Assessment for Learning Strategies: Merging theory and practice within SA realities

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Assessment for Learning Strategies Merging
theory and practice within SA realities

• Sarah Howie,
• CEA, University of Pretoria
• Presented at the GDE Assessment for Learning
  Conference, May 2006, Johannesburg

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Overview

• Introduction
• Positioning authentic assessment
• Effective assessment for learning strategies
• Questioning
• Peer and self-assessment
• Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
  in most/all SA classrooms
• Conclusions

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Introduction

• Assessment the process of collecting,
  synthesizing and interpreting information to aid
  in decision making
• Test formal, systematic, usually
  paper-and-pencil procedure used to gather
  information about pupils
• Measurement process of quantifying or assigning
  a number to pupils performance
• Evaluation judging the quality of a pupils
  performance or determining a possible course of
  action
• Airaisian, p.8-9

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Introduction

• Traditional assessments developed to measure
  traits with paper and pencil tests, e.g.
  multiple-choice and essay
• Alternative assessments those based on a
  different philosophy goal to provide stronger
  link between instruction assessment make
  learning more significant
• McMillan, (20019-10)
• constitute an alternative to traditional,
  paper-and-pencil tests.
• Popham, (2002175)

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Introduction

• Authentic assessment constructed to be more
  consistent with what people do in situations that
  occur naturally outside classroom
• Performance assessments students are required
  to demonstrate a skill or proficiency by
  creating, producing or doing something,
• McMillan, (2001 p.9-10)

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Positioning authentic assessment
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Harlen, 2006
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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Purposes of assessment
• Establish classroom equilibrium
• Plan and conduct instruction
• Place pupils
• Provide feedback
• Diagnose pupil problems
• Judge and grade academic learning and progress
• Airasian, (20014)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Why assessment for learning?
• as opposed (or in addition to?)
• to assessment for assessment or assessment of
  learning for reporting sake?

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Black Wiliam and the Assessment Reform Group
  (ARG) in UK
• Evidence of learning gains - applying formative
  assessment
• Formative assessment was weak in current teacher
  practices
• Feedback is only effective if used as a guide to
  improvement

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Depends on
• Effective feedback to pupils
• Active pupil involvement
• Adjusting teaching to take account of results of
  their assessment
• (ARG, 19994)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Recognition of the profound influence assessment
  has on the motivation and esteem of pupils
• The need for pupils to be able to assess
  themselves and understand how to improve
• (ARG, 1999 4)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Including
• Sharing learning with pupils
• Involving pupils in self-assessment
• Providing feedback - pupils recognizing next
  steps and how to take them
• Believing that every pupils can improve
• ARG (19997)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Inhibiting factors
• Tendency for teachers to assess quantity of work
  and presentation rather than quality of learning
• Greater attention given to marking and grading,
  much of it tending to lower self-esteem of
  pupils, rather than to provide advice for
  improvement
• ARG,(19995)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Inhibiting factors
• A strong emphasis on comparing pupils with each
  other which demoralizes the less successful
  learners
• Teachers feedback to pupils often serves
  managerial and social purposes rather than
  helping them learn more effectively
• ARG (19995)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies
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Effective assessment for learning strategies
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Collated from James, p.53-58 in Gardner, 2006
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Collated from James, p.53-58 in Gardner, 2006
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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Teachers should be skilled in
• choosing assessments - appropriate, depending on
  technical adequacy, usefulness, convenience and
  fairness for instructional decisions.
• developing all types of assessments.
• administering, scoring and interpreting -
  standardized tests and classroom assessments
• using assessment results to make decisions re
  individual students, instruction, curriculum and
  school improvement.
• McMillan (20019)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• developing rationale, justifiable, and fair
  procedures for grading students.
• communicating assessment results to students,
  parents, other lay audiences and other educators
  and finally,
• recognizing and practicing sound ethics and legal
  requirements.
• McMillan (20019)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• School administrators should
• understand assessment standards for teachers
• understand and apply basic concepts of assessment
  and measurement theory
• McMillan (20019)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• understand different purposes of different types
  of assessments
• understand and communicate measurement
  terminology
• recognize appropriate and inappropriate uses of
  assessments and follow ethical guidelines
• McMillan (20019)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• know how to construct appropriate and useful
  assessments
• know how to accurately interpret and
  appropriately use assessment results.
• understand how interpretation of assessment
  results is moderated by student characteristics
• McMillan (20019)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• be able to evaluate an assessment program or
  strategy
• use computer-based assessment tools.
• McMillan (20019)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Guidelines
• Perform complete sizing up assessments of pupils
  needs and characteristics
• Use sizing up assessment information when
  planning
• Do not rely entirely and uncritically on
  textbooks and accompanying aids when planning
• Airasian (200197)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Include a combination of low- and higher- level
  objectives
• Align objectives, teaching strategies and planned
  assessments
• Recognize own knowledge and pedagogical
  limitations
• Airasian (200197)

