With good reason, the historian Bernard Bailyn – writing near the end of the twentieth century – described the “peopling of British North America” as “the most sweeping and striking development in this millennium of Western history.” The movement of people from one side of the ocean to the other “transformed at first half the globe, ultimately the whole of it, more fundamentally than any development except the Industrial Revolution.” He was not alone in believing this. Bismarck, as he reminded us, had called the migration of so many “the decisive fact in the modern world.” The movement of men and women from the Old World to the New, and this is fairly uncontestable, made British North America and then the United States distinctive, creating a diverse cultural landscape, just as the flow increased the productive capacity of the West in ways that no one could have anticipated. Migration produced untold wealth, expanded the territorial footprints of colonies and then states, remade the political economy and the social fabric of the broader Atlantic, and would make the United States one of the most powerful nations in the world. The story of migration is the story of America.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

This chapter introduces the concept of student self-regulated learning (SRL). It is included in this book about assessment for teaching because the student must be part-teacher and part-student. It is also included because the rubrics written using the approach in this book complement students’ SRL skills by articulating the competencies they need to assess, monitor and reflect on in their learning. The teacher also has to be part-student. The role of the teacher is less of a transmitter and more of a co-facilitator. The teacher, using the approach of this book and understanding the elements of SRL presented in this chapter, can help the student to take a more active role in SRL. The student becomes dependent on self-assessment and on assessing peers in collaborative arrangements. Now the teacher has two roles: one in facilitating learning and the other in helping students understand the self-assessments that will govern the development of their SRL competency.

Introduction

In earlier chapters of this book we described assessment as the search for evidence of learning. In normal circumstances the search tends to be conducted or managed by the teacher. Student self-assessment may also be defined as students’ search for evidence of their own learning. But is it a search? Do students understand how to produce evidence of what they are learning? How do teachers and students work together to identify learning outcomes, the strategies that lead to those outcomes, and the evidence of having reached or attained those outcomes? Increasingly the role of the teacher is changing, from transmitter to more a facilitator of knowledge.

In this book we emphasise the role of developmental teaching and learning and assessment as key in dealing with the phenomenon of SRL. Both the teacher and the student can follow the student's growth and development if the road map is clear. This is discussed extensively in Chapter 10. For now, we will focus on the ideas of developmental teaching and learning where both the teacher and the student need to understand the developmental pathway the student is following.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

In this chapter assessment is defined as the search for evidence of learning. Three important ideas are included in the definition. It is a search. It focuses on evidence. The rationale for assessment is to measure or promote learning. The importance of collaboration in teaching teams is emphasised together with the 10 principles of assessment on which this book is based. In part, the chapter attempts to stabilise the language of assessment and provide some ideas that help teachers understand why assessment is regarded as formative. The members of the writing team agree that assessment for students or assessment for learning is important but it is not what this book is about. We take a view that teachers are decision-makers; they make decisions about individual children; they make decisions based on evidence. Those decisions, and the evidence on which they are made, signal to the world teachers’ focus and good intentions. This chapter clarifies what we mean by searching for evidence and make a clear distinction between evidence and inference.

Introduction

In this chapter I have two goals. The first is to provide a rather simple but not simplistic definition of assessment. In doing so I am trying to avoid many of the polemics that emerge because of strongly felt views about the purpose of assessment, set procedures that many people favour, definitions of who might be involved and the reasons for assessment. It is difficult to avoid these kinds of arguments but I will do my best. The definition that I (as part of the larger writing team) offer describes assessment as a search for evidence of learning. This definition has three aspects that, hopefully, have neutral sense. The first is the idea of ‘search’ people may redefine the word in as many different ways as they wish in order to define the process of collecting assessment data.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

Many forms of assessment have predetermined right and wrong answers. Familiar examples are multiple-choice questions and matching activities; there are also mathematics exercises or short-answer tasks for which there is no room for judgement. When a teacher is marking these forms of assessment, there can be no doubt about whether a student has answered correctly or incorrectly. Other kinds of assessment, such as essays and art folios, require different assessment methods. For these, there is no predetermined answer and teachers must use their professional judgement to assess the quality of the work. These assessments are sometimes dismissed as subjective because they rely on the teacher's judgement, but there are ways for this kind of assessment to be formalised and codified to increase confidence in the subjective judgement. This chapter explains the process via which this can be achieved.

Introduction

The terms ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ in the context of assessment refer to the manner in which student work is judged and how records of the assessment are created and interpreted. Assessments are referred to as ‘objective’ if they can be routinely marked as correct or incorrect, regardless of who makes the judgement. This is generally applied to multiple-choice questions, or questions for which there is only one correct answer. Subjective assessments involve judgement in order to distinguish between responses of different quality. In general, they require an assessment in which the teacher weighs up or judges the value or quality of a performance or an answer and differentiates between higher- and lower-quality student work. This process of weighing up the quality of a performance is used in this chapter to develop a series of criteria that will help teachers improve these subjective judgements.

