AFL
One of the great difficulties in teaching is getting students to ask questions about content. Teachers want to gain insight into why students struggle with particular concepts and skills, and doing so is much easier when students ask questions. When students are regularly assessing their own knowledge they are much more likely to begin to realize what they do and do not understand. They are much more likely to open up with their teachers and ask for assistance. Assessing students in an AFL-based manner provides important opportunities for students to foster the metacognitive skills needed for comprehension and growth and for teachers to be better able to meet student needs. More online at:
http://salemafl.ning.com/profiles/blogs/assessment-for-learning-1
Notice that in all four of these examples the students were being assessed. AFL should lead to more frequent, even daily, assessments. Also notice the purpose of the assessments. Each assessment was given with the purpose of providing feedback to the teacher and/or the students. Each assessment could have led to an individual grade to be averaged into the grade book; however, that would have lessened the value of the assessment. While grading is an important reality in education, it pales in comparison to the value of improved teaching and increased learning.
The Practical Application The beauty of the fact that AFL is about how assessments are used instead of which assessments are used is that it will take very little change for educators to do a better job of implementing AFL-based activities into their classrooms. The biggest change required is a change in focus or purpose. If an educator goes into every class period, every lesson plan, and every activity with the primary goal of providing feedback to increase learning, then that educator will quickly become an expert in AFL strategies. Rather than change everything that one has been doing for years as an educator, one only has to adjust the purpose for the assessment and the meaning attached to it. The professional growth, the more effective teaching, and the enhanced learning will follow.
References Popham, W. J (2008). Transformative Assessment. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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Virginia Educational Leadership
Vol. 8 No. 1
Spring 2011
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