Assessment for LearningElements, Theory, Strategies

Durban University of Technology

Dr Tansy JessopHead of L&T @ Winchester

DUT Assessment Symposium8 October 2014

Think of a time when you felt you really had a powerful learning experience about something important

What were the circumstances? Who? What? When? Why? Turn to the person next to you and tell them

about it.

Reflections

TESTA Case Study X: what’s going on?

Mainly full-time lecturers Plenty of varieties of assessment, no exams Reasonable amount of formative assessment (14 x) 33 summative assessments Masses of written feedback on assignments (15,000 words) Learning outcomes and criteria clearly specified….looks like a ‘model’ assessment environment

But students: Don’t put in a lot of effort and distribute their effort across few

topics Don’t think there is a lot of feedback or that it very useful, and

don’t make use of it Don’t think it is at all clear what the goals and standards are …are unhappy

Case Study Y: what’s going on?

35 summative assessments No formative assessment specified in documents Learning outcomes and criteria wordy and woolly Marking by connoisseurship, often tacit, professional

judgements Teaching staff mainly part-time and hourly paid….looks like a problematic assessment environment

But students: Put in a lot of effort and distribute their effort across

topics Have a very clear idea of goals and standards Are able to evaluate their work and have a good idea of

how to ‘close the gap’

Two paradigms…

Transmission Model

Social Constructivist model

Transmission modelExpert to novicePlanned & ‘delivered’Feedback by expertsFeedback to novicesPrivatisedMonologueEmphasis on measuringCompetitionMetaphor - machine

Social constructivist model

Participatory, democratic

Messy and process-oriented

Peer review

Self-evaluation

Social process

Dialogue

Emphasis on learning

Collaboration

Metaphor - the journey

Two paradigms

Three concepts underlying AFL

1. Risk2. Power3. Re-conceptualising

teaching

Sambell, K, McDowell, L. & Montgomery, C. (2013) Assessment for Learning in Higher Education. London. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-58658-0

AFL is a broader term

But AFL has lots of different schools of thought

Formative is central to AFL

AFL and formative assessment – the same thing?

“Feedback is the single most influential factor in student learning” (Hattie 2009).

“Innovations that include strengthening the practice of formative assessment produce significant and often substantial learning gains” (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p.40).

Why do formative assessment?

Jot down words that spring out at you from these definitions

In small groups, on flipchart paper, draw a diagram that sums up what you see as the main elements of Assessment for learning

Key word task

Formative assessment is not an event or an instrument but a collection of practices which all lead to some action that improves learning (Black and Wiliam 1998).

Basic idea is simple – to contribute to student learning through the provision of information about performance (Yorke 2003).

A fine tuning mechanism for how and what we learn (Boud 2000)

Definitions of formative assessment

Assessment of learning gives students marks, grades, scores; AFL gives qualitative insights about students’ understandings and misconceptions.

Formative assessment is effective when it is timed so that the information can be used….

Formative helps students to internalise features of good work, showing them how to improve (Shephard 2005).

More definitions

Formative assessment hinges on developing students’ capacity to monitor the quality of their own work during production….

One of the indispensable conditions for improvement is that the students comes to hold a concept of quality similar to that held by the teacher (Sadler 1989).

Formative tasks are ungraded, compulsory for everyone, and always elicit feedback (TESTA).

Yet more definitions

Put up flipchart diagrams around the walls. 5 minute walkabout.

Favourite and ‘like’ with green dots. Disagree with red dots. Be ambivalent with amber!

2 minute chat about what struck you in groups

Elements of AFL from formative definitions

• Tasks have real world context• Tasks are often public• Tasks are often negotiated or

collaborative

Students produce

• Feedback happens in time for adapting

• Feedback is about the task not the person

• Feedback suggests ways to improve

Teachers and

students give

feedback • Students see examples of work• Students use criteria to judge• Students use self and peer review

Students evaluate the

quality of work

My pop theory of AFL

TESTA case studies of AFL…

Blogging in Education & American Studies Staged formative process in Sports Studies Multi-stage formative to summative on Media

degrees Youtube seminar reading productions in Media

Studies E-portfolio and portfolio examples from Social

work Journal Club in Pharmacy Degree. Ministerial briefs in Politics Degree.

Students produce

Conversation starter: What feedback would you like on your work?

Joining the dots between feedback: the cyclical cover sheet

Law and Dance video tutorials – self and one-to-one tutor feedback.

Peer assessment triads Blogging - face to face and online comments Questions not answers – what if, have you thought of… Traffic light systems

Teachers and Students give feedback

Peer Review in Creative Writing Drafting process on American Studies Making sense of criteria – ‘criteria crunching’ Engineering at Strathclyde Economics at Oxford Brookes (ASKE CETL)

Students evaluate the quality of work

Traffic light exercise: Red, Green, Amber

In pairs, in groups, in plenary

What will you take away and integrate into your curriculum planning and teaching practice?

Your ideas for your courses

1) Because it provides low-risk, more frequent opportunities for students to learn from feedback (Sadler, 1989)

2) Because it helps students to fine-tune and understand requirements and standards (Boud 2000, Nicol, 2006)

3) Because feedback to lecturers from formative tasks helps to adapt teaching (Hattie, 2009)

4) Because it engages students in cycles of reflection and collaboration (Biggs 2003; Nicol & McFarlane Dick 2006)

5) Because it encourages and distributes student effort (Gibbs 2004).

Why formative matters

Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998) Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. King’s College. London.Boud, D. (2000) Sustainable Assessment: Rethinking assessment for the learning society, Studies in Continuing Education, 22: 2, 151 — 167.Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports students' learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. 1(1): 3-31.Hattie, J. (2007) The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research. 77(1) 81-112.Nicol, D. J. and McFarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative Assessment and Self-Regulated Learning: A Model and Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice. Studies in Higher Education. 31(2): 199-218.Jessop, T. , El Hakim, Y. and Gibbs, G. (2013) The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a large-scale study of students’ learning in response to different assessment patterns. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. ifirst.Sadler, D.R. (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science, 18, 119-144.Shephard, L. (2005) Formative Assessment: Caveat Emptor. ETS International Conference. New York. Yorke, M. (2003) Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice. Higher Education. 45

References