AfL, learning and teaching
Professor Mary James
TLRP, Institute of Education, University of London
Faculty of Education University of Cambridge
April 2008
A reminder: What Assessment for
Learning is really for
Its ultimate goal is to promote learning
autonomy – crucial for lifelong learning in
multicultural societies and globalised knowledge
economies.
Autonomous, self-directed learners take
responsibility for their learning and develop
strategies that enable them to learn both on their
own and collaboratively. They Learn How to Learn.
Learning Autonomy (goal)
Learning How to Learn (activity)
Assessment for Learning (tools)
Is this trying to impose a Western
conception on the East?
Eastern values (Confucian) – respect authority and seek to
acquire the wisdom of the past (the best that has been
thought and done), especially through hard work (effort)
and development of memory. Academic achievement
highly prized.
Western values (Socratic and Aristotelian) – encourage
critique of ideas through logic and empirical testing. ‘Flair’
and thinking differently is highly valued – when it
contributes to innovation.
We need both in the 21st Century. Can we put them
together to get a better balance in all learners?
So what is learning?
Three metaphors:
1. Acquisition
2. Participation
3. Knowledge creation
The first tends to dominate in schools and the other two in
workplace learning and university education. But if
schools are a preparation for life, should they pay
more attention to 2 and 3?
Learning as creating new knowledge
Learning as developing expert ways of
thinking, doing and being
Learning as acquiring knowledge and skills
AfL can help because it is about
developing learning practices – for life
Focus on practices that enable learners to reflect
upon, and understand, their own learning
processes and develop ways of regulating them.
Closely linked with the content of what is being
learned.
There are both generic and subject specific
aspects that interact.
Extract from TLRP DVD
Cranmore Integrated Primary School Belfast
Practices for developing thinking skills in citizenship
education
So, AfL practices should serve
underlying principles
AfL practices, such as sharing learning intentions
and success criteria (WALT & WILF), commentonly marking, peer and self-assessment, should
serve underlying principles, such as making
learning explicit and promoting learning autonomy
They cease to be formative if they fail to do this
(some forms of self-assessment serve only
summative assessment)
Extract from TLRP DVD,
Valentine’s High School Redbridge
The ‘spirit’ of AfL is more important
than the ‘letter’
Teachers appreciate practical strategies but they
can become mechanistic and ritualised
Practices and beliefs are interrelated and need to
be developed together so that teachers can ‘know
what to do when they don’t know what to do’
‘High organization based on ideas’ (Dewey) is
central
Successful AfL teachers take
responsibility for what happens in their
classrooms
The most successful teachers have a capacity for
strategic and reflective thinking and concentrate
on how they could improve the learning
experience for pupils.
They did not blame external circumstances or
pupil characteristics (e.g. lack of ability or effort)
Angela’s reflection
If I’ve taught a lesson, then I’ll go over it, reflect, think,
what could I do better next time? ..Sometimes it’s just a
thought and sometimes I actually kind of go back over
the scheme of work, look at the lesson plan and write
notes to myself for next time. So it depends on what it is
really and how severely bad it went.
However, most teachers hold positive
educational values but struggle to
close values-practice gaps
A 2002 survey of 1212 staff showed that they did
less promotion of learning autonomy than they
would have liked and more performance
orientated practice (e.g. teaching to the test) than
they thought important
By 2004 these gaps had closed somewhat
Closing the gap
Changes in teachers’ classroom practices, 2002-2004
2004
100
100
90
90
80
practice
70
values
60
mean rescaled
factor score
mean rescaled factor score
2002
80
practice
70
values
60
50
50
40
40
making
learning explicit
promoting
learning
autonomy
performance
orientation
making
learning
explicit
promoting
learning
autonomy
performance
orientation
Janice’s reflection – showing movement
in her thinking about teaching infants
How can teachers meet the demands of the national
curriculum while still focusing on the needs of children as
learners? How do you teach children who do not
necessarily want to learn the things you want to teach
them at the time you need it? The Learning How to
Learn project has helped me work through these
questions. Sharing the ‘big picture’ with the children,
involving them through the use of mind maps to clarify
what they already know and what they might like to learn,
making the learning explicit but also recognising that it
can also be diverse and unexpected, helping children
talk about the language of learning, and to recognise
what kind of thinking is required for different activities ...
enabling children to pose questions so they can make
sense of the world in which they live ...
