formative assessment: looking beyond the techniques dr jeremy hodgen kings college london
TRANSCRIPT
Formative Assessment: Looking beyond the techniques
Dr Jeremy HodgenKing’s College London
Improving (mathematics) education through feedback and formative
assessment
• Attainment, progression and standards over time
• Teacher education• International comparisons• Primary and secondary
What are you already doing about formative assessment?
Talk to your neighbour.Identify one issue or problem.
What is formative assessment: a working definition
• Any assessment directed at informing learning– What do you need to do next?
TEACHING LEARNING
TEACHING ≠ LEARNING
TEACHING ≠ LEARNING
TEACHING ≠ LEARNING
TEACHING ≠ LEARNING
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.(Tom Watson)
The evidence …• Origins: Bloom (1970s)
• Black & Wiliam: Inside the Black Box (1998) etc
• Numerous other reviews worldwide– Natriello (1987); Crooks (1988); Kluger & DeNisi (1996);
Nyquist (2003)
• All find consistent & substantial effects on …– Attainment and engagement– BUT poorly described in practice.
More evidence …
• Hattie’s (2007) meta-analysis: – Feedback is the most effective intervention in education
(effect size: 1.14)
• Wiliam (2007): – Assessment for learning probably the most cost effective
way of improving teaching– Better and more achievable than reducing class size or
enhancing teachers’ subject knowledge
Extraordinarily “successful” …
• Inside the Black Box: > 50,000 copies sold (UK)• Working Inside the Black Box: > 40,000• Mathematics Inside the Black Box: > 7,000• Embraced by DCSF / DfES, National Strategies • Taken up by schools• Hard to find a teacher who hasn’t heard of it
What people say: debunking some myths and misconceptions
• “Don’t students need marks?”
The effect of marks & feedbackGain Attitude
Marks only None Top Bottom
Comments only All All
Comments & Marks None Top Bottom
The effect of marks & feedbackGain Attitude
Marks only None Top Bottom
Comments only All All
Comments & Marks None Top Bottom
Marks and Comments
Marks and Comments
What people say: debunking some myths and misconceptions
• “Don’t students need marks?”• “What’s new? Good teachers already do this
anyway?”• “I already ask lots of questions”
Listening to students’ answers
• Evaluative– Teachers know the answer– Listening for the correct answer– Often give clues: “Almost …” … “Nearly …”
• Interpretive– Teachers don’t know how students will answer– Why do they say that?
When Miss used to ask a question, she used to be interested in the right answer. Now she’s interested in what we think.
What people say: debunking some myths and misconceptions
• “Don’t students need marks?”• “What’s new? Good teachers already do this
anyway?”• “I already ask lots of questions”• “If only I had the time …”• “Our students couldn’t do that.”• “It’s just a set of tricks.”
Looking more closely : Five principles
• Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions
• Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward• Activating students as learning resources for one
another• Activating students as owners of their own learning
Looking more closely : Five principles
• Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions
• Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward• Activating students as learning resources for one
another• Activating students as owners of their own learning
Looking more closely : Five principles
• Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions
• Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward• Activating students as learning resources for one
another• Activating students as owners of their own learning
Looking more closely : Five principles
• Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions
• Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward• Activating students as learning resources for one
another• Activating students as owners of their own learning
Looking more closely : Five principles
• Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions
• Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward• Activating students as learning resources for one
another• Activating students as owners of their own learning
Some broadbrush strategies
• Rich tasks• Sharing learning intentions• Questioning and dialogue• Marking and Feedback• Peer and self-assessment• Using summative tests formatively
Sharing learning intentions
• Today we are learning … to use capital letters and full stops
• How could you share this learning intention with students?
… scientific method … English grammar … Physical Education / Sport …
Improving classroom dialogue
• Some examples from UK classrooms
Improving classroom dialogue
• The power of wait time– Increasing the range of students who answer– Increasing the quality of answers• More WRONG / partially correct, longer explanations
• Asking better questions– Highly context dependent
• Saying less and listening more
Marking and feedback
• Two ideas:– There are 5 mistakes here. Find and fix them.– You seem to be confused about … Talk to Eeva
about how to work out the difference.• Have you got some more ideas that might
work?
Peer and self-assessment
• The learning paradox• It’s good to talk• The value of being wrong
Using summative tests formatively
• Use to expand students’ conceptions of learning …
He was not a very careful person as a mathematician. He made a lot of mistakes but he made mistakes in a good direction … I tried to imitate him but I found out that it is very difficult to make good mistakes.
(Goro Shimura)
Start NOW
• Doing something is better than doing nothing – Try something & evaluate whether it works
• Assess before or during teaching: don’t teach student what they already know
• Teachers don’t have to do it all
Moving forward
• Keep it simple • Work with others• Give and ask for feedback• Mistakes are useful: Getting it wrong can be
helpful