RESEARCH BRIEF

Components of FA: Based on the research literature, the FACETS program identified

four critical components of FA that teachers should implement to help students address

the questions above. The critical components are:

1. Defining learning targets and criteria for successfully criteria achieving them, and sharing these with students to help them manage their learning

2. Eliciting and interpreting evidence of students’ thinking to assess their understanding

3. Offering formative feedback that scaffolds continued learning

4. Supporting student engagement and ownership of their learning

The FACETS program also identified two supporting components, or background

conditions, that promote successful FA:

1. Articulating learning progressions to aide in the development of content

understanding

2. Creating a classroom environment conducive to FA that includes creating space for collaboration and defining norms and expectations

Although both teachers and students have a role in the formative assessment (FA)1

process, much of the professional development (PD) for FA focuses only on the role

of teachers in the classroom. The research summarized in this brief describes a PD

model that emphasizes the roles of both teachers and students in FA with the

primary goal of helping students become self-regulated learners. This PD program

helped strengthen teachers’ knowledge of FA and was associated with increases in

the number of teachers implementing FA, including practices that allow for greater

student participation.

Findings on Engaging Teachers and Students in Formative Assessment

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOUThe research summarized in this brief suggests

that professional development (PD) for formative

assessment (FA) can produce stronger outcomes

when it focuses on the roles of both teachers and

students in the classroom. Professional

developers should design PD experiences with

clear learning goals and success criteria in mind

and should share these with the participating

teachers. Clear learning goals help to focus PD

experiences for both teachers and PD facilitators.

Researchers interested in better understanding

the challenges and benefits of FA could consider

further investigations of effective ways to help

students build ownership and self-regulation of

their own learning, which this study found to be

the biggest challenge for teachers.

BY JENNIFER STILES AND JO LOUIE | EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTER DECEMBER 2016

Context This PD model was developed and tested by EDC researchers through the National

Science Foundation-funded project Formative Assessment in the Mathematics

Classroom: Engaging Teachers and Students (FACETS). Beginning in 2010, the

FACETS team designed and investigated a two-year PD course to support middle

sch ool mathematics teachers in implementing the critical components of FA to help

students become self-regulated learners who can answer and act on the following

questions: 1) What are my learning goals? 2) Where am I in relation to those goals?

3) What do I need to do to meet those goals?

Research Approach The FACETS program was developed and tested in two iterations over a four-year period. From 2010 to 2012, the program was piloted with 23

teachers. The second iteration was conducted with 40 teachers in four New England school districts from 2012 to 2014.

FOR TEACHERS Bringing math students into the formative

assessment equation: Tools and strategies for

middle grades

RESEARCH BRIEF

This document is created by Education Development Center, Inc. Copyright 2016. Supported by the National Science Foundation (grants DUE-1238253 and DRL 1626365). Opinions expressed in this brief are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the foundation. Learn more at interactivestem.org and researchandpractice.org.

Professional Development for FA: The FACETS program was designed to support teachers’ abilities to use FA in their mathematics instruction. PD

activities included:

Summer institutes. Provided a context for developing an understanding of the principles of FA, its constituent components, and initial

exploration of strategies for their implementation.

School year workshops. Provided opportunities for teachers to boost their practice by focusing on deepening their understanding of

individual FA components and connecting these to their classroom practice.

Learning Groups. Teachers and FACETS staff met monthly to discuss teachers’ experiences putting FA into practice.

Research Goals and Methods: The FACETS team collected quantitative and qualitative data to understand how teachers become FA practitioners.

Data included teacher pre- and post-assessments and concept maps to track their understanding of FA; pre- and post-surveys of teachers’ use of

FA in the classroom; classroom observations; teacher interviews; and student work and teacher artifacts such as field notes and PD assignments.

The research was conducted to address the following questions:

How did teachers’ knowledge and practice of FA change after participating in the FACETS program?

How did the process of learning to implement FA unfold, and what were common challenges and/or barriers to implementation?

Research Findings

Key Findings Understanding of FA: Teachers developed a deeper understanding of the FA process over the course of the program. When the program

concluded, more teachers understood that FA is a cycle of instructional practices that include developing and sharing lesson learning targets

and success criteria, providing formative feedback to students about their progress toward meeting lesson success criteria, and actively

involving students in monitoring and managing their learning. Additionally, although the FACETS program did not focus specifically on

developing mathematical knowledge needed for teaching, teachers’ scores on a measure of mathematical knowledge for teaching increased

over the course of the PD.

Implementation of FA: Teacher self-reports and classroom observations indicated that teachers began implementing FA more frequently and

purposefully. At the end of the program, teachers reported increasing the frequency with which they implemented each of the four main

components of FA. Nearly half of the teachers reported implementing practices that require greater student participation in the learning

process. Furthermore, teachers’ analyses of student work indicate that they increased in their ability to interpret students’ thinking and use it to

shape instructional responses.

FA is an instructional approach that involves a complex set of interlocking practices. Learning to implement FA coherently and consistently can

take a long time and, for many teachers, involves rethinking the meaning and purpose of individual instructional practices, exploring how to

engage with these practices in new ways, and then integrating the individual component practices into a new and focused approach to

instruction. For many teachers, the idea of FA was easy to grasp, but putting it into practice took a willingness to experiment with new

approaches and to reflect on their time, persistence, and results. The biggest challenge for teachers was learning to encourage their students to

take a more active role in their own learning by responding to formative feedback, learning to provide formative feedback to peers, and

becoming more responsible for monitoring their own work with regard to lesson goals and success criteria.

SOURCE Goldsmith, L. T. & Mansori, S. S. (2015, April). Putting

understanding into practice: Middle-Grades Mathematics

Teachers Learn to Implement the Formative Assessment

Process. Paper presented at the annual research conference

of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,

Boston, Massachusetts.

REFERENCES CCSSO. (n.d.). CCSSO Definition of Formative

Assessment. Retrieved from

http://www.serve.org/uploads/docs/Events%20&%20Web

inars/Attributes.pdf

ATTENDING TO EQUITY The Research + Practice Collaboratory (RPC) is funded by the

National Science Foundation to study ways to bridge the gap

between research and practice in STEM learning. Through its

work, the RPC aims to promote equity in STEM learning

opportunities and outcomes. The research summarized in this

brief demonstrates some equitable PD approaches. The structure

of the monthly PD meetings, for example, offered teachers a

platform to share their experience in the classroom, which helped

inform the direction of the PD. In addition, the attention to

student participation and ownership over their educational

experience promoted greater equity of learning opportunities

among students.

1 Formative assessment (FA) is “a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes” (CCSSO, n.d.).