Within and between school differences
indicate a need for differentiated
professional development
Different groups of staff within schools (teachers,
teaching assistants, senior staff) have different
configurations of values and practices
In secondary schools subject differences are
marked
There are also differences between secondary
and primary schools
Classroom inquiry is a key influence
Classroom-based collaborative inquiry for teacher
learning emerged as a key influence on teachers’
capacity to promote learning autonomy with their
pupils
This includes learning from research and also
working together to plan, try out and evaluate new
ideas
(Japanese-type Research Lesson Study is a good
approach)
School conditions that support AfL in
classrooms
Developing a sense of
where we are going
Supporting professional
development
Auditing expertise and
supporting networking
Making learning explicit
Inquiry
Promoting learning
autonomy
Performance orientation
Networking builds the social capital for
spreading good practice
Teachers create and spread new practice
knowledge through networking within and across
schools
Not much evidence (yet) of ICT use for this
purpose
Face-to-face meetings builds the social capital
(trust and mutual support) needed for the
exchange of intellectual capital
(ideas and practices)
Opportunities for teachers to learn
through inquiry depends on
organisational structures and cultures
Schools need to audit expertise and support
networking
This needs to be done with a sense of purpose
Quality of leadership is crucial – at every level
The challenge for leadership is to
create space and climate for reflection
and sharing
This includes encouraging dialogue, dissent and
risk-taking
Takes time and is on-going
Involves leading, modelling, brokering, bridging,
mediating
Headteacher:
AfL has been a joy. It is intellectually profound,
yet eminently practical and accessible. The
project has enhanced the learning of us all. I
have no doubt that our children are now better
taught than ever before. It has been the best
educational development of my career.
Want to know more?
James, M., et al. (2006) Learning How to Learn: tools for
schools (London, Routledge).
James, M., et al. (2007) Improving Learning How to Learn in
classrooms, schools and networks (London: Routledge).
Research Papers in Education 21(2), June 2006 (Special
Issue devoted to the LHTL project)
http://www.learntolearn.ac.uk
http://www.tlrp.org
Learning How to Learn
- in classrooms, schools and networks
Formative and summative assessment:
the teacher’s role
Professor Mary James
TLRP, Institute of Education, University of London
Faculty of Education University of Cambridge
30th April 2008
Formative and summative assessment
differences
Distinction between purposes:
• FA - to improve learning, and achievement (AfL)
• SA - to sum up attainment at a moment in time (AoL)
Similar evidence can serve both purposes but the evidence
needs to be interpreted differently.
A summative judgement (e.g. this pupil has reached level 5)
cannot be used formatively. The teacher needs to go
back to the underlying evidence and make a different
kind of judgement for formative purposes (e.g. this pupil
had a problem with X that indicates a misconception
about Y that needs to be tackled)
SA judgements can be scores but FA judgements must
involve words (usually oral or written dialogue)
Formative and summative assessment
similarities
Both FA and SA should have reference to the same
curricular and learning goals. So, look after the learning
and the performance should take care of itself!
If the curriculum requires the teacher to teach reading
then her formative assessments should help children to
learn how to read. If she is successful then the children
will do well on any valid summative reading test without
the need to give many practice tests. Problems arise
when tests cover only part of the domain. Then the
tendency is for the teacher to teach the test – not
reading.
So why do teachers (in England and Hong
Kong) constantly test (SA) their pupils?
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•
•
•
•
•
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Tradition and habit
Tool for instilling good behaviour/obedience
Belief that competition stimulates better performance
Belief that learning is largely associated with individual
recall of memorised facts in time-limited situations
Belief that external tests, or those that mimic them, are
more valid and reliable
Trust in numerical data that seem more objective
Lack of confidence/trust in teachers’ judgements – even
their own
Pressure from parents and the media
What is the impact of this?
• Test performance is more highly valued than what is
being learned
• Testing can reduce self-esteem in lower-achieving pupils
and make it hard to convince them that they can
succeed in other tasks
• Constant failure in practice tests demoralises some
pupils and increases the gap between higher and lower
achieving pupils
• Test anxiety affects girls more than boys
• Teaching methods become restricted to what is
necessary for passing the tests
Implications – Do more of this
• Provide choice and help pupils to take responsibility for
their learning.
