The purpose of the study was to examine seven upper-secondary school students' perceptions of teachers' use of formative assessment and feedback in the classroom. The basis for the study was Wiliam (2017) and Hattie's (2008) theories on formative assessment and visible learning. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with seven students from six different schools to find out what their perceptions were about the use of formative assessment in the school environment. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of the study show that most students experience a fear of failure in their studies. More specifically, the students reported that they had difficulty understanding and using the teachers’ feedback and that this feedback was often perceived as negative. They also find it difficult to interpret what the teacher wants to say with their feedback and they do not dare to challenge themselves in the tasks they are given by teachers due to the fear of making mistakes. There are challenges in how teachers give students feedback and also how feedback is used by students. Mostly the challenge concerns the time it takes for students to get feedback from their teachers, also the difficulty for teachers and students to work formatively with learning platforms. The students reported that learning platforms risk acting more as a way for students to see what level they are reaching in courses, rather than helping students to develop.

Formative feedback is an active tool for a productive classroom. However, it may affect students’ written language positively or negatively. We all need confirmation from trusted peers or teachers to learn and develop knowledge and understanding. This project investigates what types of feedback teachers provide to students’ written texts and the reasons behind their choices. To collect the data required, four experienced teachers were interviewed. The study shows that it is valuable to give feedback orally to communicate. In spoken situations, teachers can make sure that the students have understood. The problem with written feedback is that it is often not understood or used by the learners. Regardless of whether the feedback appears in speaking or writing, it needs to communicate an understandable and specific message to the learners. The study shows that all teachers prefer providing oral feedback. However, because of time constraints, they use more written feedback. Furthermore, all teachers prefer not to correct all errors in the text. Instead, they focus on one issue at a time. Otherwise, students lose their interest in writing. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of focusing the feedback on an essay’s content, structure, and coherence rather than on grammar. The rationale given by the teachers concerns the students’ willingness to develop as a writer. Too much focus on grammar and incorrect uses of language may have a negative impact on this willingness. The conclusion of this study is that the four teachers prefer to give feedback several times. Firstly, they give informal and oral formative feedback before the task. Secondly, they provide written formative feedback on the students’ drafts. Thus, before submitting their completed texts for final assessment, they have the opportunity to revise their texts with the support of the teacher’s responses.

The effectiveness of formative assessment in student learning has been acknowledged and gained much attention since the series of publications of Black and Wiliam in early 2000. Since then, many educational institutions have initiated efforts to use formative assessment in the classroom to improve instruction and help students become independent learners and thoughtful evaluators of their own learning. However, this approach has not been well understood nor heartily embraced by many English as foreign language (EFL) teachers in post-secondary settings. This qualitative case study research, paired with a confessional ethnographic approach, investigated four EFL instructors’ beliefs about formative assessment and their instructional practices in a post-secondary English program in Vietnam. The overarching question of the study was “how do four Vietnamese university EFL teachers perceive ‘formative assessment’ and how is formative assessment implemented in their classrooms?” To this end, I used theoretical frameworks from sociocultural theories, the Constructive Alignment perspective (Biggs & Tang, 2007, 2011) and formative assessment, suggested by Black and Wiliam (2009), to collect and analyze the data from three sets of interviews, observation notes, and artifacts such as lesson plans, course outlines, and students’ work. Findings showed that the EFL instructors in the study had different perspectives on student learning, teaching, and assessment. These participants indicated two conflicting teaching philosophies: viewing learners as active collaborators in constructing knowledge and viewing instructors as knowledge providers in the student learning journey. However, they all shared the same articulated beliefs about assessment procedures and employing standardization for their teaching and student learning. Findings also showed that the EFL instructors’ beliefs were not always congruent with their actual practices. There was limited use of formative assessment, and the formative assessment principles were not implemented effectively in their actual practices. Findings also indicated that their stated beliefs and practices were affected by many internal and external factors, such as the mental model of learning, teaching experiences, testing culture, workload, and program requirements. Three key issues were discovered: First, there was a lack of understanding of learning theories informing pedagogy. Second, there was a lack of general formative assessment theories and limited use of formative assessment in the classroom. Third, cultural values and societal pressure affected instructors’ beliefs and instructional practices regarding formative assessment. This study makes significant contributions to our understanding of higher education instructors’ beliefs and formative assessment in terms of research and educational practice. Notably, it adds to the growing knowledge of teacher cognition and formative assessment. It also suggests solutions for re-educating instructors and school teachers, including EFL/ESL teachers, about formative assessment and what should be reconsidered when implementing formative strategies in the classroom to enhance student learning. This research offers the following elements: (a) equipping teachers with underpinning learning theories informing pedagogy and assessment; (b) providing assessment knowledge and improving assessment literacy for teachers; (c) making formative assessment principles and strategies explicit to teachers and students; (d) training and practicing in providing constructive feedback that promotes student learning; (e) personalizing students’ learning to enhance students’ autonomy, self-directed skills, and long-life learning skills; and (f) utilizing student learning evidence to make instructional adjustments to meet students’ needs. / Graduate

