Inside the Black Box

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Inside the Black Box

• Formative Assessment

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New Evaluation Structure for Teachers

• All observations will be evaluative in nature
• The primary points in observation will be to
  highlight what is wrong and teacher weaknesses
• Observation notes will be general in nature.
  Teachers should be able to determine specific
  steps to improve.

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New Evaluation Structure for Teachers

• It is primarily up to the teacher to correct what
  is found to be weaknesses.
• Observations will be by checklist to ensure
  compliance.
• Teachers will be ranked based upon
  observations/evaluations.
• Past evaluations will not be taken into account.

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Just Kidding
But it is a little like we assess our
students! Lets take a closer look at how
formative assessment can make a big difference.
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Difficulties in AssessmentEffective Learning

• Tests encourage rote and superficial learning
  even when teachers say they want to develop
  understanding
• Questions and other materials are not shared with
  other teachers and not critically reviewed in
  relation to what they actually access
• Tendency to emphasize quantity and presentation
  or work and neglect quality in relation to
  learning

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Difficulties in AssessmentNegative Impact

• The giving of marks and the grading function are
  overemphasized, while the giving of useful advise
  and the learning function are underemphasized.
• Approaches are used in which students are
  compared with one another, the prime purpose of
  which seems to them to be competition rather than
  personal improvement.

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Difficulties in AssessmentManagerial Role

• Feedback to students seems to serve social and
  managerial functions, often at the expense of the
  learning function.
• Teachers can predict students results on
  external tests because their own test imitate
  them but know too little about students
  learning needs.
• The collection of grades to fill in records is
  given higher priority than the analysis of
  students work to discern the learning needs.

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Focus of Most Reforms
Black Box (classroom)
Input
Output
There is a need now to move further, to focus on
the inside of the black box and so to explore
the potential of assessment to raise standards
directly as an integral part of each students
learning work.
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Focus of Most Reforms
Black Box (classroom)
Input
Output
Quality of teacher / student interactions Stimulus
and help for students to take active
responsibility for their own learning Help needed
to move students out of trap of low
achievement Development of habits necessary for
students to become life long learners
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Formative Assessment Message

• Feedback to any student should be about the
  particular qualities of his or her work, with
  advice on what he or she can do to improve, and
  should avoid comparisons with other students.

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Self-Assessment by Students Clear goals Critical

• Recognition of desired goal
• Evidence about present position
• Understanding of a way to close the gap between
  the two

If formative assessment is to be productive,
students should be trained in self-assessment so
that they can understand the main purposes of
their learning and thereby grasp what they need
to do to achieve.
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Evolution of Effective Teaching

• The choice of tasks justified in terms in the
  learning goals

Opportunities for students to express their
understanding should be designed into any piece
of teaching, for this will initiate the
interaction through which formative assessment
aids learning.
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Evolution of Effective Teaching

• Teacher Student Interactions engaging
  meaningful dialogue

The dialogue between students and a teacher
should be thoughtful, reflective, focused to
evoke and explore understanding, and conducted so
that all students have an opportunity to think
and to express their ideas.
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Evolution of Effective Teaching

• Belief in the learning potential of all students
  thus we need to clear the way the obstacles of
  learning

Ways of managing formative assessment that work
with the assumptions of untapped potential do
help all students to learn and can give particual
help to those who have previously struggled.
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Steps to Implementation
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What Others Do To Us
Black Box (classroom)
Input
Output
What we have to figure out for ourselves TEAMWORK
"Results Now"
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