MA Education

Learning & Assessment

Friday 12th June 2015

Learning OutcomesBe able to…

Explain what is meant by learning and how this links to relevant theory.

Explain what is meant by assessment and recognise potential barriers.

Research assessment in your own educational context.

We are happiest and most successful when we learn, develop, and work in ways that make best use of our natural intelligences.

What does Guy Claxton say?

‘We want our learners to have competence, confidence and self-esteem so that they can become better learners and better young adults both within the school and when they leave’.

‘Good learners stick with things when they are difficult, they ask questions and they say if they don't understand something. They are good at sharing with other people, and they like to sit down and think things through.’

Resilience – this is the emotional aspects of learning and being able to persist when things get difficult, managing distractions, noticing and persevering.

Resourcefulness – the cognitive aspects of learning and being able to deploy a variety of learning strategies such as questioning, making learning links, imagining, reasoning and capitalizing on all the tools available to help us with our learning.

Reflectiveness – this is the strategic aspect of learning. To be able to think about learning and about how we may develop as learners. Within this aspect we focus on planning where we are going with our learning, what we will need and the action we will take to get there. We will also look at revising and being flexible in our approach to learning and getting to know ourselves as a learner – how we learn best and being able to talk about the learning process.

Reciprocity – this is the social aspect of learning. It focuses on interdependence knowing when it’s best to learn on our own or with others. Collaboration, empathy and listening and imitation are all aspects covered in learning about reciprocity.

What is this thing called Assessment?

“Weighing the pig doesn’t fatten it”Black and Wiliam (1998)

(Derek) Rowntree (1987: 1) says of assessment:

if we wish to discover the truth about an educational system, we must look to its assessment procedures.' In addition, ‘assessment is important because students cannot avoid it’.

(David) Boud (1995: 35) says:

'Students can, with difficulty, escape from the effects of poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they want to graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment'.

AssessmentWhat will effective

assessment produce?

Barriers

Why assess?

Why Assess ?• To match learning experiences to the learner’s needs• To seek to measure progress• To generate effective ‘feedback’ to learners• To enable relative and absolute judgements• To ‘build-in’ a competitive dimension into the learning

environment for students• To measure competencies across a wide range of skill-sets• To rank student performance• To discover future potential of the learner

Why Assess ?

• Assessment without purpose• Unclear assessment focus/objectives• Overuse (too frequent in the learning cycle)• Inappropriate and unreliable assessment methods• Demotivating for less successful learners• Potential for ‘Unhealthy’ levels of competition to develop in the learning

environment

As Long (2000: 47) notes, “assessment is…a major part of the educational process, and without it, teaching would be a rather unfocused activity. The fact remains, however, that a great deal of testing is implemented with only limited justification”.

Can you identify any potential constraints/difficulties relating to assessment?

Types of Assessmen

t

Diagnostic

Used to diagnose the level of learning that has been achieved by students.

Generally used at the beginning of a course to determine the level at which teaching or support may be required.

Can be used at the end of a lecture, or a series of lectures, to see if students have comprehended the information conveyed.

Diagnostic assessment does not provide a tool to enhance student learning unless it has an element of feedback within it, unless it becomes formative.

Types of Assessmen

t

Formative

This occurs during a course, and provides feedback to students to help them improve their performance

The feedback need not necessarily be derived from the tutor, but can be from students' peers or external agents. Involving students in peer assessment aids students in understanding and using the assessment criteria (Bradford, 2003).

'Giving feedback on another student's work, or being required to determine and defend one's own, not only increases a student's sense of responsibility and control over the subject matter, it often reveals the extent of one's misunderstandings more vividly than any other method' (Ramsden, 1992).

Types of Assessmen

t

Summative

May or may not include feedback

The main difference between this form of assessment and that which is purely formative is that grades are awarded.

The grade will indicate performance against the standards set for the assessment task, and can either be part of in-course assessment, or assessment at the end of a course or module.

Boud (2000:160) says that assessment activities 'have to encompass formative assessment for learning and summative for certification'. Brown et al., (1997) provide a list of weak practice in assessment. This of course can also act as a checklist against which assessment programmes can be evaluated.

What can we assess ?• Factual

InformationKnowledg

e

• ‘How’ to do thingsSkills

• The Ability to use information

Understanding

Fleming and Chambers (1983) found that nearly 80 per cent of all questions in school tests dealt only with factual information. It seems that this penchant for factual information is due to ‘the ease of using simple knowledge-based assessments, since tests which incorporate children’s use of skills and understanding tend to be time-consuming to design and implement’ (Long, 2000: 47).

What can we assess?• Factual InformationKnowledg

e

• ‘How’ to do thingsSkills

• The Ability to use informationUnderstanding

Anything missing?

APTITUDE 

Aptitude assesses the potential for future attainment

You are an Ofsted inspector…

What you expect to see / hear / experience in:

1. An outstanding school’s approach to assessment?

2. The approach to assessment of a school that Requires Improvement?

Your own researchCreate questionnaires for…

1. A senior leader2. Students

…in order to gather information on a school’s approach to assessment.

What might your questions focus on?

Assessment in our own context• What does the research say

makes the greatest difference to learning? (Hattie 2003; 2009; 2012)

• How well do students “know how well they are performing and what they need to do to improve”? (Attfield)

Homework…1). ‘Assessing Without Levels’

Read the article and summarise how 3 schools have adapted to this challenge. What are the key messages from schools?

2). Creating an assessment task

Working with another member of your Department, write or adapt an assessment that takes into account Multiple Intelligences, including clear success criteria.

Reflect on whether the collaborative approach strengthened the clarity of the work.

All material to be posted to your blog