Taking the Curriculum Seriously

Critics argue that formative assessment, an educational intervention that has been embraced globally and researched extensively, lacks a theoretical frame. In this essay, the author argues that because formative assessment is embedded in the learning that takes place in the classroom, the theory that underpins formative assessment would have to be a theory of learning and not of assessment.     

Formative assessment in Confucian heritage culture classrooms: activity theory analysis of tensions,contradictions and hybrid practices

Formative assessment has recently become a preferred assessment strategy in educational institutions worldwide. However, it is not easy to implement in Asian classrooms, because local cultures and institutional constraints potentially hinder the practice. This one-semester study aimed to use the ‘third space’, as the core of the third generation of activity theory, as a frame to capture how Vietnamese teachers took into account both traditional practices and contemporary influences to transform formative assessment practices to make them feasible in their classrooms. Participants were 2 lecturers and 250 students from two college classes in Vietnam. The results showed that Vietnamese students’ conceptions of learning were heavily influenced by examinations and their traditional learning culture. Consequently, the teachers needed to transform the initiative to align with these features in Vietnamese classrooms. When the revisions were made, the students were evidenced to achieve a growth in learning, change their beliefs about learning and develop both self-learning and collective learning.     

学习性评价:涵义、方法及原理

学习性评价是以"促进学生发展、教师提高和改进教学实践"为目的的内部非正式评价,也是有效教学的一个有机组成部分.学习性评价的主要方法可以概括为:(1)改进课堂提问方式,增加回答"等待时间";(2)提高作业反馈质量,促进学生深入反思;(3)加强同伴与自我评价,形成自主与责任意识;(4)两种评价结合并用,优化评价教育功能.在科学课堂上实施学习性评价,首先改变了科学教师的教学方式,其次促进了学生学习方式的转变,提高课堂互动的效果和教学质量,从而有效地促进师生的共同发展.     

The motivational paradox of feedback: teacher and student perceptions

The notion that future performance can be affected by information about previous performance is often expressed in terms of ‘closing the gap’. Feedback has long been recognised as a mechanism through which teaching and learning may be influenced. The current wave of support in the United Kingdom for assessment for learning echoes these sentiments. This paper examines the feedback strategies employed by two experienced literacy practitioners in England. Using data gathered from field observations, interviews and documentary sources, the paper presents evidence of espoused practice associated with feedback, demonstrating that whilst teachers may claim that they make effective use of some feedback strategies to support pupils’ learning and motivation, that this is not supported by empirical data. The paper also identifies that whilst some teachers aim to mark every piece of pupils’ written work for perceived motivational benefits; such a strategy can undermine pupils’ intrinsic motivation and lead to a culture of over-dependency, whereby the locus of control with regard to feedback lies solely with the teacher. The paper concludes by exploring some possible implications for practice with regard to the provision of written feedback in particular.     

从“形成性评价”到“学习性评价”：课堂评价理论与实践的新发展

"学习性评价"是在"形成性评价"基础上发展演变而来的、为适应新一轮国际基础教育改革而产生的课堂评价理论及其指导下的课堂评价实践。"学习性评价"的五大核心理念体现了国际基础教育评价理念经历的重大变化。"学习性评价"与"形成性评价"既有密切联系又有显著区别。我国需要从评价制度(如督导)和政策层面上确立"学习性评价"在课程与教学中的地位,积极发挥"学习性评价"对课程与教学改革的促进作用。     

Special educational needs,e-learning and the reflective e-portfolio: implications for developing and assessing competence in pre-service education

Diagnostic and formative assessment practices have been widely endorsed in the educational research literature. This article reports the findings of a small-scale study which investigated the extent to which these practices have been embraced in classroom teaching. The interview data from six lecturers and six students at a polytechnic in Singapore illustrate how lecturers described their strategies and students experienced them. The data indicate that, among the research participants, there was little clear evidence to suggest that diagnostic and formative assessment were coherently conceptualised or strategically applied. Further, instances of pedagogical actions that could have been taken as applications of diagnostic and formative assessment appeared to have occurred serendipitously rather than purposefully. The implications of this for the students’ learning are discussed.     

Assessment terms half a century in the making and unmaking: from conceptual ingenuity to definitional anarchy

As the parameters of the field of educational assessment have extended past testing into learning, assessment concepts have evolved and become ever more nuanced. It is frequently lamented in the English language literature that there is insufficient conformity and clarity in the way they are defined and used. This paper offers a survey of the problem over the past five decades and scrutinises conceptualisations of a number of key assessment terms. Additionally, it argues that some of these may not, or may no longer, be necessary, and recommends the phrase ‘evaluation for learning’ as the most suitable term for embodying the spirit of using testing for improving learning and teaching. It closes by offering suggestions for tackling the problem.     

