Using teacher inquiry to support technology-enhanced formative assessment: a review of the literature to inform a new method

ABSTRACT

In this paper we review the literature on teacher inquiry (TI) to explore the possibility that this process can equip teachers to investigate students’ learning as a step towards the process of formative assessment. We draw a distinction between formative assessment and summative forms of assessment [CRELL. (2009). The transition to computer-based assessment: New approaches to skills assessment and implications for large-scale testing. In F. Scheuermann & J. Björnsson (Eds.), JRC Scientific and technical reports. Ispra: Author; Webb, M. (2010). Beginning teacher education and collaborative formative e-assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35, 597–618; EACEA. (2009). National testing of pupils in Europe: Objectives, organisation and use of results. Brussels: Eurydice; OECD. (2010b). Assessing the effects of ICT in education (F. Scheuermann & E. Pedró, Eds.). Paris: JRC, OECD]. Our review of TI is combined with a review of the research concerning the way that practices with technology can support the assessment process. We conclude with a comparison of TI and teacher design research from which we extract the characteristics for a method of TI that can be used to develop technology-enhanced formative assessment: teacher inquiry into student learning. In this review, our primary focus is upon enabling teachers to use technology effectively to inquire about their students’ learning progress.

KEYWORDS:

• Formative assessment
• teacher inquiry
• technology-enhanced learning
• design research
• learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Rosemary Luckin is a Professor of Learner-Centred Design at The London Knowledge Lab. She has a Bachelor degree in Computing and Artificial Intelligence and a PhD in Cognitive Science.

Wilma Clark is a Teacher and Researcher. She completed a PhD that explored the work of the Russian semiotician Yuri Lotman and the application of a semiospheric lens to technology-mediated learning in the school setting.

Katerina Avramides holds a PhD in Cognitive Science and is a Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Education, her research is interdisciplinary, situated between Psychology and Artificial Intelligence. She's primarily interested in the design and development of educational technology to support learning in ill-defined domains.

Jade Hunter is a Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Education. She has a background in Media & Cultural Studies and Education, and previously worked as a teacher in schools, Sixth Form and Further Education colleges.

Martin Oliver is a Professor of Education and Technology at the UCL Institute of Education. His research and teaching is focused on technology and education and includes the practices of learning and teaching (e.g. course design), student experience and organisational change.

Notes

1 http://www.lessonresearch.net/.

Additional information

Funding

The funding and grant-awarding bodies for this study are the European Union.