Assessment in Education

Learning Stlyes

2007-08-19T18:13:00.000Z

Thanks to Kenneth's post 'Learning Styles Serendipity' for directing me towards this excellent critical review Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. A critical analysis of a large spectrum of theories pertaining to learning styles is presented highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. An excellent read where I am sure there might be some styles lurking in there that were unknown.

How Research Was Implemented.

2007-08-18T19:05:00.000Z

The study of the literature, in the previous posts, provided an insight into some of the negative aspects of assessment in education with suggested methods to enable assessment to deliver more positive and effective results. It was also clear that the end product, the main focus of the majority of assessments, does not always give a true reflection of what a child knows as the process and the teacher’s delivery method are also important criteria in assessment. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of this perspective through the following research question:

How can teachers assess if their teaching does not cater for how children learn?

The research question posed three important criteria on the research: children’s perceptions of how they learn, styles of teaching and evaluation tools. How we learn not what we learn was one of the driving issues during the research to enable children to develop a better understanding of their own learning styles through participation and reflection on four different lessons that were delivered using four approaches derived from VARK : auditory, auditory and visual, visual and interactive. An electronic means of recording children’s evaluations rather than paper was selected using the social media tool ‘Blogger’ (www.blogger.com) as it enabled children time to reflect and respond to each lesson at home rather than be restricted to a few minutes at the end of the lesson to reflect on the lesson and also, to ensure the allocated teaching time is used mainly for teaching and learning. The Blogger software also enabled each group’s responses to be categorised per group and lesson using the tag system thus providing a quick and simple electronic retrieval system.

The participants were four classes of primary seven children (eighteen children per class) at an independent school where each class normally received the same forty minute ICT lesson each week over a four week period. Due to the nature of the research where group responses were required for comparable purposes each class were taught the same concept but with a different method of delivery as follows:

The four different lessons focused on teaching children how to create and use two social media tools: email and wikis. The first two lessons focused on email using the provider ‘Yahoo’ (www.yahoo.co.uk) which provides free email accounts. Although the children had personal email accounts at school the decision to use an external provider stemmed from:

· the need to educate children in how to create accounts with a social media tool;
· the need to use a social media tool safely due to the influx of children using Bebos, Myspace, MSN, FaceBook, etc…
· the need to have an account with a provider like Yahoo to enable children to use their account to participate with many of the other social media tools that would be used during term time, for example, Blogger, Voki and Wikis.

The second set of lessons used the school wiki area: http://juniorschool.wikispaces.com to develop basic skills of using a wiki and introduce children to the instant publishing and collaborative aspects of a wiki page.

After each lesson a brief discussion on what made the lesson successful or unsuccessful was discussed to ensure the children understood what they were evaluating: the delivery of the lesson not the outcome was the main focus. Each child then entered their evaluation after each lesson at the blog http://aifl.blogspot.com by selecting the comment link assigned to their group’s lesson.

Prior to commencing the four week block of lessons, a discussion with each class on how they thought they learned took place with each child entering their initial thoughts into their class’s area on the AiFL blog during class time. There were two reasons the children undertook this activity; one to find out if they were aware of how they learn and if this view would change at the end of the block of lessons, the other was to ensure that the children knew how to access the AiFL blog and locate their group’s section and create a comment.

Since the patterns of behaviours of the children and the influences that ICT have on them, rather than a statistical perspective, were more important to the research, a qualitative rather than a quantitative approach to the research was adopted through the following sub-questions:

What are children’s perceptions of how they learn?
What styles of teaching provides the best learning context?
What benefits/disadvantages occurred through using technology in the assessment process?

Learning Stlyes

2007-08-16T20:58:00.000Z

We all have different methods of assimilating information which have been defined by various theorists over the years to develop a better understanding of how we should present information to others. One of the main theorists, Dr. Howard Gardner, developed the theory of Multiple Intelligence in 1983 (Wise 2002) that consisted of eight different modes to demonstrate how we assimilate information:

· Linguistic intelligence;
· Logical-mathematical intelligence;
· Spatial intelligence;
· Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence;
· Musical intelligence;
· Interpersonal Intelligence;
· Intrapersonal Intelligence;
· Naturalist Intelligence.

