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Formative assessments are used so teachers can see how their students are growing and changing academically. These are recommended to be short and simple to reduce stress on the students, but they should contain good enough questions that teachers are able get accurate information. They should be seen as routine so that students have less to worry in the times leading up to more rigorous assessments.

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Assessments of learning are typically conducted at the end of a unit, semester, etc. They are used to track the progress that the students are making and then they are compared to where the students are supposed to be on a national or district scale.

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Assessments of learning could look like state tests, portfolios, and final projects or exams. All of these are conducted at the end of units or semesters and are used to track what the students know.

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These assessments are typically given during a lesson or unit for teachers to see how students are learning as you teach. This allows teachers to make modifications as you go to ensure that students are learning in the best possible way. These assessments might also give the teacher the ability to identify students who are struggling before it is too late. Although the students are the ones completing the assessment, teachers are typically the ones who benefit from them.

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These assessments may be less formal than a typical assessment. These can be as simple as in-class conversations (with notes taken by the teacher during conversation) or they can be formative or diagnostic tests as well.

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What is the theory behind AFL?

AFL helps in making understanding and knowledge, as John Hattie describes it, 'more visible'. AFL helps learners understand what excellence looks like and how they can develop their own work to reach that level.

Feedback has a positive effect on learner achievement. In John Hattie's seminal work on educational effectiveness, Visible Learning for Teachers (2011), Hattie ranked feedback strategies 10th out of 150 factors that bring about significant improvements in learner outcomes. This was particularly true if the strategies involved feedback about the learner's own work.

Black and Wiliam argue that if teachers use formative assessments as part of their teaching, students can learn at approximately double the rate. Hattie's research also shows that using formative assessment in the classroom brings about real-world differences in learner achievement.

Examples of factors that a learner might feel able to control include how much effort they make and how interested they are in the subject. Non-controllable factors include luck or the amount of help the learner receives from the teacher.

Learners who take part in self-assessment (as part of AFL) learn to attribute failures to controllable factors. For example, a learner doing badly on a homework assignment might realise that they focused on the wrong subject matter. Because the choice of subject matter was in their control, they can review, edit and improve the work. Being in control in this way will boost the learner's confidence and achievement.

Learning happens when students are given opportunities to build upon previous knowledge and experiences. Research consistently shows that only telling learners what they need to know is much less effective than helping them construct meaning for themselves.

www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au explains the terms associated with AFL in more depth.

What are the benefits of AFL?

AFL improves learner outcomes
Research shows that effective formative assessment is one of the most important contributors to success in summative assessment. This is because learners have a clear idea of what good work looks like and what they need to do to reach this standard.

AFL increases confidence
AFL helps create a sense of self-efficacy (a learner's confidence in their ability to reach targets through hard work and determination). This is an essential quality for learners to develop. Self-efficacy will help them succeed throughout their life, both professionally and personally.

A student who receives a poor grade for a test may withdraw from learning, preferring to be thought 'lazy' rather than 'stupid'. With an AFL approach, teachers give learners task-specific feedback that focuses on the work rather than ego-specific feedback that focuses on personal qualities of the learner. This encourages every learner to feel that they can improve. You can find out more about different types of feedback in this article from the American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/education/k12/using-praise.aspx

AFL techniques, such as peer feedback, can help more able learners to reinforce their learning by explaining ideas to less able classmates. Furthermore, peer feedback helps learners to develop diplomacy and communication skills that will be essential in many aspects of later life.

AFL increases independence
AFL enables learners to become less passive in the classroom, especially when combined with other methods that promote this type of approach, such as active learning techniques. Students will develop the ability to assess themselves and to take responsibility for their own learning. This supports the development of the Cambridge learner attributes which says that Cambridge learners are confident, responsible, reflective, innovative and engaged. An AFL approach also helps students to become enthusiastic life-long learners.

AFL also helps teachers. When students are taking a more active role in their learning, teachers have more time to talk to them individually. In addition, teachers have more time to reflect on what is going well in their lesson and what can be improved.

Summary
In this video, teacher trainer James Woodworth discusses some of the benefits of using AFL strategies in the classroom.

What are the challenges of AFL?

Misunderstanding
The word 'assessment' often leads to confusion, because it is usually used to refer to summative testing. AFL mainly focuses on the use of informal formative assessment to improve learning. Although teachers and learners can also learn from their work in formal summative test papers, this is not the main emphasis of AFL.
Training and time
Introducing AFL into a school or classroom takes time. It sometimes requires additional professional training, and it changes to the ways that teachers interact with their learners.

Fear of change
Teachers and learners may fear that the changes required in their classroom practice will not help them. High-achieving and diligent learners may find it hard to look for faults and mistakes in their work and thinking. They may feel that they do not want to show any sign of weakness or failure.

