CERI/OECD
“Improving Learning through
Formative Assessment”
3 February, 2005
What is formative assessment?
Formative assessment refers to frequent,
interactive assessment of student progress
and understanding, and adjustment of
teaching to meet identified student needs.
Benefits of Formative Assessment
• Prior research on formative assessment shows that
“The gains in [student] achievement appear to be
quite considerable, and … among the largest ever
reported for educational interventions.” (Black &
Wiliam, 1998)
• CERI/OECD research provides additional evidence of
improved student achievement, including gains for
underachieving students, and the development of
students’ “learning to learn” skills.
Barriers to Wider Practice
• Perceived tensions between high-visibility tests used
for accountability purposes
• Lack of coherence between assessment and
evaluation at the student, school and system levels
• Large classes, crowded curriculum, challenging
students
• Difficulty of sustaining innovation and change
Formative assessment can shape
improvements at every level of the system
Assessment for
student learning
Evaluation for school
improvement
Evaluation for systemic
improvement
Information gathered at each level of the system can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses, and to
shape strategies for improvement.
Bringing together international policy, practice and research
• Examination of policy frameworks for promoting formative
assessment, interviews with policy officials in the featured
systems
• Visits to exemplary schools identified by country experts using
carefully developed criteria
• Interviews with school leaders, teachers, students and parents
• Classroom observations
• Reviews of English, French and German-language literature on
formative assessment
Learning from “What Works”
Nineteen case studies in eight OECD countries:
– Australia (Queensland)
– Canada (Saskatchewan, Newfoundland & Labrador,
Québec)
– Denmark
– England
– Finland
– Italy
– New Zealand
– Scotland
Criteria for Identification of Exemplary Case
Study Schools
• Schools that have developed coordinated teaching
and assessment strategies
• Provide evidence of “what works”
• Be from the lower secondary level
• Involve “whole-school” approaches
• Be embedded in a policy process that could offer
lessons for scaling-up
• Offer lessons of relevance to the majority of schools.
The Elements
of Formative
Assessment
Establishment of a classroom culture that encourages
interaction and the use of assessment tools
• Helping students to feel safe and confident in the
classroom
• Recognising students’ individual and cultural
differences
• Planning for student learning, rather than planning
activities
Establishment of learning goals, and tracking of
individual student progress toward those goals
• Tracking student progress
• Adjusting learning goals
Use of varied instruction methods to meet
diverse student needs
• Providing options for classroom work
• Developing a repertoire of approaches to explaining
concepts
• Keeping lessons active, with plenty of variety
• Ensuring variation in daily schedules
• Providing options for advanced and remedial studies
Use of varied approaches to assessing student
understanding
• Using diagnostic assessment
• Developing questioning techniques
• Interacting with students and monitoring of progress
Feedback on student performance and adaptation
of instruction to meet identified needs
Teachers and researchers have found that effective feedback is:
• timely
• specific
• includes suggestions for improvement
• tied to explicit criteria regarding expectations for student
performance
• focused on the learning process (rather than products)
Teachers also have also found that information gathered in the
feedback process is useful as they modify and adapt teaching
strategies to meet identified student needs.
Active involvement of students in the learning
process
• Scaffolding learning
• Helping students to develop a repertoire of learning
strategies
• Building skills for peer- and self-assessment
• Enhancing students’ roles in peer- and selfassessment
Formative assessment as a framework for
teaching and learning
• Teachers in several of the case study schools said that prior to
establishing formative assessment as an overall framework for
teaching, their own use of formative methods had been
somewhat haphazard.
• Teachers using formative assessment as a framework made
fundamental changes in their approaches to teaching – in their
interactions with students, the way they set up learning
situations and guided students toward learning goals – even the
way they thought about student success.
Addressing barriers, realising benefits
CLASSROOM LEVEL BARRIERS
TO CHANGE
STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING
BARRIERS
•
Difficulty of managing large
classes
•
•
•
Divided classes
Mixed-age classes
Co-operative learning
•
Extensive curriculum
requirements
•
Prioritising requirements,
placing emphasis on core
concepts
•
Using formative assessment
with students considered as
more challenging
•
Using formative assessment
with highest performing
students first, gradually
integrating into more
challenging classes
Direct Classroom Benefits
• Improvements in the quality of teaching
• Stronger relationships with students and increased
contact with parents
• Greater student engagement
• Different and better work products from students
Addressing barriers, realising benefits
SCHOOL LEVEL BARRIERS TO
CHANGE
STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING
BARRIERS
•
•
Difficulty of influencing
classroom level change
•
•
•
Lack of innovation or risk-taking
with new methods
•
•
•
Keeping the focus on teaching
and learning
Encouraging professional
development
Encouraging peer support
Using problems as opportunities
Parlaying unrelated initiatives
into changes in approaches to
teaching
Taking advantage of pilot
projects, partnerships with
universities
SCHOOL LEVEL BARRIERS TO
CHANGE
STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING
BARRIERS
• Negative attitudes
about student
capabilities
• Allowing teachers to
build confidence in
using formative
assessment before
using with lowerperforming students
• Teacher isolation
• Creating opportunities
for peer support and
observation, videotapes
and observation
laboratories
SCHOOL LEVEL BARRIERS TO
CHANGE
STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING
BARRIERS
• Difficulty of sustaining
change
• Focusing attention on data
regarding the impact of
teaching practices
• Developing and disciplining
teachers’ skills for
innovation, creating fertile
ground for change
School-wide benefits
•
•
•
•
Improved learning to learn skills
High value-added
Increased student retention and attendance
Gains in academic achievement, greater attention to
weaker students
Policy Frameworks
• Legislation supporting the practice of formative assessment and
establishing it as a priority
• Efforts to encourage the use of summative data for formative
purposes at the school and classroom levels.
• Guidelines on effective teaching and formative assessment
practices embedded in national curriculum and other materials.
• Provision of tools and exemplars to support effective formative
assessment.
• Investment in special initiatives and innovative programmes
incorporating formative assessment approaches.
• Investment in teacher professional development for formative
assessment.