1 Building Evaluative Capability in Schooling Improvement: The Student View Judy Parr,

Students: Overlooked?  Student and student achievement is the emphasis in Schooling Improvement  Argument is that students as potential contributors to their own learning and the success of Schooling Improvement have been overlooked 2

The Project  Two foci Examining and evaluating the effect of SI Building capability of those involved to evaluate their own actions and the collective actions of their community 3

Collecting Data re Classroom Practice  We were basically interested in: The extent to which what was happening reflected agreed effective practice form research literature Extent to which teachers AND their students exhibited knowledge and practices that indicates capability to engage in evaluation of learning and of practice

For Teachers  Capability to evaluate the learning of their students; consider this in relation to their practice and make necessary changes (ongoing)  Enabling of students to engage in self evaluation / self-assessment 5

For Students  Investigate the extent to which we are building evaluative capability in our students so they can become active agents in their own learning; enhance their learning by becoming self-regulated 6

A Changing Formative Assessment Discourse  Emphasis in formative assessment has shifted from teaching to learning  Reframed as a social, collaborative activity aligned more with learning  Idea of teachers and students working in partnership- a more significant role accorded students 7

Changing Role of the Student Source of information about learning & achievement moves from feedback provided to student to that generated by the student Act becomes part of process of self monitoring Appraising own work and that of peers is a way to develop evaluative and productive knowledge and expertise 8

9 Teacher’s Role  Build this capability in two major ways: Sharing guild knowledge with students Actively promoting (through careful scaffolding) the process of self and peer assessment

Recap: Obtaining Evidence About The Two Ways  Asked questions at interview of students in classrooms observed What learning? What look like if achieve? What to work on to achieve goal?  Asked questions in a brief questionnaire of all students (>2000). Additional questions about extent to which teachers helping them to be clear about….. . 10

Recap: Obtaining Evidence About The Two Ways In both formats (interview and questionnaire) asked about peer and self-assessment Asked case study teachers about peer and self assessment practices (and for a recent example) 11

What Did We Find?  Re the type of knowledge needed to engage in self assessment (what aim is and what looks like etc)  From interviews whole spectrum from general or task related goals to a specific answer that focuses on a particular skill, strategy or piece of knowledge

13 Examples: Learning Goals General or task related (e.g. we are learning to write a good speech that will interest our audience OR we are learning to retell stories OR how to research More specific (e.g. learning the reading strategies There’s questioning, summarising, clarifying, using prior knowledge and visualisation- I reckon it helps you get in more depth in the story- paint a picture in your mind that you read from the text

Examples: Success Criteria  General or task related (e.g. we get a check lit to see if we’ve got the stuff)  Reasonably specific (after quite skilled prompting) (e.g. It means that you like go back and tell the person that hasn’t read it about it, just little important bits, like the main bits, not like the unimportant bits of it) 14

Implications of Enquiry  Responses to such questions reported back to teachers have quite powerful effects.  Later adopted as an evaluative practice of teachers (to evaluate clarity of own instruction) 15

Additional Findings from Questionnaire  Responses largely positive regarding confidence to items “ I know/ can work out…” and “ My teacher…”  Five items relating to self assessment rated lower than items concerning teacher action  Variation by year group (downward trend with age- less sure)  Except item regarding knowing what am good at and not so good at (highest of self items) 16

Self & Peer Assessing  Not common practices  Several teachers (and students ) confused this notion with peer learning activities with no evaluative component  Informal practices around sharing ideas and peers giving feedback and around “ checking”  Practices not evaluative in formative sense (e.g. judging using sheet or feedback on published work or marking- may be where teacher gives answers) 17

Self & Peer Assessing  Teachers spoke of marking schedules or a matrix  Teacher mention of specific criteria associated with a particular purpose for writing and students locate in own work and that of peer.  NB Use of specific criteria and exemplars against which to judge the quality of work is what is required for students to build knowledge that will help learning

19 Preliminary Conclusions  While teachers may have embraced notions of formative assessment not providing students with sufficient evaluative information about level of performance relative to desired  Patterns highlight some instructional gaps in terms of providing students with the knowledge and supported practice needed to become self regulating