assessment for learning: the practical implications a contribution from ruth sutton march 2008

Assessment for Learning: the practical implications A contribution from Ruth Sutton March 2008

2 My task and intent My task: to offer you ideas to stimulate reflection and conversation, and then respond to your questions I will: review the key points of what we know from 20 years of research about Assessment for Learning, and explore the practical implications for teaching The conversations that follow will be guided to: encourage you to see how many of the AFL strategies you are already using, and how you might adopt more

3 My intent: whats the point? My intent is to keep things simple and practical, while recognising that making assessment for learning work and last in our schools is not easy or quick. AFL challenges some of our assumptions and our habits around teaching and learning, and hard-wired habits are hard to break

4 My criteria for a successful session today are: 1.You are clear what Assessment for Learning is really about, and why its worth pursuing 2.You have reflected on your own current teaching and found some connections between what you already do, or have at least thought about, and the strategies Im suggesting 3.Youve decided to change one thing for yourself, or preferably with some of your colleagues, and understand that it may take a while before you feel fully confident about a different way of planning, or questioning, or marking and providing feedback. Whichever area you choose to focus on, it will mean involving your students, intentionally and thoughtfully.

OK then! Lets get going back to basics

6 Assessment: 2 Key Purposes Assessment of learning Checks learning to date Audience beyond the classroom Periodic Uses numbers, scores and grades Criterion/standards referenced No need to involve the learner Assessment for learning Suggests next learning Audience is teachers and learners Continual conversation and marking Specific feedback, using words Self-referenced, ipsative Must involve the learner the person most able to improve learning

7 Why bother making this distinction? The word assessment has been used in our language to mean judgement, and we need to re-capture its original meaning which was much more about feedback than about measurement Many of us, and most children, parents and community members still react to assessment with anxiety So we need to be clear what kind of assessment were talking about, and how the two purposes differ from each other

8 The importance of purpose Many teachers spend many hours each week marking students work Whats the purpose of marking? Is it for grading (the left hand column) or for improvement (on the right)? If its for improvement, we may need to think again about why and how we mark, to make sure that we dont waste our own time We also need to think again about how much and how often we grade for reporting. The purpose of reporting should be improvement: if not, why do we do so much of it?

Actually maybe we should avoid the word assessment altogether What else could we call Assessment for Learning to clarify its real purpose? The Winnipeg Inner City project was entitled Feedback for Learning

10 The research base We need a sound research base before we embark on something so important, and think about changing some of the fundamentals of teaching AFL research spans 25 years, from the 1970s to now, and right across the planet The basic principles are widely understood, but they are not so widely acted upon Lets look at a good summary of the principles

11 The AFL Big 5 Principles (UK Assessment Reform Group, 1999) The provision of effective feedback to students The active involvement of students in their own learning Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment Recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students, both of which are crucial influences on learning The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve

Lets take these principles one at a time and unpick the practical implications

13 The provision of effective feedback To understand what effective means, we have to remember that the purpose of AFL is improvement, not measurement, so effective feedback must be aimed at that Take a minute: think and talk about the kind of feedback youve had over the years that most helped you make your work or performance better

14 Heres what the experts say effective feedback should be Specific Connected to clear criteria Timely: received and acted upon as soon as possible Indicative of next steps Followed through Descriptive rather than evaluative

15 Whats the difference between descriptive, and evaluative? Descriptive Facts, not judgements Explicitly related to clear shared criteria Usually in words Includes specific next steps Evaluative Judgements, without specific detail General and overall, rather than relating to specific criteria Usually numbers (scores, grades) but can be words too, eg.Good job Provides general goals, eg Pay attention to punctuation but not specific advice

16 Sounds easy, but Most of the feedback we received as school learners ourselves was evaluative, so thats what were used to Much of the feedback we provide to our students is evaluative, so thats what were used to Much of the feedback our students receive is evaluative so thats what theyre used to Much of what is expected of us by school, district and provincial systems is evaluative information Providing descriptive feedback takes more thought, and probably more time, so why should we change?

17 Why should we change to descriptive feedback? Because it enables more students to improve their work faster, and achieve more Because it makes more students think more about their learning, and take greater responsibility for improvement Because, after the initial struggle to change our habits, we can do a better job by working differently, not working harder

18 AFL Principle #2 The active involvement of students in their own learning These words were chosen with care: it could have said, The active involvement of students in their own assessment, but it didnt The message is, AFL works best where the students are encouraged to be involved in the learning process, from the start This starts with the teacher checking what students already know, what they dont know, and their misconceptions, and then adjusting their teaching accordingly It has huge implications for teachers planning; we need to plan for learning, not for coverage!

