Assessment of, for, and as learning within schools: Implications for transforming classroom practice

1
Assessment of, for, and as learning within
schoolsImplications for transforming classroom
practice

• by
• Louis Volante (Ph.D)
• Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Brock
  University
• Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA
• Louis.Volante_at_Brocku.ca
• Paper Presented at the International Congress
• for School Effectiveness and Improvement
• Vancouver, BC
• January, 2009

2
Introduction

• Context of the present study 2 school districts
  in southern Ontario, Canada.
• Purpose is to examine administrators and teachers
  understanding and use of assessment of
  (summative) , for (formative) and as learning
  (student metacognition).
• Implications of the findings for transforming
  classroom practice and capacity building.

3
Conceptual Framework

• Overarching framework was guided by the
  assessment of, for, and as learning taxonomy
  developed by Earl (2003).
• Follow-up questions on formative assessment
  practices was informed by the research of Black
  et al. (2004)
• Questioning techniques
• Feedback without grades
• Peer-assessment
• Self-assessment
• Formative use of summative assessment

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Method Participants

• Participants included 38 educators
• 18 administrators (11 elementary, 7 secondary)
• 20 teachers (9 elementary, 11 secondary)
• Administrative experience ranged between 1 and 20
  years, with a mean of 6.0 years.
• Teaching experience ranged between 2 and 27
  years, with a mean of 11.1 years.
• 16 males and 22 females from 24 schools (15
  elementary and 9 secondary).

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Method Data Collection

• Semi-structured interviews lasting approximately
  60 minutes.
• Sample questions included
• What does assessment OF learning (summative
  assessment) mean to you and what does it look
  like in your classroom/school?
• What does assessment FOR learning (formative
  assessment) mean to you and what does it look
  like in your classroom/school?
• What does assessment AS learning (assessment that
  promotes metacognition) mean to you and what does
  it look like in your classroom/school?
• Each of the questions was accompanied with probes
  designed to
• elicit detailed responses.

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Method Data Analysis

• Coding of interview responses using the process
  of constant comparison (Bogdan Biklen, 2003).
• Domain analysis in relation to overarching
  framework (assessment of, for, and as learning).

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Results General Assessment Knowledge

• All the educators understood the distinction
  between assessment of learning and assessment for
  learning.
• Many educators were unfamiliar with the term
  assessment as learning and could not directly
  discuss its applicability within
  classrooms/schools even after the concept was
  explained to them.
• I would say from my own personal experience, I
  dont think thats been done right, as it should
  be. There are cases where they are, that
  component where they have an assessment piece,
  they teachers give it back to them students
  and they may reflect on it, so that is happening,
  but I dont think it is happening to the extent
  that we should be doing it (Secondary
  Administrator).

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Results Utilization Patterns

• Teachers in both panels openly acknowledged their
  limitations in this phase of assessment and how
  their uneasiness with assessment as learning
  often translated into very narrow applications or
  avoidance.
• Thats the one assessment as learning Im not
  really good at. I have a difficult time talking
  about things like that. Thats something that I
  try to work on more this year. I think more than
  ever before but I dont do a lot of that I never
  assess any of it. I dont do stuff student
  metacognitive activities like that (Elementary
  Teacher).
• Thats actually something that I think I need to
  improve upon Students will write reflections
  about their views on something that weve talked
  about, a certain subject but its mostly in them
  doing reflections, reflection-type questions
  (Secondary Teacher).

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Results Utilization Patterns (cont.)

• Administrators responses converged with the
  teachers responses, but suggested assessment as
  learning was a particular challenge for teachers
  in the lower grade levels and those teaching
  particular subject areas.
• I think thats assessment as learning tougher.
  Again you see teachers using a lot more visuals
  and getting that higher thinking happening in the
  classroom. I personally dont see it as much in
  the Primary/Junior divisions. I see it a little
  more in grades 5 and 6 and again it depends on
  the teachers as well and their comfort level. I
  see it more at the intermediate level. The
  resources we are getting now provide a lot of
  that for teachers so its making it easier
  (Elementary Administrator).

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Results Constraining Factors

• Factors such as lack of targeted professional
  development, time for discussion and cooperative
  learning with peers, density of the provincial
  curriculum, and student, parent, and teacher
  perspectives around assessment and evaluation,
  were all cited as areas of special concern.
• I would have to say that most of my assessment
  and evaluation learning has been on the job
  through other teachers, thats been the PD. Its
  not like youve been taken out and done a
  workshop or anything on assessment and
  evaluation. Most of the PD has come from other
  teachers, the tools that they use and things that
  they have found effective (Elementary Teacher).

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Results Constraining Factors (cont.)

• Administrators acknowledged some form of
  professional development in assessment and
  evaluation, but tended to suggested it was not as
  critical for newer teachers.
• Other administrators pointed to their own lack of
  professional development and suggested that
  classroom teachers actually have more
  opportunities for learning best practices in
  assessment and evaluation.
• One of the most salient constraining factors was
  the resistance from students, parents, and some
  teachers (as reported by administrators) to move
  away from being marks oriented.

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Implications Next Steps

• The results suggested administrators possessed a
  fairly rudimentary understanding of assessment
  for and as learning, and as a consequence, are
  not ideally positioned to provide a strong
  instructional leadership role in these phases of
  assessment.
• When this finding is considered with the overall
  trend of teachers under-utilization of
  assessment for and as learning, the prospect of
  bringing significant changes in classroom
  practice is greatly diminished given the current
  assessment capacity within contemporary schools.

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Implications and Next Steps (cont.)

• The results warrant a more sustained and targeted
  approach to building assessment capacity within
  individual schools and districts.
• Making all forms of data formative / summative,
  classroom-based / large-scale assessment, an
  integral component of school improvement, would
  also promote greater balance in the assessment
  approaches teachers utilize within their
  classrooms.
• This research is funded by the Social Sciences
  and Humanities Research Council of Canada
  (SSHRC).