Formative Assessment and Theories of Learning

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Formative AssessmentandTheories of
Learning

• Paul Black
• Department of Education
• Kings College London

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Formative Assessment

• Sources of Evidence
• The Meaning of Formative
• Feedback in Discussion
• Feedback in Written Work
• Meta-cognition and Capacity to Learn
• The Formative use of Tests
• Theories of learning
• Cognition
• Motivation
• Putting into practice

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Sources of evidence

• Research review of Black Wiliam
• Many rigorous studies show that standards are
  raised by formative assessment.
• Vanderbilt analysis
• The positive effect is greater as the range of
  the formative feedback is expanded.
• Kings project work with schools
• Standards were raised
• Teachers happy about the way they had changed

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Formative Assessment

• An assessment activity can help learning if it
  provides information to be used as feedback, by
  teachers, and by their students, in assessing
  themselves and each other, to modify the teaching
  and learning activities in which they are
  engaged.
• Feedback is two-way
• Student to teacher
• Teacher to student
• Feedback can be
• oral or written
• short term or medium term

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Feedback in DiscussionQuestioning in Class

• Questioning
• My whole teaching style has become more
  interactive. Instead of showing how to find
  solutions, a question is asked and pupils given
  time to explore answers together. My Year 8
  target class is now well-used to this way of
  working. I find myself using this method more and
  more with other groups
• No hands Unless specifically asked pupils know
  not to put their hands up if they know the answer
  to a question. All pupils are expected to be able
  to answer at any time even if it is an I dont
  know.
• Supportive climatePupils are comfortable with
  giving a wrong answer. They know that these can
  be as useful as correct ones. They are happy for
  other pupils to help explore their wrong answers
  further. (Nancy, Riverside School)

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Question stems

• Why is ______ an example of ________ ?
• Why might folk believe that ______________ ?
• What might happen if you _______________ ?
• Which is the odd-one out and why?
• Sun , Moon, Earth, Venus
• piece of white paper, mirror, picture,
  television

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Changes in Questioning

• Teachers role move from presentation to
  exploration of students ideas, involving them in
  the exploration
• Students role more active, realising that
  learning depends on readiness to express and
  discuss, not on spotting right answers
• Teachers spend more effort on framing questions
  to explore issues critical to development of
  students understanding

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Dialogue Example A

• T Look carefully. Where have you seen something
  like this? You might have seen something like it
  before. What is it involved with? Its got a
  special name . . (3 go hands up - teacher selects
  one of these)
• T Yes . . . . Jay?
• Jay In electricity sir.
• T Thats right. We can use these in electric
  circuits. Anyone know what it is called? This
  word here helps. Can you read what it says?
  Carolyn?
• Carolyn Amps
• T And what is this instrument that measures in
  amps?
• Pause of 2 seconds. No hands go up
• T No? No one? Well its an ammeter because it
  measures in Amps. Whats it called Jamie?
• Jamie A clock sir

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Dialogue Example B

• Half the class put hands up. T waits 3 secs.
  Few more hands up.
• T Monica - your group? Pair?
• Monica That ones grown bigger because it was on
  the window.
• T On the window? Mmm. What do you think Jamie ?
• Jamie We thought that . . .
• T You thought . . . .?
• Jamie That the bigun had eaten up more light.
• T I think I know what Monica and Jamie are
  getting at, but can anyone put the ideas
  together? Window - Light - Plants?
• Many hands go up. T. chooses a child who has not
  put up his hand.

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Learning Principles - 1Cognitive

• Start from a learners existing understanding.
• Involve the learner actively in the learning
  process.
• Learning through discussion is essential.

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Dialogic Teaching

• Children, we now know, need to talk, and to
  experience a rich diet of spoken language, in
  order to think and to learn. Reading, writing and
  number may be acknowledged curriculum basics,
  but talk is arguably the true foundation of
  learning.
• (Robin Alexander, 2004)

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Comment-only Marking

• 132 low and high ability year 7 pupils in 12
  classes in 4 schools
• Same teaching, same aims, same teachers, same
  classwork
• Three kinds of feedback marks, comments,
  markscomments
• Feedback Gain Interest
• marks none
  top ve bottom
  -ve
• comments 30 all ve
• both none top
  ve bottom -ve

Butler(1988) Br. J. Educ. Psychol., 58 1-14
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Changes in Marking