In fact, there are no purely objective assessments. All assessments can be classified as qualitatively subjective – it is a matter of where the judgement takes place in the process of planning, implementing, coding and scoring assessments.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

This chapter shows how criterion-referenced frameworks are derived. The first section describes the process of derivation using a list of ordered skills produced by item response theory (IRT). The second section shows how a similar list of ordered skills can be produced using Thurstone's (1927) method of pairwise comparison. Two remaining sections form the balance of the chapter. A major feature of this chapter is a case study from the national TAFE-delivered Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector illustrating criterion-referenced frameworks and pairwise comparison in practice.

Introduction

Often curriculum refers to the academic content taught in a formal course or program. The term ‘curriculum’ typically refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire. It also refers to standards they are expected to meet, the lessons taught, the teaching materials used in a course and the assessments used to evaluate student learning. UNESCO describes the term thus:

The achieved curriculum is a focus of this chapter. In addition to learning outcomes achieved, curriculum theory points to a ‘hidden’ curriculum: that is, the unintended development of personal values and beliefs of learners, teachers and communities; the unexpected impact of a curriculum; and unforeseen aspects of a learning process. Those who develop the intended curriculum should have all these different dimensions of the curriculum in mind.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

This chapter introduces the administration and use of assessment for teaching. It emphasises the importance of correctly targeting assessment to maximise the information available for both teachers and students. The approach of using assessments within a developmental framework requires a significant shift in thinking for teachers and students. Assessment in this context demands a clear understanding of its purposes as the identification of a level of readiness to learn in all students and the use of this to make teaching decisions about appropriate interventions. This chapter expands on some of the ideas discussed in Chapter 1 on the use of ‘skills, not scores’ – ideas that contrast assessment for teaching with summative testing. The chapter provides practical examples of how to maximise each student's opportunity to demonstrate their skills and knowledge.

The classroom teacher doesn't always have the time or training to construct formal psychometric summative tests. This chapter reviews a range of assessment strategies teachers use in their search for evidence of learning and student growth.

Introduction

The focus of this chapter is the use of developmental assessment and issues related to administration of assessments and interpretation of data, to support the planning of targeted teaching strategies for classroom use. It builds on ideas introduced in Chapter 3 where we discussed developmental learning. Teachers need to know about the use and interpretation of assessment data if they are to use data to inform teaching.

Planning administration: Why do we recommend testing twice a year?

Testing is typically undertaken at the beginning of a school year to establish a benchmark level of achievement for the students. It also enables the teachers, at the beginning of the year, to identify the levels for intervention for each student and for the team leaders to bring this information to a team leaders’ workshop a few weeks after the first test.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

This chapter introduces the Guttman Analysis, an effective tool for grouping students based on demonstrated skills. The chapter provides a step-by-step process through which teachers can organise data from either objective or judgement based assessment tasks into a readily interpretable and visual form. The chapter shows teachers how to interpret data to evaluate the reliability of an assessment task, both at a general and item level. The implications for this sort of analysis are considered, including the scenario where an assessment task does not capture skills within a student's ZPD. Finally, teachers are introduced to the process of using data to target teaching through the formation of instructional groups based on students’ ZPDs.

Introduction

The developmental model of learning was introduced in Chapter 3. A core feature of this model is the process of interpreting students’ zones of proximal development (ZPDs) in relation to a progression of increasing complexity. Teachers can locate students’ ZPDs using externally generated data, such as standardised test assessments, or they can use their own classroom data to generate a Guttman Analysis. Either way, teachers are equipped with information that can be used to target teaching and maximise student learning.

Analysing externally generated student data

In Chapter 3 we illustrated an externally generated student report based on the ARCOTS test data. The learning readiness report is generated by the ARCOTS system in real time and locates a student at a level on a developmental progression represented by the black bar that it links to a very brief (nutshell) description of the skills a student is ‘ready to learn’ (see Figure 9.1). It is not an achievement level but rather an estimation of the ZPD. The student's achievement level is below this point – it represents what they have already learned. As explained in Chapter 3, the ZPD is where teaching needs to be targeted to maximise student progress.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

This chapter introduces the elements of the successful CTT: collaboration, challenge, check and celebrate. It explores how the CTT supports and enhances assessment for learning and contributes to school policy. The chapter outlines what is meant by collaboration and explains its four characteristics: group members realising a shared goal; members each making a unique contribution; members learning to accept their dependence on other members of the group; and members recognising the benefit of having colleagues contributing in areas that they cannot. We also explore how members of the CTT need to develop their own personal social skills in resolving issues affecting the teaching team.

Introduction

Strong and skillful collaborative teaching team (CTT) leadership is needed to embed the practices discussed in this book. New teachers, especially, need support from experienced team leaders. New teachers need to understand the leadership framework in which they are working. It is the team leader who will model the desired behaviours and help scaffold the learning of individual teaching team members so they can become more effective members of the team and, as a result, more effective teachers. The team leader is often the link between the team and the school's leadership and is therefore in the position to lobby for the interests of the team. It may be necessary for the leader to negotiate more time for meetings, access to particular resources, or specific professional development opportunities. As a champion for the team, the leader must also ensure that the team structure has a place in policy formation within the school. Without adept team leadership, it is impossible to develop a team whose synergy makes a substantial difference to the learning of all of its students.

