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No intellectual characteristic is too ineffable for assessment. Some schools use lengthy surveys like the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, which claims to test for qualities like "truthseeking" and "analyticity." The Global Perspective Inventory, administered and sold by Iowa State University, asks students to rate their agreement with statements like "I do not feel threatened emotionally when presented with multiple perspectives" and scores them on metrics like the "intrapersonal affect scale."

Surveys can't tell you everything. So universities assemble committees of faculty members, arm them with rubrics and assign them piles of student essays culled from across the school (often called "student products," as if they are tubes of undergraduate Soylent Green). Assessment has invaded the classroom, too: On many campuses, professors must include a list of skills-based "learning outcomes" on every syllabus and assess them throughout the semester.

All this assessing requires a lot of labor, time and cash. Yet even its proponents have struggled to produce much evidence - beyond occasional anecdotes - that it improves student learning. "I think assessment practices are ripe for re-examining," said David Eubanks, assistant vice president for assessment and institutional effectiveness at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., who has worked in assessment for years and now speaks out about its problems. "It has forced academic departments to use data that's not very good," he added. "And the process of getting this data that's not very good can be very painful."

The push to quantify undergraduate learning is about a century old, but the movement really took off in the 1980s. The assessment boom coincided - not, I think, by accident - with the decision of state legislatures all over the country to reduce spending on public universities and other social services. That divestment continued, moving more of the cost of higher education onto students. (These students are often graduates of underfunded high schools that can't prepare them for college in the first place.) It was politically convenient to hold universities accountable for all this, rather than to scrutinize neoliberal austerity measures.

In 2006, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, convened by Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education at the time, issued a scathing critique of universities. "Employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today's workplaces," the commission's report complained.

Educators scrambled to ensure that students graduate with these skills - and to prove it with data. The obsession with testing that dominates primary education invaded universities, bringing with it a large support staff. Here is the first irony of learning assessment: Faced with outrage over the high cost of higher education, universities responded by encouraging expensive administrative bloat.

Many of the professionals who work in learning assessment are former faculty members who care deeply about access to quality education. Pat Hutchings, a senior scholar at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (and former English professor), told me: "Good assessment begins with real, genuine questions that educators have about their students, and right now for many educators those are questions about equity. We're doing pretty well with 18- to 22-year-olds from upper-middle-class families, but what about - well, fill in the blank."

It seems that the pressure to assess student learning outcomes has grown most quickly at poorly funded regional universities that have absorbed a large proportion of financially disadvantaged students, where profound deficits in preparation and resources hamper achievement. Research indicates that the more selective a university, the less likely it is to embrace assessment. Learning outcomes assessment has become one way to answer the question, "If you get unprepared students in your class and they don't do well, how does that get explained?" Mr. Eubanks at Furman University told me.

When Erik Gilbert, a professor of history at Arkansas State University, reached the end of his World Civilization course last fall, he dutifully imposed the required assessment: an extra question on the final exam that asked students to read a document about Samurai culture and answer questions using knowledge of Japanese history. Yet his course focused on "cross-cultural connections, trade, travel, empire, migration and bigger-scale questions, rather than area studies," Mr. Gilbert told me. His students had not studied Japanese domestic history. "We do it this way because it satisfies what the assessment office wants, not because it addresses concerns that we as a department have."

Mr. Gilbert became an outspoken assessment skeptic after years of watching the process fail to capture what happens in his classes - and seeing it miss the real reasons students struggle. "Maybe all your students have full-time jobs, but that's something you can't fix, even though that's really the core problem," he said. "Instead, you're expected to find some small problem, like students don't understand historical chronology, so you might add a reading to address that. You're supposed to make something up every semester, then write up a narrative" explaining your solution to administrators.

Here is the second irony: Learning assessment has not spurred discussion of the deep structural problems that send so many students to college unprepared to succeed. Instead, it lets politicians and accreditors ignore these problems as long as bureaucratic mechanisms appear to be holding someone - usually a professor - accountable for student performance.

All professors could benefit from serious conversations about what is and is not working in their classes. But instead they end up preoccupied with feeding the bureaucratic beast. "It's a bit like the old Soviet Union. You speak two languages," said Frank Furedi, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent in Britain, which has a booming assessment culture. "You do a performance for the sake of the auditors, but in reality, you carry on."

