The aim of this study is to look at assessment for learning and competence building in the staff at schools. Assessment for learning is more and more central in the teacher’s work in raising the focus in level of their pupils’ achievements and to extend their range of competences.  Teaching has gone from the teacher’s input towards focusing on what the pupils are learning. This change came about as a result in Norwegian legislation to do with the laws of assessment, which was introduced in 2009. Since then the law has given the pupils the right to know where they are at in all subjects, and by which criteria they are evaluated by.  Teachers have had to change their practices in order to give feedback to encourage learning (E.L. Dale 2008, Hattie & Timperley, 2010). This study looks at two municipalities in Norway who decided to develop a common understanding and practice of assessment for learning within all their schools.

The questions we ask ourselves are the following:

Does working with assessment for learning with pupils lead to a school culture where teachers assess their own learning?

·         To what degree does assessment for learning influence the teachers’ view on learning?

·         To what degree does assessment for learning influence the teachers’ competence in their subjects?

·         How does assessment for learning contribute to develop collective practices in school?

As the questions above shows, the focus is on what this has done with the teachers’ practices. By having to plan the pupil’s output more than traditionally their input, we expect to see a change in the teacher´s teaching and planning.  How do they now work with the curriculum in the class rooms, how important is the books in the subjects, and how do they change (or not) their teaching practices. We are also interesting if the teachers view of this has affected the pupil’s learning, how this is affecting the teacher’s competence building and also to what extent their team work is affected.

We will look at this in the framework of assessment for learning  and theories about developing individual competence as well as the school’s collective competence. (Elmore 2006).

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