Mary James

Assessment and Learning: differences and relationships between formative and summative assessment

ABSTRACT The central argument of this paper is that the formative and summative purposes of assessment have become confused in practice and that as a consequence assessment fails to have a truly formative role in learning. The importance of this role is argued particularly in relation to learning with understanding (deep learning). It is pointed out that the requirements of assessment for formative and summative purposes differ in several dimensions, including reliability, the reference base of judgements and the focus of the information used. This challenges the assumption that summative judgements can be formed by simple summation of formative ones. An alternative procedure for linking formative and summative assessment is proposed such that their separate functions are preserved.

Learning How to Learn and Assessment for Learning: a theoretical inquiry

This paper stems from the ESRC TLRP Learning How to Learn—in Classrooms, Schools and Networks Project, and explores how Assessment for Learning (AfL) relates, conceptually, to learning how to learn (LHTL). The term LHTL was intended to draw attention to a primary focus on learning practices, and we have related the processes of AfL to LHTL. A third and more common term ‘learning to learn’ (L2L) has recently come to the fore in the teaching and learning practices of schools. This paper explores the relationships between all three, in three main sections. First, the meaning of the concept LHTL is explored. This is approached initially using the analysis of Dearden, followed by an exploration of the links with other research in the literature on learning. This exploration examines the construct L2L and argues against its implication that there is a distinct capacity with generality of application across all forms of learning. The second section considers the ways in which teachers and schools might give more priority to pupils’ capacity to LHTL, drawing on some research projects that demonstrate improved pupil outcomes, and hence support the rationale for the emphasis on learning practices. The third section examines the problem of assessing LHTL. An attempt to construct an instrument to assess LHTL did not succeed, but did serve to expose both the practical and the theoretical problems in characterizing pupils as having ‘learned how to learn’. The overall conclusion is that emphasis should be placed on practices that have potential to promote autonomy in learning, a common theme in the literature at all levels, and one reflected in our empirical work on teachers’ attitudes and practices.

Learning How to Learn, in Classrooms, Schools and Networks: aims, design and analysis

This article provides an introduction to the TLRP Learning How to Learn Project and a context for the articles that follow in this special issue. The origins of the research, in a concern to investigate the organizational and network conditions that support innovation in teaching and learning, and in a perceived need to align research on pedagogy and assessment with research on school improvement, are described. Details of the overall development and research design are given as well as an explanation of the ways in which different forms of quantitative and qualitative data analysis are being integrated to interrogate a ‘logic model’, both at whole sample level and in case studies.

How Teachers Value and Practise Professional Learning.

If teachers are to sustain engagement with the challenges involved in promoting Learning How to Learn in classrooms they need to continue learning, and to be supported to do so by their schools. This article addresses the research question, ‘How do teachers value and practise professional learning?’ Data are reported from the ESRC TLRP Learning How to Learn project’s Staff Questionnaire in 2002; 1018 Questionnaire returns were obtained from primary and secondary teachers and managers at 32 schools: a return of 73%. Theoretical and empirical insights that influenced the construction of Questionnaire items are discussed. Four hypotheses about teacher learning were developed on the basis of a review of over 30 years of research into teachers’ learning: (1) teachers’ learning is an embedded feature of teachers’ classroom practice and reflection; (2) teachers’ learning is extended through consulting different sources of knowledge; (3) teachers’ learning is expanded through collaborative activity; (4) teachers’ learning is deepened through talking about and valuing learning. Item specific analysis, and factor and cluster analysis were carried out. The strong factor structure provides support for the hypotheses. Our main findings are: (1) teachers appear to differentiate between learning that takes place in the classroom and learning that takes place outside the classroom; (2) teachers tend to value a wide range of individual and social learning as important for creating opportunities for pupils to learn; (3) levels of practice for classroom‐based learning tend to be lower than for out‐of‐class learning. This was particularly marked for learning that involves engaging with research and pupil ideas and feedback. We conclude by arguing that, despite the risks involved, teachers’ classroom‐based learning and the institutional support for it are indispensable to the sustained provision of high quality education in schools.

Grasping the TLRP nettle: preliminary analysis and some enduring issues surrounding the improvement of learning outcomes

The ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme is the largest ever programme of educational research in the UK. This article reports the purposes, processes, outcomes and issues arising from cross-programme thematic work on the conceptualization of, and research into, ‘enhancing learning outcomes’ which is a key aim of the programme. Early documentation from thirty projects is analysed, especially in relation to a classification of learning outcomes, dominant metaphors of learning, sector differences and evidence of outcomes. Discussion focuses upon persistent issues concerning the assessment of the broad range of outcomes, what leads to them, and how knowledge of these links might be established.