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Include a broad sample of pupils when assessing
  instruction
• Supplement informal assessment information with
  more formal information about pupil learning
• Use appropriate questioning techniques and
  strategies to assess pupil learning
• Airasian (2001133-135)

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Black Wiliam Model
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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Teachers, learners and subject discipline
• Teachers more aware of quality of their questions
  responses to students questions

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Teachers role and regulation of learning
• Teachers shifting from
• what am I going to teach and
• what are pupils going to do? to
• how am I going to teach this and
• what are the pupils going to learn?

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Feedback and student-teacher interaction
• Central feature in formative assessment the
  student. Interaction between student-teacher is
  crucial.

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• Students role in learning
• Student need to change to
• active learners
• from
• passive recipients.

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Effective assessment for learning strategies

• formative use of summative assessment
• questioning
• feedback by marking
• student peer-and self assessment
• Harlen, 2006

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Questioning

• Why ask questions?
• To promote attention
• keep attention of pupils
• To promote deeper processing
• pupils verbalise thoughts and ideas
• To promote learning from peers
• hear peers interpretations and explanations
• Airasian, (2001135)

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Questioning

• To provide reinforcement
• reinforce important points and ideas
• To provide pace and control
• keep continuous attention
• To provide diagnostic information
• provide teachers with information re pupils
• Airasian, (2001135)

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Questioning

• Types of questions higher and lower level
  questions
• Convergent questions have one correct answer
• What is the capital of Brazil?
• Divergent questions may have many appropriate
  answers
• What are the benefits of good education?
• Need both types of questions

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Questioning

• Typology of questions
• open-ended
• Diagnostic
• information
• challenge
• action
• sequence
• prediction
• extension
• Generalisation
• Christensen, (1991)

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Questioning

• Give pupils enough time to respond
• thinking in pairs, or groups
• Give pupils a choice of different possible
  answers
• ask them to vote on options
• Ask all pupils to write down an answer
• then read out a selected few
• Black and Wiliam, (1998)

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Questioning

• Ask questions related to important objectives
• Avoid global, overly general questions
• Be aware of patterns in distributing questions
  among pupils
• State questions clearly and directly to avoid
  confusion
• Airasian, (200084-86)

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Questioning

• Probe student responses with follow-up questions
• Allow private questioning time for shy and
  difficult to engage with pupils
• Remember that oral questioning is a social
  process involving interaction between teacher and
  pupils in public setting.
• Airasian, (200084-86)

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Questioning

• Invite students to elaborate
• say a little bit more about.
• Echo
• so you think that.
• Non-verbal invitations
• eye contact, tilt of head, nod etc
• Make a personal contribution from your own
  experience
• I remember
• Clarify ideas
• I can tell that is the case because.
• UK National Literacy Strategy

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Questioning

• Make a suggestion
• You could try..
• Reflect on topics
• yes, I sometimes think that
• Offer information or make observation on a topic
• it might be useful to know that
• Speculate on a given subject
• encourage students to explore ideas
  uncertainty is a normal stage in thinking process
• UK National Literacy Strategy

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Questioning

• Most important!!!
• To understand link between question and learning
  intention underlying question

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Peer and self-assessment

• Students working in groups, peer assessment
  valuable way of implementing formative assessment
  
• (Sadler, 1989, 1998).

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Peer and self-assessment

• Assessment for learning requires effective group
  work.
• Peer assessment is very demanding on students
  social and communication skills
• listening,
• turn-taking,
• clear and concise verbal and written expression,
• empathy
• sensitivity.
• Seeba, (2006191)

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Peer and self-assessment

• Peer assessments used to give feedback on each
  others regular presentations of work and on
  teamwork skills.
• In pairs use criteria provided by the teacher to
  give each other feedback on ways of improving
  quality of work.

