1. Effective Assessment and Feedback
Rebecca Rhodes

2. What do you hope to get out of this session?
TASK
What do you hope to get out of this session?

3. Overview Assess effectively through marking and feedback
Advice on how to get the most from our learners.

4. Questions to ask yourself
How do you assess learning?
Does this lead to improvements?
Is it effective?
What is the purpose of feedback?
Formative assessment
Questioning
Self and peer marking
Summative assessment
Feedback
Written
Verbal
Targets
To reduce the discrepancies between current understandings/ performance and a desired goal

5. Who here gives grades on student work?
YOUR LEARNERS
Who here gives grades on student work?
Why do you give grades?
To sort?
To motivate?
To feedback?
The A/B grade student
(70% +)
The C/D grade student
‘I’m still the best’
‘I don't need to do anything different’
‘I tried my best & is this it?’
‘How can I do better?’
‘I’m satisfied’
The E/U grade student
‘I suck at this subject!’
‘Hmm, I didn't understand what I was doing.’
‘I always knew I didn’t have the ability’

6. Assessing and improving learning
Ideally we need to move the perception of assessments away being about making judgments and more about helping learning.
This can be done in many ways and can include:
Assessments (formative and summative)
Types of feedback
Questioning

7. What does good work look like?
Assessment process
Guidance
Marking
Setting
What does good work look like?
Returning
Goals & objectives
Self or peer
Mark schemes
Teacher
Questions
Combination
Improving
Changes
Reflection
Medals
Missions (targets)

8. Effective feedback answers three key questions
Feed Up
Where am I going?
Guidance
Setting
Marking
Effective feedback answers three key questions
Improving
Returning
Feed Forward
Where to next?
Feed Back
How am I going?

9. Each feedback question works at four levels:
Feedback can be about the:
Feed Up
Where am I going?
Task level
Is the work correct?
Process level
The process used to complete the task
Feed Back
How am I going?
Self-regulation level
Confidence to engage further with the task
Self level
Well done!
Feed Forward
Where to next?

10. Feedback at the self or personal level (e.g. praise)
Praise doesn't address the three feedback questions (where am I going?, how am I going?, where to next?) making it ineffective in enhancing learning.
When feedback draws attention to the self, students try to avoid the risk involved in tackling challenging work and have a high fear of failure in order to minimise risk to the self.
Ideally, it is best to avoid the ‘self level’ when giving feedback.
Remember- feedback is about helping learning not about making judgments.

11. Feedback is not ‘THE’ answer
At the start of the year when our learners are at the acquisition (getting to grips with) phase and not proficiency (skilled and able) phase the teacher needs to play a prominent role through instruction.
Feedback at this early stage is likely to be ineffective as concepts are still not yet understood.
Feedback needs to be directed at the right level and at the right time.

12. FEEDBACK
Needs to be clear, purposeful, meaningful and compatible with student prior knowledge.
Needs to provide processing, have clear goals and be of little threat to the person at the self level.
This is often why self and peer assessment does not work because there is still too much emphasis on the self level (judgement).

13. COMMON CONCERNS No time Return the work and file it away
Have content to get through and cant spend so much time on assessing especially self/peer marking
Return the work and file it away
Where is the learning process in this?
Ineffective written feedback
Do the students know HOW to improve from what you have written?

14. FEEDBACK STRATEGIES Give time for practice
Get students to identify where they have met criteria
Stress assessments are a learning process and its all about improvement so allow time to read comments, to reflect, and to fix
Avoid giving grades to the students
Use group and peer work
If assessment structure is repetitive encourage students to go back to previous assessments
Use peer, self and spoof assessment

15. What is the purpose of questioning?
To seek evidence from learners that enables teachers to adjust their teaching
Framing of the question needs to
Encourage students to say what they think
Avoid students guessing what the teacher is looking for
Avoid one-word answers
Is 7 a prime number? vs. Why do you think 7 is an example of a prime number? would give completely different responses.

16. QUESTIONING
To seek evidence from learners that enables teachers to adjust their teaching
Time allowed to answer
Give wait time
Discuss in pairs/ groups
Avoid raising hands
Use ‘wrong’ answers to learn what correct ones are

17. This can be achieved through effective assessment and feedback
LEARNING IS...
Self evaluation
Target setting
Improving
Progress
This can be achieved through effective assessment and feedback

18. Further reading
Formative Classroom Assessment- Theory into Practice By James H. McMillan Visible Learning- A synthesis of over 800 meta-analysis relating to achievement By John Hattie

19. Self/ Peer Marking THE PROCESS
STEP 1:
AWARENESS
STEP 2:
RE-WRITE
CRITERIA
STEP 3:
PRACTICE
3x BASIC
STEP 7:
IMPROVE
STEP 4:
PRACTICE
1x DETAIL
STEP 6:
REFLECT
STEP 5a:
SELF MARK
STEP 5b:
PEER MARK

20. If you wish to email me or get a copy of this PowerPoint
Thank you
If you wish to me or get a copy of this PowerPoint