Learning how to learn involves reflecting on evidence of learning. It is a part of the cycle of continuous assessment. This is where students and teachers set learning goals, share learning intentions, evaluate their learning through dialogue and self assessment and peer assessment. Through this learners become aware of what they learn, and how they learn. Relevant (QSA, ACARA,) documents highlight the importance of educational systems lifelong learning this is where students grow not only in knowledge but to become independent of the teacher. Therefore teacher supplied-feedback should give way to self assessment and self monitoring. Some of what the teacher brings to the assessment act itself must become a part of the curriculum for the student. Sadler
The validity of student relative teacher judgements in assessment has been explored by many researchers and reported in the education literature .In large part student peer and self grading works best when students share a comprehensive understanding of the assessment criteria and the characteristics of work illustrative of different levels of performance. Boud describes the characteristics of self assessment as the involvement of students in identifying standards and or making criteria and making judgments about the extent to which they met these criteria and standards. (Boud, 1991pg 12) This encourages learners to be more independent and learn how to learn. Learners who are more involved in assessing themselves and others are more likely to develop the attributes and skills they need to become resilient, self-motivating learners.
Students take first steps towards independent and autonomous learning by developing learning strategies based on evaluations. This enables students to assess their own work and that of their peers and provides opportunities to discuss and reflect on their achievements, for example, peer ratings, creative writing, sharing portfolios in pairs or an oral presentation. (Collaborative learning in action)
QCAR framework provides a significant amount of support for teachers’ .Teaching sequences and learning overviews illustrate how to structure learning experiences to incorporate opportunities for peer assessment and self-assessment. (The national strategies)
How appropriate is this strategy for different classroom assessment contexts?
Peer and self assessment can be seen as formative and Berg, Sadler. Formative assessment is effective in virtually all educational settings: content areas, knowledge and skill types, and levels of education.
To work effectively, the learning environment the classroom must be supportive. (textbook)The teacher may facilitate such a learning context by first enabling students to take responsibility for their learning and to become engaged in the classroom, Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback.
Formative assessment to inform instruction and guide student learning is being underutilized. Many students are not given feedback that is effective in helping them see where they are in regard to reaching the learning goals or that provides plan for moving them forward to achieve that goal. Students are not always given the opportunity to take an active role in the learning process by regularly assessing themselves and their peers as they work to achieve their learning goals. The purpose of this study is to determine how the use of formative assessment with immediate feedback using student response systems will impact student learning. This study will also investigate the effect that student involvement in self-evaluation has on learning.
Savage, J. & Fautley, M. (2008). Assessment for Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools. Dawsonera [Online]
This article, initiated by the Assessment Group of the British Educational Research Association, focuses on how improving formative assessment raises standards and how there is still room for improvement. It discusses the importance of self and peer assessments and effective teaching. They also identified four ways to implement classroom policies to improve formative assessment.
Assessment for learning informs and promotes the achievement of all pupils, as it encourages them to take responsibility for their own learning. It focuses on the learning process and how to improve a child’s academic progression, finding out where pupils are within a learning range, where they need to go and how best to get them there. Lots of different assessment for learning strategies can be used to help pupils in their learning, and these can be adopted by teachers to gain an understanding of what has been achieved and what steps should be taken next in order to progress learning forward.
Once I decided on what kind of assessment I wanted to use, I then wrote out how I would administer each piece and created the necessary worksheets to go along with them. I tried to incorporate multiple forms of assessment – the structure of worksheets, the freedom of journals, and discussion to talk through thoughts and issues – to provide students with numerous methods of expressing themselves and multiple opportunities to create connections with the material. I also made an effort to give students the chance to work in small groups, as a whole class, and independently so they could support each other’s learning to help make meaning from the content then put it into practice on their own.