Yet bureaucratic jargon subtly shapes the expectations of students and teachers alike. On the first day of class, my colleagues and I - especially in the humanities, where professors are perpetually anxious about falling enrollment - find ourselves rattling off the skills our courses offer ("Critical thinking! Clear writing!"), hyping our products like Apple Store clerks.

I teach intellectual history. Of course that includes skills: learning to read a historical source, interpret evidence and build an argument. But cultivating historical consciousness is more than that: It means helping students immerse themselves in a body of knowledge, question assumptions about memory and orient themselves toward current events in a new way.

If we describe college courses as mainly delivery mechanisms for skills to please a future employer, if we imply that history, literature and linguistics are more or less interchangeable "content" that convey the same mental tools, we oversimplify the intellectual complexity that makes a university education worthwhile in the first place. We end up using the language of the capitalist marketplace and speak to our students as customers rather than fellow thinkers. They deserve better.

"When kids come from backgrounds where they're the first in their families to go to college, we have to take them seriously, and not flatter them and give them third-rate ideas," Mr. Furedi told me. "They need to be challenged and inspired by the idea of our disciplines." Assessment culture is dumbing down universities, he said: "One of the horrible things is that many universities think that giving access to nontraditional students means turning a university into a high school. That's not giving them access to higher education."

Here is the third irony: The value of universities to a capitalist society depends on their ability to resist capitalism, to carve out space for intellectual endeavors that don't have obvious metrics or market value.

Consider that holy grail of learning outcomes, critical thinking - what the philosopher John Dewey called the ability "to maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry." Teaching it is not a cheap or efficient process. It does not come from trying to educate the most students at the lowest possible cost or from emphasizing short, quantifiable, standardized assignments at the expense of meandering, creative and difficult investigation.

Producing thoughtful, talented graduates is not a matter of focusing on market-ready skills. It's about giving students an opportunity that most of them will never have again in their lives: the chance for serious exploration of complicated intellectual problems, the gift of time in an institution where curiosity and discovery are the source of meaning.

That's how we produce the critical thinkers American employers want to hire. And there's just no app for that.

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Opinion | The Misguided Drive to Measure 'Learning Outcomes'

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No intellectual characteristic is too ineffable for assessment. Some schools use lengthy surveys like the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, which claims to test for qualities like "truthseeking" and "analyticity."

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Dylan Wiliam's new book, Embedded Formative Assessment, is filled with a number of insights culled from his 35 years of experience in education. The foundation of the book highlights the importance of formative assessment as a tool to improve teacher practice and ultimately improve student learning.

In the book, he provides the 5 strategies that he has come to believe are core to successful formative assessment practice in the classroom:

1. Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success - getting the students to really understand what their classroom experience will be and how their success will be measured.

2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, activities, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning - developing effective classroom instructional strategies that allow for the measurement of success.

3. Providing feedback that moves learning forward - working with students to provide them the information they need to better understand problems and solutions.

4. Activating learners as instructional resources for one another - getting students involved with each other in discussions and working groups can help improve student learning.

5. Activating learners as owners of their own learning - We wrote a recent blog on this topic: self-regulation of learning leads to student performance improvement.

These 5 strategies are also part of our Keeping Learning on Track (KLT) professional development solution that puts these strategies into action with a formal process for teacher professional development. But before formative assessment strategies can be effectively implemented, there needs to be an understanding as to what formative assessment is, and perhaps even more importantly, what it is not by school leaders and teachers.

Dylan recently gave a webinar that emphasized his understanding of formative assessment, and gave some practical techniques for implementing some of his strategies. You can access the webinar at no cost here. We'd also love to read your thoughts or experiences implementing formative assessment strategies, so drop a comment below.

Kelly Goodrich is Vice President of Policy & Advocacy for NWEA, advocating the use of multiple measures for all students and leading productive partnerships in both national and international arenas, including collaborations with CCSSO, AACTE, and OECD. She drives NWEA's national agenda to foster assessment literacy for teachers and all education stakeholders, raise the voice of students in education policy, and promote the importance of research-based education practices. Prior to joining NWEA, Kelly held several executive roles in the K12 education space, including Vice President of Marketing at Pearson Digital Learning; Vice President of Online Assessment at Harcourt Assessment; and Vice President of Professional Services for Pearson Assessment.