19 AFL Principle #3 Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment Another implication for planning.now we want teachers to check, as they go along, for students understanding, and be flexible enough to adapt their teaching to meet the learners needs, not just plough on regardless, driven by coverage of the programme

20 How do we check as we go along? Many teachers already use simple techniques to check whats happening in students heads: * Thumbs up/down/sideways to indicate levels of grasp * Asking a key question and using students answers as a guide * traffic lights shown by students to communicate easily how theyre feeling about the learning What matters is that the students are expected to reflect and respond honestly, and the teacher is able to act upon their responses

Planning for Learning or Planning for Coverage? Its a big issue, and one to discuss when we break for conversation

22 AFL Principle # 4 Recognition of the profound effect assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students, both of which are powerful influences on learning What does it look like and feel like in a classroom where students motivation and their self-respect as learners are treated as powerful influences on learning? How about this..

23 The well-motivated classroom Students prior knowledge and experience are identified and respected in designing what we teach Students varied learning styles are incorporated into deciding how we teach Students are encouraged to understand the criteria that will be used to judge their work Students are offered an opportunity to improve their work after feedback, just once or as much as the teacher believes is manageable and useful Students support their peers, and expect to be supported by them Teachers have high expectations of their students

24 Where does intrinsic motivation come from? Self efficacy Believing in yourself as a learner Effective Feedback and the chance to act upon it Locus of control Having some control over factors that influence your success Intrinsic Motivation Achievement

We are all learners! What we know about intrinsic motivation applies to us as well.

26 AFL Principle #5 The need for students to be able to assess themselves and to understand how to improve Here again, the wording is deliberateour job is to make sure that students are able and willing to assess themselves If weve paid attention to the previous four principles, this one should take care of itself

27 Practical implications of AFL Principle #5 Teachers need to coach students to become effective in critique and correction of their own and each others work Students may have trouble separating feedback from friendship:first they need to learn the skills of applying criteria to work, before looking at the work of people they know Its essential that students understand the criteria theyre using Co-construction of criteria is a great place to start: the teacher uses her subject expertise to guide students towards the criteria that need to be applied, but the wording of the criteria is provided by the students Exemplars of work are more useful to students than words on their own to illuminate and illustrate the criteria they are expected to use

28 Feedback for Learning in Winnipeg 2000-03: some key lessons Teachers skills, confidence, thoughtfulness and willingness to work together are the keys to classroom change Many fine teachers are reluctant to see themselves as leaders Teachers have to believe that changing hard-wired habits will have a pay-off for them as well as their students: whats in it for me is a legitimate question School leaders are the main change-agents in their own schools: what they understand about AFL, and what they do and say about it, matters Schools need courage, confidence, good feedback and perseverance Sustainable whole-school change takes years, not months, to achieve

29 Winnipegs Ten Steps to Heaven 1.Teacher is clear about purpose and task 2.Teacher knows how to state, share and show learning expectations 3.Teacher designs and explains enabling tasks that enable students to learn what we want them to learn, not just keep them busy 4.Teacher and students co-construct criteria, together 5.Students check their work, while the task is in progress

30 Ten Steps to Heaven Cont. 6.Students say whats OK and whats not 7.Students identify a next step 8.Students continue, and correct work so far 9.Students reflect periodically, with guidance from the teacher where necessary, on what theyve learned, and how they learned it 10. Students present their learning and achievement to an audience

31 Ten steps: actions help us to remember 1. Task (clenched fist) 2. Purpose (hand on heart) 3. Share (spread your hands) 4. Small steps (down the arm) 5. Get working (turn around) 6.Look and check (binoculars) 7.Idea for improvement (finger in air) 8.Take a step towards (step forward) 9.Look back to reflect (look over shoulder) 10.Present learning (raise your arms)

32 Questions for discussion In the early years of schooling: 1. How can children be encouraged to reflect on their learning, in the simplest terms and the most basic activities? 2. How does Assessment for Learning connect with other important goals of early learning? 3.What are the roadblocks we need to watch out for at this stage?

