Exploring tensions in developing assessment for learning

Abstract

This paper is based on a study of classroom practice of primary school teachers who were engaged in a programme of professional development to implement formative assessment in their classrooms. The programme sought to develop the skills and expertise of teachers to enable formative assessment to be used to support and improve the learning of students. This study examined changes in practice in these teachers’ classrooms, their students’ learning experiences, pedagogical decision‐making, and the challenges experienced by teachers and students in developing assessment for learning. Activity theory was used as an analytical tool and enabled the identification of important contradictions in the changing system that produced tensions and difficulties but also provided driving forces for change. The development of formative assessment practices was of necessity accompanied by a culture change in the complex classroom systems. For teachers change was characterised as a process of expansive learning that was motivated by a contradiction between the teachers’ beliefs about learning and the existing culture in the classroom. The change in classroom practice was enabled by the formative assessment philosophy and a range of mediating artefacts.

Notes

1. In the UK SATs refers to National Curriculum tests which, at the time of writing, were being taken by all students in England towards the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 (Years 2, 6 and 9 when they are about 7, 11 and 14 years old).

2. ‘Traffic lights’ were used as coloured stickers or highlighting to indicate knowledge or understanding – green for good understanding, amber for unsure and red for no understanding.

3. ‘Two stars and a wish’ is a method of giving feedback in which two positive points are made, followed by one target for improvement.

4. Usually used as a way of signalling understanding of a concept, (thumbs up is clear, understand, horizontal shows unsure, thumbs down means no understanding).