‘Formative good,summative bad?’ – A review of the dichotomy in assessment literature

The debate between summative and formative assessment is creating a situation that increasingly calls to mind the famous slogan in George Orwell’s (1945) Animal Farm – ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’. Formative assessment is increasingly being portrayed in the literature as ‘good’ assessment, which tutors should strive towards, whereas summative assessment is ‘bad’ assessment on which tutors should minimise their focus, instead moving towards formative assessment (Taras 2005). By revisiting the origins of formative assessment, this article aims to bring back to light that summative and formative assessment are connected at their inception. It highlights how research in the literature has unintentionally created a harmful dichotomy between summative and formative assessment, and it identifies some attempts in the literature to re-connect formative and summative assessment. This paper challenges the dichotomy in the literature and invites those in higher education to consider the fundamental idea that formative and summative assessment need to work in harmony and should not be seen as contrary to each other.     

Integrating data-based decision making,Assessment for Learning and diagnostic testing in formative assessment

Recent research has highlighted the lack of a uniform definition of formative assessment, although its effectiveness is widely acknowledged. This paper addresses the theoretical differences and similarities amongst three approaches to formative assessment that are currently most frequently discussed in educational research literature: data-based decision making (DBDM), Assessment for Learning (AfL) and diagnostic testing (DT). Furthermore, the differences and similarities in the implementation of each approach were explored. This analysis shows that although differences exist amongst the theoretical underpinnings of DBDM, AfL and DT, the combination of these approaches can create more informed learning environments. The thoughtful integration of the three assessment approaches should lead to more valid formative decisions, if a range of evidence about student learning is used to continuously optimise student learning.     

Formative assessment in the Grenadian lower secondary school: teachers’ perceptions,attitudes and practices

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, attitudes and frequency of use of formative assessment strategies of teachers in the Grenadian lower secondary school (Forms 1, 2 and 3). The study, which was quantitative in nature, involved 252 lower secondary school teachers. Overall the participants had positive perceptions and attitudes towards formative assessment. Significant differences in the perceptions of formative assessment held by trained and untrained teachers (p?p?=?.001) were found. Trained and untrained teachers were found to have similar frequencies of practice of formative assessment strategies. About half of the teachers reported not allowing students to provide input into test construction and encouraging students to engage in journal writing. The study raises questions about the hindrances that teachers face in the integration of some formative assessment strategies and provides policy-makers with valuable information to support strengthening of teacher education efforts.     

Formative assessment at the crossroads: conformative,deformative and transformative assessment

The theory and practice of formative assessment seems to be at a crossroads, even an impasse. Different theoretical justifications for the development of formative assessment, and different empirical exemplifications, have been apparent for many years. Yet practice, while quite widespread, is often limited in terms of its scope and its utilisation of the full range of possible approaches associated with formative assessment. The paper reviews these issues and explores them in relation to the development of formative assessment in higher education. HE is taken as ‘test case’ of the paradoxical implementation of formative assessment, whereby the aim is, ostensibly, to develop independent and critical learners, while in practice highly conformative assessment procedures are being designed and developed. The paper argues that developers also need to attend to the divergent possibilities inherent in formative assessment, if their aspirations for a more transformative practice are to be realised.     

Formative assessment of writing in English as a foreign language

Recognizing the importance of formative assessment, this mixed-methods study investigates how four teachers and 100 students respond to the new emphasis on formative assessment in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing classes in Norway. While previous studies have examined formative assessment in oral classroom interactions and focused on either studying students or teachers, little research has been conducted on formative assessment of writing where both students and teachers are studied. As such, this study provides new insight. The findings mostly indicate that contradictions are prevalent amongst teachers’ and students’ perceptions of formative assessment of writing. The contradictions revolve around feedback, grades, text revision, self-assessment, and student involvement. The identified contradictions suggest the need for developing a mutual understanding of formative assessment in order to make it useful and meaningful.     

Goals or horizons—the conundrum of progression in English: or a possible way of understanding formative assessment in English

This article examines how the principles of formative assessment might be applied to the curriculum subject of English. It takes as its starting point the problematic nature of progression in the subject and suggests that it may be better to understand progression as heading towards a horizon rather than a clearly defined goal. The article argues this by exploring the potential constraints of what might be considered goal models of progression and contrasts these with the affordances offered by those approaches that view progression as towards a horizon. In particular it suggests that, in order to understand how to progress, pupils need to acquire the guild subject knowledge of their teachers by being apprenticed into the same community of interpreters. The article situates this discussion within wider concerns about how teachers scaffold and regulate the learning process for their pupils.     

