Prof. Doutor Francisco Januário
Faculty of Education, Eduardo Mondlane
University
Maputo, Mozambique
(This is the text that accompanied an interactive workshop session at the SAULT Forum meeting on 16-17 February 2017.)
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| Xavier, Francisco, Dixie, Maria and Kavenna at the SAULT Forum |
I.
Introduction
According
to the literature (Bell and Cowie, 2001; Black, 1998; Black et al., 2003, Kathy & Burke,
2003; Lin &
Gronlund, 2000; McMillan, 2001; Race et al., 2005) three aspects
are regarded as being relevant for providing a theoretical orientation in classroom-based
assessment. The aspects are: (i) the objective of assessment and the process of
giving feedback to students; (ii) the need for teachers to conduct effective
assessment for learning; and (iii) the teachers’ preparedness on
conducting assessment that can generate evidence of authentic learning.
In
terms of the first aspect and according to several authors (Black, 1998; Black et al., 2003, Kathy & Burke,
2003; Lin &
Gronlund, 2000), assessment may be conducted
to serve different purposes, such as assessment to satisfy demands for public
accountability; assessment to report an individual’s achievements; and
assessment to support learning. The focus of assessment in this paper falls
within the latter purpose (supporting learning). The rationale of focusing on
this purpose is that the main aim of schools is to promote student learning and
the teacher needs constant information about what the students know. Ideally,
assessment should provide short-term feedback so that obstacles can be
identified and tackled at an early stage in the learning process. This is
particularly important where the learning plan is such that progress with one
week’s work depends on a grasp of the ideas discussed in the previous week.
This type of assessment aims at improving learning, and is called formative
assessment or assessment for
learning.
II.
The need for teachers to conduct effective assessment for
learning
It is
clear that this assessment is the responsibility of the classroom teacher, but
others, inside and outside the school might support this work by providing
appropriate training and methods for conducting such an assessment. Let us
consider as an example a science subject like Physics. For this subject,
however, evidence that a formative assessment is really improving learning must
be accompanied by a type of assessment where students are asked to perform
real-world tasks and demonstrate the meaningful application of knowledge and
skills. This leads to what McMillan (2001) calls authentic assessment and its success depends very much on
support that the teacher must receive from various educational stakeholders
inside and outside the school. Therefore, in
providing such support to teachers, Nuttall (cited in Kathy & Burke, 2003),
argues that it is relevant for teachers to know how to generate evidence of
authentic learning. Authentic learning is crucial for learning science and
specifically experimental subjects like Physics. Nuttall (1987) also describes
a number of criteria for tasks that validly assess learning, namely: (i) tasks
that are concrete and within the experience of the individual; (ii) tasks that
are presented clearly; and (iii) tasks that are perceived as relevant to the
current concerns of the student. The value of these tasks, in our opinion,
allows students to demonstrate good performance because they promote
interaction between students and the teacher. In addition, they allow the
teacher to get into the students’ thinking and reasoning and to evaluate their
potential.
Bell and Cowie (2001) distinguish between two types of
formative assessment, namely planned formative assessment and interactive
formative assessment. These authors suggest that planned formative assessment
is used to elicit permanent evidence of students’ thinking, and such assessment
occasions are semi-formal and may occur at the beginning and end of a topic. A
specific assessment activity is set for the purpose of providing evidence that
is used to improve learning. All the information is elicited through the task
set and the teacher and the student act on this information with reference to
the topic itself, with reference to the students’ previous performance, and
with reference to how the students and the teacher are proposing to take
learning forward. Interactive formative assessment is described by Bell and
Cowie (2001) as taking place during student-teacher interaction. This refers to
the incidental or ongoing formative assessment that arises out of learning
activity and cannot be anticipated.
As is the case with planned assessment, in interactive
formative assessment the purpose is to improve learning by mediating the
student learning. The process involves the teachers noticing, recognizing and
responding to students’ thinking and it is more teacher- and student-driven
than curriculum-driven. Unlike the kind of permanent information that accrues
from planned assessment, this kind of assessment generates information that is
ephemeral. The latter kind of formative assessment is crucial for the purpose
of this paper because it is important for enhancing student learning, and
therefore, the teacher must be supported in knowing how to react in relation to
what is deemed at the time to be worth noticing in the student. Unlike in the
planned formative assessment where there is a longer time gap in responding, in
the interactive formative assessment, the teacher’s response is immediate, and
the kind of planning that can still be made is on how to facilitate dialogue
and tasks between him/her and the students. In an interactive assessment,
students are given opportunity to argue about the assessment tasks and to
challenge teachers’ responses to their questions.