• Teachers changed their view of the role of
  written work in promoting learning
• Teachers were challenged to compose comments on
  written work which address the learning needs of
  the individual and reflect key aspects of the
  subject
• Teachers had to give more attention to
  differentiation in feedback
• Students changed their view of the role of
  written work as part of their learning

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Peer marking
We regularly do peer markingI find this very
helpful indeed. A lot of misconceptions come to
the fore and we then discuss these as we are
going over the homework. I then go over the peer
marking and talk to pupils individually as I go
round the room. Rose, Brownfields
School The kids are not skilled in what I am
trying to get them to do. I think the process is
more effective long term. If you invest time in
it, it will pay off big dividends, this process
of getting the students to be more independent in
the way that they learn and taking the
responsibility themselves.
Tom, Riverside School
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Meta-Cognition and the Capacity to Learn
Learners need to know where they are in their
learning where they are going how to get
there Peer- and Self-Assessment help learners to
understand and work with this approach
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Self- and Peer-Assessment

• Criteria must be understood by students so they
  can apply them modelling exercises are needed
  where these are abstract
• Students must be taught to collaborate in
  peer-assessment, for this helps develop
  objectivity for self-assessment and is of
  intrinsic value
• Students should be taught to assess their
  progress as they proceed keeping the aims and
  criteria in mind - so as to become independent
  learners

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Advantages ofPeer-Assessment
All pupils can be involved They use pupil
language - and start to talk the language of the
discipline They are more honest and challenging
with one another than with their teacher Seeing
your work through the eyes of your peers helps
you to be more objective Teachers can spot
where they might best spend their time
BUT Pupils need to be trained to work
effectively in groups
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Johnson, Johnson Stanne Co-operative learning

• Review of research
  

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Rules for Effective Group Work
All students must contribute no one member
say too much or too little Every contribution
treated with respect listen thoughtfully
Group must achieve consensus work at resolving
differences Every suggestion/assertion has to
be justified arguments must include reasons
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Formative Assessment

• Sources of Evidence
• The Meaning of Formative
• Feedback in Discussion
• Feedback in Written Work
• Meta-cognition and Capacity to Learn
• The Formative use of Tests
• Reflections
• Principles of learning - cognition
• Principles of learning - motivation
• Putting it into practice

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Learning Principles - 1Cognitive

• Start from a learners existing understanding.
• Involve the learner actively in the learning
  process.
• Develop the learners overview, i.e.
  meta-cognition this requires a view of purpose,
  understanding of criteria of quality of
  achievement.
• Social learning, i.e. learning through
  discussion, is essential.

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Learning Principles-2Motivation and Self-esteem

• Those given feedback as marks are likely to see
  it as a way to compare themselves with others
  (ego-involvement), those given only comments see
  it as helping them to improve (task-involvement)
  the latter group out-perform the former (Butler,
  1987).
• Feedback given as rewards or grades enhances ego
  rather than task involvement.
• With ego-involvement, both high and low attainers
  are reluctant to take risks and react badly to
  new challenges, and failures simply damage
  self-esteem
• With task-involvement, learners believe that they
  can improve by their own effort, are willing to
  take on new challenges and to learn from failure.
• (see Self-Theories by Carol Dweck, 2000)

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Changing personality Carol Dweck

• Far from being simply encoded in the genes,
  much of personality is a fluid, flexible and
  dynamic thing that changes over our life span and
  is shaped by experience. What is more, we know
  how to alter it.
• Some people have a fixed mind-set, believing that
  their qualities, such as their intelligence, are
  simply permanent traits. Others have a growth
  mind-set, believing that their most basic
  qualities can be developed through their efforts
  and education.
• Those who posses a growth mind-set do better in
  school. They are better in business - they make
  better managers and negotiators. And they are
  more successful in their relationships.
• However, a growth mind-set can be taught

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Contact details

• e-mail paul.black_at_kcl.ac.uk
• Web-site www.kcl.ac.uk/education/research/kal.h
  tml
• Assessment for learning Putting it into
  practice.
  Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall Wiliam
  2003 Open University Press
• The black box series all published by nferNelson
• Inside the Black Box Black and Wiliam
  1998
• Working Inside the Black Box.
• Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall
  Wiliam 2002
• Science Inside the Black Box Black Harrison
  2005
• Maths Inside the Black Box Hodgen Wiliam 2006
• English Inside the Black Box Marshall Wiliam
  2006
• Geography Inside the Black Box Weeden Lambert
  2007