Effective classroom teachers use a variety of assessment instruments on a daily basis to determine student progress. Assessing the students is the easy part and can be ongoing or at specific times during the year. After any assessment is given, it is vital for the teachers to analyze the results of the assessment. Finally, teachers much continually monitor student progress in order to ensure student success. The assessing, analyzing, and monitoring requires planning on the teacher’s part. If teachers fail to plan, they plan to fail; this is the result in many classrooms today because teachers access their students and then do not analyze the data in order to monitor and document students’ learning.
significant and larger gain than the peer-grading and control groups (Sadler & Good, 2006). This idea of learning through self- and peer-assessment may be applicable to self- and peer-quizzing.
Belinda spent time roving around the classroom and interacting with students individually and in small groups to identify their current knowledge and differences in learning. With the year 12 class, she systematically observed and monitored students during class (informal assessment) and recognised an area the majority of the class struggled with. She then created lessons to address this. These lessons worked extremely well. The students engaged with them and as a result, applied it to their own assessments.
Assessments are an important part of teaching. Assessments are a good way for teachers to monitor students’ learning and understanding. Knowing students’ level of understanding can help teachers improve students’ learning and guide their instructions. In the future, I plan to continue assessing students in multiple ways such as, asking questions, illustrations and writing to adjust my instruction. I also plan to encourage students to assess their own work so they are involved in their own learning as well as look for ways to “employ technology to support assessment
Assessment has been the greatest challenge in my development as a professional. My coursework as supported my growth in this area, especially in understanding the broad range of assessments used to support students’ growth and development. My courses have also supported my understanding of how ongoing observational assessment and standards-based measures can be used to inform instruction and support the cycle of observation, reflection and planning. Coursework
Self-assessment has gained much attention in recent years; emphasizing on learner independence and autonomy and it has significant pedagogic value (M Patri, 2002). Students need to know about their abilities, how much progress they are making and what they can do with the skills they have acquired. Without such knowledge, it wouldn’t be easy for them to learn efficiently. From an educational viewpoint, knowing to what extent students can evaluate their own performance is also important. Students can do it correctly and then then don’t need to depend on their teachers and so the teacher can find out students’ needs. John Upsher (1975) was one of the first who provided a rationale for the use of self-assessment in the
...individually assess each other's contribution using a list of criteria. Due to the agreed marking criteria there is no confusion about the outcome of the assessments. There are many advantages to using peer assessment. Peer assessment encourages student involvement and responsibility. Students have to work out for themselves the criteria they need to use for grading a performance while in a monitored environment. As a result of peer assessment the students mind is focused on the aspects that make a performance good, bad or indifferent. Through doing peer assessment the student the student can work through their own performance using the same marking criteria as on their peers and are able to see their own difficulties and put them right. It also helps develop student judgement skills and provides more relevant feedback to students as it conducted by their peers.
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
The importance of strong assessment for learning and supportive teachers has been the key driver in shaping and nurturing my own growth intellectually and emotionally (Stiggins, 2002). Following my earlier difficulties in accessing assessment (Toping, 2009) during secondary education and my inability to naturally make instinctive correlations with self- assessment to improve upon (Bell and Cowie, 2001) has intrigued me to want to find out methods in bridging this area and develop my own personal practice and work to affect all pupils in being able to achieve their full potential within Design and Technology at Key Stage 3 (Black and William, 1998). My own personal experiences will undoubtedly influence my own judgements. I will therefore admit my own bias and aim to consciously adopt an objective view through this planned research.
As I reflect on my past assessment process, I realized how much my assessments have changed over the years. In my early years, I used tests for informational recall as my assessments. I felt these were appropriate guidelines in which I needed to follow in order to substantiate a student’s grade. Every assignment or tests was given a point value and then based on the amount of points, a grade was given. Every student’s assessment was exactly the same, and the assessments did not contain any subjectivity. I felt confident in giving the grade based on a valid point system. However reflecting back, I see that I did not include any performance-based assessments or individual learning styles in my early assessment. I also did not take into consideration the individual needs of my students. My assessment approach was awful. I am embarrassed that I use to assess students in this manner.