As for the importance of immediate and ongoing feedback,
Race et al., (2005)
elaborate on how quality feedback can best be given to students. Among the
several aspects of quality feedback referred to by these authors, they mention
the following aspects of quality feedback: (i) time - the sooner the
feedback is given the better; (ii) personality - it needs to fit each students’
achievement; (iii) expressed - whether congratulatory or critical; and (iv) empowerment
- both congratulatory and critical feedback must not dampen learning, but
rather strengthen and consolidate it.
In
conclusion, for the assessment objectives and feedback, three major aspects
provide orientation to the review on assessment proposed by this paper.
Firstly, the assessment is carried out to support learning; therefore, the
provision of feedback should be on a short-time basis so that obstacles in the
learning process can be tackled in good time (Black, 1998; Race et al., 2005). Secondly, teachers
need to have at their disposal certain students’ tasks that can validly assess
particular learning and generate evidence of authentic learning (Kathy &
Burke, 2003; Lin
& Gronlund, 2000; Popham, 2002). Thirdly,
immediate and ongoing feedback is crucial to facilitate student-teacher
interaction (Bell & Cowie, 2001; Race et al., 2005).
III.
The theories of learning and their implications for
assessment practice
With
reference to carrying out an effective assessment for learning, it is
worth mentioning that it requires having students actively engaged in finding
solutions to problems they face and developing the ability to construct
knowledge. In this process, the role of the teachers as facilitators is crucial
in monitoring the assessment practice. James (2006), on the relationship
between assessment practice and the ways in which the processes and outcomes of
learning are understood, argues that three theories of learning and their implications
for assessment practice can be distinguished. These are discussed below.
- Behaviourism: this is where the environment for learning is the determining factor, the learning is the conditioned response to external stimuli, and rewards and punishments are the powerful ways of forming or eradicating habits. The implications for assessment practice are that the progress is measured by timed tests, performance is interpreted as either correct or incorrect, and poor performance is remedied by more practice in the incorrect items.
- Constructivism: this is where the learning environment is determined by prior knowledge - what goes on in people’s minds - emphasis is on ‘understanding’, and problem solving is the context for knowledge construction through deductive and inductive reasoning. The implications for assessment are that self-monitoring and self-regulation are relevant dimensions of learning, and the role of the teacher is to help ‘novices’ to acquire ‘expert’ understanding of conceptual structures and processing strategies to solve problems. When students are involved in the construction of their own learning through formative assessment, they develop the ability to monitor and regulate their learning agenda.
- Socio-culturalism: this is where learning occurs in an interaction between the individual and the social environment. Thinking is conducted through actions that alter the situation and the situation changes the thinking. The implication is that, prior to learning, there is a need to develop social relationships through language, because it represents the central element to our capacity of thinking.
It has
been argued that the latter theory is not yet well worked out in terms of its implications
for teaching and assessment (James, 2006). Teaching and learning tasks need to
be more collaborative and students need to be involved in the generation of
problems and of solutions, because the current perspective of assessment within
this perspective is still inadequately conceptualized. For the Mozambican context, for instance, the
constructivist theory of learning is recommendable. The reason is that the country
teaching system emphasizes the importance of
considering children’s prior knowledge before helping them understand other
conceptual structures. The implication of this choice for assessment is that
this construction of children’s own learning can be easily facilitated through
formative assessment.
REFERENCES
Bell, B., & Cowie, B. (2001). Formative assessment and
science education. London: Kluwer
Academic
Publishers.
Black, P. (1998). Friend or foe?
Theory and practice of assessment and testing. London,
Philadelphia: FalmerPress.
Black, P.; Harrison, C.; Lee, C.; Marshall, B.; Wiliam, D. (2003). Assessment for learning.
Putting
it into practice. London: Open
University Press.
James, M., & Pedder, D.
(2006). Professional learning as a condition for assessment for learning.
In J. Gardner (Ed.), Assessment and
learning (pp. 27-44). London, Thousand
Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Kathy, H., & Burke, W. (2003). Making
formative assessment work: effective practice in the
primary
classroom. London: Open
University Press.
Lin, R.L. & Gronlund, N.E. (2000). Measurement and assessment in teaching (8th ed.).
Columbus, Ohio: Merrill
Prentice-Hall.
McMillan, J.H. (2001). Essential
assessment concepts for teachers and administrators.
California: Corwin Press.
Popham, W.J. (2002). Classroom assessment. What teachers need to
know (3rd ed.). Boston,
MA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Race, P., Brown, S., & Smith, B. (2005). 500 tips on assessment (2nd ed.). London and
New York:
RoutledgeFalmer.
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