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Peer and self-assessment

• Training children to be self-evaluative during
  whole-class sharing
• explain to class purpose of self-evaluation
  sessions
• repeat the learning intention during lesson
• display a range of self-evaluative questions at
  end of lessons
• Clarke, Timperly and Hattie, (200346)

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Peer and self-assessment

• start by modeling possible answers might have to
  questions and asking them not to answer questions
  yet (to stop high-achievers hijacking session)
• after training period, choose one question and
  link it to learning intention, e.g. what are you
  most pleased with about understanding pushes and
  pulls

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Peer and self-assessment

• allow short period of time (15-30 seconds) of
  thinking time (heads down, eyes down, dont move)
• use a variety of approaches for different days
  whole class responses, paired responses, group
  responses (2-10 mins)
• avoid getting children to write own
  self-evaluations

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Peer and self-assessment

• Critical that teachers deal with situations that
  children find difficult or get stuck

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Peer and self-assessment

• Impact of self evaluation on learners is overall
  rise in self-esteem
• More likely to ask for help
• More in control of own learning
• Begin to set own targets and goals
• Enjoy finding others have similar thoughts
• Children enthusiastic about self- evaluation
  sessions
• (Clarke et al,2003 50)

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Peer and self-assessment

• Impact on teachers
• Teachers more insight into pupils learning
• Time is an issue
• Teachers found whole-class sharing time more
  focused and relevant
• (Clarke et al,2003 54)

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Peer and self-assessment

• Students identify own individual learning targets
  and at regular intervals have time to writing
  reflections on own learning, their team learning
  and achievement of targets.
• Some students are taught to assess themselves
  against standards. (e.g. students in Australia
  and Canada)
• Sebba, (2006190)

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Peer and self-assessment

• Self-assessment,
• may be even more powerful once students have a
  good understanding of the criteria with
  development of skills in self-assessment,
  learners can develop as own coaches and critics.
• Lissitz Schafer, p.70

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms
How practical is its application in the SA
classroom? multilingual, multicultural and
inclusive classes
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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Tension between philosophy of learning in
  intended curriculum and that of implemented
  curriculum

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Preparation
• of teachers

• dependability of assessment is enhanced when
  teachers have a thorough understanding of the
  goals and of the nature of progression towards
  them PROBLEM when you have poorly prepared
  teachers.
• Harlen, (2006107)

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Preparation of lessons
• Knowledge of developmental criteria

• To develop students understanding and skills
  teachers need to have in mind some developmental
  criteria in order to see how the goals of
  specific lessons are linked to the progression of
  more general concepts and skills,
• Harlen, (2006116).

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Inadequate training of teachers
• large classes
• under-resourced classrooms

• Inadequate training and resources are obvious
  threats to formative assessment. In large and
  badly resourced classrooms, ideas of individual
  feedback or of regular groupwork are
  non-starters.
• Stobart, p.137-140

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Teachers beliefs

• Entrenched views on teaching and learning may
  undermine or support formative assessment
• Stobart, (2006137-140)

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Communication
• Language of learning
• Literacy in home

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Challenges to implementing authentic assessment
in most/all SA classrooms

• Inclusive education
• Poor comprehension
• Poor auditory skills
• Poor visual skills
• Time constraints
• Anxiety
• Embarrassment
• Variability of behaviour

• Understanding directions, completing assessments
• Understanding oral directions, assessment tasks,
  and questions being distracted by noises
• Understanding written directions, assessment
  tasks and questions, decoding symbols and letters
  being distracted by visual cues.
• Finishing assessments
• Finishing assessments and being able to think
  clearly demonstrating best work
• Finishing assessments, being reluctant to ask
  questions
• Finishing assessments demonstrating best work

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Conclusions

• For authentic assessment to lead to learning
• classroom context must be supportive and feedback
  to learners productive

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Conclusions

• Conditions
• 1. trust and motivation
• student feels safe to admit difficulties and
  teacher is constructive and encouraging
• motivation both teacher commitment to students
  learning and students own motivation to learn
  and improve.
• Crooks (2001)

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Conclusions

• Also students must trust that teachers know what
  is to be learned
• includes both teachers knowledge of task,
  criteria and standards to be met
• Crooks (2001)
• how effectively these are communicated to the
  learner
• Clarke, (2001, 2005).

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Conclusions

• Students must understand
• what they are supposed to be learning
• what reaching the intended standard will
  involve.
• Crooks (2001)

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Conclusions

• Assessment for learning compared to assessment of
  learning for reporting
• No sharp division between formative and summative
  assessment
• Both are important
• What is more important is striving for good
  assessment
• Harlen, p113

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How do we achieve effective assessment?

• Need a clear conception of all intended learning
  outcomes
• A variety of assessment procedures must be used
• The instructional relevance of the procedures
  must be considered
• An adequate sample of student performance is
  needed
• Gronlund, p.18-21

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How do we achieve effective assessment?

• Procedures must be fair to all
• Specifications of criteria for judging successful
  performance are required
• Feedback to students must emphasise strengths of
  performance and weaknesses to be corrected
• Must be supported by comprehensive grading and
  reporting system
• Gronlund, p.18-21

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THESE CHILDREN RELY ON US TO MAKE IT WORK
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Thank you

• Email sarah.howie_at_up.ac.za