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Dylan Wiliam & the 5 Formative Assessment Strategies to Improve Student Learning

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Dylan Wiliam's new book, Embedded Formative Assessment, is filled with a number of insights culled from his 35 years of experience in education. The foundation of the book highlights the importance of formative assessment as a tool to improve teacher practice and ultimately improve student learning.

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They include ideas on collecting information, the strategic use of questioning, giving feedback, and introducing peer and self-assessment.

Collecting information

Draw a face

At the end of an activity or lesson, ask learners to draw a face to show how confident they are about the topic. Smiley face = ready to move on, neutral face = fairly confident, sad face = not confident, need to review.

Summary sentence

Ask learners to write one sentence to summarise what they know about the topic at the start or end of a lesson. You could focus this by telling them to include e.g. what or why or how etc.

Pair share

At the end of a lesson learners share with their partner:

Three new things they have learnt

What they found easy

What they found difficult

Something they would like to learn in the future.

Traffic lights

Give learners red, yellow and green cards (or they can make these themselves at home). At different points during the lesson, ask them to choose a card and put it on their desk to show how much they understand (red = don't understand, yellow = partly understand, green = totally understand).

Post-its

Use post-it notes to evaluate learning. Give to groups, pairs or individuals and ask them to answer questions. For example:

What have I learnt?

What have I found easy?

What have I found difficult?

What do I want to know now?

Draw a square

When a learner has finished a worksheet or exercise, ask them to draw a square on the page. If they do not understand well, they colour it red, if they partly understand, yellow and if everything is OK, green.

Not clear

At the end of an activity or lesson or unit, ask learners to write one or two points that are not clear to them. The teacher and class discuss these points and work together to make them clear.

Thumbs up!

Check class understanding of what you are teaching by asking them to show their thumbs. Thumbs up = I understand; thumbs half way = I understand some; thumbs down = I don't understand.

KWL

At the beginning of a topic learners create a grid with three columns - what they know; what they want to know; what they have learned. They start by brainstorming and filling in the first two columns and then return to the third at the end of the unit.

Most ....... thing

Ask learners what was the most, e.g. useful, interesting, surprising, etc. thing they learned today or in this unit.

A, B, C, D cards

Give learners four cards: A, B, C, D (or they can make these themselves at home). Ask questions with four answers and ask them to show you their answers. You could do this in teams too.

Mini-whiteboards

Ask learners to write their answers on mini-whiteboards or pieces of paper and show it to you (or their peers).

Observing

Observe a few learners every lesson and make notes.

The strategic use of questioning

Questioning helps teachers identify and correct misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge. It gives teachers information about what learners know, understand and can do.

Use open questions

Closed questions only ask learners to recall. Use open questions to encourage the use of thinking skills, communication and eliciting more information. Examples of good question stems:

Use 'might'

When questioning, use the word 'might' to encourage learners to think and explore possible answers. For example, 'Why do teachers ask questions?' and 'Why might teachers ask questions?' The first question seems like there is one correct answer known by the teacher, but the second question is more open and suggests many possible answers.

Wait time

Tips:

Give 30 seconds silent thinking before any answers.

Ask learners to brainstorm in pairs first for 2-3 minutes.

Ask learners to write some notes before answering.

Ask learners to discuss with a partner before answering.

Use think, pair, share.

Use higher order thinking skills (HOTS)

Don't ask, e.g. 'Is flour uncountable?' Ask, 'Why isn't flour countable?' Then learners don't only recall, they reason too.

Prompt

Prompt for more information, e.g. 'Why do you think that?' 'Persuade me!'

Bounce

Ask learners to build on each other's answers. E.g. 'Maria what do you think about Javier's answer?'

Giving feedback

Comment-only marking

Only write comments on learners' work, and don't give marks or scores. This helps learners to focus on progress instead of a reward or punishment. They will want a mark, but encourage them to focus on the comments. Comments should make it clear how the learner can improve. Ask if they have any questions about the comments and make time to speak with individual learners.

