Formative e-assessment: some theoretical resources

Dylan Wiliam

www.dylanwiliam.net

FeedbackComponents of a feedback system

data on the actual level of some measurable attribute; data on the reference level of that attribute; a mechanism for comparing the two levels and generating information

about the ‘gap’ between the two levels; a mechanism by which the information can be used to alter the gap.

To an engineer, information is therefore feedback only if the information fed back is actually used in closing the gap.

Formative assessmentFrequent feedback is not necessarily formative

Feedback that causes improvement is not necessarily formative

Assessment is formative only if the information fed back to the learner is used by the learner in making improvements

To be formative, assessment must include a recipe for future action

No such thing as formative assessmentDescriptions of InstrumentsPurposesFunctions

An assessment functions formatively when evidence about student achievement elicited by the assessment is interpreted and used to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions that would have been made in the absence of that evidence.

Some principlesA commitment to formative assessmentDoes not entail any view of what is to be learnedDoes not entail any view of what happens when learning takes place

Types of formative assessmentLong-cycle

Span: across units, terms Length: four weeks to one year

Medium-cycle Span: within and between teaching units Length: one to four weeks

Short-cycle Span: within and between lessons Length:

day-by-day: 24 to 48 hours minute-by-minute: 5 seconds to 2 hours

Unpacking formative assessmentKey processesEstablishing where the learners are in their learningEstablishing where they are goingWorking out how to get there

ParticipantsTeachersPeersLearners

Where the learner is going

Where the learner is How to get there

TeacherClarify and

share learning intentions

Engineering effective

discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of

learning

Providing feedback that moves

learners forward

PeerUnderstand and share learning intentions

Activating students as learningresources for one another

LearnerUnderstand learning intentions

Activating students as ownersof their own learning

Aspects of formative assessment

Five “key strategies”…Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions

curriculum philosophy (goals and horizons)

Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning classroom discourse, interactive whole-class teaching

Providing feedback that moves learners forward feedback

Activating students as learning resources for one another collaborative learning, reciprocal teaching, peer-assessment

Activating students as owners of their own learning metacognition, motivation, interest, attribution, self-assessment

(Wiliam & Thompson, 2007)

…and one big ideaUse evidence about learning to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs

Gresham’s law and assessmentUsually (incorrectly) stated as “Bad money drives out good”

“The essential condition for Gresham's Law to operate is that there must be two (or more) kinds of money which are of equivalent value for some purposes and of different value for others” (Mundell, 1998)

The parallel for assessment: Summative drives out formative

Perhaps the most that summative assessment (more properly, assessment designed to serve a summative function) can do is keep out of the way

Signature pedagogies…

…in Law

…in Medicine

Changing demands for skill

Which of the following categories of skill has disappeared from the work-place most over the last forty years?

1. Routine manual

2. Non-routine manual

3. Routine cognitive

4. Complex communication

5. Expert thinking/problem-solving

Autor, Levy & Murnane, 2003

The regulation of learningSignature pedagogiesPedagogies of engagementPedagogies of contingency

Proactive Interactive Retroactive