PDK International | Phi Delta Kappan: Black
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Saved by 20 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-01-05
- Mwacker on 2008-09-22 - Tags formative_assessment , research , articles , teaching
- Abubnic on 2008-08-17 - Tags ctap4data , formative assessment , assessment
- Readerdiane on 2008-07-29 - Tags assessment , formative
- Johnsoj2 on 2008-06-29 - Tags no_tag
- Teachersmith on 2008-06-14 - Tags no_tag
Public Sticky notes
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment
Highlighted by gabrielanausica
Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment
Highlighted by panyuyi
Learning is driven by what teachers and pupils do in classrooms
Highlighted by olimpius
Standards can be raised only if teachers can tackle this task more effectively. What is missing from the efforts alluded to above is any direct help with this task. This fact was recognized in the TIMSS video study: "A focus on standards and accountability that ignores the processes of teaching and learning in classrooms will not provide the direction that teachers need in their quest to improve."1
Highlighted by yolindanne
There is nothing new about any of this. All teachers make assessments in every class they teach. But there are three important questions about this process that we seek to answer:
- Is there evidence that improving formative assessment raises standards?
- Is there evidence that there is room for improvement?
- Is there evidence about how to improve formative assessment?
Highlighted by yolindanne
The conclusion we have reached from our research review is that the answer to each of the three questions above is clearly yes. I
Highlighted by yolindanne
The tests used by teachers encourage rote and superficial learning even when teachers say they want to develop understanding; many teachers seem unaware of the inconsistency.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
The giving of marks and the grading function are overemphasized, while the giving of useful advice and the learning function are underemphasized.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
Many of these studies arrive at another important conclusion: that improved formative assessment helps low achievers more than other students and so reduces the range of achievement while raising achievement overall.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Furthermore, pupils who come to see themselves as unable to learn usually cease to take school seriously. Many become disruptive; others resort to truancy. Such young people are likely to be alienated from society and to become the sources and the victims of serious social problems.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Highlighted by yolindanne
Highlighted by e3tmisd
feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
Highlighted by yolindanne
New understandings are not simply swallowed and stored in isolation; they have to be assimilated in relation to preexisting ideas. The new and the old may be inconsistent or even in conflict, and the disparities must be resolved by thoughtful actions on the part of the learner. Realizing that there are new goals for the learning is an essential part of this process of assimilation. Thus we conclude: if formative assessment is to be productive, pupils should be trained in self-assessment so that they can understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do to achieve.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
opportunities for pupils to express their understanding should be designed into any piece of teaching, for this will initiate the interaction through which formative assessment aids learning.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
here are clearly recorded examples of such discussions in which teachers have, quite unconsciously, responded in ways that would inhibit the future learning of a pupil. What the examples have in common is that the teacher is looking for a particular response and lacks the flexibility or the confidence to deal with the unexpected. So the teacher tries to direct the pupil toward giving the expected answer. In manipulating the dialogue in this way, the teacher seals off any unusual, often thoughtful but unorthodox, attempts by pupils to work out their own answers. Over time the pupils get the message: they are not required to think out their own answers. The object of the exercise is to work out -- or guess -- what answer the teacher expects to see or hear.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
One common problem is that, following a question, teachers do not wait long enough to allow pupils to think out their answers.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
because the only questions that can produce answers in such a short time are questions of fact, these predominate.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
Because they know that the answer, followed by another question, will come along in a few seconds, there is no point in trying.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
The question/answer dialogue becomes a ritual, one in which thoughtful involvement suffers.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
There are several ways to break this particular cycle. They involve giving pupils time to respond; asking them to discuss their thinking in pairs or in small groups, so that a respondent is speaking on behalf of others; giving pupils a choice between different possible answers and asking them to vote on the options; asking all of them to write down an answer and then reading out a selected few; and so on. What is essential is that any dialogue should evoke thoughtful reflection in which all pupils can be encouraged to take part, for only then can the formative process start to work.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
With hindsight, we can see that the failure to perceive the need for substantial support for formative assessment and to take responsibility for developing such support was a serious error.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Feedback has been shown to improve learning when it gives each pupil specific guidance on strengths and weaknesses, preferably without any overall marks.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
There are negative and positive aspects of this fact. The negative aspect is illustrated by the preceding quotation. When the classroom culture focuses on rewards, "gold stars," grades, or class ranking, then pupils look for ways to obtain the best marks rather than to improve their learning.
