There is convincing evidence that carefully applied classroom assessments can promote student learning and academic self-regulation. These assessments include, but are not limited to, conversations with students, diagnostic test items, and co-created rubrics used to guide feedback for students themselves and their peers. Writing with the practical constraints of teaching in mind, Andrade and Heritage present a concise resource to help pre- and in-service teachers maximize the positive impacts of classroom assessment on teaching. Using Formative Assessment to Enhance Learning, Achievement, and Academic Self-Regulation translates work from leading specialists and explains how to use assessment to improve learning by linking learning theory to formative assessment processes. Sections on goal setting, progress monitoring, interpreting feedback, and revision of goal setting make this a timely addition to assessment courses.
The Handbook of Formative Assessment in the Disciplines meaningfully addresses current developments in the field, offering a unique and timely focus on domain dependency. Building from an updated definition of formative assessment, the book covers the integration of measurement principles into practice; the operationalization of formative assessment within specific domains, beyond generic strategies; evolving research directions including student involvement and self-regulation; and new approaches to the challenges of incorporating formative assessment training into pre-service and in-service educator training. As supporters of large-scale testing programs increasingly consider the potential of formative assessments to improve teaching and learning, this handbook advances the subject through novel frameworks, intersections of theory, research, and practice, and attention to discernible disciplines. Written for instructors, graduate students, researchers, and policymakers, each chapter provides expert perspectives on the procedures and evaluations that enable teachers to adapt teaching and learning in-process toward student achievement.
Formative assessment has recently become a focus of renewed research as state and federal policy-makers realize that summative assessments have reached a point of diminishing returns as a tool for increasing student achievement. Consequently, supporters of large-scale testing programs are now beginning to consider the potential of formative assessments to improve student achievement. The mission of this handbook is to comprehensively profile this burgeoning field of study. Written by leading international scholars and practitioners, each chapter includes a discussion of key issues that dominate formative assessment policy and practice today, as well as those that are likely to affect research and practice in the coming years. Key features include: Comprehensive – nineteen chapters cover all aspects of formative assessment including classroom assessment, large-scale applications, technological applications, applications for special needs students, K-12 and post-secondary applications, psychometric considerations, case studies, and discussion of alternative assessment formats such as portfolios and performance assessments. Integrative – thoughtful attention is given to the integration of large-scale and classroom assessments. Practical – provides practical guidance on how to conduct formative assessments that generate credible information to guide instruction. Global – provides perspectives from leading international scholars and practitioners whose expertise spans diverse settings, student populations, and educational systems. Accessible Style – although grounded in the latest research, the book’s style and tone has been carefully crafted to make it accessible to both the textbook and professional markets. It will also be a critical reference book for researchers in teacher preparation, educational administration, and educational policy studies.
This book provides new perspectives on Assessment for Learning (AfL), on the challenges encountered in its implementation, and on the diverse ways of meeting these challenges. It brings together contributions from authors working in a wide range of educational contexts: Australia, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Israel, Philippines, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States. It reflects the issues, innovations, and critical reflections that are emerging in an expanding international network of researchers, professional development providers, and policy makers, all of whom work closely with classroom teachers and school leaders to improve the assessment of student learning. The concept of Assessment for Learning, initially formulated in 1999 by the Assessment Reform Group in the United Kingdom, has inspired new ways of conceiving and practicing classroom assessment in education systems around the world. This book examines assessment for learning in a broad perspective which includes diverse approaches to formative assessment (some emphasizing teacher intervention, others student involvement in assessment), as well as some forms of summative assessment designed to support student learning. The focus is on assessment in K-12 classrooms and on the continuing professional learning of teachers and school leaders working with these classrooms. Readers of this volume will encounter well documented accounts of AfL implementation across a large spectrum of conditions in different countries and thereby acquire better understanding of the challenges that emerge in the transition from theory and policy to classroom practice. They will also discover a wealth of ideas for implementing assessment for learning in an effective and sustainable manner. The chapters are grouped in three Parts: (1) Assessment Policy Enactment in Education Systems; (2) Professional Development and Collaborative Learning about Assessment; (3) Assessment Culture and the Co-Regulation of Learning. An introduction to each Part provides an overview and presents the suggestions and recommendations formulated in the chapters.
