Assessment Literacy

E-Pedagogy in support of AfL

Visit the AFAL Blogspot for this issue on E-Pedagogy in support of AfL https://assessmentforall.blogspot.com/

In 2019, Chua Chu Kang Primary School started a task force to address issues centred on classroom assessment. They began by exploring three issues of concern: non-reporting of marks in Primary 1 and 2, use of rubrics to prepare students for high stakes examination, and Edusave criteria based on learning dispositions. Their deliberation enabled them to articulate the issues with greater clarity, and over the course of time, it led them to design and redesign units of work and assessment to test assessment principles against real problems in the classroom.

The teachers were invited to share the changes in their assessment practices with participants from the Management and Leadership in School (MLS) programme, at the elective on Leading Assessment Feedback Practices in School. Before their presentation, descriptions of their before-practice and assessment issues were posted on Blackboard Forum Discussion Board to have the MLS participants offer advice for improvement. This allowed the presenting teachers to receive feedback and the participants were also able to see how their suggestions matched up against the after-practice that was enacted. During the presentations, the teachers also shared how they had continued to hone their assessment practice across other units of work and participants were able to better connect assessment theory with practice through the assessment artefacts and evidence of student work.

1 Aug: Mdm Sarina bte Mohamed presented the shift towards a more student-focused feedback in the English classroom that involved identifying and bridging of learning gaps, focused actionable feedback, and promoting independent learning.

1 Aug: During the middle-hour consultation in the MLS elective, participants tapped on the expertise of Mrs Sheree Chong (Principal) to better understand the structural changes that were put in place to support assessment change in school.

19 Aug: Mr Tay Choon Hong (Senior Teacher) presented the change in feedback practice in the MTL classrooms that drew on three key principles: practise positive feedback, downsize the improvement, and practise more independence.

22 Aug: Mdm Azean bte Abdullah (Senior Teacher) presented examples of redesigned mathematics worksheets to illustrate several assessment principles that informed practice: build confidence through early and easy success by differentiating worksheets according to students’ ability, breaking down a complex problem to its constituent parts in order to identify and bridge learning gaps, and promote independent learning through minimal, but targeted feedback in marking.

31 Oct: Mdm Teo Guat Soon (Senior Teacher) described a more efficacious process of giving feedback on students’ work. It hinged on the redesign of science worksheets that allowed space for students to write a refined answer after the whole class discussion to identify the wrong use of terms and/or lack of conceptual reasoning by examining exemplars of student answers from the first attempt.

The case of Chua Chu Kang Primary School is an illustrative example of assessment reform made possible by strong leadership and teachers’ deliberation on assessment principles and practice. It offers ideas for more impactful teacher professional development that is focused on learning and applying an assessment change for small scale impact and examining evidence of efficacy to inform future practice.

Leading Assessment Feedback Practices in School and Beyond

Assessment Leadership

From January to March 2019, teachers from Juying Secondary School presented their applied learning from their small group advisement with CTL faculty to participants in the Management and Leadership in School (MLS) programme, at the elective on Leading Assessment Feedback taught by Dr Rachel Goh. The cases of teacher practice illustrate what can be done as part of feedback practice with regard to interpreting and acting on the evidence of students’ work.

The practices included:

(1) isolating and structuring performance to help students notice the sub-components in the question so that they can identify their gaps and work on one aspect at a time;

(2) addressing conceptual challenges using intermediate scaffolding such as a cline and/or other visual representations to help students access the epistemological structure of knowledge; and

(3) making transfer visible through the use of checklists and/or sentence frames for process transfer and the design of a follow-up task to close the feedback loop.

Zhi Wen demonstrated how he had used a table with rows and columns to show students the sub-components of a question involving solving quadratic equations graphically. He also developed a process checklist to feed-up and guide students in looking back.

Clive addressed the conceptual challenges his students had in understanding the abstract concepts of energy transformation by redesigning explanation-type questions with intermediate sub-questions. He also designed parallel tasks without scaffolding

to assess their learning.

Cheng Ling explained how she and her colleague, Tricia, had used a swing technique to make visible the counter argument and rebuttal argumentative structure as well as sentence frames to make visible the language demands of an argument to students in the English classroom.

The MLS participants consulted Sonia (third from left) on her use of a table to illustrate to students in her History class the components required in their answers and her use of a number scale to get students to weigh the importance of factors in an argument.

Teach Less, Learn More

Teach Less, Learn More

Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) is about teaching better, to engage our learners and prepare them for life, rather than teaching more, for tests and examinations.

TLLM aims to touch the hearts and engage the minds of our learners, to prepare them for life. It reaches into the core of education - why we teach, what we teach and how we teach.

It is about shifting the focus from “quantity” to “quality” in education. “More quality” in terms of classroom interaction, opportunities for expression, the learning of life-long skills and the building of character through innovative and effective teaching approaches and strategies. “Less quantity” in terms of rote-learning, repetitive tests, and following prescribed answers and set formulae.

Teachers, school leaders and MOE all have important roles to play to make Teach Less, Learn More happen.

Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.sg/bluesky/tllm.htm

Further Readings:

Tan (2007) Is Teach Less, Learn More a quantitative or qualitative idea? Proceedings of the Redesigning pedagogy: culture, knowledge and understanding conference, Singapore, May 2007. Retrieved March 9, 2020 from https://repository.nie.edu.sg/handle/10497/229

Tan, K. H., Tan, C., & Chua, J. S. (2008). Innovation in education: The" Teach Less, Learn More" initiative in Singapore schools. Innovation in education, 153-171. Retrieved March 9, 2020 from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charlene_Tan4/publication/281740181_Innovation_in_Education_The_%27Teach_Less_Learn_More%27_Initiative_in_Singapore_Schools/links/55f6625808ae6a34f663369d.pdf

Teo, J. E., Deng, Z., Lee, C. K. E., & Lim-Ratnam, C. (2013). Teach less, learn more: Lost in translation. In Globalization and the Singapore Curriculum (pp. 99-117). Springer, Singapore. Retrieved March 9, 2020 from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zongyi_Deng/publication/299672319_Teach_Less_Learn_More_Lost_in_Translation/links/57306ca508aee022975c3a21.pdf

Formative Assessment (FA) is the process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning in order to improve the students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes. It may involve informal methods such as observation and oral questioning, or the formative use of formal measures such as examinations, tests, traditional quizzes, portfolios, or performance assessments. FA involves observations which allow one to determine the extent to which a student knows or is able to do a given learning task, and which identify the part of the task that the student does not know or is unable to do so. FA creates a learning path to support and enhance learning, and in so doing, allows our students to learn deeply and to learn for life.

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is assessment that supports teaching and learning with the specific use of learner-centred approaches and strategies. In the literature, the terms “AfL” and “FA” have been used interchangeably (Hargreaves, 2005; Harlen, 2009; James & Pedder, 2006). AfL is central to classroom instruction as it is “part of everyday practice by students, teachers and peers that seeks, reflects upon and responds to information from dialogue, demonstration and observation in ways that enhance ongoing learning” (Klenowski, 2009, p.264). It is used to redirect learning in ways that help learners master learning goals, and is primarily used for ensuring that the intended learning outcomes are achieved by students. For instance, teachers may identify gaps in students’ learning, and provide quality feedback for students on how to improve their work.

E-Pedagogy in support of AfL

Leading Assessment Change

Leading Assessment Feedback Practices in School and Beyond

Teach Less, Learn More

Recalibration of SBA

PERI Report

MOE Assessment Glossary