The key purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an understanding of classroom teachers’ perceptions of the process and impact of formative assessment on classroom instruction in a secondary school. The study was designed to obtain information about how teachers view formative assessment as part of their everyday planning and preparation, as well as sought to determine whether or not there was a correlation between teachers’ perceived understanding of formative assessment and their implementation of formative assessment in the classroom. The three main research questions that guided this study were: 1) How do teachers’ perceptions of their own understanding of formative assessment affect their instructional practice? 2) How do teachers’ perceptions of their own understanding of formative assessment evolve over time? 3) What supports exist to help teachers implement formative assessment at the high school level? The case study focused on participants who were current 9-12 public school teachers representing mathematics, physical education, and foreign language. To triangulate the data, multiple types of data were collected from the teachers. Pre- and post-surveys, unstructured interviews, focus groups, classroom observations with participant observation notes, and logs were used to collect the data. Data was then analyzed using analysis of the pre-surveys and compared with information gained from the other data sources. Data was later analyzed using the post-survey and compared with the information from other data sources to determine individual teacher growth over time. The results from the first research question indicated that teachers understood the accountability of both teachers and students in the assessment process, but required additional support in determining how student learning becomes the basis for use of formative assessment, types of different methods used, and overall teacher competencies about formative assessment. The second research question indicated that growth occurred when professional supports were given in areas where weaknesses were identified. Initially, formative assessment was viewed by many as a means of compliance with the new teacher evaluation system. With continued professional development, teachers’ acceptance of formative assessment increased as their understanding of the process dually increased. In addition, as teachers began to see growth in student achievement, their overall acceptance of formative assessment also increased. The third and final research question indicated that supports must not only be global in nature, but must also be focused on the individual. When teachers know where they are and know the target of where they want or need to be, instructional growth does occur. Supports for teacher instructional practice will vary based on identified needs, understanding of formative assessment, and the type of supports available. Recommendations for follow-up study include the use of additional focus groups, extending the formative assessment survey to include lengthening the time of the study, and a change in setting to avoid certain nuances that can occur with studying the same school district. Additionally, research should be completed on the long-term effects of personalized professional development and whether teachers continue to use formative assessment practices as they gain more extensive experience. Since this particular school was undergoing a complete system change while the study was being completed, it would be dually important to investigate a school that was not in the midst of such a change. With all the additional supports available to the teachers in this study, it is important to see if a teacher’s perceived understanding of formative assessment would continue to translate into instructional practice if whole school and individual supports were not as prevalent.

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Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of six elementary school teachers towards formative assessment strategies and how they employ them. The study employed a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews to explore the teachers´understanding formative assessment, its application in their teaching practices, and the perceived advantages and disadvantages associated with its use. The interviewed teachers were from three different schools in Sweden, with varying levels of experience. The findings indicated that teachers generally hold positive views toward formative assessment and actively integrate it into their teaching as a method to support students´academic development. The results showed that the teachers use oral formative assessment in the classroom, and they usually employ formative assessment with speaking and writing. Moreover, the findings show that they use formative assessment strategies to help their students learn more and to foster greater study motivation. However, the teachers expressed a desire for more time dedicated to formative assessment, citing challenges such as large class sizes and additional administrative responsibilities. / Abstract: syftet med denna studie var att undersöka attityder av sex lärare som undervisar i ämnet engelska på högstadienivå gentemot formativa bedömningsstrategier och hur de tillämpar dem i undervisningen. Studien använde en kvalitativ metod genom att göra semistrukturerade intervjuer för att utforska lärarnas förståelse av formativ bedömning, dess tillämpning i undervisning samt upplevda fördelar och nackdelar med dess användning. De intervjuade lärare jobbar på tre olika skolor i Sverige och hade varierande erfarenhetsnivåer. Resultaten visade att lärarna hade positiva åsikter om formativ bedömning och aktivt integrerar det i sin undervisning som en metod för att stödja elevernas utveckling. Resultaten visade också att lärarna använder muntlig formativ bedömning mest i klassrummet och de tillämpar vanligtvis formativ bedömning med skriv- och talförmåga. Dessutom visar resultaten att de använder formativa bedömningsstrategier i undervisning för att hjälpa sina elever utvecklas samt för att öka studiemotivation. Dock uttryckte lärarna en önskan om mer tid avsatt för formativ bedömning och nämnde några utmaningar med användning av formativ bedömning som till exempel stora klassar och ytterligare administrativa arbete.