TLRP’s ten principles for effective pedagogy: rationale, development, evidence, argument and impact

The ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) worked for ten years to improve outcomes for learners across the United Kingdom. Individual projects within the Programme focused on different research questions and utilised a range of methods and theoretical resources. Across-programme thematic seminar series and task groups enabled emerging findings to be analysed, synthesised and communicated to wider audiences. One outcome of this activity was the development of ten ‘evidence-informed’ principles, which engaged with diverse forms of evidence, whilst acknowledging that ‘users’ would need to judge how best to implement such principles in their particular contexts. Synopses of these principles were published in posters and booklets, from 2006, but the evidence and reasoning underpinning them has not been fully explained. This contribution attempts to fill this gap. It provides a justification for the production of the TLRP principles and describes the iterative process by which they were developed. It clusters the ten principles in four broad areas that reflect the multilayered nature of innovation in pedagogy: (1) educational values and purposes; (2) curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; (3) personal and social processes and relationships; and (4) teachers and policies. It elaborates the argument and evidence for each principle, drawing not only on findings from projects but, crucially, the thematic initiatives that began the synthetic work. There is also an attempt, though by no means comprehensive, to relate TLRP insights to research and scholarship beyond the Programme’s school-focused work in order to ground them in a wider literature: to work in other sectors of education; and to the broader literature that has accumulated internationally and over time. Finally, the five years since the principles were first published provides some evidence of impact. Although direct impact on learner outcomes cannot be measured, it is possible to provide an account of take-up by mediating agencies and others. The piece has been prepared as a contribution to international dialogue on effective teaching and learning and to provide a focus for scholarly comment, sharing of expertise and knowledge accumulation.

Measured lives: the rise of assessment as the engine of change in English schools

The year 2000 marks the end of compulsory education for the first cohort of students to experience the National Curriculum throughout their school careers. This article describes their experience of assessment and compares it with the testing regime that those children who start school in 2000 are likely to experience. Changes in policy from the early Task Group on Assessment and Testing proposals are analysed, especially the increasing priority given to the use of assessment for monitoring and evaluating the performance of teachers, schools and local education authorities. This shift is interpreted in terms of underlying assumptions about effective strategies for change. While Conservative and Labour governments have pursued somewhat different goals, they have used a similar change strategy. This explains why the general thrust of policy has continued in a broadly similar direction - towards ever more testing in schools and the use of results as performance indicators. It is argued, however, that this strategy cannot be pursued indefinitely. After a point, further improvements will only be made if teachers are helped to work ‘smarter’, not just harder. Policy-makers need, therefore, to look again at the contribution that formative assessment - or assessment for learning as part of pedagogy - can make to lifelong learning, in a more coherent, balanced and ‘educational’ system.

Broadening the basis of assessment to prevent the narrowing of learning

ABSTRACT This article presents an argument for a reconsideration of the types of assessment pro‐ moted by national policy. It argues that education for the twenty‐first century should place emphasis on higher‐order skills and ‘deep learning’ while not neglecting basic skills. The evidence relating to the impact of assessment on learning is briefly reviewed, as is the current state of understanding about different types of learning. On this basis it is argued that the range of types of assessments used, both formally and informally, should be expanded to illuminate and support a wide spectrum of rel‐ evant learning, including both the learning of facts and skills, deeper understandings of concepts and principles and their application in unfamiliar contexts. The impli‐ cations for policy and for the refocusing of national assessment in England are then discussed and an alternative framework is proposed.

Learning how to learn: Tools for schools

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. This book offers a set of in-service resources to help teachers develop new classroom practices informed by sound research. It builds on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’. However, it adds an important new dimension by taking account of the conditions within schools that are conducive to the promotion, in classrooms, of learning how to learn as an extension of assessment for learning.

Alternative perspectives on learning outcomes: challenges for assessment

In discussing the relationship between curriculum and assessment it is commonly argued that assessment should be aligned to curriculum or, alternatively, that they should be congruent with each other. This article explores that relationship in five educational contexts in the UK and in Europe, ranging across school education, workplace learning, vocational education and higher education. Four main themes are highlighted: construct definition, progression, assessment procedures, and system-level accountability. What emerges from the five case studies under review is a multi-layered process of knowledge being constructed in diverse ways at different levels in each context. The article concludes that, rather than thinking in terms of either alignment or congruence, these relationships are better understood in terms of non-linear systems embracing curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.