2-exploring formative assessment

7/28/2019 2-Exploring Formative Assessment

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Exploring Formative Assessment

Assessment for Learning

Online Workshop

Taken fromTe Kete Ipurangi The Online Learning Centre

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/one/formative_e.php

[accessed May, 2007]
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/one/formative_e.phphttp://www.tki.org.nz/http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/one/formative_e.php


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What are summative and formative

assessment?

If we think of our children as plants

Summative assessmentof the plants is the process of simplymeasuring them. It might be interesting to compare and analyse

measurements but, in themselves, these do not affect the growth of

the plants.

Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the equivalent of

feeding and watering the plants appropriate to their needs - directly

affecting their growth.

The garden analogy
http://www.tki.org.nz/


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Formative and summative assessment

Formative and summative assessment are interconnected. They

seldom stand alone in construction or effect.

The vast majority of genuine formative assessment is informal, withinteractive and timely feedback and response.

It is widely and empirically argued that formative assessment has the

greatest impacton learning and achievement.


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Some definitions

Formative assessment

often means no more than that the assessment is carried outfrequently and is planned at the same time as teaching.

(Black and Wiliam, 1999) provides feedback which leads to students recognising the

(learning) gap and closing it it is forward looking (Harlen, 1998)

includes both feedback and self-monitoring. (Sadler, 1989)

is used essentially to feed back into the teaching andlearning process. (Tunstall and Gipps, 1996)


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Some definitions

Summative assessment

assessment (that) has increasingly been used to sum uplearning (Black and Wiliam, 1999)

looks at past achievements

adds procedures or tests to existing work

... involves only marking and feedback grades to student

is separated from teaching

is carried out at intervals when achievement has to besummarised and reported. (Harlen, 1998)


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The Black Box: findings

1. Providing effective feedback to students.

2. Students active involvement in their own learning.

3. Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of

assessment.

4. Recognising the profound influence of assessment on

students motivation and self-esteem - both crucial influences

on learning.

5. Ensuring pupils assess themselves and understand how to

improve.

Black and Wiliams research indicates that improving learning through

assessment depends on five deceptively simple factors:


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Implications for classroom practice

Sharing learning goals with students.

Involving students in self-assessment.

Providing feedback that helps students recognise their next steps

and how to take them.

Being confident that every student can improve.


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The test of a successful education is not the amount of knowledge

that a student takes away from a school, but the appetite to know

and the capacity to learn.

If a school sends out students with a desire for knowledge andsome idea of how to acquire and use it, it will have done its work.

Too many students leave school with the appetite killed and the

mind loaded with undigested lumps of information.(Abbott, 1999)

What do we want for our students?


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Convergent and divergent models

Torrance and Pryor (1998) suggest a framework of convergent and

divergent models for formative assessment.

Convergent assessment aims to discoverwhetherthe learner knows,understands or can do a pre-determined thing.

Divergent assessment aims to discoverwhatthe learner knows,understands or can do.


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The two approaches

The methods of assessment will vary according to whether the teacher seesthe task as convergent or divergent.

Convergent

Tick-lists, can-do statements

Closed questions

Focus on contrasting errors with correctresponses

Judgmental, quantitative evaluation

Student as a recipient of assessments

Precise planning and an intention tostick to it

Divergent

Open recordings, narratives

Open-ended questions

Focus on miscues which give insights intothe learners understanding

Student as an initiator and recipient ofassessment

Flexible or complex planning, withalternatives

Descriptive rather than judgmentalevaluation


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Identifying the differences

Convergent assessment might be seen less as formative

assessment than as repeated summative assessment, or

continuous assessment.

Divergent assessment correlates more closely to contemporarytheories of learning, and accommodates the complexity offormative assessment.


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What they represent

Convergent assessmentrepresents:

A behaviourist view of learning.

An intention to teach or assessthe next pre-determined thing ina linear progression.

A view of assessment asaccomplished by the teacher.

Divergent assessmentrepresents:

A constructivist view oflearning.

A non-linear development.

A view of assessment as

accomplished jointly by theteacher and the student.


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Torrance and Pryor (1998) suggest approaching some assessment

tasks in a convergent manner, but also argue that appreciating the

two assessment modes and moving from one to the other in a

principled way, will enhance the formative impact of classroom

assessment.


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Assessment references

Abbott, J. (1999, January). Battery hens or free range chickens: What kind ofeducation for what kind of world? Journal of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, 112.

Black, P. J., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning.Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 5(1), 774.

Clarke, S. (2001). Unlocking formative assessment: Practical strategies forenhancing pupils learning in the primary classroom. London: Hodder andStoughton.

Clarke, S., Timperley, H., & Hattie, J. (2003). Unlocking formative assessment:Practical strategies for enhancing pupils learning in the primary and intermediateclassroom (New Zealand ed.). Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett.

Gipps, C., McCallum, B., & Hargreaves, E. (2000). What makes a good primaryschool teacher? London: Routledge Falmer.


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Assessment references

Green, J. M. (1998, February). Constructing the way forward for all students. Aspeech delivered at Innovations for Effective Schools OECD/New Zealand jointfollow-up conference, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Harlen, W. (1998) Classroom assessment: A dimension of purposes andprocedures. In K. Carr (Ed.), SAMEpapers (pp. 7587). Hamilton, New Zealand:Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Educational Research, University

of Waikato.

Hattie, J. (1999, August). Influences on student learning. Inaugural lecture:Professor of Education, University of Auckland.

Sadler, R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems.Instructional Science, 18, 11944.

Torrance, H., & Pryor, J. (1998). Investigating formative assessment: Teaching andlearning in the classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Tunstall, P., & Gipps, C. (1996). Teacher feedback to young children in formativeassessment: A typology. British Educational Research Journal, 22(4).

2-exploring formative assessment

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