SBA and the challenge of integrating formative and summative assessment

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SBA and the challenge of integrating formative
and summative assessment

• David Carless
• HKU

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Preamble

• The handout complements rather than duplicates
  the slides
• Ready to use worksheets - pages 4-7
• The slides provide some of the principles and
  rationale

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Assessment functions (p.1)

• Summative assessment (the test!) is what drives
  teachers and students
• We need formative assessment (thinking learning
  feedback improvement) to do well in the test
• We need both formative and summative assessment
  they are inextricably linked both influence
  student learning.

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SBA

• The teacher plays a supportive (formative) role
• The teacher plays an evaluative role (summative)
• Tensions between the two
• Some teachers may emphasise one more than the
  other some teachers may be more skilful at one
  rather than the other

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Something important

• You need it
• I need it
• Your students need it
• Its related to assessment
• Its not easy and we need to practise it
• It takes a long time to develop it, but better to
  start young
• The ability to self-evaluate

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Self-assessment (SA)

• An aspect of formative approaches to assessment,
  essential to doing well in summative assessments
• It is NOT about awarding grades to oneself
• It involves thinking about work in relation to
  standards or criteria
• Identifying strengths and weaknesses only part
  of the story
• Identifying how to improve
• Students cant do all this on their own, they
  need input and support from the teacher.

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Conditions for improvement in learning (Sadler,
1989)

• An understanding of criteria and standards being
  aimed for
• Ability to assess your own current performance
  against these criteria
• How to close the gap between a) and b).
• Two encouraging teacher stories

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SA and learning theories

• SA is not an interesting option or luxury, it is
  essential
• (Black Wiliam, 1998)
• Self-regulation is a key to learning (Butler
  Winne, 1995)

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SA and exam preparation (McDonald Boud, 2003)

• Barbados in the Caribbean
• 10 schools X 2 classes per school
• S5 students i.e. exam class
• Control group 259 participants taught through
  normal exam preparation methods
• Experimental group 256 participants taught
  through self-assessment

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Nature of SA treatment

• Program integrated with current curriculum
• Students taught to
• - Make reasoned choices
• Give reasons for evaluations
• Apply criteria to samples
• Write example questions etc.

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Results in the high stakes public exam (maximum
score 36)

• SA group (mean)
• Business 10.2
• Humanities 15.7
• Science 8.4
• Technical studies 16.6

• Control group (mean)
• 5.00
• 9.9
• 5.3
• 10.2

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Would it work in Hong Kong?

• I believe it would, if teachers had training,
  support, belief and understanding
• It wouldnt be easy, like everything it works
  better with some students than others
• SA is worth refining or adding to your repertoire
  of teaching techniques
• Readers theatre story

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Stages in SA (p. 2-3)

• Step 1. Students could practise identifying
  qualities of something general
• Step 2. Then something educational
• Step 3. Then something SBA (oral presentation or
  group interaction)
• Step 4. Be exposed to simplified criteria for
  evaluation (e.g. see Appendix 1, p. 9)
• Step 5. Evaluate exemplars, develop the skill of
  making judgements

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Stages (continued)

• Step 6. Talk about exemplars
• Step 7. Listen to teacher guidance on exemplars,
  so as to raise their critical awareness
• Step 8. Peer feedback / peer assessment (not
  really about awarding grades) but a social form
  of SA
• Step 9. More and more practice of SA in different
  areas.

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Worksheets (pp. 4-7)

• Selected and simplified aspects of the criteria
• Aim to get students thinking about qualities and
  performance
• Mix of ticking boxes (danger of becoming
  routinised) and more open-ended answers (I want
  to do better by ).

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Implementation of self-assessment

• Ideally should be started in primary school and
  developed throughout secondary school
• Can be done on an individual level, but would be
  strengthened on a wider level
• If you think self-assessment should be done in
  Cantonese I tend to agree
• If you prefer a rule of sticking to English in
  English lessons thats also great.

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Conclusion

• SA is a way of preparing for exams (summative)
  and enhancing learning (formative)
• It can be a key component of helping students
  prepare for SBA
• It helps students to learn better
• It reduces teacher workload because students make
  less mistakes and are less dependent on the
  teacher
• If you are interested but not sure it will work,
  invite me to your school and we will make it work
  together