Formative assessment in action:
the KFAP projects
Chris Harrison
DEPS
King’s College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/education
Balancing Demands
Formative
Assessment
Summative
Assessment
Assessment for Learning...
Assessment for learning is any assessment for which
the first priority in its design and practice is to serve
the purpose of promoting learning.
It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to
serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or
of certifying competence.
Background
• Inside the Black Box (1998)
• KMOFAP (1999 - 2001)
• Working Inside the Black Box (2002)
• Assessment for learning : Putting it into practice (2003)
Effect Size
• Control & experimental groups
• Pre-test & Post-test
• Average control gp. scores 10%
in pre-test and 45% in post-test
• Average experimental gp. scores
10% in pre-test and 60% in posttest
• Effect size is EG gain - CG gain
range
50 - 35
50
= 0.3
IBB Studies
•Effect sizes were between 0.4 - 0.7
but …….
• Studies lacked detail of classroom practice
• Short - term
• Few were from UK
so ………
KMO FAP
• King’s Medway Oxfordshire Formative Assessment Project
• 2 LEAs,
• 3 secondary schools in each,
• 2 science and 2 maths teachers in each school
(24 teachers in total)
• Funded by Nuffield Foundation, and later by United States
National Science Foundation through partnership with
Stanford
Classroom assessment
• Four aspects:
–Quality of questions
–Quality of feedback
–Sharing criteria with learners
–Self-assessment
Making Classroom Assessment Work
• the content and pace of the work is
determined by the evidence
• learning is dependent on the interaction
between the teacher and the learner
• create environment where errors are
made explicit and accepted as a necessary
part in moving towards understanding
Effects of Feedback
• Kluger & DeNisi (1996)
• Review of 607 effect sizes (12652 individuals)
• Average effect size 0.4
BUT
standard deviation almost 1
40% of effect sizes were negative
Response to Feedback
• Students respond to performance-standard gap in different
ways
- Abandon it
- Change it
- Deny it exists
- Attempt to reach it
Kinds of feedback: Israel (1)
• 132 low and high ability year 7 pupils in 12 classes in 4
schools
• Same teaching, same aims, same teachers, same
classwork
• Three kinds of feedback:
–
marks
–
comments
–
marks+comments
Comments v Marks
• Feedback
Gain Interest
• marks
none
top
+ve
bottom -ve
• comments
30%
all
• both
none
top
+ve
bottom -ve
+ve
• Butler (988) Br. Journal of Psychol 58 1-14
Kinds of Feedback: Israel 2
• 200 Y6 & students
• Divergent thinking tasks
• 4 matched gps - EG1 (Comments), EG2 (Grades),
EG3 (Praise),
CG (No feedback).
• Achievement
• Ego-involvement
EG1 > (EG2 =EG3 = CG)
(EG2 = EG3) > (EG1 = CG)
• Butler( 1987)
Looking more deeply at what happens
• Hayes (2003)
– Two matched year 7 classes
– 26 in experimental group, 22 in control group
– Study of one term
• Strategies
– Self Assessment/Reviewing
– Target Setting
– Discussing Criteria
– Looking back at previous work
– Doing an Investigation Together
– Sharing Good Practice
– Looking at and Discussing a Model Investigation
Looking more deeply at what happens
: Outcomes
• Investigations
– Experimental group outperforms treatment group
– Size of effect equivalent to 0.5 GCSE grade
• End of year 7 test
– Experimental group outperforms treatment group
– Size of effect equivalent to 0.5 GCSE grade
• Adaptive beliefs
– No change
• Maladaptive beliefs
– Large reduction
• The hard thing is not getting new ideas into their heads.
It’s getting the old ones out…
Reflections - 2
Motivation and Self-esteem
• Those given feedback as marks are likely to see it as a way
to compare themselves with others (ego-involvement), those
given only comments see it as helping them to improve
(task-involvement): the latter group out-perform the former
(Butler, 1987).
• Students told that feedback “ . .will help you to learn” learn
more than those told that “how you do tells us how smart
you are and what grades you’ll get” ; the difference is
greatest for low attainers (Newman & Schwager, 1995).
Reflections - 3
Motivation and Self-esteem
• In a competitive system, low attainers attribute their
performance to lack of ‘ability’, high attainers to their effort;
in a task oriented system, all attribute to effort, and learning
is improved, particularly amongst low attainers (Craven et
al. 1991).
• Feedback given as rewards or grades enhances ego rather
than task involvement and can damage the self-esteem of
low attainers. We need to change learners’ belief from ‘My
IQ is fixed - I’m bright or stupid and that’s it’ to ‘I can get
smarter by trying’ (see “Self-Theories” by Carol Dweck,
2000)
Kinds of Feedback:Canada
• 80 Y9 students learning major scales in music
- Experimental group 1 (EG1) given
written praise
list of weaknesses
workplan
- Experimental group 2 (EG2) given
oral feedback
nature of errors
chance to correct errors
- Control group (CG)
no feedback
Boulet et al (1990)
Kinds of Feedback:Canada
• EG2 > EG1 who only achieved about the same as CG
Changes in Feedback : Teachers
• Teachers have been challenged in composing useful
comments that students can and want to read
• Teachers have changed their view of the role of written
work in promoting student learning
• Teachers have had to give more attention to differentiation
Changes in Feedback : Students
• Students take note of teacher comments and use these to
improve their work
• Students have changed their perception of the role of
written work in learning
Self-assessment: Portugal
• Maths teachers trained for 20 weeks in promoting pupil
self-assessment
• Progress of pupils taught by these teachers and other
trained teachers (matched in age, qualifications and
experience) compared for same mathematics course over
same amount of time
• Pupils who used self-assessment did TWICE as well as
pupils in the other teachers’ classes
Pupil Role
• Point A
----------------------------------
Point B
Recognise points.
Close the gap.
• Teachers can help with this but only the learner can close
the gap
• So self-assessment is essential if the gap is to be closed
Can learners self-assess?
•“ ….a number of pupils ……..….are content
to ‘get by’ …….. Every teacher who wants to
practise formative assessment must
reconstruct the habits acquired by his
pupils.”
P. Perrenoud (1991)
Developing Self Assessment Skills
• Understand how criteria play out in different situations
• Recognise quality
• Open to attempting improvement
……. and these can be achieved through
• Peer assessment
• Modelling quality/ steps towards quality
• Reviewing/Redrafting
IBB Classroom assessment
• Four aspects:
–Quality of questions
–Quality of feedback
–Sharing criteria with learners
–Self-assessment
WIBB Classroom assessment
• Four aspects:
–Quality of questions
–Quality of feedback
- Peer and Self Assessment
- Formative Use of Summative Tests
What has KMOFAP achieved
• Found a voice for students that have empowered them in
their learning
• Opened teachers’ ears to their students’ needs
• Enabled teachers to find alternative ways to create and
support the types of learning environments that result in
achievement and develop self-regulation
Essential elements
• The quality of pupil-teacher interactions
• The stimulus and help for students to take active
responsibility for their own learning
• Collaborative learning
Why Has This Intervention Worked?
• Teachers and Heads that were willing to take risks
• Peer support and reflective practice
• Classroom support
Contact Details
• e-mail : Christine.Harrison@kcl.ac.uk
• Web pages http://www.kcl.ac.uk/education/kal.html