Assessment and the co-regulation of learning in the classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the processes of regulation of student learning that are associated with formative assessment in the classroom. It discusses the concept of co-regulation and presents a model of co-regulation developed in a situated perspective on classroom learning. This model conceptualises co-regulated learning as resulting from the joint influence of student self-regulation and of sources of regulation in the learning environment: namely, the structure of the teaching/learning situation, the teacher’s interventions and interactions with students, the interactions between students, and the tools used for instruction and for assessment. Examples of research showing how co-regulation functions are discussed, in particular students’ use of tools for self-assessment and peer assessment, and the role of teacher–student interactions that encourage active student participation in formative assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-regulation of learning
• formative assessment
• peer assessment
• self-assessment
• teacher–student interaction

Acknowledgements

The perspectives presented in this paper benefitted from contributions of the team who worked with me over a number of years on research and on teacher education in the area of classroom assessment: Céline Buchs, Katia Lehraus, Lucie Mottier Lopez, Anne Perréard Vité, Yviane Rouiller, Geneviève Schwartz, Walther Tessaro, and Edith Wegmuller.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The term décalage is borrowed from Piaget but does not refer to his concept of horizonal and vertical décalages (time-lags in development). Rather it reflects the basic thesis of equilibration that development (and by extension, learning, as discussed in this paper) requires a certain discrepancy (disparity, contradiction) between the existing knowledge structure of the learner and the structure of the learning activity or task. The learner’s sensitivity to this discrepancy (prise de conscience) triggers cognitive conflict leading to the process of equilibration.

2. In resonance with Reed (1996), the concepts of affordances and of learner agency are used in this paper as follows. Affordances are features (material, technological, cultural, interpersonal) of a learning context that offer opportunities for action by the learner; affordances thereby support and at the same time constrain the learner’s activity. Whether and how the learner recognizes and appropriates affordances are a matter of learner agency (i.e., exploratory activity and focused goal-directed activity by the learner).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linda Allal

Linda Allal received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Michigan State University, USA, in 1973, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Liège, Belgium, in 2013. After a career spanning 33 years at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, she is professor emeritus since 2006. Her research concerns the relations between learning, teaching, and assessment in school settings. Her recent publications address issues of assessment for learning, teachers’ professional judgement in their practice of assessment, and processes of co-regulation during classroom writing activities.