towards deeper and more sustained implementation of assessment for learning

Towards deeper and more sustained implementation of

Assessment for learning

Symposium, EARLI SIG 1

Munich, August 24, 2016

The University of Hong Kong

Aims

To review selected recent developments in AfL in higher education …

… Through critical synthesis of relevant research

And to chart prospects for enhanced implementation and further research


Papers

1. Scaling up AfL (David Carless)

2. The use of rubrics to support AfL

(Anders Jonsson & Ernesto Panadero)

3. Technology-enabled AfL

(Phillip Dawson & Michael Henderson)

4. Discussant: David Boud


Themes

Need for:

•Critical perspectives going beyond individual enthusiasm

•Larger scale studies of implementation

•More longitudinal research


Scaling up Assessment for learning: issues and

prospects

David Carless

University of Hong Kong


Key themes

Defining AfL and its key strategies

Charting its spread

Examining facilitating / inhibiting factors for scaling up AfL


AfL definition

Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning (Black et al., 2004, p. 10)


4 key strategies

Productive assessment task design

Feedback designs

Students understanding quality (criteria, exemplars)

Students making judgments (peer review, self-monitoring)


Scaling up (Coburn, 2003)

Spread

Depth

Sustainability

Shifts in ownership


Why scale-up AfL?

Research evidence

(Black & Wiliam, Hattie)

Dissatisfaction with current assessment & feedback practices


Scale of AfL implementation

Breadth and depth of impact on pedagogy

Geographical spread

University Assessment policies


Increase in feedback research

AEHE

11 articles (3%) 1996-2005

65 articles (11%) 2006-2015

38 articles (2013-2015)


FACILITATING AND INHIBITING FACTORS


Quality assurance

May identify weak or unpopular practices

May deter risk and innovation


Leadership

Commitment and support

Resourcing and rewards


Trust or distrust?Distrust as barrier for assessment change (Carless, 2009)


Assessment literacy

Need to enhance stakeholders’ assessment (for learning) literacy (cf. Price et al., 2012)


Program-based approaches

Assessment mapping

Program-wide approaches to feedback


Communities of practice The University of Hong Kong

Technology as enabler

Wide array of tools

Need for critical research-base & scaling up of technology-enabled AfL (Dawson & Henderson, 2017)


THANK YOU

See also: Carless, D. (2017). Scaling up assessment for learning: Progress and prospects. In D. Carless, S. Bridges, C.K.W. Chan & R. Glofcheski (Eds.), Scaling up Assessment for learning in Higher Education. Dordrecht: Springer.


http://davidcarless.edu.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/Scaling-up-Assessment-for-Learning_Progress-and-Prospects-revised-v2.pdf