Kolb’s theory of learning breaks down the above list into four concise compartments where children learn as:

· Diverging (feelings and watching);
· Assimilating (watching and thinking);
· Converging (doing and thinking);
· Accommodating (doing and feeling).

Gardner’s and Kolb’s theories of learning have influenced researchers and educationalists seeking to define the most effective way to teach children. Although both theories are used widely, the most popular theory is the VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic) which was developed from the Neuro-Linguistic Programming Research. Some analysts add Read/write to make VARK which mirrors a large proportion of learning in schools where children read texts from books, screens or whiteboards which they copy, note take or write in their own words.

Each of the above theories highlights how we learn in different ways, for example, some people perform better by listening to information, whereas, others prefer using their visual skills by reading information. The traditional instructional style of teaching may not be meeting everyone’s learning styles resulting in children’s assessments being misinterpreted where the teacher views their failure as not knowing rather than not understanding. Assessment is therefore not just about end products and test results but more importantly about:

‘growing understandings of how we learn and how good teachers teach.’
(Smith I 2004: 10)

It Is My Right To Know

2007-06-25T20:10:00.000Z

It is not just the teacher who is the sole contributor to evaluating a child’s piece of work but the child and peer’s views are also of great importance. Due to the demands of an active classroom it is difficult for teachers to be able to give quality feedback to every child on every piece of work completed daily. This is where an integrated and balanced approach to self and peer assessment enable pupils to reflect on not one person’s views but the views of others and self. This is not a process that comes natural to children as they do not have the experience and training of a teacher. Children are, however, honest evaluators and quick learners under the correct guidance from their teachers who inform children what they need to learn (learning intention) and how to recognise success (success criteria). If a child does not understand what or why a task is being undertaken due the learning intention not being clear or having too many aspects to meet then misunderstandings will arise. Children need to know what end product or process the teacher wants them to accomplish where:

‘knowing the leaning intention for every task is it seems, a child’s basic right as a learner.’
(Clarke S 2006: 47)

By sharing the learning intentions with children, not only are they more focused and ready to start tasks with less time-wasting tactics it also provides a clear focus when evaluating. Once the desired goal is clear, feedback needs to also take into account present position and a way to close the gap (Sadler 1989 cited Black & Wiliam): where is the child in their learning and what do they need to do to move on. This part of the evaluation process is much easier for teachers as they look at each child on individual levels. Children, on the other hand, can be self-centred in that they may judge another child’s work to their own ability. This is where peer evaluation can fall down as it is not just the end product or the concrete evidence that is assessable but the internal learning process. Even for teacher’s this task can be difficult as:

‘tuning into the learner’s mind to clarify what learning has taken place, to identify what learning difficulties are being experienced and to introduce future tasks is one of the biggest challenges for classroom teachers.’
(Smith I 2004: 18)

It is hard to tune into to every pupil’s mind because the classroom teacher is always rushing to get through a set of work. Even when they question pupils they quickly want the correct answer through their addiction to the right answer and wanting to proceed to the next part of the lesson. Children who don’t respond promptly or with understanding become disaffected as they are not giving ‘thinking time’ or the delivery of the lesson does not meet their learning style.

The Nail In The Coffin

2007-06-25T18:46:00.000Z

The learning and teaching aspect of assessment falls under the umbrella of AiFL as a sub-category Assessment AS Learning: learning how to learn where learners become more aware of what they learn, how they learn and what helps them learn (LTS ). Learning how to learn has parallels with Vygotsky’s constructivist model of learning where adult interaction and discussion enables teachers to extend children’s understandings (Durkin K 1995). Giving a mark or a basic comment are no longer deemed appropriate to enable a child to progress as the mark or vague comment only gives a message of what a child did not achieve not how they can achieve it. Research reveals that marking is really a teacher chore that they do because they need to have all the work marked to date resulting in the ‘time monster’ being against them. Marking is also done ‘away’ from children with feedback coming too late after the learning. What Assessment AS Learning advocates is that feedback to children should be more constructive with comments about how to achieve rather than marks. This does not eliminate using marks as children do need to know how well they are doing but they do not need constant reminders when they are failing they need advice where:

‘The real purpose of marking is to give good feedback to children about how well they did against a specific learning intention and some ideas about how they can improve.’
(Smith I 2004: 18)

