Assessment for learning in science
Plenty of resources to support teachers in developing their practice in assessment for learning. These resources accompany the Triple Science Support guide to assessment for learning.
The Triple Science Support intervention guides and supporting resources are packed full of ideas and examples of evidence-based good practice, and will support you in going beyond short term, bolt on interventions to look at issues such as progression, tracking progress and how best to structure learning so students gain a deep, long term understanding of the science.
Classroom Assessment: Minute by Minute, Day by Day
This paper, by Siobhan Leahy, Christine Lyon, Marnie Thompson and Dylan Wiliam, gives some great examples of how assessment for learning can be improved, including:
Clarify and Share Intentions and Criteria
Engineer Effective Classroom Discussion
Provide Feedback That Moves Learners Forward
Activate Students as Instructional Resources for One Another
Using Evidence of Learning to Adapt Instruction
Supporting Teacher Change
You could choose an idea from one of the sections to focus on, evaluate its impact, and then move on to another.
Kagan strategies
One of the five key ‘Strategies of Assessment’ described initially by Leahy et al (above) is to develop learners as instructional resources for one another.
There are 35 ideas for cooperative group-work in this resource. You can choose the most useful group-work arrangement depending on what you want the students to achieve. i.e. improved teamwork, knowledge building, developing thinking skills or presentation skills.
POE formative assessment
This is an example of a formative assessment probe, which can be used to expose students’ preconceptions; encourage evidence-based explanations, talk, and argument; and monitor students’ progress in achieving conceptual understanding.
Combined with various formative assessment classroom techniques (FACTs), probes not only assess where students are conceptually, they also promote learning and inform effective teaching.
Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College
This is a very detailed summary of the book ‘Teach Like a Champion: 49 techniques that put students on the path to college’ by Doug Lemov (Jossey-Bass, 2010)
There’s a lot here that you could have a go at to improve questioning for AfL. For example, have a look at:
technique 2 – right is right
technique 3 – stretch it
technique 22 – Cold call
Pam Hook
One way to share success criteria is to create a rubric based on SOLO, as explained by Pam Hook. Click on ‘wiki’ in the navigation panel, and then head for ‘HookEd wiki’.
The HookED wiki has a focus on SOLO based approaches and effective strategies to enhance:
- Feed Up - Where am I going? (the goals)
- Feed Back- How am I going?
- Feed Forward- Where to next?
The wiki is full of practical strategies and examples showing how SOLO can be used to help students:
- - clarify learning intentions,
- - explain the learning purpose of effective strategies,
- - self assess learning outcomes with SOLO coded success criteria in text based and visual rubrics, and
- - explain ‘where to next’ steps in learning logs.
Black Box Series -
The Black Box Series offers easy-to-read advice for teachers on how to implement the key techniques within formative assessment – questioning, feedback, and peer/self assessment. Each booklet includes important research findings and recommendations for supporting and embedding assessment for learning in classrooms. Based on extensive research by the King’s College London team with teachers throughout the United Kingdom, the unique booklets offer specific examples of what assessment for learning’ can look like across the relevant subject areas.
What are rubrics and why are they important?
This webpage gives a detailed summary of the book How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading, by Susan M. Brookhart
Like any other evaluation tool, rubrics are useful for certain purposes and not for others. The main purpose of rubrics is to assess performances. For some performances, you observe the student in the process of doing something. For other performances, you observe the product that is the result of the student's work, like a written report.
AfL toolkit
70 different activities, ideas or tools based around assessment for learning.
Education Endowment Foundation toolkit
This resource analyses the effectiveness of the implementation of assessment for learning strategies in schools in terms of average impact on attainment, the strength of the evidence supporting the strategy, and the cost. It also suggests some strategies which senior leaders and teachers may wish to consider.
This resource is from the Sutton Trust - EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit, an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.
The Toolkit currently covers over 34 topics. It has been recommended by the Department for Education, Ofsted and the headteachers’ associations as a valuable resource in prioritising pupil premium spending. More than half of secondary school leaders now say they use the Toolkit.
Assessment for Learning
Produced by LSIS, these materials offer examples of how Assessment for Learning can be built into teaching and learning sessions. They include a video which examines how a range of strategies can be used to assess students' understanding. There is a session plan which gives detailed guidance on how to set up and run an activity into magnetic fields and electric motors. This includes a suggested approach to help teachers and trainers assess learning.
Improving Teaching and Learning in Science
The video on promoting discussion is very useful for seeing how students can develop their thinking by discussing questions in groups, giving the teacher a good insight into students' understanding
Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom, 2nd Edition
Fisher and Frey explore a variety of engaging activities that check for and increase understanding, including interactive writing, portfolios, multimedia presentations, audience response systems, and much more.
This new 2nd edition of Checking for Understanding has been updated to reflect the latest thinking in formative assessment and to show how the concepts apply in the context of Fisher and Frey's work on gradual release of responsibility, guided instruction, formative assessment systems, data analysis, and quality instruction.
Strengthening Teaching and Learning in Science Through Using Different Pedagogies
Within this resource are:
Unit 1 - Using group talk and argument: explores why using group talk and setting up conditions for healthy argument is important; provides guidance on how various groupings can be used in the laboratory and gives advice on choosing a stimulus for group talk.
Unit 2 - Active questioning: brings together advice on questioning as a tool for students’ learning and helps teachers to plan for questioning to stimulate higher-order thinking
Introduction to Assessment for Learning
A useful online module for teachers to explore assessment for learning, with information on:
Hohn Hattie: Learning Intentions and success criteria
A quick video on sharing learning intentions