The successful collaborative teaching team

Behind the approach of successful collaborative teams is an ongoing willingness to question and challenge the impacts of practice. Members of CTTs can best serve each other by questioning their own teaching practices and those of their fellow team members but the challenge must be in terms of change in student learning–related behaviour.

This annex has been written explicitly for busy school leaders who would like to get an overview of the Assessment for Teaching approach before tackling the level of detail provided in the book as a whole. It summarises the theoretical basis and the practical application of the program described in the book, spelling out the nature of the support needed and the responsibilities to be exercised if the program is to succeed.

Introduction

The primary reason for teaching is to facilitate learning. The primary reason for schools to exist is to maximise that learning. The primary role of the school leader is to ensure that this maximisation occurs.

In a study on evidence-based teaching of literacy – the Literacy Assessment Project – conducted by the Assessment Research Centre (ARC) in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne in partnership with the Catholic Education Office Melbourne over a 10-year period, outstanding early results were observed in some schools. The study was designed to test the effectiveness of using evidence to identify the point on a developmental progression at which students were most ready to learn, so that reading comprehension teaching could be targeted to that point. The purpose of the project was to build teachers’ assessment knowledge and skill so they could use assessment data to inform the teaching of literacy. Students were tested at the beginning of the school year to identify their position on a developmental progression and then taught the necessary skills to move along the progression to the next level. This approach represents a reversal of standard teaching practice in which assessment occurs only after instruction is complete. In the standard approach, assessment is for, or of, learning. In this approach, assessment is for teaching.

In the Literacy Assessment Project, a second testing period later in the school year showed that all students could improve. However, the rate of improvement among students at some schools was higher than at others. At schools where the greatest gains were made, teaching strategies were shared and discussed by teams of teachers who challenged each other to support their teaching practices with evidence. The teachers in these teams brought a range of observations and experiences to their discussions, but they also ensured that their colleagues did not persist with comfortable or familiar practices that were proving to be ineffective.

About this book

This is the second edition of the text on assessment for teaching. Like the first edition the content is based on a mixture of teaching and research – it is informed by practice, theory and research in the classroom. It gives teachers what they have requested to improve teaching and learning. Like the first edition, it is not just another book on assessment. Many of you will have read generalised books on assessment, and some of you will even have written them. Patrick Griffin published one in the 1990s. This book is different. It is a clinical approach to assessment and the use of data in the classroom. It is about changing the culture of schools based on the use of assessment data and developing skills among teachers so they can use assessment information to make decisions about targeted teaching intervention. The book introduces a new kind of thinking, though some of the content is not new – note the case study written in 1970 that commences the Introduction.

The approach propounded here is simple, but it is not simplistic. It is one that demands conceptual reasoning and higher order thinking. In the eight years that the Master of Teaching program has been taught at the University of Melbourne it has developed and matured. We now know that pre-service teachers can cope with this form of assessment and that in-service teachers can also change their practices in the light of it. Over 1500 teachers have participated in the program through online and face-to-face delivery. Over 3000 student teachers have studied the program and many have told us that they secured employment because of their knowledge of this approach to assessment. Many of the 1500 practising teachers who have participated in the online program have testified that it has changed their thinking about the use of assessment data and the way in which it can help teachers to organise classrooms. Of course, some did not change.

There is no point in adding to the assessment literature based on translating psychometric theory and multiple-choice test design. This is not a book that regurgitates the old ideas about assessment wrapped up in the language of psychometrics. It takes a new approach.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

This chapter promotes the understanding of developmental learning, introducing hierarchies and taxonomies developed by Bloom and Krathwohl. Because almost everyone working in this mode will be beginners, we will concentrate on the most basic, those relating to cognitive and affective domains. Other taxonomies, including those by Biggs and Collis (SOLO) and by Dreyfus (Skills), are useful and important; the reader can expand their knowledge of these as they become more proficient in assessment. The chapter makes a distinction between the deficit and developmental approaches to teaching and addresses the implications of data use in these two models. The chapter shows teachers how to identify the ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) following Vygotsky, and uses examples of student work to illustrate this concept. The implications of correct identification and the importance of differentiated instruction are also introduced in this chapter. The establishment of a strong link between teaching and assessment data provides the reader with a framework within which to operate as a teacher.

Introduction

Students accumulate skills and knowledge through a process of maturation and through engagement in learning activities. But the skills and knowledge accumulated by each student in the class or the year level almost certainly will not be the same. A teacher's role is to identify how best to facilitate this growth in each student. It is common to hear the description of the teacher's role linked to diagnosis in the context of teaching being a clinical practice profession. Although the word diagnosis has typically and traditionally been used to indicate that something is wrong and needs to be fixed, increasingly it is being used to identify individual needs in the educational context. The latter is exactly what teachers need to do, but it is important that we do not confuse student needs with student weaknesses or inadequacies. Students do not go to school to be fixed; they are not sick or in need of prescribed remedies; they go to school to grow socially and cognitively and perhaps morally.