33 Questions for discussion In elementary classrooms: 1.What are the most effective and manageable ways of increasing students involvement in their own learning? 2.How can/do we incorporate AFL strategies into our teaching plans? 3.How can/do we involve students in self and peer assessment? What successes and difficulties have we experienced?

34 Questions for discussion In secondary classrooms: 1.How can/do we resolve the dilemma around planning for learning vs. planning for coverage? Whats the best first step towards this? 2.How do/could we involve students in self and peer assessment? What successes and problems have we encountered in implementing self and peer assessment?

35 Questions for discussion For school leaders: 1.What do we need to do, say and model, systematically and regularly, to sustain teachers implementation of AFL? 2. What evidence of AFL implementation will we look for across the school? (Youll need to be quite specific about this)

36 Off-line discussion and responses We will leave you with your facilitators for 25 minutes: Discuss any or all of the suggested questions Decide the questions and suggestions you wish to email back to me.

37 Planning for learning not for coverage I taught the dog to whistle! But the dogs not whistling

38 Teaching isnt the same as learning! I said I taught him, I didnt say he learned it!

39 Planning for coverage We start by looking at the requirements and plan to fit them all in This usually means teaching too much, too fast We know even before we start that some of the students wont be able to keep up Were frustrated by being set up to fail

40 Planning for coverage Content is fixed Timing is tight Inflexible Students questions only matter if theyre within the required framework Looks neat and tidy All the space is filled Predictable and safe Planning for learning Content is decided after checking with the students Timing is looser More flexible Students questions provide opportunities for teaching and leaning Looks messy Some spaces are left blank: it depends what crops up Less predictable and feels riskier

41 How do we plan for learning without taking too many risks? Find out about prior learning We may find that we dont need to teach some stuff We may discover misconceptions that will need to be corrected before students can learn what we plan to teach them Students will feel that the teaching is more tailored to their needs, and are more likely to engage with it

42 Be selective, and prioritise 1.Decide which bits of what you want to teach are essential: they support future learning and cant be omitted or rushed Discuss these choices with others: we need to be sure, and we need to share ways of getting these bits across to our students Highlight these aspects so you can see how they are spaced out across the programme

43 2.Discuss and decide which bits are important: this means you believe they support current and future learning You are confident in these areas and know that you do a good job with them Your students usually enjoy this work and benefit from it Mark these bits in a different colour

44 3.Look at whats left You now have to decide which bits are expendable, which means that you will not plan to teach them to all your students. You may have resources to help students learn these bits, which can be offered to those students who want, need, or could benefit from them, but not be part of your class teaching programme

45 Minimising the risk Dont go beyond 10% of the given curriculum as expendable. This may mean going back and tweaking your plans to include some bits that should not be left out Make these decisions collectively wherever possible, pooling your expertise about the subject area to share the responsibility and ideas Decide how you are going to deal with the expendable bits

46 The expendable bits Dont throw these bits away, just park them at the edge of your plans, accessible if you have the time and need to include them Develop resources to enable some students to learn these bits without direct whole-class instruction If the pace of learning speeds up (which it might) then you can cover the expendable bits with more of the students Keep your focus on learning rather than teaching: the quality of students learning, motivation and confidence is more likely to increase their performance than the quantity of your teaching

47 Co-construction of success criteria Students can engage successfully in self- and peer-assessment only if they properly understand the criteria that will determine the success of their work For this understanding to be achieved, the following pre-conditions are important.

48 Pre-conditions for successful self and peer assessment 1.Teachers need to consider the distinction and connection between what they want students to DO, and what they want them to LEARN 2.Both activities and the learning expectations will have to be explained to the students. This is not easy as much of it will be abstract, and teachers will need to think about, plan and share their strategies for these explanations, taking account of students different starting points and learning styles

49 Co-constructing the success criteria 3.Students find it useful, where possible, to see exemplars of the expected work, rather than descriptions of the expectations in words 4.From a range of exemplars, provided the teacher, the students are encouraged to identify the characteristics of successful work, and the range of quality for each, or some, of these characteristics 5.The teacher will guide the students as much as he/she feels necessary, trying to ensure that the final wording of the success criteria is arrived at by the students themselves 6.The teacher and students together then test out the criteria by applying them to some work, and amend where necessary

50 Separating feedback from relationship 7.Many students find it difficult initially to provide objective and accurate feedback to their peers, because of their over-riding concern for relationship. They will need practice with neutral work to develop the skill of critique, before tackling peer assessment 8.Teachers may also coach their students in providing effective feedback 9.Once the students are clear about the criteria, and have practised the skills of both critique and feedback, they are ready for self and peer assessment

51 Investing in the quality of self- critique and self-correction Children do not usually emerge from the womb able and willing to critique and correct their own learning. This is school taught and learned as an essential part of their education. This skill will serve learners well throughout their learning lives, within and beyond school. Once this skill is well-developed, it will enhance student learning and allow the teacher to involve students in the continual process of classroom assessment that would otherwise fall to the teachers alone. Its a win-win investment for both partners in the process.

