Thursday, October 1, 2009

Formative Assessment

In order for formative assessment to be embedded in practice, it is vital that teachers have children's learning as their priority, not their teaching or the opinions of outside parties.
Shirley Clarke (2003), Enriching Feedback in the Primary Classroom



Formative Assessment consists of the following components:
  • The active involvement of students in their own learning;
  • Sharing learning goals with students;
  • Involving students in self-assessment;
  • Effective questioning;
  • Providing feedback which leads to students recognizing their next steps and how to take them;
  • Adjusting teaching to take account/respond to the results of assessments;
  • Confidence that every student can improve (the untapped potential of each child rather than "fixed IQ" belief). Black and William (1998)


If pupils don't learn the way we teach...perhaps we should teach the way they learn.
Eppig (1981)