ICT supported
Assessment for Learning
Mary-Anne Murphy
ROTORUA 2011
Intentions of this session...
To explore the following questions...
What are our understandings of "Assessment for
Learning"?
What ICT's/Technologies are available to support
Assessment for Learning practices?
How can these ICTs be utilised in a pedagogically sound
manner?
EXPLORING OUR MENTAL MODELS
AROUND ASSESSMENT...
 "Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions,
generalizations, or even pictures or images that
influence how we understand the world and how we
take action"
“The Fifth Discipline” Peter Senge. (p. 8).
 A chosen set of beliefs and method to interpret a
given context; usually underpinned by a lessconscious paradigm or worldview
www.tetradian.com/Glossary
If we are to explore the images we
have in our minds around
assessment, what might they look
like and how might they be placed in
relation to each other?
Draw “assessment”
What does assessment look like to you?
Dialogue around our Mental Models of
Assessment
Speaker
Questioner
&
Notetaker
•The speaker will speak uninterrupted around their “drawing” whilst the other
listens and takes notes of key words.
•The questioner will then ask questions regarding what the person spoke about,
in an effort to clarify or deepen their thinking. The questioner will also add
anything else to their notes as this is happening.
Let’s explore our words.
What are you noticing?
What categories are starting to
emerge?
Assessment
From Latin: to sit beside
How does this definition link with your ideas?
Characteristics of Effective
Assessment
Benefits students
Involves students
Supports teaching
and learning goals
Is planned and
communicated
Is suited to the
purpose
Is valid and fair
What do you understand by these terms?
Assessment FOR Learning
and
Assessment OF Learning.
How do your words/categories relate to these
concepts?
Share your thinking with a different person next
to you.
So what is
“Assessment for Learning?”
Let’s hear from Dylan Wiliam who was one
of the co-authors of “Inside the Black
Box”.
The characteristics of assessment that
promote learning are that it:
Is embedded in a view of teaching and learning of
which it is an essential part;
Involves sharing learning goals with pupils;
Aims to help pupils to know and to recognise the
standards they are aiming at;
Involves pupils in self-assessment;
Provides feedback which leads to pupils recognising
their next steps and how to take them;
Is underpinned by confidence that every pupil can
improve;
Involves both teacher and pupils reviewing and
reflecting on assessment data.
Assessment for learning – Beyond the black Box, ARG, 1999
Some of the ways the characteristics can be achieved...
Having high
expectations
for learners
Knowing
progressions of
learning of subject
matter and skills
Provision of feedback
that identifies
achievement and
determines next steps in
learning.
Dialogue and questioning
in order to develop
metacognitive skills.
Learning and thinking talk
in the classroom.
The use of student
self and peer
assessment practices
Identify student’s
current achievement
through observation,
questioning, formal
and informal testing.
How might I
create
opportunities
that will enable
students to be
actively involved
in their own
learning?
Selecting examples of quality work
to exemplify expectations and coconstructing progress with students.
Teachers and students clearly
identify the intended learning
outcomes for achievement.
Co-construction of criteria that
describe the successful
achievement of learning.
Planning for Learning. Making
decisions about relevant and
motivating learning tasks that engage
the learner.
Adapted from Harlen: Principals of Assessment for Learning
Key questions to ask your
students...
1. What do you think you are learning?
2. Why do you think you are learning this?
3. How will you know you have learnt it?
4. What do you think you need to do now to get better at …/
improve your learning in…?
5. How do you think you learn?
6. So what happens at school that helps you to learn? (I noticed your
teacher x, why do you think they did this?)
7. How do the comments your teacher makes about your learning
help you?
8. When you are learning, how do you think talking about your
learning helps you to think?
What aspects of Formative Assessment do you consider each
question addresses? Discuss.
To what extent do you
address these aspects
within your current
classroom practice?
Discuss.
So how might ICT support
Formative Assessment practices.
Lets explore some options...
Scenario 1. You are wanting students to peer
feedback around a piece of written
language.(Yourdraft.)
Scenario 2. You have junior students who are at a prereading level and you wish to co-construct success
criteria with them. (photovisi)
Scenario 3. You are wanting to co-construct success
criteria for an inquiry learning experience.
(wallwisher)
Now it’s your turn...
Look through the ICT tools on the wiki.
Consider one tool, or a combination of tools and
share with the person next to you how you could see
yourself or your students using it to support
assessment for learning practices within your
current class context.
But wait... there’s more
to consider...
Dialogue for
Learning
What is Dialogue for
Learning?
How can ICT support
a dialogic approach to
Assessment for
Learning?
Dialogue for learning…
“The dialogue between pupils and a
teacher should be thoughtful, reflective,
focused to evoke and explore
understanding, and conducted so that all
pupils have an opportunity to think and to
express their
ideas”.
Black & Wiliams, 2001
Inside the Black Box
Lets consider how we might use
another ICT tool to support a dialogic
Assessment for Learning approach.
Scenario:
You are wanting to capture dialogue
you are having with a student about
how they worked out a maths problem,
so you can upload it to their learning
profile/portfolio. (jing)
So what do we need to consider when
seeking ICTs that will support
Assessment for Learning practices?
Students actively involved and their learning at the
heart of the process
Dialogue evident
Formative practices... Not ongoing summative
practices.
Addresses characteristics of effective assessment.
ICT supports not leads the process.
The tools aren’t as important as the process.
Thanks for coming to this breakout.
Mary-Anne Murphy
mary-anne@inspired.ac.nz
http://www.inspired.ac.nz
021 888 597