Rolling out and scaling up: the effects of a problem-based approach to developing teachers’ assessment practice

Abstract

How can teachers be helped, at relatively little expense, to improve their professional practice? This problem was addressed in ‘Improving Formative Assessment in Vocational Education and Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy Programmes’ – the IFA project. Adopting a specific problem-based methodology as part of an action research approach, the IFA project involved 49 teachers in three structured one-day workshops within a time frame of 6–12 months. Attendance at the workshops was funded; but between workshops, without further support, teachers developed formative assessment strategies and practices in their own teaching time with students. The IFA workshops were led by experienced researchers using a common set of guidelines across 10 project institutions (a comprehensive school, further education colleges, and various adult education sites). In this article the authors evaluate the extent to which this relatively low-cost action research approach was effective and reflect on its wider potential.

Keywords:

• problem-based methodology
• professional development
• action research
• formative assessment
• post-compulsory education

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the IFA teachers for their enthusiastic involvement in the project and for the insights their participation afforded us. And many thanks to our colleagues who also led professional development workshops: Jennie Davies, Jay Derrick, Judith Gawn and Carol Collins. An earlier version of the article was presented at the symposium on ‘Improving Formative Assessment in Vocational Education and Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy Programmes’ at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association, Institute of Education, University of London, 5–8 September 2007. The authors are grateful for the feedback provided by participants at this event. They are also grateful for feedback received from three anonymous referees. And they gratefully acknowledge permission from Continuum International Publishing Group to reproduce the 10-stage problem-based methodology, some accompanying explanation and the content of Table 4, published in Swann (2012), and from Open University Press for permission to use discussion from Ecclestone (2010).

Notes

1. The IFA project was funded, from 2005 to 2008, by the Nuffield Foundation, the National Research and Development Centre, and the Quality Improvement Agency.

2. Project team members’ institutions: Learning and Skills Network, National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (England and Wales), National Research and Development Centre, Oxford Brookes University, Quality Improvement Agency, University of Brighton, and University of Exeter.