Eleanore Hargreaves

The validity of collaborative assessment for learning

This article explores the features relating to the validity of assessment for learning, in particular the features of a collaborative assessment for learning, because of the learning benefits associated with collaborative learning. The article indicates what some of the learning benefits of highly valid collaborative assessment for learning might be, assuming that a valid assessment for learning actually promotes learning. It explores the idea that, for an assessment for learning to be valid, its learning outcomes must be socially appropriate for learners of the twenty‐first century. The article illustrates some of these conceptual points, using descriptions of three collaborative assessments for learning currently being practised. Two of the illustrations are taken from the UK and one from the Eastern Caribbean.

Assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom

This paper suggests that multigrade classrooms lend themselves particularly well to promoting assessment that enhances learning, rather than assessment aimed solely at selecting pupils for promotion to the next grade. Some strategies to encourage assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom are explored. These include facilitating individual responsibility for learning, drawing on other children as an assessment resource and using assessment tasks that have learning potential. For such strategies to be used, teachers need training, guidance and exemplification relating to the formative purposes of assessment and criterion- and pupil-referenced assessment.

Inquiring into children’s experiences of teacher feedback: reconceptualising Assessment for Learning

Few previous studies have explored in detail how children respond affectively and cognitively to feedback in the normal interactions of the primary school classroom and how they relate feedback to their sense of autonomy. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of nine ‘profile’ children aged 9 to 10 years in a UK school. They were observed and video-filmed in threes, twos or individually during literacy and numeracy lessons across two terms from January to July 2010. The video-recordings were shown later the same day to the children who had been filmed, being stopped at frequent intervals to allow the participants to comment on specific feedback incidents. The children claimed that learning was frustrated by overly directive feedback and that their learning benefited when the teacher’s feedback included substantial but not burdensome detail. The children felt their learning was supported by feedback reminder cues and they noticed that negative and positive feedback provoked emotions which could interfere with or support learning. The article concludes by suggesting that Assessment for Learning might be conceptualised as a classroom conversation in which children as well as teachers assess how teacher feedback relates to children’s learning, which would itself constitute a major contribution to their autonomous learning.

Teachers’ experiences of autonomy in Continuing Professional Development : Teacher Learning Communities in London and Hong Kong

This paper examines teachers’ experiences of autonomy as they undertook Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the form of Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) to develop Assessment for Learning (AfL). Participant teacher interview data were used from two parallel TLC projects, one in Hong Kong and one in London, UK. Autonomy was defined in terms of taking initiatives, acting independently and making critical inquiries. Links between autonomy and effective CPD were argued and the findings indicated that some teachers in both the projects experienced limited autonomy in terms of taking initiatives and being critical, although several described a new sense of professional independence as they attended TLCs. Their limited autonomy looked likely to inhibit the long-lasting impact of the projects, although one TLC in London seemed likely to shape teachers’ AfL principles and practices more profoundly because attendance was voluntary and egalitarian.

Assessment in Egypt

This profile traces shifts over time in government assessment aims in Egypt and explores their implementation, drawing on historical data. It outlines initially the policies of past Egyptian leaders that led the assessment system to take its recent form and shows how some political intentions for assessment have kept re-emerging. The current aims of President Mubarak are then shown to focus on improvement of quantity and quality in education, especially primary education. The condition of the whole education system is described, which puts in context the way the assessment system operates. A picture of the shortcomings of both education generally and assessment specifically also helps explain President Mubaraks aims. His aims provide a rationale for recent reforms that sought to improve the learning of the individual, as well as improve the system that assessed it and the country that managed it. The data for this profile were mainly collected in 1996.

Knowledge construction and personal relationship : insights about a UK university mentoring and coaching service

This article examines interview data from 12 mentors/coaches and eight of their clients in order to explore a mentoring and coaching service among UK university staff. Both mentors/coaches and clients were administrative or academic employees of the Institute of Education or affiliated colleges at London University, UK. Their roles related to the administration for, or leadership of, teaching programs as well as educational research and consultancy projects pursued by the institute. The mentors/coaches in this service aimed to construct or co‐construct knowledge with their clients rather than to transmit advice to them. The author explores the learning of mentors/coaches and clients, conceptualizing their “co‐construction” of knowledge as either collaborative construction or as participation. She examines the link between the construction of knowledge and personal relationship, considering the personal relationship both of mentor/coach with clients, and among mentors/coaches themselves. Additionally, the author draws on the divide between functional and personal. She concludes by considering implications from the findings about mentoring and coaching. Emphasized is their potential to play a subversive role within the established functional systems of an institution, if mentoring and coaching prioritize personal relationship.

Assessment for learning and Teacher Learning Communities: UK teachers’ experiences

In this paper, I explore the experiences of secondary teachers in four London schools [UK] who participated in Teacher Learning Communities, defined as meetings in which professional learning was supported as they learned about Assessment for Learning (AfL). The claim for these communities is that they lead to sustained improvements in teaching and learning, where the following design principles are adhered to: where leaders respect and value a need that has been identified by participants as of importance to themselves; they are school-based and integral to school operations; there is teacher collaboration; and there is input from within and beyond the school to support teachers’ theoretical as well as practical learning. The findings from this research project suggest that Teacher Learning Communities’ benefits were compromised specifically: where they were imposed on teachers; where they were not accommodated sufficiently within other school commitments; where leaders were too directive; where meeting formats were adhered to inflexibly; and where practice was emphasized at the expense of theories. My conclusion is that both AfL and Teacher Learning Communities rely for their success on sustained critical reflection among their participants, which can be inhibited where the above limitations apply.

Teachers' feedback to pupils: "like so many bottles thrown out to sea"?

This article draws on existing research about feedback, and also on teachers’ perceptions of feedback, in order to throw light on the roles feedback can play in supporting learning within the classroom. It addresses the “common but puzzling observation that even when teachers provide students with valid and reliable judgements about the quality of their work, improvement does not necessarily follow” (Sadler, 1989). The article draws on a survey of 88 teachers as to how feedback becomes effective. The teachers were invited to complete the sentence, “Feedback becomes effective when…. ”. The article concludes that it is the social and personal aspects of feedback that may constitute the missing piece to Sadler’s (1989) puzzle: pupils are more likely to make constructive meaning out of feedback messages when teachers recognize the influence of social and personal aspects, as well as of the content and form, of feedback.

The structure of lessons

Introduction The structure of lessons has traditionally been the responsibility of primary teachers. However, as part of the thrust towards raising standards in literacy and numeracy, recent Government recommendations have included precise guidelines on the length and content of lessons, the ways in which pupils should be grouped, the teaching strategies to be used and how time should be divided among different activities.

‘I think it helps you better when you’re not scared’: fear and learning in the primary classroom

The research reported in this article explored in 2013 the classroom fear of two samples of UK primary school pupils (aged 7–8 and also 10–11 years old). The investigation was approached within a framework of critical theory, in which emancipatory aims were embraced. The authoritarian nature of most classrooms necessitates that teachers control pupils through coercion underpinning authoritarian pedagogy, whether through autocratic, parental or more democratic yet still authoritarian means. Such control by the teacher over many pupils makes transformational learning difficult, and fear is considered to be one important impediment to transformational learning. During four triangulated data collection activities including observation, children’s drawing, children’s sentence writing and interviews, I investigated children’s experiences of fear in their classrooms. Findings suggested that the authoritarian nature of their classrooms did provoke fears that were destructive to transformational learning. Ways of addressing fears and implications for future classrooms are suggested.