Building students' assessment capabilities

How will we ensure our students are animated through assessment?

Note: the notion of animated learners will be further explored in the Animated Learners module

Aim

The aim of this module is to explore the role of students as assessment capable partners in learning.

Intended outcomes

By the end of this module, participants will have:

• A deeper understanding of students as assessment capable learning partners
• Identified ways of building students’ assessment capabilities
• Designed one way of building students’ assessment capabilities

Core document: Horizons of Hope Strategy Foundation Statement: Assessment in a Catholic School

Learning experience 1: Reflection

Assessment comes from the Latin verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’. In assessment, one should sit with the learner. This implies it is something we do with and for students and not to students (Green, 1998).

Discuss with a partner the ways in which your current assessment practices reflect this statement and the ways in which your students are empowered to demonstrate agency.

Learning experience 2: the principles of assessment for learning

"When students actively participate in assessing their learning by interpreting their performance, they are better placed to recognise important moments of personal learning. This helps them to identify their own strengths and needs, and discover how to make ‘Where to next?’ decisions. Students should be educated in ways that build their assessment capabilities, so they can take increasing control of their own learning and, through this process, become more effective and independent learners….Assessment-capable students can also provide better information to teachers. Better student feedback gives teachers a clearer picture of students’ learning needs and enables more personalised development of next teaching and learning steps". NZ Ministry for Education

Read the document and explore the different ways student assessment capability might be strengthened.

What connects with your current thinking? What extends your understanding? Discuss with your learning team. How do we include student voice in decisions about assessment?

If appropriate, share the paragraph above with your students and seek feedback about what they see as important about building their own assessment capability.

Learning experience 3: Learning together

Assessment in a Catholic school requires leaders, teachers and learners to learn alongside one another, as they uncover evidence that informs both learning and teaching. Learners use both assessment and feedback to reflect on and evaluate their own progress, while teachers and leaders use assessment and evidence to inform and shape the design for learning. Horizons of Hope foundation statement, Assessment in a Catholic school (page 8)

Choose one of the following resources to examine how students’ assessment capability might be enhanced.

• ACARA high quality work samples (such as the linked example for year 3 Mathematics)
• NZ Assessment for Learning website
  • Learning intentions
  • Success criteria and rubrics
  • Peer feedback
  • Student self assessment
• The seven principles of learning, from Timperley, Kaser and Halbert: A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the Spiral of Inquiry - page 8

Learning experience 4: Taking action

As a result of your learning in this module, design an opportunity to build your students’ assessment capability.

From your research in the previous learning experience, choose something to try. Design an assessment and let students know you are trying something new. Gather feedback from students about the trial.

Share your learning with your team and the wider community.

Resources and further reading

Visible learning mindframes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xpcXobZF1k

John Hattie - self regulated v assessment capable learners

Helen Timperley, Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert - A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry

Dylan Wiliam - Assessment strategies

Patrick Griffin - The skills today's school students need to learn