52 How do we change the hard- wired habits of teaching? Assessment for Learning is not about adding something on to our existing teaching habits: its about changing some of those habits for good The most fundamental habits of teaching are about teachers planning, questioning, marking and feedback, and the roles and behaviours we expect from our students

53 Limbic learning Research on habit change begins from an understanding that habits are learned through the limbic brain the emotional centre of our brains - rather than the neo-cortex which we use for intellectual activities The connection between the limbic brain and our habits has some important consequences: it will influence the actions we take to achieve a change of habit, and it may affect how comfortable or uncomfortable we feel as we try to break old habits and develop new ones We might be able to learn from other habit-change models, like Weightwatchers

54 The Weightwatchers Model The Weightwatchers model for changing teaching habits involves: - Big, important, agreed goals - Small steps and continual feedback - Perseverance - Collegial support and accountability - Recognition of success

55 Professional Development to develop different teaching habits If what we know about limbic learning applies to changing our teaching, traditional forms of professional development may help us to know what we need to do, but not to actually do it The best model for changing teaching is the action research model: - teachers work together - decide an area for change - identify strategies that might help - try them out in their rooms - come back together to share what they did and what happened, try again, check the evidence of the impact of the new habits on learners, and on themselves, and refine their activities still further Changing habits is an experiential rather than an intellectual activity

56 Early years: 2 nd discussion 1.What next steps in early years teaching practice would be the most helpful in implementing Assessment for Learning at this stage? 2.What roadblocks can we anticipate, and how might these be avoided, or tackled?

57 Elementary years: 2 nd discussion 1.How do we create a classroom climate which allows all our students to take risks in their learning, and to support each other in doing so? 2.How will we explain the purposes, practices and value of Assessment for Learning to parents and others in the community who may see it as an abdication of teachers professional responsibility?

58 Secondary years: 2 nd discussion 1.How do we help our students to understand why it is essential for them to be involved in their own learning and accept increasing responsibility for it? 2.How do engage our more reluctant teaching colleagues, to ensure that the students experience of AFL is more consistent across the school?

59 School leaders: 2 nd discussion 1.Which school systems, including planned professional development, will need review if AFL is to be woven into them? 2.We are learners too: how does AFL apply to us as well as to our teachers and our students? 3.How will we explain the purposes, practices and value of Assessment for Learning to parents and others in the community who may see it as an abdication of teachers professional responsibility?

60 Assessment for Learning: Why bother? Teachers and schools are reeling under a continuing stream of expectations and accountability. Why does Assessment for Learning deserve our attention and commitment? Here are three key reasons:

61 The rationale 1.Our students deserve opportunities to be as successful as possible in school: decades of global research clearly indicate the gains to be made from: clarifying expectations providing high-quality feedback, and involving the learners themselves

62 2. The students currently in Grade 1 graduate in 2020: learning in the 21 st century should be a life-long process, driven by the learners own ability, confidence and willingness to continuously challenge themselves and identify the next learning steps. Learning these skills and approaches to learning is not accidental or trivial. It has to be an intentional part of schooling and is the educators greatest gift to their students.

63 Last, but not least.. 3.AFL can transform the way teachers do business, every day and in the long term. If it is to be sustained, there has to be something in it for the teachers themselves, beyond mere compliance with external requirements. When students are clearer about whats expected of them, more engaged and more focussed on their own learning, the teachers day is demonstrably more enjoyable and rewarding.

64 From theory to practice AFL strategies are not new: they have been in the minds and sometimes in the practice of many teachers for a long time What we now aspire to is AFL as an intentional and valued part of every teachers practice the normal way we do business There is much to gain for students AND teachers

65 Review Have we completed the task? Have I achieved my intent? Do you have some practical ways forward? Thanks for being with us! [email protected] www.ruthsutton.com March 2008

assessment for learning: the practical implications a contribution from ruth sutton march 2008

Documents