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Based on evidence of the success of data informed interventions in the literature, we undertook a qualitative case study investigation of how two public primary schools used the results of the two external assessments, the Gauteng Provincial Assessment (GPA) and the Annual National Assessment (ANA) in 2008, to improve teaching and learning. At the time of the study the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has not yet guided the schools officially how to use the results and the district participating in the study used innovative measures to assist the schools. During semi-structured interviews, the district coordinator and principal, head of department and Grade 3 Literacy and Numeracy teachers at each of the two schools helped us understand how they interacted with the results. Several reasons were given why neither of the two schools used the GPA results. The ANA results were more useful for the classroom and the district and both schools considered them in part for planning their intervention strategies for the following year. Both exercises were new to the schools and at the time of the study the DBE had not yet provided teachers with guidance on how to use the test results to improve teaching and learning. As a result the two schools studied made very little use of the ANA scores, while the GPA results were found by the teachers to be of no assistance. Instead both schools relied on their internal assessment practices. The DBE have started to address the lack of guidance on how to use the results in 2011.

The study investigated teachers’ formative assessment practice and the value they attach to formative assessment in primary schools in the Lagos and Kwara States of Nigeria. A total of 120 respondents were selected using the convenience sampling technique. Quantitative research methods formed the basis for analysis and data presentation. The inferential statistics used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to analyse the data. The study surveyed possible differences in what teachers value and practice on five dimensions of assessment, namely Clarifying and Sharing Learning Intentions, Engineer Effective Classroom Discussion, Provide Feedback That Moves Students Forward, Activating Students as Instructional Resources for One Another and Activating Students as Owners of Their Own Learning. In summary, the study revealed that despite overall positively valuing formative assessment strategies, most of the teachers did not practise formative assessment as they did not adopt the strategy of clarifying and sharing learning intentions as well as the criteria for success with their students. Results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that there is a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between the teachers’ practice and the value they assign to formative assessment in Nigerian primary schools. The study notes a high reliance on formative assessment principles by teachers in their daily teaching engagement. As gleaned from the results, the disparity between appreciation of the principles and their implementation remains an area that possibly require further investigation to improve on the level of understanding of the principles as well as their practice and appreciation. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

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This qualitative ethnographic study explored the various ways a team of early childhood teachers made sense of, and used, an assessment framework based on learning dispositions and formative assessment for assessing children’s learning. In the late 1980s and early 1990s traditional methods for assessing children were being significantly questioned. The development in 1996 of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, signalled a re-form of assessment practices in the early years. This reform involved a major shift in thinking and practice for teachers who worked in early childhood education. The teachers in this study were already beginning to change their assessment practices to reflect learning dispositions and formative assessment. This study focused on the theoretical and policy framework that reflected the shift toward teachers being encouraged to adopt these new ways for assessing children’s learning Multiple sources of data collection included individual interviews, a group interview, an analysis of documents including relevant policies, staff meeting minutes and Learning Stories written by three of the teachers over a six-month period. Findings revealed that the ways in which the teachers in this study made sense of, and used, the dispositional framework depended on how they viewed the purposes of assessment and their role as teachers. The study also explored some of the consequences of teachers adopting the dispositional framework when they were already experienced in other forms of assessment practice. The significance of self-directed professional development was also highlighted. Implications for management include the need to consider that the theoretical concepts associated with shifting from a developmental approach to a dispositional focus requires extensive time, resources and a team that is committed to change.

Students are rarely explicitly taught how to develop their writing within a subject discipline, as there is usually a focus on teaching content. However, academic writing, and in particular Academic Reflective Writing (ARW), is very challenging for most students. In this study, a series of three embedded writing development interventions were trailed with successive cohorts of postgraduate Nursing students writing a summative 4000 word piece of ARW. The interventions included the use of example texts to make task requirements more explicit, formative peer feedback on draft texts and facilitating increased dialogue between staff and students regarding expectations of this task. Overall the interventions represented a shift towards assessment for learning. Quantitative results showed a decrease in the number of students investigated for plagiarism, a rise in pass rates and mean grades, and an increased uptake of academic supervision over the three cohorts. In addition, complementary findings from a self-selected focus group interview indicated that respondents perceived the writing development activities to be very useful. In particular, the formative peer and tutor review of written drafts, was valued. However, a limitation of this pragmatic mixed method study was that the three cohorts were non-equivalent. Despite this, it is argued that, as ARW is so complex, disciplinary academics should embed explicit guidance and scaffolding in their teaching in order to enhance written reflection and learning. Failure to do so may lead ARW to become an exclusive educational practice leading to unintentional plagiarism and poor written reflection on practice.

