Observing Formative Assessment Practice: Learning Lessons Through Validation

ABSTRACT

This introductory essay provides a framing for and an overview of the papers contained in this special issue of the Educational Assessment journal. In it the author begins with a brief description of the history of classroom observation tools, and then articulates a rationale for observation protocols that target formative assessment. Examining similarities and differences across the protocols, the author orients the reader to the approaches to classroom observation that are the focus of the special issue.