Session Information
09 SES 11 B, Issues in Formative and Alternative Assessments
Paper Session
Contribution
The formative assessment wave is currently moving across the world bearing with it hopes on reversing the negative trend of students' performance within the Western school systems. Formative assessment provides conditions for developing teachers’ abilities to make valid assessment to improve students' learning. Using assessment to enhance learning has been a research area of interest for many years. Though assessment research is extensive not many studies focus student perspectives. Studies that do address this standpoint show that students have a limited understanding of what aspects are being assessed and how assessment is intended to support learning.
This ongoing study aims to contribute to the understanding of students’ perspectives by bringing forth their views on how to make assessment a supportive tool for learning. It also problematizes implementing assessment tools as self-assessment, peer assessment, feedback and rubrics without considering structures that support or constrain the assessment practice and the opportunities to develop that practice. Study aims to answer the questions:
- What aspects support or constrain students understanding of assessment?
- What aspects support or constrain students and teachers abilities to develop a reciprocal assessment practice?
The theoretical framework form a construct – a nomological network of assessment, practice and validity theories – which constitutes a hypothesis about an assessment practice supporting learning. Empirical data is validated against this hypothesis in order to understand opportunities and constraints that arise when students and teachers try developing a reciprocal assessment practice.
Previous research on assessment show that in order for students to participate in their learning process they need to understand learning objectives, quality of their own performance and what they need to do to close the gap between current position and goals. Learning objectivities need to be transparent and understandable. The key to effective learning is finding ways to help students structure their knowledge to build new and more powerful ideas. Feedback given by the teachers’ help students recognize quality and lead learning forward. Teachers need to understand students’ perception on assessment in order to create a participatory learning environment. Students need to develop a high order thinking in order to take a metacognitive perspective on their learning processes. An effective way to move students learning forward is having students and teachers working together.
Assessment is an interactive, dynamic and collaborative activity which is integrated in teaching activities and the social relatings in the classroom. A practice is located in space and time and is dependent on cultural-discursive, material-economic and socio-political systems, which enables or constrain activities. In this study the term assessment practice summarizes teaching, learning and assessment activities which are planned and transacted in the classroom and the different activities undertaken by various actors in that practice.
Validity in formative assessment focuses how well assessment support learning. Validation is used to view the intention to enhance learning through developing assessment practice. Validity is based on whether students' thoughts and the theoretical aspects in the construct affect the assessment practice. The validity framework also brings forth opportunities and constraint that affect developing assessment practice.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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