Engineering educators and industry professionals recognize the need for graduates to be effective communicators, yet the effective teaching of communication remains a persistent contemporary issue, with studies continuing to indicate that engineering graduates are insufficiently prepared for workplace communication. Despite compelling arguments that that writing should be treated as a situated activity, writing instruction is often separated from content instruction within engineering curricula. Even when they are integrated, it is often in a way does not optimally support improvement of students' writing skills. Writing studies scholarship identifies best practices that include treating writing as a process, with pedagogy that includes writing and revising drafts based on feedback and revision. However, writing assignments in engineering courses often not process-oriented. Challenges in addressing this problem include epistemology (i.e. instructors believe that learning to write and learning to engineer are separate skills), self-efficacy (i.e. instructors not feeling qualified to effectively provide feedback or writing instruction), and resources (i.e. inclusion of feedback and revision is unfeasible within key constraints of many engineering courses – limited instructor time and large student-faculty ratios). A potential solution is to use peer feedback, where students provide each other feedback on drafts, which can support a process approach while addressing these challenges. Research outside engineering has demonstrated that peer feedback can be as or more effective than instructor feedback; to bring that work into engineering, this study examines peer feedback in the context of a first-year engineering course through a quasi-experimental intervention in which feedback and revision were incorporated into an existing assignment using several variations of peer feedback. Interventions included two types of feedback training as well as feedback from single peers and multiple peers. Results support peer feedback in this context: it was statistically indistinguishable from instructor feedback when students were given sufficient instruction. Feedback from multiple peers, in fact was more effective than instructor feedback in improving writing quality, and in-class instruction was more effective than a handout only in helping students provide effective feedback. However, some general feedback recommendations – notably that readerly feedback should be encouraged directive feedback discouraged – were not supported. While writing studies literature encourages feedback that takes the position of the reader, readerly peer feedback reduced revision quality in this study. Directive feedback, on the other hand, caused improvements in writing quality, supporting previous hypotheses that the tightly-constrained genres in which engineers write justify more use of directive feedback. / Ph. D.

This diploma thesis Formative Assessment in Primary School Education deals mainly with the classroom assessment, which provides the pupils with purposeful feedback on their learning at the time when their performance can still be improved. It is a very frequent assessment of pupil's progress. The first part of this diploma thesis deals with classroom assessment and describes the different types of assessment, its forms and tools. After embedding formative assessment to the context of classroom assessment, the thesis deals with the definition of this term and it closely clarifies its history, different approaches, and it especially specifies the use of formative assessment in practice. Part of the text, which is concerned with formative assessment strategies, closely explains concepts such as feedback, dealing with mistakes, questioning or peer-feedback. Major part of this work is dedicated to formative assessment techniques, which may function as a collection of valuable ideas and recommendations for teachers about working with pupils and assessing them in class. The second part of this diploma thesis presents an empirical research concerned with assessment of two teachers of Social Science and Czech language and literature at the selected primary school. Through case-study are examined these: in...

