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If learners are going to be involved in authentic tasks, then they require authentic assessment techniques to be applied to them.
The increase in our ability to gather and reflect on real-time data as well as our greatly improved capability to analyse, share and act on that data, allows assessment to become increasingly formative; informing the learner of their next learning steps. Having the data is one thing but knowing how to take appropriate actions based on that data, regarding classroom pedagogy, is another thing again. This data-informed environment is a critical aspect of the emerging paradigm shifts and transition to authentic assessment.
Defining Formative Assessment
In the book Formative Assessment in Action: Weaving the Elements Together,194 Shirley Clarke identifies formative assessment as consisting of four basic elements: 1. Sharing learning goals – 2. Effective questioning – 3. Self and peer evaluation – 4. Effective feedback
The quality of the learning afforded by formative and learner based summative assessment, centres on using assessment as a critical element within the Learning Process. The focus of assessment is centred on how the data is collected, why it is collected and how it can be used to inform and improve the learning of learners. The assessment becomes formative when it is used by the learner and/or the educator to adapt and reflect on the learning experiences and inform the learner of the next steps in their learning.
Formative assessment practices assist in improving the depth of understanding of the learning and the learner’s ability to apply that understanding to new contexts, reliably. The transition in our focus from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’ is critical when assessing learners and this approach clears away the mist that often drives us, as educators, to look at assessment as a pass or fail exercise, rather than seeing the purpose of the assessment tasks as driving learning deeper.
194 Clarke, S. (2005). Formative Assessment in Action: Weaving the Elements Together. London: Hodder Murray.
Within this emerging new paradigm, schools are now able to manage assessments electronically, with learners and educators contributing towards a far more sophisticated multimedia record of each learner’s improvement in capability. Using multimedia increases the sophistication of the data records, relating to the learning that takes place, allowing educators, learners, peers, parents and caregivers to observe and assess the subtle but significant nuance that multimedia reveals.