OnTheIntegrationofFormativeAssessmentinTeaching.docVIP

On The Integration Of Formative Assessment In Teaching And Learning with Implications for Teacher Education Richard J. Shavelson, Stanford University, USA For the Stanford Education Assessment Laboratory and the University of Hawaii Curriculum Research and Development Group Abstract US teachers often view student assessment as something apart from regular teaching, serving primarily the purpose of providing grades or informing, sometimes placating, parents. Assessment as stepchild is also apparent in teacher education where a lecture is given or a course allocated to pre-service teachers on testing and assessment propagating traditional notions of assessment, that of teacher made and summative uses of tests. This situation is changing in recognition of the importance of formative assessment (especially as a result of Black and Wiliam). This paper reports lessons learned about formative assessment and teacher development from joint projects between both Stanford and Kings College London, and Stanford and the University of Hawaii. Both seek ways of developing teachers formative-assessment capabilities. The former project focuses on teacher development of informal formative assessment—clinical (personal, subjective) assessment of students understanding in the ongoing flow of classroom activities. The latter links such activities with formal formative assessment where assessments are designed on a conceptual model of achievement in a domain and embedded in curricula. In both, the primary objective of assessment is to maximize teachers’ information uptake and foster translation of that information into pedagogical action. The goal is to bring about student understanding and conceptual change by providing immediate feedback to students and teachers focused on reducing the gap between the student’s current level of understanding and the place where it ultimately should be. On The Integration of Formative Assessment in Teaching And Learning: with Implications for T