This essay approaches the different kinds of feedback that teachers in Spanish give to their secondary level students in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to investigate how feedback is perceived by students and how students would like feedback to be. Classical studies about assessment divide feedback into two categories: formative feedback and summative feedback. Our study intends, on the one hand, to analyze if students perceive receiving one of these kinds of feedback more than the other. On the other hand, the study intends to find out if students prefer summative or formative feedback. Furthermore, we aim to analyze if there is a link between the students´ perceptions and preferences and their level of proficiency in the Spanish language. The study was carried out with 190 students from Småland (Sweden) that were studying Spanish as a foreign language at school. We used questionnaires in order to gather information about the feedback they get in their Spanish lessons and the feedback they personally prefer. The results of the study show that students do perceive receiving more summative feedback than formative feeback. The students who perceive a higher reception of formative feedback are those who have a higher proficiency in Spanish, and this fact was proved to be statistically significant. The results of the study show as well that students like to get formative feedback as much as summative feedback. Nevertheless, the higher achivers do prefer getting formative feedback in a higher grade than the lower achievers, even though this could not be proved as statistically significant.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur matematiklärare på gymnasiet arbetar med bedömning för lärande (BFL). Bedömning för lärande, som oftast också kallas formativ bedömning, handlar om att lärare på olika sätt använder sig av bedömningsprocesser i syfte att främja elevers lärandeutveckling. Genom att förhålla sig till och använda de fem nyckelstrategierna kan matematiklärare arbeta med bedömning och undervisning för att de ska verka i lärandets tjänst hos eleverna. De fem nyckelstrategierna för BFL är:1.   Att tydliggöra mål och bedömningskriterier2.   Att skapa situationer som gör lärandet synligt3.   Att ge nyanserad och framåtriktad respons/återkoppling4.   Att aktivera eleverna som resurser för varandra Att aktivera eleverna som ägare av den egna lärandeprocessen Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är den hermeneutiska ansatsen, där förförståelse och förståelse, men också del och helhet, är viktiga begrepp. Genom en användning av den egna förförståelsen av BFL-konceptet, tidigare forskning om BFL samt matematiklärares intervjusvar, har en helhetsförståelse kunnat erhållas vad gäller hur matematiklärare på gymnasiet beskriver att de arbetar med bedömning för lärande, som är studiens forskningsfråga.Resultaten av denna intervjustudie utgörs av beskrivningar av fyra gymnasiematematiklärares bedömningsarbete ur ett BFL-perspektiv, och kategoriseringen av det erhållna intervjumaterialet sker utifrån de fem nyckelstrategierna. Studien visade bland annat att återkopplingsstrategin (nummer 3), som kan betraktas som den viktigaste av alla strategier, används av matematiklärarna på olika sätt och regelbundet i klassrummet. Detta genom att till exempel samtala och ge eleverna omedelbar återkoppling när de arbetar med uppgifter i klassrummet, och på så vis direkt på plats ge eleverna feedback kring vad de gjort fel i en uppgift, samt hur de kan fortsätta för att förbättra sig.

This thesis investigates upper secondary students’ usage of scientific and colloquial language through a custom-designed game. The aim of the game is for the participants to, without any time limit, explain chemical concepts using other words than the one written on the playing card so that the partner is able to guess what the target concept is. During the audio recorded game sessions the students showed usage of scientific and colloquial language as well as a blend of these two linguistic resources. The students also used metaphors and helpwords in some measure together with a linguistic resource that seems to border to spontaneous metaphors and helpwords, here referred to as ‘phonetic metaphors’. These phonetic metaphors seem to lack a direct connection to the chemical meaning of the target concept in return for its phonetic connection to the concept. It though seems like the students’ usage of these different linguistic resources may support meaning making processes as well as memorization processes. The thesis concludes with a discussion according whether this game, if used professionally and thoughtfully, aligns with the guidelines for Assessment for Learning specified by the Assessment Reform Group and whether it may function as a tool for assessment for learning in practice.

The students participating in my development work will work with a process book for handicraft studies. In the beginning of their studies, the students need practical knowledge about the development of the profession itself, but they also need to be challenged and learn how to solve problems on their own which will help them gain a deeper knowledge of the subject.     I focus on open questions to create a process with the students. This process is created when working with Solution-Focused-Education. Through “assessment for learning” we can help the students to improve their self-assessment and understanding of the learning process. Assessment for learning also requires a communication between student and teacher, student and student and between teacher and teacher. The process book is to be used where communication and dialog already exist between the teacher and the student, as a way to enhance the knowledge. By using this kind of teaching method I have grown as a teacher. I have also felt that the students have gained a greater understanding for the craft work and have acquired a new way of embracing the knowledge. The student’s development has become more personal and the “tacit knowledge” has been more visible through the written communication. Key words: Solution-Focused-Education, Assessment for learning, process book, communication. / En processbok inom hantverket är vad eleverna i mitt utvecklingsarbete kommer att arbeta med. I starten av en utbildning behöver eleverna stora kunskaper om hur yrket kommer att utvecklas men framförallt behöver eleverna utmanas och tränar på att lösa många problem själva för att ha möjlighet att lära sig mer om ämnet Fokus ligger på öppna frågor för att skapa en process hos eleverna. En process med eleven skapas när man arbetar med lösningsinriktad pedagogik förkortat LIP. Genom den formativa bedömningen kan man skapa plats för elevens självvärdering och förståelse kring lärprocessen. Formativ bedömning förutsätter även att man skapar kommunikation mellan elev och lärare, elev och elev och mellan lärare och lärare. Processboken används där en kommunikation och dialog sker mellan lärare och elev för att locka fram och stärka kunskaperna. Genom användningen av den här typen av undervisningssätt har jag utvecklats som lärare. Men jag har även upplevt att elevens förståelse för det nya hantverket har stärkts och lockat fram ett nytt sätt att se på kunskapen. Elevernas sätt att utveckla sig på har jag sett mer personlig och den tysta kunskapen har blivit lite mer synlig genom en skriftlig kommunikation. Nyckelord: Lösningsinriktad pedagogik, formativ bedömning, processbok, kommunikation