The Answer

2007-06-24T15:38:00.000Z

Black & Wiliam (1998) advocated that formative assessment was the answer to these problems. Their research proved that formative assessment, day-to-day ongoing assessment based on how well children fulfil learning intentions, had a more positive impact resulting in raised standards for all levels of abilities compared to summative assessment, snapshot testing which establishes what a child can do at that time (Clarke 1998). Black & Wiliams came to classify assessment as:

‘all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by their students in assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.’
(Black & Wiliams 1998: 2)

By assessing formatively the end product is no longer the focus but the process where the teacher becomes more informed of the ‘what’ and ‘how’ a child has learnt to enable future learning to build on what the child needs to learn and adapts the learning to meet the child’s style of learning. Teachers now need to:

‘focus on how children are learning. They need to tune into children’s minds to connect with their thinking and feelings…The rational for formative assessment is based firmly on our growing understanding of how we learn and how good teachers teach.’
(Smith I 2004: 10)

Harmful Effects Of Assessing

2007-06-24T14:19:00.000Z

The turning point in assessment in education was through Black & Wiliam’s (1998) report Inside The Black Box which highlighted many of the negative aspects of assessment at that time backed by evidence that:

“there is a wealth of research evidence that the everyday practice of assessment in classrooms is beset with problems and short-comings.”
(Black & Williams 1998: 5)

One of the problems was with effective teaching where emphasise was on quantity and presentation rather than quality. The second problem was the negative impact of marks. It was apparent that the final mark, rather than the process, was more important with cases of children being taught to the test in order that the results were high. The effect on underachievers was detrimental as they constantly could not achieve high results or, at the other end of the spectrum, the process becomes a competition with peers rather than personal improvement. The third concern was the managerial role where the collection of marks was more important than the analysis of the results. This style of assessing was summed up

‘Classroom assessment has become disconnected from learning. For many teachers, it is mainly about measurement through paper and pencil tests, administered by the teacher after leaning has taken place with the aim of assigning a pupil to an appropriate level or grade.’
(Smith I 2004: 8)

This style of assessment is very much a tick sheet that looks at results and presentation but is not concerned with the process and how to improve teaching and learning for the children. How many times has assessment taking place at the end of term or the end of a unit and no change to teaching has taken place or mis-understandings addressed because it is time to move on to the next concepts or topic? How can plans be changed when the assessment is only giving a snapshot of what the children know at that time resulting in children being labelled as low achievers? These styles of assessment that encourage rote and superficial learning focus on comparative results that can communicate failure rather than supporting progress where:

“Low achievers become overwhelmed by assessments and de-motivated by constant evidence of their low achievement.”
(ARG 2002: 4)

Let's Start From The Very Beginning

2007-05-08T19:28:00.000Z

ACE (A Curriculum For Excellence) and AiFL (Assessment is For Learning) are a few of the buzz words that have permeated teaching environments over the past few years. Since the launch of A Curriculum for Excellence in November 2004 by the Scottish Executive many educationalists have analysed the curriculum to put children at the heart of learning and teaching to enable all young people to become successful learners, responsible citizens, effective contributors and confident individuals (Scottish Executive 2006).

By redefining learning and teaching this changes how we address assessment to ensure assessment fits

‘the purposes of learning, using techniques which are well chosen to support learning, inform planning of next steps and give a good basis for reporting of progress.’
(Scottish Executive 2006)

The initiative AiFL supports ACE where teachers review their assessment procedures to make them more in tune with learning and teaching through carefully questioning, planning and sharing the results. The importance of AiFL as a major pedagogy in all classrooms was put forward by the Scottish Executive (2006) who proposed that all Scottish Schools would be aware of AiFL by 2007.

