Formative Assessment / Assessment for Learning

ADOC training

What is Assessment for Learning?

‘all those activities undertaken by teachers, and/ or by their students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.’

Black & Wiliam (1998)

Assessment is the central process in instruction.

Students do not necessarily learn what we teach.

What students learn is unpredictable

‘Teaching v Learning’‘Dysgu’

In Welsh, the same word is used for both teaching and learning ‘dysgu’. The distinction between teaching and learning is impossible to make

Rydwi’n dysgu Cymraeg

Rydwi’n dysgu

Cymraeg

Assessment for learning shifts the teacher from:

“what am I going to teach” to “how am I going to teach this”

The teacher cannot do the learning for the learner

Good teaching is hard, as it has to be designed backwards

• Engineer of effective learning that engages learners and ensures that learning is moving forward.

• Checking learning continuously through assessment for learning processes and accelerating learning for each individual learner

Teacher as coach

Teacher as coach

Finding out:• Where learners are in their learning• Where they are going• How to get there

Formative Assessment / Assessment for Learning

5 key strategies:

• Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions (hook) and criteria for success

• Engineering effective learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning

• Providing feedback that moves learning forward (marking and ILPs)

• Activating learners as instructional resources for one another

• Activating learners as owners of their own learning

Leahy et al. 2005 Where the learner is going

Where the learner is right now

How to get there

Teacher Clarifying and sharing learning outcomes and criteria for success

Engineering effective, activities that elicit evidence of learning

Providing feedback that moves learning forward

Peer

Understanding learning outcomes and criteria for success

Activating learners as instructional resources for one another

Learner Activating learners as owners of their own learning