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Formative Assessment in the Classroom. Margaret Heritage. EED Winter Conference: Informing Instruction, Improving Achievement Anchorage, Alaska - January 16 -18, 2007.
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Formative Assessment in the Classroom Margaret Heritage EED Winter Conference: Informing Instruction, Improving Achievement Anchorage, Alaska - January 16 -18, 2007 UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information StudiesNational Center for Research on Evaluation,Standards, and Student Testing
Overview What is Formative Assessment? Elements of Formative Assessment Examples of Formative Assessment Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes A Conceptualization of the Domain of Teaching for Formative Assessment
What is Formative Assessment? An Ongoing Process To: • Evoke evidence about student learning • Provide feedback about learning to teachers and to students • Close the gap between the learner’s current state and desired goals
Formative Assessment Must Be: • Clearly and directly linked to instructional goals • Embedded in instruction • A variety of methods and strategies • Used to make changes
Identifying the Gap • Formative assessment is the means to identify the “gap” between a learner’s current status and the desired goal • Different students will have different "gaps" (Sadler, 1989)
The “Just Right Gap” • Student perceives the gap as too large - goal unattainable • Student perceives the gap as too small - closing it might not be worth the individual effort (Sadler, 1989)
Interpretive Framework • Teachers need to interpret evidence from formative assessment • Having an interpretive framework means having a roadmap articulating the sub goals that constitute progression toward the ultimate goal • Interpretive frameworks provide the touchstone for formative assessment strategies • Evidence is interpreted within the framework
Interpretive Framework • Developmental criteria (Harlen, 2006) • Theory of knowledge in a domain (NRC, 2001; Shavelson, 2006) • Ontology (Baker, 2005) • Clearly articulated progression of learning in a domain (Forster & Masters, 2004; Wilson & Sloane, 2000)
Closing the Gap “Formative assessment gathers and uses information about students’ knowledge and performance to close the gap between students’ current learning state and the desired state by pedagogical actions” (Shavelson 2006, p.3)
Matching Action to the “Gap” • The zone of proximal development • Scaffolding instruction within the zone of proximal development
Feedback • Feedback to teachers about current status to adapt instruction • Feedback to students to respond to instructional adaptations
Feedback: Students Clear, descriptive, criterion-based feedback to students that indicates: √ where they are in the learning progression √ how their response differed from that reflected in desired learning goal √ how they can move forward
”Feedback Loops” Feedback loops include a teacher who knows which skills are to be learned, who can recognize and describe good performance, demonstrate good performance, and indicate how poor performance can be improved. (Sadler 1989, p.120)
Shared Ownership • Teachers and students have shared understanding and ownership of the learning goal • Students become involved in self-assessment • Students need to learn the strategies of self-assessment • Students make “more knowledgeable decisions regarding their current learning tactics” (Popham, 2006)
Summing Up Formative assessment is a means to continuously gather evidence and provide feedback about learning so that pedagogical actions can be adapted to meet learning needs, and so that students can be active participants with their teachers in understanding how their learning is progressing and how improvements can be made.
Methods • On-the-fly • Planned for interaction • Curriculum embedded
When pasting text from another document, do the following: Highlight the text you want to replace Go to the EDIT menu and select PASTE SPECIAL Select “Paste as: UNFORMATTED TEXT” A Typology of Formative Assessment • Performance tasks (teacher observation of student(s) carrying out an investigation, oral presentation) • Written tasks (teacher analysis science notebooks, history essay, literature response, explanation of mathematical strategy) • Discussions (questions, teacher listens to group discussion, teacher/student conferences) • Tests (quizzes , tests of discrete skills, diagnostic tests) • Student self-assessment
To adjust the slide numbering, do the following: Go to the VIEW menu, MASTER, and select SLIDE MASTER In the lower right, change the number 28 to your number of slides Do not change the <#> character. It generates the auto-numbers. Assessment Cycles Wiliam, 2006
Validity and Reliability • Purpose • Consequence • Formative assessments do not stand alone
Elementary Mathematics Heritage & Niemi, 2006
Middle School Science What would happen to a tennis ball dropped from a height of 100 feet into 30 feet of water? New Standards, 1989
How is sedimentary rock formed? Is igneous rock onli in the crust? Why is there three cain of roks? Why shaps of animals are in rocks? Are there minerals and rock? In the earth are always rocks What are rocks made of? What are other things that rocks are maid of? What is a mineral? Are rocks old or new? Elementary Science Bailey & Heritage, (forthcoming)
Elementary Reading • Text: The sun was hot. • Marco: The sun was hot. Text: Pop had a top hat. Marco: Pop had a t-o-p …pot hat. Text: Mom had a red wig. Marco: Mom had a red w-i-g---giw. Bailey & Heritage, (forthcoming)
Middle School Mathematics Group 1: Division of fifteen-fifths means a fraction or a division. Fifteen divided by five is three. Group 2: Division means dividing some numbers and make it to a smaller number. Fifteen-fifths is fifteen divided by five. That makes three. Group 3: Division is opposite of multiplication. Fifteen-fifths is like five goes into fifteen and that makes three because three times five is fifteen. Group 4: Division is when you flip the number when you divide and when you multiply. Fifteen-fifths is like five times something is fifteen, so the answer is three. Group 5: Division is dividing one number by another to solve the problem. Like fifteen-fifths is X so, then five times X equals three. Heritage, Silva & Pierce, 2006
Middle School Science Student response: If there is a block of steel, and you put it in water, it sinks because it had more mass. If you put a hollow piece of steel of the same mass, and shaped like a banana, it would float because it was shaped different, so it could float. For example, a fish has a swim bladder. He can let air in and out, and that is for him to go up or down or sub-surface. Gearhart et al., 2006
Characteristics • Linked to instructional goals • Integrated into instruction • Provide ongoing feedback at a level of detail to stimulate action for improvements in learning • Constructed and undertaken within an interpretive framework • Enable descriptive feedback to be provided to students • Involve students in the assessment process
Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes for Formative Assessment
Content Knowledge • Knowledge, concepts and skills that need to be taught within a domain • Learning pathway/progression of sub goals • Knowledge of “good performance” • Necessary precursor knowledge and understanding • Knowledge of student metacognition (self-regulation, self assessment, motivation)
Pedagogical Content Knowledge • Multiple models of teaching for student achievement in content areas • “Gap” will differ so multiple, differentiated instructional strategies • Multiple models for teaching student metacognitive strategies
Student Prior Knowledge • Prior knowledge students bring to the new learning • How to determine prior knowledge
Assessment Knowledge • Range of methods/strategies for formative assessment (on-the-fly, planned for interaction, curriculum- embedded) • Formative assessment cycles • Validity – purpose and interpretation • Reliability
Skills • Interpretation of evidence • Adapting instruction • Determining the zone of proximal development • Supporting new learning within the zone of proximal development (scaffolding) – selecting the right strategy
Skills • Providing clear, descriptive, criterion-based feedback • Feedback indicates to student how they can move forward • Assisting students to develop metacognitive knowledge and "learning tactics”(Popham, 2006)
Attitudes • Formative assessment is worthwhile • Formative assessment yields valuable and actionable information about students’ learning • Formative assessment is integral to instruction • Students are partners in formative assessment and in learning
Toward a Conceptualization of the Domain of Teaching for Formative Assessment
