Learning about assessment for learning: a framework for discourse about classroom practice¹

Abstract

‘Learning how to Learn – in classrooms, schools and networks’ is a four-year, multi-site project funded under the Economic and Social Research Council Teaching and Learning Research Programme and concerned with the development of formative assessment practice. This article describes how analysis of a large double-scale questionnaire administered across project schools provided not only information about trends in teacher values and practices, but also a basis for observation, analysis and discourse about classroom practice. A group of secondary Postgraduate Certificate of Education trainees were provided with a semi-structured observational framework derived from factor analysis of questionnaire responses in order to guide their observation of classroom video and analysis of teacher interviews. While all trainees were able to identify effective practice and to relate it to their own evolving craft knowledge, for a minority the framework also provided a focus for enquiry and dialogue about the relationships and tensions between the values and practices of the featured teachers and of the participating trainees themselves.