Highlighted by yolindanne
what is needed is a classroom culture of questioning and deep thinking, in which pupils learn from shared discussions with teachers and peers. What emerges very clearly here is the indivisibility of instruction and formative assessment practices.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
ways of managing formative assessment that work with the assumptions of "untapped potential" do help all pupils to learn and can give particular help to those who have previously struggled.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
While formative assessment can help all pupils, it yields particularly good results with low achievers by concentrating on specific problems with their work and giving them a clear understanding of what is wrong and how to put it right.
Highlighted by yolindanne
several essential elements: the quality of teacher/pupil interactions, the stimulus and help for pupils to take active responsibility for their own learning, the particular help needed to move pupils out of the trap of "low achievement," and the development of the habits necessary for all students to become lifelong learners.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
The main problem is that pupils can assess themselves only when they have a sufficiently clear picture of the targets that their learning is meant to attain. Surprisingly, and sadly, many pupils do not have such a picture, and they appear to have become accustomed to receiving classroom teaching as an arbitrary sequence of exercises with no overarching rationale.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Thus self-assessment by pupils, far from being a luxury, is in fact an essential component of formative assessment.
Highlighted by yolindanne
if formative assessment is to be productive, pupils should be trained in self-assessment so that they can understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do to achieve.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Tasks have to be justified in terms of the learning aims that they serve, and they can work well only if opportunities for pupils to communicate their evolving understanding are built into the planning.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Thus we maintain that opportunities for pupils to express their understanding should be designed into any piece of teaching, for this will initiate the interaction through which formative assessment aids learning.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Over time the pupils get the message: they are not required to think out their own answers. The object of the exercise is to work out -- or guess -- what answer the teacher expects to see or hear.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Indeed, the conditions under which formal tests are taken threaten validity because they are quite unlike those of everyday performance. An outstanding example here is that collaborative work is very important in everyday life but is forbidden by current norms of formal testing.21 These points open up wider arguments about assessment systems as a whole -- arguments that are beyond the scope of this article.
Highlighted by johnsoj2
hey involve giving pupils time to respond; asking them to discuss their thinking in pairs or in small groups, so that a respondent is speaking on behalf of others; giving pupils a choice between different possible answers and asking them to vote on the options; asking all of them to write down an answer and then reading out a selected few; and so on.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Some pupils will resist attempts to change accustomed routines, for any such change is uncomfortable, and emphasis on the challenge to think for yourself (and not just to work harder) can be threatening to many
Highlighted by yolindanne
The evidence we have presented here establishes that a clearly productive way to start implementing a classroom-focused policy would be to improve formative assessment.
Highlighted by yolindanne
This process is a relatively slow one and takes place through sustained programs of professional development and support.
Highlighted by yolindanne
What teachers need is a variety of living examples of implementation, as practiced by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they can derive the confidence that they can do better. They need to see examples of what doing better means in practice.
Highlighted by yolindanne
Most of the teachers in this study were caught in conflicts among belief systems and institutional structures, agendas, and values. The point of friction among these conflicts was assessment, which was associated with very powerful feelings of being overwhelmed, and of insecurity, guilt, frustration, and anger. . . . This study suggests that assessment, as it occurs in schools, is far from a merely technical problem. Rather, it is deeply social and personal.
Highlighted by yolindanne
However, teachers clearly face difficult problems in reconciling their formative and summative roles, and confusion in teachers' minds between these roles can impede the improvement of practice.
Highlighted by yolindanne
The main plank of our argument is that standards can be raised only by changes that are put into direct effect by teachers and pupils in classrooms. There is a body of firm evidence that formative assessment is an essential component of classroom work and that its development can raise standards of achievement.
Highlighted by yolindanne
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