Informative assessment --
understanding & guiding learning
Margaret Forster
Informative assessment focuses on how teachers and students
make use of assessment
information from multiple sources
to inform and to drive teaching and
learning.
Informative assessment
learning is an ongoing process
learning is a personal process
learning is
influenced by attitudes and emotions
learning is
most effective
when it builds deep
understanding
Informative assessment
learning is
a personal
process
1. Assessment should consider
variability
The greatest source of inequity is to
treat all students as though they are
the same.
A ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk’ student is one whose individual needs are
not being identified and addressed.
The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.
Ausubel (1968)
2. Assessment should ‘drill down’ to
expose students’ understandings.
Understanding the relationship between force
and motion in a dynamic situation
3 Indicates that resistance forces are acting on the skateboard and they cause it to
decelerate
2 Suggests that forces such as gravity and wind resistance will cause it to stop
1 Suggests that the force is in the skateboard and gets used up
Links force and motion (eg because there is
no kicking there will be no motion)
Learning is enhanced when teachers identify and work from individuals’ current
knowledge, skills and beliefs.
Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000)
Informative assessment
learning is
an ongoing
process
1. Assessment should allow
progress to be monitored over time.
Monitoring the ongoing process of learning is facilitated by the use of a map of learning against which
learning can be assessed,
monitored and reported.
deal with difficult texts and to complete sophisticated reading tasks. They can deal with information that is difficult to find in unfamiliar texts, especially in the presence of closely competing information, show detailed understanding of these texts and sort out which
information is relevant to the task. They are able to evaluate texts critically, draw on specialized knowledge to build hypotheses, and cope with concepts that may be contrary to expectations.
cope with difficult tasks, such as locating embedded information, construing meaning of part of a text through considering the text as a whole, and dealing with ambiguities and negatively worded ideas. They show accurate understanding of complex texts and are able to evaluate texts critically.
deal with moderately complex reading tasks, such as finding several pieces of relevant information and sorting out detailed competing information requiring consideration of many criteria to compare, contrast or categorise. They are able to make links between different parts of a text and to understand text in a detailed way in relation to everyday knowledge.
cope with basic reading tasks, such as locating straightforward information, making low-level inferences, using some outside knowledge to help understand a well defined part of a text, and applying their own experience and attitudes to help explain a feature of a text.
deal with only the least complex reading tasks developed for PISA, such as finding explicitly stated pieces of information and recognising the main theme or author’s purpose in a text on a familiar topic when the required information is readily accessible in the text. They are also able to make a connection between common, everyday knowledge and information in the text.
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1 Level
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Best-practice systems provide accompanying work
samples...
Effective leaders of learning promote discussion and a shared understanding of the nature of
progress in an area of learning across the years
of school.
2. Assessment should be driven
by a whole school approach.
Orienting/
preparing
Collecting and analysing
evidence
Taking Action Reviewing
the impact
Orienting/
preparing
Collecting and analysing
evidence
Taking Action Reviewing
the impact
‘Orienting and preparing’ means a commitment to
• systematically collecting evidence of student learning
• using that evidence as a basis for improving
student learning
… and it looks like active attention to
• building a culture of professional (and shared) accountability
• a whole school assessment plan
• the provision of ongoing professional learning opportunities
• openness and collaboration
An example
Ballarat and Clarendon
-- an expectation/requirement of
openness and participation in ongoing professional learning
Orienting/
preparing
Collecting and analysing
evidence
Taking Action Reviewing
the impact
‘Collecting and analysing data’ means
• enacting the assessment plan
• regularly reviewing the plan to ensure that the evidence collected is still relevant -- an audit (eg ‘First Steps’)
• ‘drilling down’ through the evidence
… and it looks like
articulating a refined and consistent process for interrogating evidence and ensuring regular staff time to discuss findings
• Observing What is the evidence?
• Interrogating What references do we have for interpreting the evidence?
• Theorising How might we explain what we see?
Orienting/
preparing
Collecting and analysing
evidence
Taking Action Reviewing
the impact
‘Taking action’ means asking
• What more can we achieve?
• What must we do to make this happen?
…and it looks like
• focusing professional learning and mentoring
• setting school and class targets
• allocating (reallocating) resources
• introducing special initiatives
• considering school structures
• emphasising student responsibility
An example
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
--and expectation/ requirement to teach, reflect and use assessment evidence collaboratively
Informative assessment
learning is
most effective
when it builds deep
understanding
The knowledge of experts is not simply a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to their domain;
instead, their knowledge is organised around core concepts or ‘big ideas’ that guide their thinking…
Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000)
1. Assessment should reveal the
depth of individuals’ understandings.
assessment as exploration
Lovely Mosquito
Lovely mosquito, attacking my arm As quiet and still as a statue,
Stay right where you are! I’ll do you no harm–
I simply desire to pat you.
Just puncture my veins and swallow your fill For nobody’s going to swot you.
Now, lovely mosquito, stay perfectly still–
A SWIPE! and a SPLAT! and I GOT YOU!
Doug MacLeod
Does the writer think the mosquito is lovely?
Explain your answer.
2. Assessment should encourage
and reward deep learning.
Why did the lion ask the animals to visit him?
2 points
Recognises the intent of the lion to trick and/or eat the animals
1 point
Gives a literal answer.
(He was ill. He was sick.)
3. Assessment may need to draw
on different and sophisticated
assessment approaches.
Informative assessment
learning is
influenced by
attitudes and
emotions
1. Assessment should promote positive attitudes and self
concepts.
Learning is facilitated when teachers encourage risk-taking, tolerate mistakes and provide feedback that allows learners to monitor progress.
That is
‘learning oriented’ rather than ‘performance oriented’ cultures
(Dweck, 1989)
If assessment feedback is to be effective, it must be focused on what the student needs to do to improve rather than on the learner and her or his self-esteem.
That is
‘task-involving’ rather than ‘ego-involving’
(Wiliam, 1998)
2. Assessment should expose
to students what we value
Two examples Seattle
Toronto
Learning is enhanced by the ability to monitor one’s own learning.
Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000)
an ongoing process
most effective if it builds deep understanding
influenced by attitudes and emotions
• consider variability
• drill down to expose students’
understandings
• allow progress to be monitored over time
• be driven by a whole school approach
• reveal depth of individuals’ understandings
• encourage and reward deep learning
• draw on different and sophisticated assessment approaches
• promote positive attitudes and self concepts
• expose to students what we value
Learning is Assessment should
a personal
process
Thank You
