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5. Formative Assessment & Action Learning
The majority of year 11 students defined studying or learning with surface strategies or methods (i.e. revision, re-reading, and reviewing of the year’s work) and strongly agreed that learning involved building up knowledge by getting facts and information. In contrast, teachers preferred a deep view of learning, usually focused on academic, 191 cognitive development, while at the same time, emphasizing surface methods of teaching in order to prepare students for high-stakes qualification examinations or assessments.192 Gavin Brown
The difference in the two views expressed above by Gavin is a common misunderstanding between what the educator imagines is happening, and the interpretation of what is being experienced by the learner. A resolution to this difference of interpretation needs to be found. It is important that both the learner and the educator understand assessment in the same way. Therefore, this understanding needs to be explicitly expressed by the educators to the learners.
In general terms, authentic assessment is also referred to as ‘assessment for learning’ and includes a range of assessment approaches that are carried out by different assessors, including educators, learners’, peers, parents/caregivers, as well as via virtual connections to remote experts.
The University of Bradford193 divides assessment into three broad categories.
• Diagnostic Assessment provides an indicator of a learner’s aptitude and preparedness for a unit of study and identifies possible learning problems.
• Formative Assessment is designed to provide learners with feedback on progress and inform development, but does not contribute to the overall assessment.
• Summative Assessment provides a measure of achievement or failure made in respect of a learner’s performance in relation to the intended learning outcomes of the unit or program of study.
To achieve each of these purposes for assessment, the notion of assessment needs to be reviewed and reimagined, not solely as a punitive or summative tool but rather, primarily as a learning tool. Shifting the mind-set of educator-learners and learner-educators will take time and will require direct action on the behalf of the educator. Both the learner’s peers and educators can carry out each assessment type. Formative assessment will become the primary assessment approach.
With the advent of the emerging fourth and fifth education paradigms and the transition to School 2.0, educators are now working with learners on setting a range of different types of questions that increasingly assist learners in developing a deep understanding of the concepts that they are working with. Educators and learners should be working collaboratively to ensure that the range of contexts for learning are developmentally appropriate to the learner’s capability and aligned to the school’s learning intentions. Learners should be able to access rich resources and work both individually and collaboratively with peers in 24/7 research environments, taking increasing agency over their learning.
191 The chapter 27 summary video can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdoROUZCRo4 if you are reading the book, otherwise click on the video icon at the top of the page
192 Brown, G. (2004) Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Retrieved from http://www.manukau.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/8228/Brown.pdf
193 The University of Bradford. (2006). Guidelines on the Definition and use of Formative and Summative Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/acsec/QA_Hbk/QAH3_1assessment.doc
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