Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:3923] Re: IFETS-DISCUSSION Assessment Feedback
From: Seb Schmoller (seb.schmoller@virgin.net)
Date: Sun 29 Sep 2002 - 13:55:24 MEST
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 12:55:24 +0100 From: Seb Schmoller <seb.schmoller@virgin.net> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:3923] Re: IFETS-DISCUSSION Assessment Feedback
Responding to Mark Nicol's request:
> Can anyone point me in the direction of further research into
> this, particularly the area of financially justifying or
> pedagogically measuring the effectiveness of feedback?
a colleague recently sent me this, concerning the impact of feedback in
general, rather than specifically in relation to online learning:
======
In 1998 Paul Black and Dylan Wiliams, working at the School of Education
at King's College, London, reviewed over 250 studies of formative
assessment conducted across the world in the previous nine years. They
conclude that there is little doubt that formative assessment improves
performance at all ages and levels, but especially among low attainers
or under-achievers.
Their investigation identified the most common successful features
across the 250 studies:
· Giving feedback to each learner about the particular qualities
of his or her work, with specific advice on what s/he can do to improve,
while avoiding comparisons with other learners in the group.
· Giving learners a set of the assessment criteria to be used by
the teacher, before they do each assignment. In effect, learners are set
short-term targets, i.e., to meet these criteria.
· Even better, getting learners to submit a self assessment of
their work when they hand it in, based on the assessment criteria to be
used by the teacher.
· Encouraging a classroom culture that accepts that every learner
can improve, and which focuses on individual improvement rather than
comparisons between individuals.
· Using active learning methods; this requires teachers to accept
the wealth of evidence that "transmission" methods of teaching do not
work as well, especially at higher levels.
This view of formative assessment has been compared with conventional
practice as follows:
Conventional practice teach, test, grade, and move on
Learners are marked or graded on the parts they can do; there is little
opportunity for them to make good any deficiencies. There is an
assumption that learning quantity and quality depend on innate ability;
the assessment is designed to measure this. However, "you can't fatten a
pig by weighing it".
Best Practice find faults and fix
Formative assessments are designed to identify deficiencies and set
specific improvement targets that focus on these. Learners are praised
for the parts they can do, and asked to fix the parts they can't. The
assumption here is that learning quantity and quality depend on the time
and effort spent on improvement; the assessment is designed to diagnose
deficiencies and focus on improving them.
========
Seb Schmoller
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