REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.7 Key strategies for formative assessment practices
2.7.1 Sharing of learning goals and criteria for success
Determining goals and criteria for success drives the process of FA. This is to say, effective FA enactment begins with identification of clear goals for both the teacher and the students and determination of the criteria for success. Magno and Lizada (2015) argued that these goals may assume the form of learning competencies, standards and skills prescribed in a curriculum. FA is most effective when students have clear knowledge of what is expected of them from their teacher (Cauley & McMillan, 2010).
According to the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2011), learning goals are descriptions of what students should know, understand and be able to do by the end of a learning period or unit. This body further explained that learning goals are the basis for tracking students’ progress, providing feedback and assessing achievement. Northwest Evaluation Association (2016) argue that to enhance learning, the intentions of the learning need to be shared in clear terms prior to instruction. Clarke (2001) had earlier noted that teachers should share the learning intentions with their students at the beginning of a lesson, to increase the concentration level of the students and reinforce their understanding. This suggests that what a teacher wants his or her students to learn, know or be able to do should be clarified before starting the lesson. FA can therefore be tied to learning goals (Heritage, 2010b). This is because it provides guidance to teachers on what their teaching and learning activities seek to achieve and the basis for feedback.
According to the NCTM (2014, p. 12) “ Effective teaching of mathematics establishes clear goals for the mathematics that students are learning, situates goals within learning progressions and uses the goals to guide instructional decisions”. Mathematics goals specify the kind of mathematics students are to learn and understand as a result of instruction (Wiliam, 2011). The standpoints of the NCTM (2014) and Wiliam (2011) indicate that teachers’ classroom mathematics activities should be directed by the goals to be learned. Black and Wiliam (1998a) also observed that learning goals should be articulated clearly for students’ understanding, and explained that learning goals can be achieved by students only if they understand these goals.
40
Sadler (1989) theory of FA stated that students must be able to answer three questions: Where am I going?; Where am I now?; and How do I close the gap? This point suggests that students need clear learning intentions in order to know where they are going. While in agreement with Sadler’s theory, I am of the view that in the quest to make learning meaningful, teachers also need to ask themselves the same questions, so that they can answer them together with the students in the process of teaching and learning. Chappuis and Stiggins (2002) reported that students need concise learning targets to be able to answer the question ‘Where am I trying to go?’. The authors opined that when students understand the goals they seek to achieve, the purpose of achieving such goals and the attributes of success, learning becomes much easier.
The literature has indicated that students with clear goals of learning are more committed and effective in the learning process (Black & Wiliam, 1998b; Chappuis & Stiggins, 2002). These clear goals of learning can be achieved when learning and assessment happen simultaneously, and these goals can be achieved through FA. Undoubtedly, the intentions of learning are crucial in the instructional processes. For example, teaching and learning activities which are planned and structured for instruction by the teacher to help students’ learning are focused on the learning intentions. It must also be noted that, while questioning students during the instructional process, teachers should keep in mind the learning intentions. This simply means that all activities which go on during instruction, such as feedback, self-assessment and peer assessment, revolve around one central idea of the intentions of the learning (see Figure 2.3).
Furthermore, clear expectations give students the opportunity to set realistic, attainable goals (Cauley & McMillan, 2010). Using rubrics and providing exemplars are considered useful techniques to explain expected quality (Panadero & Jonsson, 2013). The use of rubrics increases students’ self-efficacy (Andrade, Wang, Du, & Akawi, 2009; Panadero & Jonsson, 2013), a variable shown to be a strong predictor of academic performance (Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012). This effect is probably based on handing out the rubric to students beforehand, as when learning goals become clearer then students have a better understanding of the learning target and how to achieve it (Fraile, Panadero, & Pardo, 2017). According to Moss, Brookhart, and Long (2011) “Students cannot regulate learning, use thoughtful reasoning processes, set meaningful goals, or assess the quality of their own work and that of their peers unless they understand what
41
success looks like in today’s lesson”(p.66). This implies that one of the keys to improving student achievement is that they must be aware of what is required from them. Ngwenya (2012) posits that students need to understand the standard against which their work will be assessed. It is worth noting that when students know this, it allows them to become better assessors of themselves and their peers. It also gives them the opportunity to compare their learning to the learning goal in order to determine at which point they are in their learning. Students’ trust in the assessment is influenced when criteria for assessment are determined and made known to them (Tillema, Leenknecht, & Segers, 2011).
Literature has shown that improving learning through FA also requires the active involvement of the students (Heritage, 2010b; Kollar & Fischer, 2010). According to Ngwenya (2012), to engage students fully in the learning process and to inspire them to accept responsibility for their own learning, teachers should move away from teaching to facilitation of active learning which promotes collaborative assessment. Collaborative assessment occurs when students and teachers co-create the criteria for assessment (Ngwenya, 2012). Students’ involvement in determining the criteria for success or the assessment criteria facilitates their formative use of the criteria, rather than a single-minded focus on the final score (Reddy & Andrade, 2010). Reynek, Meyer, and Nel (2010) found that assessment was not a transparent process, and that 96.8% of the participants in their study never shared assessment criteria with their students. Ramsey and Duffy (2016) also found no evidence of teachers sharing criteria for success with their students during their study on FA in the classroom.
Research indicates that students should be well informed about the assessment criteria to be implemented before they start working on an assessment task (Black & Wiliam, 2009); however, the majority of teachers do not share specific assessment criteria with students prior to assessment tasks (Ngwenya, 2012). Without a precise description of where students are meant to be going, many of them will be doing things based on guesswork (Moss et al., 2011).
42
Figure 2.3: A model for learning goals (adapted from Hanover Research, 2014, p. 12).