Assessment Professional Learning

Module 1: Connecting Assessment with

Learning

Principles, Policy, Practice inform each other

Theoretical Principles

Policy Practice

OUR EDUCATIVE PURPOSE

What is powerful to

learn?

VictorianEssential Learning

Standards

What is powerful learning and

what promotes it?

Principles ofLearning

and Teaching

LEARNER

How do we know it has been learnt?

Assessment Advice

Who do we report to?

StudentsTeachersParents

CommunitySystem

The learner is at the centre(student or teacher)

Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT) No. 5: Assessment practices are an integral part of teaching and learning.Assessment contributes to planning at a number of levels. Monitoring of student learning is continuous and encompasses a variety of aspects of understanding and practice. Assessment criteria are explicit and feedback is designed to support students’ further learning and encourage them to monitor and take responsibility for their own learning.

30-second Think:(quiet, timed reflection)

WHY do YOU assess?

Common purposes of assessment Motivation

(carrot or stick)

Identify prior learning

Gain feedback(for teaching plans)

Give feedback(to students and their parents)

Control the students

Practice for later assessments

Create competition

BUT…

The MOST important reason is to … improve student learning

Underpinning our visible assessment practices

are our values about assessment.

Values:what we BELIEVE

Assessment Practices:what we DO

(Gaell Hildebrand 2005, p.5)

Shaped by people

with values

Curriculum&

Assessment

Constructs & perpetuates

values

Our past experiences were shaped by the values of the people who organised our assessment…

and we support or reject those values (depending on our reactions and feelings).

What values about assessment do you hold?

How have you come to believe in these?

The principles underpinning the standards are:

• Learning for all• Pursuit of excellence• Engagement and effort• Respect for evidence• Openness of mind.

(Victorian Essential Learning Standards Overview 2005, p. 4-5)

“It is through our assessment that we communicate to our pupils those things which we most value.”

(David Clarke, 1988, preface)

Therefore we must assess what we value - across all three strands of the essential learnings.

Student learning: Assessment advice

Assessment is the ongoing process of gathering, analysing and reflecting on evidence to make informed and consistent judgements to improve future student learning.

Three purposes: Assessment OF learning

Assessment FOR learning

Assessment AS learning

What are the differences?

Assessment OF learning:occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards.

It is usually formal, frequently occurring at the end of units of work where it sums up student achievement at a particular point in time. It is often organised around themes or major projects and judgements may be based on student performance on multi-domain assessment tasks. It has a summative use, showing how students are progressing against the Standards, and a formative use, providing evidence to inform long term planning.

Assessment FOR learning:occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching.

It is frequent, formal or informal (e.g. quality questioning, anecdotal notes, written comments), embedded in teaching and provides clear and timely feedback that helps students in their learning progression. It provides evidence that informs, or shapes, short term planning for learning (and because it helps shape, or form, learning it is formative assessment).

Assessment AS learning:occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals.

It is regularly occurring, formal or informal (e.g. peer feedback buddies, formal self assessment) and helps students take responsibility for their own past and future learning. It builds metacognition as it involves students in understanding the standards expected of them, in setting and monitoring their own learning goals, and in developing strategies for working towards achieving them. (Because it helps shape learning it is formative assessment.)

“When the cook tastes the soup,

that’s formative;

when the guests taste the soup,

that’s summative.” (Robert Stake, cited by Lorna Earl 2003, p. 24)

As you can see from this example, there is a formative aspect to the summative judgement (made by the guests, in this case). For example, I might change the recipe next time if my guests didn’t like it!

Variations in terminology use

Some researchers, such as Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998, 2002, 2003), use the term Assessment FOR learning as an umbrella term.

They incorporate ‘assessment AS learning’and the formative uses of ‘assessment OF learning’ under the umbrella.

We have set you some reading from their famous work.

Assessment practices are an integral part of teaching and learning.

In learning environments that reflect this principle the teacher

5.1 designs assessment practices that reflect the full range of learning program objectives

5.2 ensures that students receive frequent constructive feedback that supports further learning

5.3 makes assessment criteria explicit5.4 uses assessment practices that encourage reflection

and self assessment

5.5 uses evidence from assessment to inform planning and teaching.

PoLT Principle No. 5

Assessment FOR learning

Assessment AS Learning

Assessment OF learning