"Thinking the Practice": Academic adult educators' reflections on mediating a summer institute as a multicultural learning journey for graduate students

In this paper we research our roles as academic adult educators who worked with 40 graduate students during a 10 day summer institute, which we developed using the theme "Culture and Diversity in Education for Adults". We discuss how we framed the development and delivery of this summer institute in the context of a transgressive and transformative learning journey that heeds Paulo Freire's (1998) call to "think the practice" by reading and comprehending the word and the world critically. From this perspective, we examine our positionalities that situate us as present, sometimes strong, yet sometimes vulnerable educators who use insurgent theories and positional pedagogies to shape alternative learning experiences. We also examine how these positionalities impact our conceptions of pedagogy and multiculturalism, and we explore how they helped to shape the inclusive teaching-learning interactions that we designed to query being, acting, becoming, belonging, and surviving in education and the larger Canadian and global cultures. In this regard we investigate how our learning journey emerged as one deeply textured by engagements with issues of educator and learner positionalities as well as matters of context, disposition, relationship, and affiliation. We explore how our learning journey with institute participants took us into the uneasy intersections of the personal, professional, and political where pedagogical practices and associated challenges, risks, possibilities, and liabilities emerge.     

形成性评价与总结性评价理论探究

自从形成性评价和总结性评价理论提出以来,人们对它们的涵义及相互关系仍有不同诠释。实际上形成性评价和总结性评价是一个连续体的两个方面：评价起于总结性,而形成性评价实际上是总结性评价加反馈和改进的过程。     

Closing the feedback loop? Iterative feedback between tutor and student in coursework assessments

We evaluate the case for using feedback iteratively, to improve student engagement and learning. In this model, students were invited to respond to tutor feedback with students’ own responses. Among the three courses/modules (three tutors) studied, differences in feedback styles were evident from: (a) thematic analysis of tutor comments and, for one course, and (b) comments in a student focus group. Students were inconsistent in their evaluation of tutor feedback but, in a more detailed study of one of the courses, there was clear evidence for the benefits of iterative feedback. Lessons from the main study were then applied to a course that had not previously incorporated iterative feedback. Using this experience, we provide suggestions for applying iterative feedback in assessments.     

网络技术下提高大学生英语听力的合作促学形成性评价方式的实证研究

大学生英语听说能力的提高是整个大学英语教学改革中的重点和难点。因此,改变传统的单一的终结性评价模式,建立新型的多样化的评价模式,将形成性评价用于语言教学的过程,不仅是让其作为评价的手段,而且是通过它达到促学的目的。在对理工科的非英语专业学生的英语听力教学上,将善于操作计算机和网络的优点和这种新的形成性评价方式结合起来,可以促进学生英语听说能力的提高,是教学改革方面的一个有益尝试。     

Conceptions of assessment: trainee teachers' practice and values

This study examines the values and practice in relation to assessment of a sample of 220 trainee teachers studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, an initial teacher training and education (ITET) course, at the University of Cambridge, UK. The survey instrument was drawn from James and Pedder (2006 James, M. and Pedder, D. 2006. Beyond method: Assessment and learning practices and values. The Curriculum Journal, 17(2): 109–138. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), and was composed of questionnaire items that sought to elicit how trainees valued different classroom assessment practices, and the extent to which their own teaching complied with such values. The study draws additionally on the findings of James and Pedder (2006 James, M. and Pedder, D. 2006. Beyond method: Assessment and learning practices and values. The Curriculum Journal, 17(2): 109–138. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) to compare and contrast results with those for qualified teachers. Item and factor analyses revealed three dimensions that underpin trainees' classroom practice and values (promoting learning autonomy, performance orientation, making learning explicit). Values-practice gaps were greatest on promoting learning autonomy and performance orientation. Trainees valued practices associated with the former more than they implemented them in their teaching, while they implemented practices associated with the latter more than predicted by their values. Values-practice gaps suggested that trainees were constrained from implementing their values to a greater extent than qualified teachers, particularly with respect to these two factors.     

英语教学中形成性评价与学生自主学习的发展

形成性评价理念与方法的引入,使教师对学生的学习过程进行了全面的监控和调整,极大地丰富了现有英语教学的评价手段.形成性评价的实施为即时自主学习情境提供了学习的技能和策略,改变了自主学习者的心理特征,增强学生在社交中的中介学习能力,帮助自主学习者实现对理念、权利和权威的控制.