A single case study was used to examine two middle grades mathematics teachers' use of short-cycle formative assessment strategies. Data was collected using multiple sources to provide a description of this single case. Participant change in knowledge of short-cycle formative assessment strategies was collected and analyzed through participant pre- and post-interviews and targeted instructional support was provided through professional development sessions designed to meet diverse needs of participants. Participant change in use of short-cycle formative assessment strategies was collected and analyzed through classroom observations using Assess Today observation protocol and targeted instructional support was provided through post-observation conferences with written feedback. Findings from the study verified that changes in teachers' use of short-cycle formative assessment strategies were positively influenced by the targeted instructional support provided to each participant during the study. The study further indicated that an assessment of teacher's present knowledge and use of short-cycle formative assessment strategies should be considered before providing targeted instructional support to maximize the learning potential for each teacher. Future research is needed regarding the importance of building student self-efficacy through teacher use of short-cycle formative assessment, as well as the importance of involving students in the formative assessment process.

This study's purpose is to see what factors affect formative assessment and how these factors impact the implementation in the k-3 classroom. The primary methods used have been electronic searches in the databases, ERIC, and Education research complete. Some studies showed that teachers have a positive attitude toward formative assessment, but they have some difficulties with its implementation. Time limitation is another factor that could impact the teachers' planning and the implementation of formative assessment in their classrooms. In some cases, formative assessment tends to lead more towards grades and results rather than proper feedback from the teacher. Teachers' understanding of formative assessment differs from one another depending on for example teachers' experience in teaching, teachers' background, male or female teachers, etc. A couple of studies focused on feedback as both a tool for teachers to assess students and in some situations for praising the students. It is up to the teachers to find a way to present the feedback effectively and equally between the students. Some researchers focused on the dialog between teachers and students as an essential part of the student's learning and development. Other researchers mean that the establishment of “sustained shared thinking” is essential where the focus lies on co-construction in adult-child collaborations.

School has been identified as an important arena for health interventions among adolescents. One such intervention is “Young, Empowerment and Health”, which is currently in its pilot phase. The intervention encourages primarily upper secondary school students to form health councils that will initiate, plan and implement health activities. The health councils are autonomous but act with the aid of the student health body and physical educational staff involved in the project.   Aim: the purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of an intervention in the school arena from the perspective of adult stakeholders by using a formative assessment. The information that was collected during the study described what was most beneficial for adult stakeholders in maintaining the change and reaching the project goals. The information could be used in the development of the project. Method: the study was qualitative using inductive content analysis. Interviews were conducted with key adult stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project. The interviews were then transcribed and analysed with a semantic approach. Result: a clearly described plan and goals for the project was perceived as necessary for maintaining the intervention. A distinct connection relating to the educational plan and communication among participants was described as important to the participants. / Skolan har identifierats som en viktig arena för hälsofrämjande och förebyggande arbete med barn och unga. Skolor i Sverige har som uppdrag att arbeta hälsofrämjande och med kvalitetsutveckling. Uppföljning är viktig för att säkerställa att metoderna som används och deras målsättning överensstämmer med principerna för det hälsofrämjande arbetet. Intervention Unga, Makt och Hälsa är i sin pilotfas. Projektet uppmanar unga att bilda hälsoråd som initierar, planerar och genomför aktiviteter för att främja hälsa. Fyra skolor deltog från början, men under år 2 avbröt en skola sitt deltagande till följd av att dess hälsoråds medlemmar gick ut skolan. En annan skola erbjöds då att delta. Hälsoråden agerar självständigt med stöd från personal som är delaktiga i projektet.   Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevelsen av en skolbaserad insats utifrån de vuxna deltagarnas perspektiv genom en formativ uppföljning. Genom en formativ uppföljning inhämtades information som för tillbaka åsikter och upplevelser av framgångar respektive motgångar av projektet Unga Makt och Hälsa ur de vuxna deltagarnas perspektiv. Metoden för studien var en kvalitativ ansats och bestod av intervjuer med anställda vid skolan som var delaktiga i projektet. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades utifrån en induktiv semantisk ansats. Resultatet visade att faktorer upplevda som nödvändiga för implementeringen var tydlig planering och målsättning för projektet samt en tydlig förankring i skolplanen. Vidmakthållande av insatsen upplevdes vara främst ett utbyte med andra deltagare.

No description available.

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.