3. What is Assessment?
The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin verb
‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’.
In assessment one is supposed to sit with the
learner. This implies it is something we do ‘with’
and ‘for’ students and not ‘to’ students
(Green, 1999).
4. Assessment in education is the process of
gathering, interpreting, recording, and using
information about pupils’ responses to an
educational task.
(Harlen, Gipps, Broadfoot, Nuttal,1992)
7. Assess what we value!
We’ve created a culture in which
students learn what we assess!
8. The State of Assessment
• “A wealth of research – a poverty of practice.”
(Black and Wiliam, 1998)
• Shift from “teaching” to “learning”
• Confusion of terms and conditions
– Assessment
• Formative
• Summative
• Diagnostic
• Preassessment
• Portfolio Assessment
9. Black and Wiliam
•Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long
ones.
•New learning should be tested within about a week
of first exposure.
•Be mindful of the quality of test items and work with
other teachers and outside sources to collect good
ones.
•Comments alone have more impact on student
achievement than comments and grades or
grades only.
For more: http://bit.ly/dmYUHW
10. Assessment should be:
• “…learner-centered, teacher-directed,
mutually beneficial, formative, context-
specific, ongoing, and firmly rooted in good
practice" (Angelo and Cross, 1993).
13. Why Formative Assessment?
“There is a body of firm evidence that
formative assessment is an essential
component of classroom work and that its
development can raise standards of
achievement. We know of no other way of
raising standards for which such a strong
prima facie case can be made.”
(Black & Wiliam, 1998)
14. “Traditional” Assessment Practices
• Generally encourage rote/ superficial learning
• Can predict students results on external tests, but
provides little information about students’ learning
needs
• Focus on quantity, rather than quality, of work
• Over-emphasize grading, under-emphasize learning
16. Formative Assessment
“A key characteristic [of formative assessment] is
that the assessment information is used, by both
teacher and pupils, to modify their work in order
to make it more effective.” (Black, 1993)
• Role for both teachers and students
• Assessment information must be used to make
adjustments to teaching & learning
• Timing: While learning is “in progress”
• Not all classroom assessments are formative!
17. Formative Assessment:
Range of Practices
Planned-for Embedded Separate
On-the-Fly Interaction Assessment Assessment
INFORMAL FORMAL
* Adapted from Shavelson (2003)
19. Check-In Question #2
In your subject area,
what is an example of a
“planned-for interaction”
formative assessment
opportunity?
20. Check-In Question #3
In your subject area,
what is an example of
an “embedded”
formative assessment
opportunity?
21. Purposes of Formative Assessment
• Monitoring Learning
– Whether learning is taking place
• Diagnosing (informing) learning
– What is & isn’t being learned
• Forming learning
– What to do about it
* Borrowed from Wiliam (2004)
22. Check-In Question #4
In your subject area, how
would an assessment for
diagnosing learning look
different from an assessment
for monitoring learning?
23. Components of Formative Assessment
• Eliciting assessment information
• Interpreting elicited assessment information
• Acting upon interpretations
– Providing feedback to students
– Reflecting upon & revising teaching
* Adapted from Ruiz-Primo (2005)
24. “Traditional” Feedback
• Provides information about relative standing,
rather than how to improve
• Reinforces to “weaker” students that they lack
“ability” and are not able to learn
25. Necessary components of
“good” feedback
• Sadler (1989) delineated 3 necessary
components of feedback:
– The standard which is to be achieved
– The actual level of performance
– How to go about closing the gap
• Ramaprasad’s (1983) definition emphasized
use of information to close the gap
26. “Good” feedback
• Provides specific information
(Black, 1998; Black et al., 2004; Bonnoil, 1991; Choi, Nam, & Lee, 2001;
Croocks, 1998; Elawar & Corno, 1985; Harlen & James, 1997;
Mavrommatis, 1997; Sadler, 1998; Torrance & Pryor, 2001)
• Compares student performance to clear
standards, not to performance of others
• Is honest and authentic
• Is timely
27. Steps to Providing “Good” Feedback
• Start with the positive
• Use specific, non-judgmental language to indicate
areas for improvement
• Target a small number of areas where the student is
ready to make improvement, and provide guidance
about what to do next
• Provide an opportunity for relearning, correction,
and revision in response to feedback
28. Grades & Feedback
• Students tend to ignore feedback when
accompanied by a grade or overall judgment
(Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2004)
“A numerical mark or grade does not tell you
what to do: if it is high, you’re pleased but
have no impetus to do better, if it is low it
might confirm your belief that you are not able
to learn the subject.” (Black & Harrison, 2001)
29. Diagnostic
Diagnostic assessments provide instructors with
information about student's prior knowledge and
misconceptions before beginning a learning
activity
• Blog Prompts
• Google Forms
• Learning Inventories
30. Formative
• Homework (ReThinking Homework)
• Research
– Zoho Notebook
– OneNote Notebooks
– Noodle Tools
• Lab reports and WikiBooks
• Shared Google Docs (writing and
presentations) or iEtherpad.com
• Reading Assignments (Diigo)
• Blogs
• Quizzes (Moodle, Canvas, Quia)
31. Peer/Self/Metacognitive
• Frederick Douglas Presentations
• Blog Reflections
• Learning Journals
• Private Google Doc or Spreadsheet
33. Other Sites
• Quia
• Kubbu
• ESL Video
• Exam Professor
34. Images
• Flow - Uploaded on November 20, 2007
by Eric Bégin http://www.flickr.com/photos/47604778@N00/2050880593/
• Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vivamus et magna. Fusce sed sem sed magna
suscipit egestas.
35. Connectivism
Learning occurs as part of a social network of many
diverse connections and ties-
Network made possible by various tools and technologies
which are not as important as the connections made
possible by them.