Getting it right
Giving feedback to learners about their work can have a negative effect as well as positive. A teacher must choose their words carefully when giving feedback. If the teacher gives the impression that only the teachers can provide the right answer, learners will find it hard to be independent.

Culture
Sometimes teachers are judged solely on their ability to get good results in high-stakes summative assessments. Teachers may feel that they do not have time to do activities that do not seem directly linked to final examination grades. However, using feedback to modify instruction and help learners to better understand assessment objectives will improve exam results.

"...using feedback to modify instruction and help learners to better understand assessment objectives will improve exam results."

Want to know more?
In this thought-provoking article, Carol Dweck discusses the effect of praise on learners.
This article by Hattie and Timperley reviews educational research on feedback.

AFL checklist

If you are new to AFL, it will help if you ask yourself the following questions:

How effectively am I using questioning?
It is a good idea to structure questions so that learners give detailed answers, revealing exactly what they understand about a subject.

Try waiting for at least three seconds after asking a question to get better responses from your learners.

How effective is my use of feedback?
Giving your learners task-focused feedback instead of ego-focused feedback can help your learners to feel motivated to try harder with their work.

If possible, set your learners tasks to do to improve their work during the next lesson.

How effective is my use of peer feedback?
Encourage an atmosphere of mutual supportiveness in your classroom. It is helpful to explain to your learners why peer feedback is being used and how they are going to benefit from it.

It is a good idea to start a peer feedback session with an in-depth discussion of success criteria. You could show your learners examples of successful work from previous years.

You know your learners, so you can judge whether to put them into small groups or pairs, and whether to put learners in a group with their friends.

How much do I use self-assessment in my practice?
Students initially learn self-assessment from their teacher: they follow your lead when you give them feedback about their work. It is a good idea if your feedback targets certain skills or aspects of your learners' work.

Self-assessment will be most successful if you encourage your learners to practise regularly, e.g. in a 'reflective log' or learning journal. It is also helpful to give your learners open questions to get them started, e.g. 'How did what I learned fit in with what I already know?'

Am I helping my students learn effectively from summative assessments?
If possible, always return marked tests or exams to your learners so they can learn from their mistakes. It is also helpful to select questions that gave most learners problems and go through them in class.

It can be successful to adapt your future schemes of work based on what learners found difficult to allow more time to teach challenging concepts.

Next steps: Four ideas to put into practice

What is the best way to get started with AFL? Here are four straightforward ways to introduce AFL into your teaching.

Try out as many of these activities as you can. Afterwards, reflect on your experiences and consider how you can develop the technique to fit into your regular teaching schedule.

1. Questioning and discussion: Think Pair Share
What is it?
'Think Pair Share' involves posing a question to learners and giving them a few minutes to consider their response on their own. Then each learner discusses their ideas with a partner before the conversation is opened to the whole class.

This strategy encourages all learners to get involved in classroom participation. It gives them time to formulate their own ideas as well as an opportunity for all learners to share their thinking with at least one other learner. Furthermore, it encourages learners to listen to each other's ideas, and helps them to understand different viewpoints.

What happens?
You can use this routine after asking the class any open question. For example, after reading a chapter of a book, the teacher asks all learners to reflect quietly on a question about it for one or two minutes. During this time learners record their own ideas on paper.

Next, the teacher instructs them to turn to their neighbour, or a small group of neighbours, and discuss the question for several minutes. This time they record their pair or group's thoughts. Then, the teacher calls on several pairs to tell the class what their ideas were.

The first time you try this technique in class, scaffold your learners' pair or group discussions by reminding them to listen to each other's ideas and to ask questions of one another. A useful technique to make sure that your learners really listen to each other is to tell them that they will have to explain their partner's ideas to the class. The records of learners' ideas can be displayed in the classroom for all learners to share.

Harvard's Project Zero has more information about 'Think Pair Share'.

2. Feedback from the teacher: Comment-only marking
What is it?
When marking learners' homework assignments, give a constructive comment instead of giving a grade and a comment (or only a grade).

At the start of the next lesson, give back the work with the comments. Then allow time for the learners to improve the assignment, responding to your comments. After the learners have improved their work, you could give out grades so that the learners know what level they were working at.

3. Feedback from the learner: Traffic lights
What is it?
This technique is a quick way to find out how confident learners feel about a new concept or skill that has been covered in a lesson.

What happens?
You could give each learner a set of small coloured circles to hold up.

Another way of doing this with several topics or concepts would be to give your learners a handout with a grid on which they can identify their understanding level with a smiley, sad or neutral face.

4. Peer feedback on an assignment
What is it?
This activity introduces learners to the peer feedback process. Learners give each other feedback about an assignment that they have just completed.

What happens?
First, introduce the 'success criteria'. These are the qualities that make a good piece of work such as the effective use of language or using evidence to support an argument in an essay.

