps (CTGs) in marking, and how questioning can assess conceptual understanding. These will be evaluated against the Teachers’ Standards. The essay will endeavour to foreground some potential challenges with formative and summative assessment (including what I have learned about assessment), before identifying some areas for future development and the strategies to facilitate these.

Assessments are sometimes ambiguous and not always aligned to learning outcomes or rubrics, causing confusion between stakeholders. At Charles Darwin University (CDU) this problem is often first identified by students, where during one-on-one consultations with the Academic Language and Learning (ALL) team, they present with questions seeking clarification on the purpose and meaning of an assessment task. While these tasks would often benefit from rewording , they cannot be altered in the current delivery of the course. To help address this problem, two interrelated frameworks have been developed: the Assessing Assessment (AA) framework 1 is used to diagnose where assessments are lacking in purpose, meaning and alignment; and the Challenge/Support (C/S) framework 2 uses the above diagnosis to plan for the necessary ALL support to ensure a challenging yet achievable task. This paper describes the frameworks and their development and discusses their application through a case study. The paper suggests that beyond the practicality of using the frameworks in a responsive way to provide 'just-in-time' curriculum-integrated student learning support, they also have the potential to be used in a proactive way to improve assessment design and plan for integrated ALL support where problems can be preempted. This transition from a temporary to a long-term application is discussed.

The success of the teaching and learning process depends on the ability of the teacher to use appropriate methods in the teaching process as well as assessment. With a wide range of assessment methods, every teacher must carefully select the right method in order to determine the progress of each learner before the end of the lesson, session, unit or course. Despite the differences or similarities in the assessment methods, it is crucial to remember that the assessment process should have goals that include improving the learning process for the sake of the learner. For this assignment, I will be comparing the Formative and Benchmarking methods of assessment as experienced and witnessed in my career.

Teacher Development, 2005

Learning how to Learn-in classrooms, schools and networks' is a fouryear, multi-site project funded under the Economic and Social Research Council Teaching and Learning Research Programme and concerned with the development of formative assessment practice. This article describes how analysis of a large double-scale questionnaire administered across project schools provided not only information about trends in teacher values and practices, but also a basis for observation, analysis and discourse about classroom practice. A group of secondary Postgraduate Certificate of Education trainees were provided with a semi-structured observational framework derived from factor analysis of questionnaire responses in order to guide their observation of classroom video and analysis of teacher interviews. While all trainees were able to identify effective practice and to relate it to their own evolving craft knowledge, for a minority the framework also provided a focus for enquiry and dialogue about the relationships and tensions between the values and practices of the featured teachers and of the participating trainees themselves.

The this paper has two foci. The first is to present an account of how we developed formative assessment practices with a group of 36 teachers. This is then complemented by a reflection on the productive and positive experience of these teachers, in the light of learning principles, of changes in the roles of teachers and pupils in the task of learning, and of effects on the self-esteem and motivation of pupils. Attention then shifts to the second focus, which is on the ways in which these teachers struggled with the interface between formative assessment and summative testing. The conclusion is that the potential of enhanced classroom assessment to raise standards may never be fully realised unless the regimes of assessment for the purposes of accountability and certification of pupils are reformed.

Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2012

Education and schooling involve not only materials to be taught or how they should be taught but also how the teaching and learning are assessed. Studying teachers" conceptions is important, as it relates to beliefs which influence teaching practices, including assessment. This article reviews several studies on teachers" conceptions and practices of assessment conducted in six different countries. The objective of the study is to presents teachers" conceptions of the role of assessment in teaching and learning from different contexts. Data were obtained from a careful review of international articles on the study of teachers" conception of assessment using inclusion and exclusion criteria. The result of the review reveals that assessment relates to learning improvement and support the use of various strategies and tools in assessing students. However, the six different countries in the review interpret improvement in different ways which is influenced by several factors. Implications and suggestions for further study are also provided.