• Discuss the purpose of this learning and provide
feedback that will help the learning process.
• Encourage pupils to judge their work by how much they
have learned and by the progress they have made.
• Help pupils to understand the criteria by which their
learning is assessed and to assess their own work.
• Provide feedback to pupils in relation to learning goals
and help pupils to understand how (what to do) to make
further progress.
• Encourage pupils to value effort and a wide range of
attainments.
• Encourage collaboration among pupils and a positive
view of each others’ attainments
Implications – Do less of this
• Define the curriculum in terms of what is in the tests to the detriment
of what is not tested.
• Give frequent drill and practice for test taking.
• Teach how to answer specific test questions.
• Let pupils judge their work in terms of scores or grades.
• Allow test anxiety to impair some pupils’ performance (particularly
girls and lower performing pupils).
• Use tests and assessment to tell pupils where they are in relation to
others.
• Give feedback relating to pupils’ abilities, implying a fixed view of
each pupil’s potential.
• Compare pupils’ grades and allow pupils to compare grades, giving
status on the basis of test achievement only.
• Emphasise competition between pupils
Reconciling formative and summative
assessment
‘Innumerable classroom events enable teachers to gather
information about pupils by observing, questioning, listening to
informal discussions and reviewing written work. …The information
gathered in this way is often inconclusive and may be contradictory,
for what pupils can do is known to be influenced by the particular
context. This creates a problem for summative assessment but is
useful for formative purposes. … For formative assessment the
evidence is interpreted in relation to the progress of a pupil towards
the goals of a particular section of work. Next steps are decided
according to what has been achieved and what problems have been
encountered. …For summative purposes, common criteria need to
be applied and achievement is summarised in terms of levels or
grades, which must have the same meaning for all pupils. This
means that if the information already gathered and used formatively
is to be used for summative assessment it must be reviewed (reevaluated) against the broader criteria that define reporting levels or
grades. Change over time can be taken into account so that
preference is given to the best evidence that shows the pupil’s
achievement across a range of work during the period covered by
the summative assessment.’ (ARG, The role of teachers in the
assessment of learning)
The importance of moderation by groups of
teachers
‘It is, of course, necessary to have some quality
assurance of the summative judgement. The more
weight that is given to the summative judgement, the
more stringent the quality assurance needs to be,
preferably including between-school as well as withinschool moderation of judgments.’ (ARG, ibid)
Building quality assurance across a region: an
example from primary schools in the East of
England (in the early 1990s)
1.
2.
3.
School –level agreement trials – teachers brought evidence to a
joint meeting, to discuss and agree judgements of standards in
relation to criteria, then they annotated the evidence and compiled
a portfolio of exemplars.
Across-school moderation at district level – one teacher from the
school group took the school portfolio to an across school meeting
and the procedure was repeated.
Across-district moderation at regional level – an adviser attending
the previous moderation repeated the exercise at regional level
Disadvantage: it took time
Advantage: professional judgement was built from the
bottom-up; excellent CPD
Portfolios and records of achievement for
pupils too
• Much work was done on RoAs in England prior to the
introduction of the National Curriculum (c.f. SLPs in HK)
• Development and research focused on:
–
–
–
–
What range of achievement should be recorded?
Who should do it? What criteria?
How? How much? How often?
For what purpose?
Many of the ideas about formative assessment emerged from
this work: formative and summative purposes; dialogic process;
pupil agency and responsibility; choice of latest and best
evidence to show progress and next steps.
A recent example: assessing creative
learning
A project in inner London primary schools: 2007
www.clpe.co.uk/assessingcreativelearning
The key development here was the use of electronic
portfolios to show children’s creative work (art, design,
dance, music etc)
Want to know more?
ARG (2002) Testing, Motivation and Learning, University of
Cambridge Faculty of Education.
ARG (2006) The role of teachers in the assessment of
learning, Institute of Education London
Black, P. (ed.) (2005) Special Issue on Formative
Assessment, The Curriculum Journal, 16(2)
See also: www.assessment-reform-group.org