This awareness is well and truely imbeded in our schools and any teacher who looks puzzled when met with the acronym AiFL has surely had no interest in current educational initiatives. If 2007 was the proposed date for awareness when will the date for all teachers implementing AiFL into their classrooms be? If it has not already started than now is the time to change the way assessment is used in the classroom so that:

‘learning and teaching are at the heart of an effective curriculum.’
(Scottish Executive 2006)

Assessing How Children Learn Not What They Learn

2007-05-08T19:18:00.000Z

AiFL is the buzz word in staff rooms and meetings where different methods of formative assessment are being implemented for the benfit of children to ensure that assessment is at the heart of learning. This is all fine but there is not point is assessing children if the method of teaching does not meet their learning styles. Over the past months I have put myself on the line to ask children to assess my teaching methods. Before I hear you ask, I have not gone down the line of 'rate my teacher'. The evaulations the children made were more reflections on how successful or unsuccessful they were due to the way that I taught. This gave insights in their different learning styles and how one style does not fit all. Over the next few days I am going to give a more indepth analyses of my study of learning stlyes mixed with current theories in the hope that someone will take onboard this 'how' rather than the 'why' as a starting point with children.

Group 4 - Last Lesson

2007-02-12T20:29:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you with only the teacher talking. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Would you want all your lessons just to be talking?

Group 3 - Last Lesson

2007-02-12T20:28:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you with the teacher talking and notes on the board. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Was this the best way for you to learn?

Group 2 - Last Lesson

2007-02-12T11:48:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you using only notes and no teacher talking. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Would you want all your lessons just to be notes?

Group 1 - Last Lesson

2007-02-12T11:47:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you using notes, teacher explaining and the whiteboard for demonstrations - the all singing and dancing way. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Would you want all your lessons taught this way?

Group 4 - Creating A Report

2007-02-02T14:59:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you with the teacher talking and notes on the board. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Was this the best way for you to learn?

Group 3 - Creating A Report

2007-02-02T14:57:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you with only the teacher talking. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Would you want all your lessons just to be talking?

Group 2 - Creating A Report

2007-02-02T14:48:00.000Z

Group 1 - Creating A Report

2007-02-02T14:32:00.000Z

Today's lesson was taught to you using only notes and no teacher talking. How easy was it to follow the instructions? Did you need to ask for help? Would you want all your lessons just to be notes?

Group 4 - Using Yahoo Mail

2007-01-30T21:35:00.000Z

Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where you only had written instructions to follow. How do you think you managed this lesson?

Group 3 - Using Yahoo Mail

2007-01-30T21:33:00.000Z

Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where Mrs Tonner talked used the whiteboard to demonstrate. You also had written step by step instructions to refer to. How do you think you managed this lesson?

Group 2 - Using Yahoo Mail

2007-01-30T21:32:00.000Z

Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where Mrs Tonner only talked. How do you think you managed this lesson?

Group 1 - Using Yahoo Mail

2007-01-30T21:28:00.000Z

Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where Mrs Tonner talked and wrote key points on the board. How do you think you managed this lesson?

What way was best?

2007-01-30T21:19:00.000Z

Last week each class in L7 were taught different ways to find out which style of teaching produces the best results. Group 1 took the whole 40 minutes to complete their lesson which was purely listening. Many children required help due to not remembering steps. Group 2 only took 20 minutes as due to the visual help written on the board. Most help was either reassurance or tecnical issues. Group 3 surprised me as they had no teacher help and purely written instructions. The majority of the children whizzed through this lesson with a few requiring help due to not reading the instructions carefully. Group 4, who had instruction sheets, teacher input and the whiteboard for demonstrations completed the lesson in 10 minutes. Only 2 children required support due to not paying attention or reading the instructions. This reduction in time was very exciting as it highlighted that more could be achieved in a lesson if the correct method of teaching is used.

Group 4 - Creating An E-mail Account

2007-01-30T15:27:00.001Z

Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was auditory, written instructions and demonstrations using the whiteboard. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult follow all instructions? What made you seek support - forgot instruction, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.

Group 3 - Creating An E-mail Account

2007-01-30T14:43:00.000Z

Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was written instructions. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult follow all instructions? What made you seek support - did not understand instructions, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.

Group 2 - Creating An E-mail Account

2007-01-22T12:55:00.000Z

Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was auditory and written instructions. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult follow all instructions? What made you seek support - forgot instruction, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.

Group 1 - Creating An E-mail Account

2007-01-22T12:48:00.000Z

Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was purely auditory where Mrs Tonner talked you through the process. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult only relying on your hearing to follow instructions? What made you seek support - forgot instruction, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.