Feedback sandwich

Use a feedback sandwich to give comments. An example of a feedback sandwich is:

Positive comment, e.g. 'I like ... because ...'

Constructive feedback with explanation of how to improve, e.g. 'This is not quite correct - check the information with .......'

Positive comment, e.g. 'You have written a very clear and .........'

Time in class to make corrections

Give learners time in class to make corrections or improvements. This gives learners time to focus on the feedback that you or their peers have given them, and make corrections. It also tells learners that feedback is valuable and worth spending time on. And, it gives them the opportunity to improve in a supportive environment.

Don't erase corrections

Tell learners you want to see how they have corrected and improved their written work before they hand it to you. Don't let them use erasers, instead tell them to make corrections using a different colour so you can see them, and what they have done to make improvements.

Introducing peer and self-assessment

Share learning objectives

Some examples:

Use WILF (what I'm looking for).

Point to the objectives on the board.

Elicit what the success criteria might be for a task.

Negotiate or share the criteria

Write these on the board for reference.

Two stars and a wish

A useful activity to use when introducing peer or self-assessment for the first time is 'two stars and a wish':

Explain/elicit the meaning of stars and a wish related to feedback (two good things and one thing you wish was better/could improve).

Model how to give peer feedback using two stars and a wish first.

Role play the peer feedback, for example:

- 'Ah this is a really nice poster - I like it!' (Thank you)

- 'I really like it and I think you included most of the information.'

- [Look at the success criteria on the board]

- 'Hmm, but there is no title for your poster so we don't know the topic.'

Feedback sandwich (see above)

This is a useful activity when learners are more confident in peer and self-assessment. Model how to give feedback first.

Write the following text on the board:

- I like... because

- I think next time you should... because...

- ... is good because...

Elicit from your learners what a feedback sandwich is from the text on the board (what is good and why, what could be better and why, what is good and why).

Given an example like this:

"The poster gives all the necessary information, which is good but next time you should add a title so we know the topic. The presentation is good too because it is clear and attractive."

Learning wall

Make a 'learning wall' where learners can post positive feedback about others.

Peer check

Ask learners to read each other's written work to look for specific points, such as spelling mistakes, past tense verbs, etc. During speaking activities such as role plays and presentations, ask learners to give each other feedback on specific points, e.g. how interesting it was, whether they understood what was said and any questions they have.

Self-assessment prompts

Examples:

Choose one thing in your work you are proud of. Tell the whole group why. You have one minute.

Discuss which of the success criteria you have been most successful with and which one could be improved and how. You have three minutes.

Three things

At the end of the lesson, ask your learners to make a list of two things they learned, and one thing they still need to learn.

I have a question

At the end of the lesson, ask your learners to write a question on what they are not clear about.

Journals

Ask your learners to keep a learning journal to record their thoughts and attitudes to what they have learned.

Portfolios

Ask learners to keep a file containing samples of their work. This may include work done in class, homework, test results, self-assessment and comments from peers and the teacher.

Reflection time

At the end of the lesson give learners time to reflect and decide what to focus on in the next lesson.

Setting goals

After feedback, encourage learners to set goals. Tell them they have identified what is good, what is not so good, and any gaps in their knowledge. Now they need to think about their goal and how they can reach it. Ask them to work individually and answer the questions:

What is your goal?

How will you achieve it?

Personal goals

Ask learners to set personal goals, for example: 'Next week I will read a short story'.

Self-assessment forms

Work with learners to create self-assessment forms or templates that they can use to reflect on an activity or lesson. For younger learners, something like the form below would work:

Below is an example for higher level or older learners:
I can write an email giving news and information
How true are these? Circle the best number(3 = true, 2 = partly true, 1 = not true)
I can write an email giving news and information
How true are these? Circle the best number(3 = true, 2 = partly true, 1 = not true)

Some of the activities listed here are taken and adapted from: www.tes.com/teaching-resource/assessment-for-learning-toolkit-6337093

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They include ideas on collecting information, the strategic use of questioning, giving feedback, and introducing peer and self-assessment. Collecting information Draw a face At the end of an activity or lesson, ask learners to draw a face to show how confident they are about the topic.

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So, what is AfL and why is it important? Can it improve students' results? What does it involve?
What is AfL?
To understand what AfL is, it is useful to start with what it is not. Traditional approaches to assessment are generally based on assessment of learning. Assessment of learning is generally carried out by the teacher to collect information about attainment. It is usually done at the end of a course or school year and takes the form of an exam or test which is used to assign grades and report achievement or failure.

Assessment for learning, on the other hand, occurs at all stages of the learning process. Students are encouraged to take an active role, become self-regulated learners and leave school able and confident to continue learning throughout their lives. Assessment for learning is also referred to as formative assessment, i.e. the process of collecting and interpreting evidence for use by teachers and learners to decide where they are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there (Assessment Reform Group, 2002). It is a process by which assessment information is used by teachers to adjust their teaching strategies and by students to adjust their learning strategies. AfL encourages learning and promotes motivation by emphasising progress and achievement rather than failure.
Where did AfL come from and why is it important?
AfL originates in the research of UK professors, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. Black and Wiliam recognised that what teachers and learners do in the classroom is complicated and little is understood about what happens. They likened the classroom to a black box (an object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs without any knowledge of its internal workings) and set out to investigate what was happening inside. What they discovered was that students who learn in a formative way achieve much more and obtain better results than other students. In 1998, they published their findings in an important booklet for practitioners Inside The Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment and in it they showed that:

formative assessment is at the heart of effective teaching

formative assessment has a strong positive effect on achievement

improving formative assessment raises standards.

As a result of these and other research findings, AfL is now established as one of the most powerful ways of improving learning and raising standards and current research is adding further evidence in support of this claim.
What are the key principles of AfL?
The key underlying principles of AfL which are used to guide classroom practice are as follows:
Communicate confidence that every learner can improve
Above all, AfL must be underpinned by the utmost confidence that every student can improve. We can help learners believe they can improve by giving specific feedback on what they need to do to and how they can do it.
Empower learners to take an active part in their own learning
The AfL process can unlock the approaches used by students and help them to become more aware of what they are learning and how they are learning it. This empowers students to take control of their own learning by developing their skills of self-regulation. As they begin to assess their own work and set goals, they also become more independent.
Develop learners' confidence in peer and self-assessment
These are skills that learners need time and practice in. The more they do it, the more confident and accurate they will be in their assessment.
What does this mean for teaching and learning?
As teachers we can:
Collect information about individual learners to better understand their needs
We can do this in a variety of ways such as finding out what they already know, noticing who answers questions, circulating and observing learners during activities, taking feedback on how interesting or difficult they found the topic or tasks, etc.
Adjust our teaching in response to our observations or assessment results
A central part of teaching and learning is reflecting on how successful the lesson and learning was and judging whether the topic needs to be reviewed, or re-taught using a different approach or activity. As teachers we are constantly making judgements and decisions in response to our learners' needs.
Share learning objectives with learners
Learners need to know the lesson objectives. We can write these on the board at the start of a lesson and check our learners understand them. We can then create links between these and previous objectives and refer to them during the lesson and again at the end. We can also discuss with learners why they are studying what they are studying.
Share success criteria with learners
Learners need to know what is 'good' work and how to achieve it. Sharing or negotiating the criteria with learners helps them know what they need to do and gives them confidence in their work.
Use questioning
Questioning helps us identify and correct misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge. It gives us information about what learners know, understand and can do. We use this information to plan lessons and activities that move students from where they are to where they need to go.
Give specific and useful feedback
Learners need specific feedback in the form of comments rather than grades if they are to improve. Feedback should inform learners about gaps in their knowledge, understanding or skills, and how to close those gaps.
Introduce peer feedback
Students learn how to give each other advice about their work using success criteria. They can discuss what has been done well, what still needs to be done, and give advice on how to achieve that improvement.
Introduce self-assessment
Learner self-assessment encourages learners to take responsibility for their own learning. Learners use success criteria to identify what they have done well and what they need to focus on next. They can then set personal goals.
If you would like to try some AfL activities with your learners, you can find suggestions on collecting information, strategic use of questioning, giving feedback, and introducing peer and self-assessment Further reading here.
Black, P and Wiliam, D (2006) Inside The Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment, Granada Learning

Hargreaves, E. (2005) Assessment for learning? Thinking outside the (black) box, Cambridge Journal of Education, vol 35, issue 2.

Assessment Reform Group (2002), Research-based principles to guide classroom practice, available at:
www.hkeaa.edu.hk/DocLibrary/SBA/HKDSE/Eng_DVD/doc/Afl_principles.pdf

National Council for Curriculum and Assessment website:
https://www.ncca.ie/en

Dylan Wiliam & The 5 Formative Assessment Strategies to Improve Student Learning:
www.nwea.org/blog/2012/dylan-wiliam-the-5-formative-assessment-strategies-to-improve-student-learning/#sthash.KRTC7rMK.dpuf

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So, what is AfL and why is it important? Can it improve students' results? What does it involve?What is AfL?To understand what AfL is, it is useful to start with what it is not. Traditional approaches to assessment are generally based on assessment of learning.

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Assessment for learning in practice

AFL emphasises the creation of a learner-centred classroom with a supportive atmosphere, where students are not afraid to make mistakes and learn from them.
We are going to look at five approaches or strategies that you can use in a lesson or programme of study.

1. Questioning
Questions are a quick and important way of finding out what your learner understands about a subject. You can use this information to plan their teaching.

There are two main types of question: closed and open.

A closed question requires a short answer, such as remembering a fact. The answer is usually right or wrong.
For example, a Geography teacher might ask: 'What is the capital of Peru?'

On average, teachers only wait 0.9 seconds after asking a question before taking an answer from a learner. Mary Rowe suggests that increasing 'wait time' to three seconds improves the quality of answers.

One way to help increase 'wait time', and to ensure the whole class is actively engaged, is to ask your learners to write down the answer to a closed question on a piece of paper, mini whiteboard or tablet, and hold it up. This immediately gives you feedback about who understands, who does not, and therefore what the next steps in the learning might be.

A good strategy to use if a learner gets the answer wrong is to make this into a positive event. You could say: 'I'm glad you said that, as I'm sure lots of other students have the same misunderstanding.'

In an AFL classroom, finding out what learners do not know is as valuable as finding out what they do know. This knowledge will help you to see what material your learners need to spend extra time on to make sure that they all understand.

Open questions need longer answers, and often require the learner to provide an opinion.
E.g. A Physics teacher might ask: 'What will happen to the flow of water through a hose pipe if a smaller nozzle is fitted to it? Explain how this relates to the study of voltage, current and resistance in a simple electric circuit.'

Open questions like this allow all learners to try to answer the question and be part of a discussion. You can then facilitate this discussion, asking questions to develop the discussion such as 'Tell me more about that' and 'Why do you think that?'

'Dialogic teaching' is a term that describes on-going talk between teachers and learners, which leads to effective learning. If you discuss ideas with your learners, you can get a clearer view of what understanding your learners have about a topic, and put right any misunderstandings.

Reflection
Watch the video of a teacher talking about how he uses questioning. Do you use any of these techniques in your own classroom?
Transcript
Want to know more?
This video shows good use of closed questioning. How would you adapt this for your own classroom?

2. Feedback
Feedback is the process in which learners come together with their teachers to discuss where they are in their learning, where they want to be in their learning, and how they are going to get there. It usually involves looking at a particular piece of work done by the learner. Feedback can be described as the 'bridge' between teaching and learning.

The aims and objectives of any assignment must be clearly understood by both the teacher and the learner. You can help by providing 'success criteria' before your learners start work.

Feedback might involve marking. However, a learner may only remember the mark/grade and not act on any comments to improve their work. In an AFL classroom, a teacher will give 'comment only' feedback on their learners' work. If you do want to add a grade, give this later on, so that the learners read the comments before they receive the grade. Effective feedback depends on task-focused comments, rather than ego-focused comments.

Here is an example of ego-focused feedback: 'Great work Melanie, the best in the class.' This kind of feedback can make strong learners complacent, thinking that they do not have anything to do to improve. They might also be scared of trying something they find difficult in case they lose their high place. Weak learners can feel as if there is nothing they can do to get better.

You should aim to provide feedback to each learner that praises task-focused aspects of their work, but also contains targets about how to improve their learning.
E.g. 'Ali, you have written a good introduction to your story. Now, can you think how you can make the description of the main character more striking?'

Reflection
Think about a time when you gave feedback to a learner that could be described as more ego-specific than task specific. What might you have done differently?

Want to know more?
In this video, Dylan Wiliam explains why task-focused feedback is more effective than ego-focused feedback.

There are some good examples of how to give effective feedback in different subject areas on http://www.teachthought.com.

In this handout, by the RAPPS project, you will find lots of suggestions for different ways of giving classroom feedback.

3. Peer assessment or peer feedback
Peer feedback, or peer assessment, is the process by which learners assess each other's work and give each other feedback. This feedback is based on an understanding of what makes a successful piece of work. The teacher is vital to this process, as teachers know their learners and can help them to develop their critical and reflective thinking skills.

Giving learners independence is a great way for them to take responsibility for their own learning. Peer feedback also helps learners to develop their social skills and to use higher-level skills such as thinking critically and analytically.

A successful peer feedback session requires learners to 'think like a teacher' for each other. Each learner will apply the success criteria to another learner's work, and make value judgements based on these. The learner then has to give their partner ideas for how to improve the work. In doing this, they will both be increasing their own understanding of what makes a successful piece of work.

At primary school level, the theory behind AFL is the same, but the tasks might be different, to reflect the different stages of the pupils' cognitive development. For example, learners could use pictures to describe positive and negative aspects of the work.

Reflection
Watch the video of learners taking part in a peer feedback session. Notice how independently they are working. Would this be effective for your learner?
Transcript
Want to know more?
In this video, learners explain what they like about peer feedback.
Transcript
4. Self-assessment
'Students need to learn for themselves how they move up to the next level ... they need to internalise the process. Learning cannot be done for them by the teachers.' (Mary James, 1998)

In self-assessment a learner evaluates their own work, and thinks about their own learning. This helps them to make sense of what the teacher says, relate it to previous learning and use this for new learning. Ultimately, self-assessment enables learners to set their own learning goals and be responsible for their own learning. However, be aware that learners cannot become reflective learners overnight. It takes time and practice to develop these skills, and the role of the teacher is crucial in encouraging this.

"Students need to learn for themselves how they move up to the next level."

Introducing learners to self-assessment
When you introduce self-assessment to your learners, carefully guide the process. To start with, give learners a list of questions to ask themselves, and write down the answers. Starting a 'learning log' or 'reflective journal' is good practice. This is a notebook in which the learner documents their recent experiences, asking themselves questions such as:
'What made sense and what didn't?'
'How does this subject fit in with what I already know?'
'What did I do well and what could I have improved?'

Ideally, you will talk to each of your learners individually to guide their thinking until they feel comfortable with the process. Self-assessment is an activity which requires one-to-one tutorials to be fully successful. In these short sessions, you can ask questions to help your learners to reflect on their studies.

Having thought about how their work could be improved, your learners can then set themselves targets to make their work better. These targets can cover any aspect of learning, from time management to asking more questions in class if they do not understand something.

5. The formative use of school tests and exams
This 'Getting started' guide has focused mainly on formative assessment strategies and checking learning in the classroom. However, learners often have to take summative school tests such as end-of-year exams or final exams.

Return marked test or exam papers to learners, so that they can spend time understanding where they earned most marks and where they had misunderstandings.

After the exam or test, find out which questions were answered less well by most learners. This will give you important information about what subjects, ideas and skills your learners need to work on. You can then focus on explaining the areas of the syllabus that gave problems to most learners. Your learners could also re-work exam questions in class in pairs or groups as a peer-learning activity.

www.headguruteacher.com explains in more depth how internal school tests and exams can be used to maximise learning.

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Getting started with Assessment for Learning

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AFL emphasises the creation of a learner-centred classroom with a supportive atmosphere, where students are not afraid to make mistakes and learn from them. We are going to look at five approaches or strategies that you can use in a lesson or programme of study. 1.