Formative assessment is an integral part of teaching, not only as a tool for monitoring student-development, but also as basis for potential adjustments of pedagogical strategies. Therefore, this research paper examines how upper secondary students perceive, and report acting on different forms of formative assessment on writing in the subject of English 6. It also highlights what teachers perceive as key strategies in formative assessment, and how they report applying these strategies for improving students writing when teaching English 6. How teachers report clarifying, sharing, and explaining learning goals and criteria for success to their English 6 students is also discussed. The study was carried out by using mixed methods research and included a student questionnaire, a student focus group interview, and individual teacher interviews. Our results show important similarities and crucial differences in how students and teachers perceive different forms of formative assessment on writing, as well as how they perceive the learning goals and criteria for success in the subject of English 6. Moreover, our study identifies the need for further research on the perceptions of formative assessment on writing from a student viewpoint. In addition, we present ideas on how teachers could work with different forms of formative assessment to better meet the students’ needs.

The ability to receive regular peer feedback on learning should, in theory, be valuable to learners. A formative view will be presented in this study in which information is collected and used as feedback for student learning. This differs from summative practices where the purpose is to make judgments about the extent to which learning has taken place. This case study takes place in a first year master’s Occupational Therapy (OT) course where the focus is on the development of communication skills. These skills are developed through interviewing and assessment strategies. This case focuses on the feedback received by students from their peers based on the clinical interviews that were conducted. Peers in this study are members of the same learning team who have been divided into these groups for the purpose of learning together. Students in this course receive both written and oral peer feedback during peer assessment exercises. This feedback is formally reflected on by students as self-assessment. Although, both peer and self-assessments are used for formative purposes in this course, the primary focus of this study is on peer assessment. Six participants were recruited for this study. The data for this inquiry consisted of transcripts from six semi-structured interviews and a focus group as well as written artifacts from the course. The data analysis revealed three core themes related to both the peer assessment process and peer feedback. Motivation for Learning and Awareness of Growth or Development were identified as two key themes relating to student learning. The third theme identified was Factors that Impacted the Learning Experience which had to do with how students felt about having engaged in the peer assessment process. A unique finding regarding the latter theme centered around the time factor required to take on the roles, inherent in peer assessment activities. Students offered insights into the relationship between stress and motivation for learning when taking on peer assessment responsibilities. This study contributes to our understanding of the meaning and consequences of implementing peer assessment into the communication module of the OT course. Insights on the implications of this study to higher education in relation to peer assessment are also explored. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-29 00:11:03.187

The theoretical framework for this empirical study extends a trail of thinking from a social constructivist view of learning to the areas of assessment, evaluation and leadership. The relationship between social constructivist learning principles, formative approaches to assessment and evaluation, and collaborative leadership styles is explored and discussed. Learning and teaching developments in secondary schools have often fragmented the intrinsic elements of learning, teaching, assessment, evaluation and leadership. As Palmer (2007) so aptly puts it: ‘…we think the world apart.’ (p. 64). This study seeks to ‘think education together’ by taking a more integrated perspective. The aims of this study were to add to the body of knowledge in the area of assessment and evaluation through the adoption of the aforementioned integrated perspective, develop formative assessment and evaluation policies and practices in a secondary school to the extent that they are embedded in the school’s working culture and paradigm, and finally to chart the means by which change has been achieved. The research is argued to be located in the critical paradigm, adopts an action research methodology in which the researcher assumes a participatory, practitioner researcher role in conducting an ethnographic case study of a secondary school. A social constructivist theme was retained throughout the research design and although both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered, the study was conducted within an interpretative framework informed by symbolic interactionism. Data were gathered via a multi-method approach that included focus groups and semi-structured interviews, observation and accompanying field notes, document and classroom artefact analysis, and non-inferential statistics. Focus groups were used to check data sources, confirm interpretations, develop and disseminate new ideas and approaches, and refine developments based on feedback received. This process was informed by Gladwell’s (2000) notion of ideas taking on the qualities of viruses which in turn develop into epidemics. Participants’ early reluctance to accept a need to change was overcome through an initial ‘internal’ audit of current policy and practice relating to learning, teaching, assessment and evaluation, the results of which confirmed the ‘external’ judgements made by OfSTED and the Local Authority (LA) in terms of the need for the school to develop formative approaches to assessment and evaluation. A purposively selected assessment and evaluation focus group showed a commitment to formative ways of working, and was instrumental in defining and refining new policies for assessment and evaluation in collaboration with other focus groups, non-focus group colleagues, pupils and parents. Additional focus groups for pupil behavioural aspects and mentoring were embraced by the research rather than discouraged in order to retain an integrated ‘real world’ perspective. The aims of the study are shown to have been met in that new formative ways of working are now embedded in assessment policy and practice and the researcher has developed a new approach to whole school leadership. This study proposes a new way of thinking that embraces paradox rather than preserving divisions. Moreover, it argues a case for transformative education being reliant on taking this stance. The study also presents a picture of leadership and research based on co-existence and proposes a new ‘Stenhousian’ philosophy where research becomes the basis for leadership.

