Introduction:
“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.”
(Clarke, 2003)
Enriching Feedback in the Primary
Classroom follows Unlocking
Formative Assessment (Clarke, 2001) and Targeting
Assessment
in the Primary Classroom (Clarke, 1998). The
previous books took all elements of formative assessment
and discussed
practical strategies for implementing the
research principles. This book is intended to focus on
perhaps the most powerful
aspect of formative assessment:
feedback.
I continue to work with teachers
across the UK and
increasingly abroad, to attempt to define ways in which
formative assessment can be implemented successfully in the
classroom, making sure that known research principles are
adhered to. I encourage teachers to see themselves as
action researchers when they are experimenting with their
own and other teachers’ ideas, as equal learners with the
children. Keeping notes of approaches that worked, and
interesting findings, are encouraged, so that quality
discussion can take place outside the classroom when
teachers come together.
The most comprehensive study I was
involved in recently was
with the Gillingham Partnership (The North Gillingham Education
Action Zone) throughout 2001, in which 15 primary schools
engaged in formative assessment over the course of a year:
all teachers and all children, with teams of researchers
interviewing teachers and children each term and observing
lessons. A great deal was learnt during this time, most of all
from the interviews with children. A core team of teachers
continues to meet and their work, the results of the original
study and the work of many other teams of teachers around
the UK are reflected throughout this book.
Formative Assessment
Formative
assessment consists of the following
components:
- The active
involvement of pupils in their own learning;
- Sharing learning
goals with pupils;
- Involving pupils in
self-assessment;
- Effective
questioning;
- Providing feedback
which leads to pupils recognizing their
next steps and how to take them;
- Adjusting teaching
to take account of the results of
assessment;
- Confidence that
every student can improve (the ‘untapped
potential’ rather than ‘fixed IQ’ belief)
Black and William, 1998)
Black and William’s (1998) review of
the literature about
formative assessment proved that formative assessment
raises standards of achievement and equips children for life-
long learning.
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.
This is easy to say, but less easy to implement. This book
takes account of the realities of the classroom and external
pressures, within the context of striving for a whole-school
rationale. Ways of facilitating and nurturing children’s
learning and their desire to learn override all other aims.
Teaching is, of course, a key instrument, and throughout the
book strategies are shared and analyzed so that the best of
practice can ‘travel’.
Formative assessment is a powerful vehicle
for focusing on
effective learning. However, it is not a quick fix: it takes
time, thought and discussion to become embedded. It also
involves, in many cases, a gradual power shift, through
modeling and training, enabling children to gradually take
more and more control over their learning and the decisions
they make to enhance that learning. Askew and Lodge’s
(2000) framework for feedback encapsulates the entire
learning journey from teachers’ control to pupil power.
(table from Askew and Lodge, 2000)
We are aiming for ‘loops’, but we may need
to include more
‘gifts’ and ‘ping-pong’ at the beginning of the continuum of
control in order to reach that point.
The same principles and continuum must be
necessary when
working with adults in their professional development.
Formative assessment only works when teachers come to own
it for themselves – when they can talk to others about the
way it works in their classroom, and when they become part of
the huge number of teachers continually discovering and
understanding better ways of helping children not only to
learn but to love learning.
Feedback
Feedback is the central theme of formative
assessment, yet
is the element most laden with a legacy of bad practice and
misguided views. We have tended, through various forms of
feedback, to compare children constantly, thus demoralizing
the less able and making complacent the more able. We
have focused feedback on limited features and often made
children lose self-esteem and motivation. Parental
expectations compound the problem.
Feedback issues covered in this book span
feedback from
teacher to child, from children to teacher, and to other
children, in oral, written and some more subtle forms. The
scene is set with some discussion about learning theories.
The
foundations of feedback are laid through the chapters on
devising and sharing learning intentions and developing
success criteria. Various aspects of feedback are then
explored in practical contexts, including whole-school issues
about a feedback policy and framework. At the end of each
chapter, the key principles are summarized and ideas are
given for INSET.
Foreword: