The symposium fits well with the network aims of promoting information exchange and active collaboration among European researchers in the field of assessment and evaluation. The symposium will provide progress reports from this three year, pan-European (and South African) research project (FaSMEd), now in its second year. Countries in the partnership include UK, Republic of Ireland, Norway, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and South Africa.

The project implements a design study methodology (Swan, 2014) and researches the use of technology in formative assessment classroom practices for raising achievement for learners of mathematics and science.

The aim of the design study is to produce a toolkit that informs teachers of emergent formative assessment pedagogies in mathematics and science. NB. The expression ‘toolkit’ refers to a set of curriculum materials and methods for pedagogical intervention.

The project defines practice in a classroom as formative: ‘to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited’ Black &Wiliam (2009)

This international project adapts and develops existing research-informed pedagogical interventions (developed by the partners), suited to implementation at scale, for raising achievement and transforming teaching through implementing ‘assessment as learning’ (Hickey, 2011). The intervention is cross-subject in science and mathematics and focused on the development of technologically enhanced practices of formative interpretations of assessmentwithin day-to-day teaching approaches.

The design of the project provides an iterative, collaborative, process-focused approach (Shavelson et al 2003, p. 26) to the development of the toolkit for teachers, evaluation of technologies and professional development and builds on research evidence for approaches which have the greatest impact. (Hattie, 2009)

The four symposium papers will present case studies from both science and mathematics classrooms across England, Ireland, France and Italy reporting on the design, implementation, adaptation and outcomes of the classroom interventions and the development of the toolkit.

Case studies will report on:

• How do teachers process formative assessment data from students using a range of technologies?
• How do teachers inform their future teaching using such data?
• How is formative assessment data used by students to inform their learning trajectories?
• When technology is positioned as a learning tool rather than a data logger for the teacher, what issues does this pose for the teacher in terms of their being able become more informed about student understanding?

Discussion will provide an opportunity to compare these approaches and outcomes in sciences and mathematics across England, Ireland, Italy and France and potential implications for policy and practice across Europe. 

This project has received funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no 612337

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), pp. 5-31. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Hickey, D. (2011) Commentary, in P. Noyce & D. Hickey (Eds) New Frontiers in Formative Assessment Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Press pp. 207-222. Shavelson, R. J., Phillips, D. C., Towne, L., & Feuer, M. J. (2003). On the science of education design studies. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 25-28. Swan, M., (2014). Design Research in Mathematics Education. In: Lerman, S. Ed., Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education Dordrecht: Springer