In this thesis I intend to write about how five primary school teachers reflect on formative assessment and how the formative assessment of students can take place practically according to teachers. My questions are: How do the five teachers perceive on formative assessment as a pedagogical approach? How do the teachers do to assess students’ knowledge? In what way do the teachers give feedback to students?The work is based on qualitative interview method where five elementary school teachers were able to reflect on their classroom practice with a focus on formative assessment. The theoryI have chosen to work from is the so-called five key strategies of formative assessment.These strategies are about; clarifying, communicating and creating understanding of the learning objectives and criteria for progress, to achieve effective classroom discussions, activities and learning data to show that learning has taken place, to provide feedback for learning forward, toenable students to become learning resources for one another, and to enable students to own their own learning. The results of the interviews showed that a formative approach lasted in a more implicit than an explicit meaning in classrooms. The formative approach was fairly a new phenomenon and had not begun in the larger extent of the interviewed teachers’ schools yet. Assessment materials were used to clarify the learning outcomes for students. Methods andactivities in the classrooms took place on a smaller scale in the form of discussions between students. Self-assessment was considered by most teachers as something they could not imagine or was considered to be too difficult for the students because of the children's young age. The results also showed that there is a great need to make time for evaluation and to gain knowledge of articulate, reflective subject issues to provide students with

This study investigated the impact of an online concept mapping website (Concept Maps for Learning, or CMfL) designed to provide targeted formative feedback to students. The aims of this study were to determine the usefulness of CMfL for both teachers and students, as a tool for instruction and self-regulated learning. Additionally, the impacts of CMfL on supporting student learning were observed. This research site of this study was a Montessori high school, and the participating students were enrolled in the Ontario Grade 9 Academic Mathematics course. The educational philosophies deployed at the research site offered independence and flexibility to students with respect to how the Ontario Grade 9 Academic Mathematics course was approached, and therefore matched the self-regulated learning components of the study. This study measured student achievement across three milestones over the data collection period to analyse any cognitive impact that CMfL had on the participating students. Metacognitive impacts, as well as the students’ perception of usefulness of CMfL, were measured through surveys that were administered at the milestone points. Usefulness of CMfL from the teacher’s perspective was determined through interviews with the teacher. The participating students and teacher were also provided with the opportunity to provide feedback on how CMfL could be improved through the aforementioned surveys and interviews, respectively. The evidence collected over the study suggests that CMfL can be a useful tool for teaching and learning in a self-regulated environment, and that frequent engagement with CMfL may can support student learning. However, there is room for improvement that may increase student adoption and aid teaching strategy.

Thesis advisor: Andrew Hargreaves / In 2006, Singapore introduced the Teach Less Learn More (TLLM) movement to continue the systemic changes introduced under the Thinking Schools Learning Nation vision. A curricular initiative, TLLM had implications for classroom assessments, calling on teachers to focus on the process of learning, and to use more formative and qualitative assessing. This dissertation examined the extent to which Singapore teachers' classroom assessment practices are aligned to the policy. It adopted mixed methods research to study teachers' assessment practices. Data culled from the Teacher Questionnaire used in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study provided the national pattern of assessment practices. Classroom practices were based on assessments contributed by eight teachers and from their interview comments. Classroom assessment practices were examined quantitatively using the Authentic Intellectual Work criteria (Newmann and Associates, 1996), and interpreted qualitatively using constructivist assessment (Shepard, 2000). The findings suggest there was incremental change in the teachers' assessment practices. At the national and classroom levels, three patterns of assessment practices--change, variety, and persistence--emerged. Of the three, the pattern of persistence was the most dominant, indicating that most teachers continued to use assessment practices that the policy was discouraging. The prevalence of the pattern of persistence meant that teachers were more likely to focus on achievement rather than on learning. At the classroom level, the result of such assessment practices was that teachers did not always present students with challenging tasks. There was a range of practices among the eight teachers. The extent to which the teachers' practices were aligned to the policy is the result of a complex interaction of policy, school, and classroom factors. Based on these findings, this dissertation suggests that to bring about fundamental change in classroom assessment practices, there needs to be greater macro policy coherence, a larger student role in the classroom, and more assessment leadership from principals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This study is an action research project where I study my own practice in giving feedback in investigative tasks. The aim is to find ways of improving my feedback by engaging learners in conversation and eliciting misconceptions. The study is framed by a sociocultural view of learning and teaching. The study was conducted in a high school with a class of Grade 10 learners who worked on an investigative task and six lessons were video recorded. Analysis was based on the investigative task, feedback given to learners, misconceptions that arose and conversations that took place during the lessons. The findings are that when developing an investigative task, the teacher should look for mathematical processes that can be developed as learners work on it. I found that I both took up and missed opportunities to work with learners’ misconceptions and that four components of mathematical conversations: questioning, explaining mathematical ideas, sources of mathematical ideas and responsibility were present at different levels in my classroom. On the basis of my findings I make a number of recommendations for my own further practice and for other teachers.