Where there's a will there's a way

Although Australian educators have recognised the value of the 'Assessment for Learning' program for some time, fundamental attitudinal changes need to take place before our students can reap the benefits. Toni Glasson elaborates.

The term 'Assessment for Learning' has been around now for quite some time—in the UK since 1998 and here in Australia since about 2002. No one argues with the research that asserts its value as an intervention to promote student achievement, particularly for lowperforming students. The education departments of the majority of states and territories pay at least lip service to its role. Some education departments have gone as far as active promotion via workshops for teachers; others have been satisfied to devote portions of their website to promote teachers' individual professional learning, while others have simply given it a mention here and there as something to be considered.

At the same time, individual schools and clusters, with little assistance or recognition from higher authorities, have responded enthusiastically to the researchbased evidence and taken it upon themselves to begin implementing Assessment for Learning strategies. So there is interest and there is an appreciation of the research, particularly that of professors Black and Wiliam. The credentials are established, but what will it take to develop a better understanding of Assessment for Learning and to promote its wider implementation in Australian schools?

Defining the territory

It might come as a surprise that there needs to be a much clearer understanding in the minds of practitioners as to the difference between formative and summative assessment. Teachers are used to assessing the achievement of students in terms of a level, standard or grade, but when asked to explain the nature of formative assessment they are often at a loss. The implementation of Assessment for Learning in the classroom depends on this understanding because Assessment for Learning is formative in nature.

Once formative assessment is fully understood, it must be supported by an understanding that opportunities to assess for learning are present in everything that happens in the classroom. Assessment for Learning is not something that happens only as a result of a scheduled assessment task or activity—although it certainly does, and should, occur in these circumstances. It can also occur when a teacher recognises a look of confusion on the face of a student, when a student nods in understanding, when a student turns quickly to a peer and starts to explain something, when a student offers a response to a question or asks a question of the teacher or a peer, and when a student reflects on his or her own learning orally, diagrammatically or in writing. All of these situations provide the teacher with the opportunity to assess what the students know, understand and are able to do— and to act on that information to scaffold student achievement so that students can get to where they need to be.

Making it happen

Implementing Assessment for Learning strategies requires a deliberate decision to make learning the focus of all classroom activity. This might sound odd. Surely classrooms are all about learning? Not always. Often the focus is on 'doing' rather than 'learning' and the students, as Sadler points out, are not being 'let in on the secret'. When students know what it is that they are expected to learn and why, and how they will know whether or not they have done so, then they are in a much better position to achieve. Teachers not only have to know the answers to these questions, but also to make the answers explicit to their students.

The scale of the change that is required will of course vary from classroom to classroom, but generally the size of the necessary change, and the length of time needed to allow teachers time to practise, engage with and understand the strategies, is under-appreciated. To implement Assessment for Learning strategies requires both teacher and students to rethink their roles in the classroom. This is not an easy thing. In fact teachers might find that students who are used to being passive learners will actively resist any change that requires them to work much harder. (And some teachers resist the change that requires them to work differently.) But experience shows that with practice, support and time, the change can be achieved. Teachers report not only significant changes in student attitude but also that they themselves feel professionally energised.

Supporting the teacher

Significantly, implementing Assessment for Learning depends on appreciating and promoting the role of the teacher as learner. Why is it so important for teachers to be learners?

It is virtually impossible to create and sustain over time conditions for productive learning for students when they do not exist for teachers.
Seymour Sarason

Schools need to be assisted to develop professional learning communities in which the Assessment for Learning strategies that teachers use in the classroom are themselves employed to promote teacher learning. That is, teachers are told what it is they are expected to learn and why, and how they will know whether or not they have been successful. Importantly, they receive feedback—preferably from their peers in the professional learning community—to assist them to achieve their learning goals. The implementation of Assessment for Learning strategies can be further supported by providing teachers with opportunities to stay abreast of the academic demands of the learning areas in which they teach so that they have a thorough and updated appreciation of the knowledge, skills and understandings that are the focus of their teaching.

Most important is the recognition that Assessment for Learning is not 'what we've always done' or that is something we're 'doing already'. In a classroom where Assessment for Learning is being used to promote student achievement, teachers make assessment a central part of learning— not summative assessment, but formative assessment. They are alert to the need to create situations in which they can gain information about their students, they know how to interpret that information and they look for ways to act on it. Recognising the importance of students taking responsibility for their own learning, they ask students to engage in self-evaluation, self-assessment and self-monitoring. All of this happens in a planned, deliberate way.

If Assessment for Learning is to become something more than a catchy phrase in a policy document, and more than a vague nod in the direction of overseas research, teachers' understanding of the research theory behind Assessment for Learning and their professional commitment to its implementation in their classrooms must receive practical and focused support from school leadership teams and school sector administration. At the time of publication these prerequisites for success are not yet in place in any consistent way.

References

Black, P & Wiliam, D (1998). Inside the Black Box, Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. School of Education, King's College, London, UK.

Glasson, T (2009). Improving Student Achievement: a practical guide to Assessment for Learning. Curriculum Corporation, Carlton.

Sadler, R (1998). 'Letting Students into the Secret: further steps in making criteria and standards work to improve learning'. Paper presented at the Annual Conference for State Review Panels and District Review Panel Chairs, July 1998.

Sarason, S (1995). 'How to make sure your professional development investment pays off' in The Regional Lab Reports, Newsletter of the Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands.

Toni Glasson works as a consultant to schools who are interested in implementing Assessment for Learning.

Follow the link for more information about Toni's latest book Improving Student Achievement: A practical guide to Assessment for Learning published by Curriculum Corporation

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