How Do You Learn? Group 2

2007-01-09T14:23:00.005Z

How do you think you learn? Do you learn by listening or reading? Do you need to write things down before you remember something? How do you remember the code for the school? Do you remember the numbers once you have heard them or do you need to write it down? Or do youi type it in and remember how it looks on the keyboard? Tell me how you think you learn best and give me examples of why you think this is the best way you learn.

How Do You Learn? - Group 1

2007-01-09T14:23:00.003Z

How Do You Learn? - Group 4

2007-01-09T14:23:00.001Z

How do You Learn? Group 3

2007-01-09T14:15:00.000Z

Inside The Black Box

2006-11-19T22:00:00.000Z

Why have I not read this report until now? How often have I heard the phrase 'inside the black box' used and taken no real meaning from it? Having read this report by Black & William, I can reflect on many of the scenarios that they talk about. For example, marking at the end of the term or a block of work. How wrong that now appears when the results are for my Excel sheet to state who will win the Science prize for the year rather than analyse the results and amend my plans to meet the needs of children. How often have I looked at the end result and presentation rather than the process? Too many times. If one thing, from all this reading on assessment, I now have a clearer picture why I should be assessing. It is not about marks it is about finding where a child is and working out the next steps to help them in their learning. This is what I was taught at college but have to admit over the years have fallen into the trap of assessing for the sake of it. Thankfully, I have awaken to this poor practice and hope, with further research and action, that the additional time spent, will produce fruitful results.

Digital Portfolios - Finding A Suitable Method

2006-11-18T23:09:00.000Z

I challenged myself in the last post to try out the digital portfolio method of recording thinking skills through speech bubbles etc. The results of the various methods are:

Word - Very easy to set up a template page with a picture and speech bubbles for the children to type their thoughts in. See the screen shot below. If each child had their own word file a bank of self assessments can then be stored.

How would it be managed? Would a new word file be created for every assessment?

If a new word file was created for each assessment this makes it harder to look back as the pupil or teacher would have to keep opening various files. I am sure that by Primary 7 the class teacher would not want to look through the mountain of files for each child. One word file for each child is the obvious answer with each new assessment on a new page.

The management of each new assessment could be time consuming in setting up if the teacher were to set up a new page for all pupils in class. Opening and closing 30 files and adding the new content would sure put a teacher off using the technology when a photocopier can copy the files much faster. Is there a solution to this? Yes, by creating one new file and teaching the children how to insert the new file into their Word document would be the answer. The process is exactly the same as inserting a picture but file is selected form the insert menu rather than picture.

The only problem now would be access to computers. If a computer suite at school then all children at the same time would be the obvious answer. If limited to classroom computer the immediate aspect of the assessment might loose meaning. Children could write on paper first then this could be transfered to digital via camera, scanner or child typing up. Is this the best way or is the digital aspect then become another chore? I think that depends on the teacher's views on digital asessment and on the aspect of assessment in general.

PowerPoint - Again easy to set up by teacher. Adding text not so straight forward as Word as the child will have to select text tool then type.

The arguments for and against this method are similar to the above. Ths children would still require to place the new slide for each assessment which is not a difficult task. The advantage of this system to others is that the slides down the side give an overview of the various assessments making it easier to pinpoint a specific assessment rather than scroll throiugh all the pages.

Web 2.0 - As much as I would like to think that I could use tools like flickr to do this job I have to admit that there would be more problems that benefits. If I am making individual portfolios then accounts for each child would require setting up. The children would have to learn how to use this tool and also learn how to place an annotated flickr image into a blog or wiki. When the purpose is to reflect on the thinking skills rather than the ICT skills I think the simplist most effective way should be administered. ICT should only be used if it enhances the learning and teaching process not just for the sake of it.

I would have liked to place assessments on a blog so that the teacher could place her comments, the child could place theirs and so could their parents. The blog would obviously have a password for only that child. The only side that would require looking into would be the management. If it were a child's annotated picture, which I do like, who would place it there? If it were a Word file it would be too time consuming. If it were a PowerPoint file it is possible to upload to Slideshare, but again a time consuming task. The only way the blog would really work is by creating a typed post with responses. For this type of assessment I do not think this is the method to use.

Now the other Web 2.0 tool that might be possible is a Wiki. The wiki allows other types of files to be embedded into the wiki space. So a child's Word or PowerPoint (depends which is chosen) could be placed on a wiki page set up for a specific child that has a password. Parents, pupil and teacher can comment as the page is a collaborative document for those with the password. The wiki can then become the child's portfolio area with new pages for each year they are at school.

Having sat down and typed my thoughts on this subject I am now going to try to implement this with one of my classes at school using PowerPoint and a wiki to see if it is possible to enhance the learning and teaching through use of digital portfolios and wikis or whether it is a time consuming exercise.

Digital Portfolios

2006-11-16T18:11:00.000Z

Now this was an interesting read today from the Journal Technology, Pedagogy and Education where the use of digital portfolios to develop thinking skills was researched.

Over the past few years digital portfolios have crept into the classroom for various purposes: record of child's attainment of a place to store their work electronically. This is how I have developed my school's pupil portfolio at present. Has there been any educational benefit to the child for these portfolios? In the state they are above I would say no as they are only serving as a reminder of a grade or a picture of a piece of work created. The children really don't access them in my school as it hold too many results that are for teachers eyes only.

I have been developing, ever the past months, the possibility of using blogs and wikis as a means of recording pupil work so that they have an electronic portfolio from primary 1 - 7 which has work form each year, comments from teachers, parents and self with the possibility of peer assessment where applicable. This thinking is reflected in this research paper where digital portfolios can provide opportunities to develop thinking and learning through metacognition. By providing children with the correct tools and allowing them to be part of the digital portfolio they will be able to look back at strategies to success. This is what makes the portfolio different from a record/work keeping document which is really for the teachers use. The portfolio allows the child to be part and have a voice in the matter which is their entitlement. Remember the united Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12 (1989) where it states that:

'children and young people have a right to be involved in the decisions that afffect them'

What differs with the research paper and my thinking is the method the researchers use to record the children's thinking skills. The idea of speech and thought bubbles was super way to record the child's thinking on top of a picture of what they are learning. This would certainly appeal to children rather than placing a comment in a blog about their work.

How easy would this be to manage in a blog area? Children can create speech bubbles in flickr or word but which one is the best? Time to go and test them out.

Did It Work?

2006-11-16T17:41:00.000Z

In my last post I mentioned about letting the first five children to get all their work correct to be the experts and mark the other work and provide support. This work well with the little time we had left as it took forever to have a child who could complete all their work correctly. The children enjoyed the challenge of being the teacher. Rather than copy lots of answer sheets the children used their own jotters. I am going to try this again tomorrow as I have more time to see if I can get the slow children to complete their work as they may be willing to come to their peers than they do to me.

To Mark Or Not To Mark

2006-11-15T22:23:00.000Z

Teachers do not need to choose between being a good teacher and getting good results.

The pressure in schools to produce results and have every piece of work marked becomes a chore to a teacher rather than a means to find out where a child is in their learning. How many times have I been guilty of marking a maths check-up and filing it away in a folder with only the marks as a representation of where the child is. Did I analyse at the actual questions the child did not understand and plan around this or did I move on to the next concept? More to often than not the later route was taken thus being detrimental to the child and mocking the reason to assess.

Rather than focus on the actual assessment marks to find out who is top of the class and who is bottom I should be adopting the following four strategies:

Mark less to achieve more;
Tune into children's minds;
Give immediate quality feedback;
Encourage good self and peer assessment.

Mark less to achieve more - I tried this strategy today with my maths class. Instead of marking every sum I chose the first 12 and left no mark but a comment stating how many the child had correct out of 12 leaving them to find the errors rather than have them pointed out. Don't we as teachers tell the children to check their work prior to handing it in. Most don't because they do not have the analytical skills to do this as the teacher always points to the errors. By asking the children to go back and find the errors it makes them think analyse their work more carefully as they know they have 4 mistakes but which ones. This was a super exercise that I will do more often as it made the children THINK.

Another strategy I used was to allow the children to mark their own work without feeling guilty. The work chosen was a reinforcement sheet in maths as I felt that I had covered any problems children were having and was confident that they would be making errors rather than misunderstandings. The only problem is with allowing children to mark their own work is that they take a longer time than the teacher to mark the same set of sums. This results in a bottle neck of children waiting resulting in the noise level rising.