(The first time you try peer assessment with your class, it is useful to scaffold the activity so that your learners know what to do. Use a previous learner's assignment, and read this through with the class. Then ask them to rate the work, noting how much each 'success criterion' was achieved.)

Learners read each other's assignments and make notes on how much each success criterion was achieved. Then, in pairs, the learners give each other written and/or and verbal feedback, based on the success criteria.

While your learners are giving each other feedback, walk around the class to monitor the feedback that each pair is giving. You can join in discussions to add your opinion if learners need some help giving feedback.

At the end of the session, ask your learners how they found the experience. Encourage them by praising how they have done the task and emphasise how this process takes time and practice to be effective.

Here is some helpful advice for implementing AFL in your classroom:

Glossary

Active learning
Learning which engages students and challenges their thinking, using a variety of activities.

Assessment for learning
Essential teaching strategies during learning to help teachers and students evaluate progress in terms of understanding and skills acquisition, providing guidance and feedback for subsequent teaching and learning.

Closed question
A question that can be answered with either a single word (usually 'yes' or 'no') or a short phrase and the choice of answers is limited.

Cold calling
Questioning technique in which the teacher selects a learner at random to answer a question, instead of learners putting up their hands to answer a question.

Critical thinking
The ability, underlying all rational discourse and enquiry, to assess and evaluate analytically particular assertions or concepts in the light of either evidence or wider contexts.

Ego-specific feedback
Feedback to the learner that focuses on their personal qualities.

Feedback
Information about how the learner is doing in their efforts to reach a goal. Feedback could also come from the learner to the teacher about how they feel the teacher could help them learn better.

Formative assessment
Activity that provides students with developmental feedback on their progress during the learning programme and informs the design of their next steps in learning.

Marking scheme
Plan or guidelines used in the marking of learners' work.

Metacognition
Metacognition is a term used to describe 'thinking about thinking'. It refers to the processes used to plan, monitor and assess one's understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one's thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.

Mixed ability
A class that includes learners at several different levels of ability.

Objectively
Based on facts, and not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations or prejudice.

Open question
A question that cannot be answered with a one-word answer, e.g. 'What do you think about global warming?'

Reflective journal/log
A document, in digital or traditional book format, in which a learner (or teacher) critically reflects on their learning (or teaching practice) regularly. By reflecting and evaluating what they have experienced and how, students and teachers can find ways of improving their learning.

Reflective practice
The process through which the teacher continuously learns from the experience of planning, practice, assessment and evaluation and can improve the quality of teaching and learning over time.

Reinforce
Strengthen or support (understanding, skill or learning).

Scaffold learning
The teacher provides appropriate guidance and support to enable students to build on their current level of understanding progressively, to acquire confidence and independence in using new knowledge or skills.

Self-efficacy
A learner's confidence in their ability to reach targets through hard work and determination.

Subject curriculum
The content and skills contained within a syllabus applied across sequential stages of student learning. These stages normally refer to school year levels, and therefore a particular age of learner.

Success criteria
Success criteria summarise the key steps or elements the student needs in order to meet a learning intention.

Summative assessment
Typically end-of-learning assessment tasks such as examinations and tests, to measure and record the level of learning achieved, for progression to the next level or for certification.

Syllabus
A complete description of the content, assessment arrangements and performance requirements for a qualification. A course leading to an award or certificate is based on a subject syllabus.

Target
Educational/academic goal, set by a learner or teacher on behalf of a learner.

Task-specific feedback
Feedback to the learner that focuses on various aspects of their work.

Tutorial
A short class (15-30 minutes) conducted by a teacher for one learner or a small number of learners. It is usually focused on personal target setting and reflection of the students' own learning.

Wait time
The amount of time a teacher waits after asking a question and before selecting a learner to answer it.

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Getting started with Assessment for Learning

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What is the theory behind AFL? AFL helps in making understanding and knowledge, as John Hattie describes it, 'more visible'. AFL helps learners understand what excellence looks like and how they can develop their own work to reach that level. Feedback has a positive effect on learner achievement.

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Assessments as learning are used for students to monitor their own progress so that they are able to come up with their own goals. This gives the student some control in classroom in that they are creating their own goals rather than always aiming to reach the goals of the teacher; in the end, this helps them figure out how they can learn best.

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These most commonly look like ipsative assessments, self assessments, or peer assessments. Ipsative assessments give students the opportunity to reflect on past goals to see how they have improved. Self and peer assessments allow them to reflect on work either they or their peers have recently done. It allows them to think about what they can improve on next time.

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Teachers may use entry and exit tickets, short quizzes, Kahoot!, and group projects as formative assessments. All of these assessments give the teacher and idea when it comes to how specific students are doing during a lesson and they are then able to make adjustments as needed.

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