Formative assessment is one of the best ways to increase student learning and enhance teacher quality. But effective formative assessment is not part of most classrooms, largely because teachers misunderstand what it is and don't have the necessary skills to implement it. In the updated 2nd edition of this practical guide for school leaders, authors Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart define formative assessment as an active, continual process in which teachers and students work together—every day, every minute—to gather evidence of learning, always keeping in mind three guiding questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? What strategy or strategies can help me get to where I need to go? Chapters focus on the six interrelated elements of formative assessment: (1) shared learning targets and criteria for success, (2) feedback that feeds learning forward, (3) student self-assessment and peer assessment, (4) student goal setting, (5) strategic teacher questioning, and (6) student engagement in asking effective questions. Using specific examples based on their extensive work with teachers, the authors provide - Strategic talking points and conversation starters to address common misconceptions about formative assessment; - Practical classroom strategies to share with teachers that cultivate students as self-regulated, assessment-capable learners; - Ways to model the elements of formative assessment in conversations with teachers about their professional learning; - "What if" scenarios and advice for how to deal with them; and - Questions for reflection to gauge understanding and progress. As Moss and Brookhart emphasize, the goal is not to "do" formative assessment, but to embrace a major cultural change that moves away from teacher-led instruction to a partnership of intentional inquiry between student and teacher, with better teaching and learning as the outcome.
This book is one of the first to attempt a systematic in-depth analysis of assessment in mathematics education in most of its important aspects: it deals with assessment in mathematics education from historical, psychological, sociological, epistmological, ideological, and political perspectives. The book is based on work presented at an invited international ICMI seminar and includes chapters by a team of outstanding and prominent scholars in the field of mathematics education. Based on the observation of an increasing mismatch between the goals and accomplishments of mathematics education and prevalent assessment modes, the book assesses assessment in mathematics education and its effects. In so doing it pays particular attention to the need for and possibilities of assessing a much wider range of abilities than before, including understanding, problem solving and posing, modelling, and creativity. The book will be of particular interest to mathematics educators who are concerned with the role of assessment in mathematics education, especially as regards innovation, and to everybody working within the field of mathematics education and related areas: in R&D, curriculum planning, assessment institutions and agencies, teacher trainers, etc.
This is a book for teachers and school leaders on formative assessment i.e., assessment as learning where assessment occurs throughout the learning process to inform learning as opposed to assessment that occurs at the end of a learning unit to measure what students have learned (summative assessment). Formative assessment emphasizes the role of the student, not only as a contributor to the assessment and learning process, but the critical connector between them. It defines assessment of learning, assessment for learning and assessment as learning, making a case for assessment as learning. It addresses assessment in the context of what learning is. It shows how to use formative assessment to motivate student learning, help students make connections so that they move from emergent to proficient, extend their learning and to help them become reflective self-regulators of their own learning. It explores how teachers can make the shift to formative assessment by engaging in conceptual change.
Research evidence indicates that formative assessment is one of the most effective ways of enhancing student learning. It is, however, difficult to implement successfully, principally because what is tested through summative assessment has such a powerful influence on teacher and student actions. This book scrutinizes the relationship between testing and learning from alternative perspectives to the dominant literature from the major Anglophone countries. It develops the notion of contextually grounded formative assessment practices by analyzing data from schools in the Confucian-heritage setting of Hong Kong. It explores questions such as: • Under what circumstances do tests support or hinder student learning? • How can teachers effectively prepare students for tests and appropriately follow up after tests? • What are the key socio-cultural influences impacting on testing and student learning in the classroom? • How do teachers change in their orientation towards assessment and what support do they require? This text is a valuable resource for education students, professionals and researchers, policy-makers and curriculum developers.
Feedback is a crucial element of teaching, learning and assessment. There is, however, substantial evidence that staff and students are dissatisfied with it, and there is growing impetus for change. Student Surveys have indicated that feedback is one of the most problematic aspects of the student experience, and so particularly in need of further scrutiny. Current practices waste both student learning potential and staff resources. Up until now the ways of addressing these problems has been through relatively minor interventions based on the established model of feedback providing information, but the change that is required is more fundamental and far reaching. Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher Education, coming from a think-tank composed of specialist expertise in assessment feedback, is a direct and more fundamental response to the impetus for change. Its purpose is to challenge established beliefs and practices through critical evaluation of evidence and discussion of the renewal of current feedback practices. In promoting a new conceptualisation and a repositioning of assessment feedback within an enhanced and more coherent paradigm of student learning, this book: • analyses the current issues in feedback practice and their implications for student learning. • identifies the key characteristics of effective feedback practices • explores the changes needed to feedback practice and how they can be brought about • illustrates through examples how processes to promote and sustain effective feedback practices can be embedded in modern mass higher education. Provoking academics to think afresh about the way they conceptualise and utilise feedback, this book will help those with responsibility for strategic development of assessment at an institutional level, educational developers, course management teams, researchers, tutors and student representatives.
Using Self-Assessment to Improve Student Learning synthesizes research on self-assessment and translates it into actionable guidelines and principles for pre-service and in-service teachers and for school leaders, teacher educators, and researchers. Situated beyond the simple how-to frameworks currently available for teachers and graduate students, this volume illuminates self-assessment’s complexities and substantial promise to strategically move students toward self-regulated learning and internalized goals. Addressing theory, empirical evidence, and common implementation issues, the book’s developmental approach to quality self-assessment practices will help teachers, leaders, and scholars maximize their impact on student self-regulation and learning.