There are a few ways to compensate this:

Scan the answers and children check on the computers - this is fine for me where I have 20 comuters in my classroom but maybe not for a class with one;
Photocopy a few answer sheets - this does waste paper though;
Call out the answers and children mark their own - down side is that the quick children have to wait for the slower children. The up side is that the answers can be explained as they are read.
The first five children to get all correct become the class markers where they explain to their peers the ones that are incorrect - now I like this one but have not tried it. Will give it a go tomorrow to see what the results are.

'Correction often comes too fast and too often for most learners, impressing on them precisely what they don't know and can't do.'

Assessment Is A Dirty Word

2006-11-08T21:04:00.000Z

Is assessment a dirty word or is all in the mind? Is the way we assess making teachers feel it is another task that can be marked off the tick list and pupils feeling they are not capable of achieving? Pollard & Tann warned that:

'Assessment can be enormously constructive in teaching and learning and also enormously destructive' (cited Smith 2003: P4)

This is due to how and why assessment is undertaken. True assessment should be looking at:

To support learning;
For review, transfer and certification;
For informing school improvement and public accountability.

It appears that the last two have been given more weight to the detriment of the first due to the view of assessment being for accountability. Testing and record keeping has taken time away from quality interactions between teacher and pupil where:

'classroom assessment has become disconnected from learning.' (Smith 2003:P8)

Do I fall into the category of the above. I have to admit yes. ALl too often testing is at the end of the concept in ICT or a topic in Science and my assessment is purely looking to see who grasped it and who did not. What do I do next - go to the next stage. Now I do not do this all the time, for example, in Maths my assessments inform me whether we are ready for the next step, who needs additional support and who needs challenged more.

It appears that the final mark rather than the process is more important where there are cases of learning being matched to tests rather than encouraging thinking and developing understanding. This can have a detrimental effect to under achievers who constantly can not gain high results. This is greatly obvious in a class of a very capable children and a few underachievers. Some children will never achieve the same as their peers because the test does not meet their needs it meets the needs of the taught curriculum.

The other pit fall is that the whole process becomes a competition with peers rather than a personal improvement. In a school where achievement is classed as being the best then the competition to be best seeps into all areas of the curriculum where children are always comparing results with others rather than against their own.

To prevent this comparison with others, teachers should ensure that quality feedback is given about how the child can improve their work rather. (Black & William). B & W advocated that formative assessment is an answer to this problem where they found that the low-attainers benefited the most and the attainment spread reduced.

The pitfalls of assessment can result in a divided class where the underachievers never feel they can achieve resulting in demotivation.

Assessment For Learning - Teaching Approach

2006-10-27T21:50:00.000Z

To what extent does our classroom assessment involve high quality interactions, based on thoughtful questions, careful listening and reflective responses?

The more I read I sometimes think it is time to give it all up and get a cleaning job. 'High quality interactions?' - not all the time. 'Thoughtful questions?' - definitely not planned. 'Careful listening?' - no it is mostly paper based. 'Reflective responses?' - sometimes...

I thought I was doing a good job. I am told I am doing a good job. The children are learning in an environment that I think focuses on their needs. But I do not think I can answer the above question confidently and say 'yes' hence the reason I have selected this area as my CPD.

With my poor answers in mind I now need to evaluate this area and look at a way to move forward.

Assessment Is For Learning- Make The Journey

2006-10-14T20:50:00.000Z

The question about Assessment for Learning is how much more work will it entail for the already time pushed primary teacher? Should teachers 'make the journey' to transform their school with Assessment is for Learning? The obvious answer is 'yes' if the learning is central to the child's needs rather than the curriculum needs. The AiFL Spring newsletter No 6 looks at Personal Learning Planning. On reflection of this reading, as detailed in my aifl wiki, in order that children's learning matches their needs a teacher needs to look past the curriculum documents and planning. Instead a partnership between pupil and teacher needs to be formed where they are both part of the planning process rather than a one-sided coin.

I admit I fall into the bracket of doing all the planning and assessing. I also don't always respond appropriately to assessment results as I wish to move on. The ones who achieved get the ticks whereas the ones who struggled are placed at the bottom of the assessment list BUT their needs are then not addressed. Yes I am ashamed that I have worked this way due to trying to get through a specific curriculum.

It is now time to 'Make the Journey' and start addressing these needs rather than file them.