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Assessment Learning

The basis of Assessment for Learning (AfL) is that teachers and learners need to understand where learning is starting from and where it's going. AfL helps make learning goals clear and provide feedback to improve understanding. A seminal 1988 work by Black and Wiliam argued that assessment methods designed to enhance learning, not just measure it, can raise standards. They described classrooms as "black boxes" where it wasn't clear what was happening to impact learning. Subsequent research explored effective ways to use assessment to improve learning, such as sharing learning goals, asking thoughtful questions, providing formative feedback, and involving students in self and peer assessment.

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25 views1 page

Assessment Learning

The basis of Assessment for Learning (AfL) is that teachers and learners need to understand where learning is starting from and where it's going. AfL helps make learning goals clear and provide feedback to improve understanding. A seminal 1988 work by Black and Wiliam argued that assessment methods designed to enhance learning, not just measure it, can raise standards. They described classrooms as "black boxes" where it wasn't clear what was happening to impact learning. Subsequent research explored effective ways to use assessment to improve learning, such as sharing learning goals, asking thoughtful questions, providing formative feedback, and involving students in self and peer assessment.

Uploaded by

milkovicius
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Assessment for Learning, by Lorna Smith

If you dont know where youre starting from and where youre going, youre never going to get to where you need
to be. That, in a sentence, is the basis of Assessment for Learning (AfL). AfL enables teachers and learners to find
out about the learning that has already taken place, in order to inform the learning to come.

The history of Assessment for Learning:


Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment was a seminal work published in 1988 by
by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam of Kings College London. It cited evidence from around the world that
assessment methods designed to improve learning, rather than only measure it, can raise standards. The report
had a huge influence on policy and practice at all levels .

The black box metaphor is explained as follows: In terms of systems engineering, present policy seems to treat
the classroom as a black box. Certain inputs from the outside are fed in or make demandspupils, teachers, other
resources, management rules and requirements, parental anxieties, tests with pressures to score highly, and so on.
Some outputs follow, hopefully pupils who are more knowledgeable and competent, better test results, teachers who are
more or less satisfied, and more or less exhausted. But what is happening inside? How can anyone be sure that a
particular set of new inputs will produce better outputs if we dont at least study what happens inside? (Black and

Wiliam, 1988)
Much work followed in which teachers and researchers clarified the most effective ways in which to produce better
outputs and led to various publications, such as Working inside the black box: Assessment for learning in the
classroom, which was published in 2002 by the Assessment Reform Group, together with Assessment for
Learning: Ten Principles. The work of the Assessment Reform Group was widely adopted and a revised version of
Ten Principles was incorporated into the Assessment for Learning Strategy (DCSF, 2008).

A summary of some key recommendations of AfL

Share the learning objective Pupils, as well as teachers, thereby understand the aim of the lesson and
can judge whether they have met the objective through achieving the outcome.

Ask questions effectively For example, many teachers would leave less than one second for pupils to
answer a question, and elicit answers from a small minority. With AfL, it was recognised that it is
important to give pupils time to think about a question and provide opportunities for everyone to respond.
The type of question asked is also important; there is a place for both closed and open questions, but
thought should be given to which type is most appropriate for the context.

Mark work, including homework, formatively When given grades or marks, pupils typically look only at
these and ignore suggestions for improvement. With AfL, teachers learnt to concentrate on giving only
comments, on which pupils were expected to take action to improve the work.

Pupils assess one another Pupil groups can mark each others work, and thereby learn to think about the
aim of a piece of work and to understand the criteria of quality.

Involve pupils in their tests By involving pupils in setting test questions, in inventing mark schemes, and
in marking one anothers answers, teachers helped pupils to achieve a view that is based more on
understanding the work that has been covered than on the pressure to succeed.

See: Assessment Reform Group http://www.aaia.org.uk/afl/assessment-reform-group


Initial Teacher Education on AfL http://www.ite.org.uk/ite_topics/assessment_for_learning/003.html

This resource was downloaded from www.teachit.co.uk The Training Ground

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