Assessment as a part of the learning process
In the new paradigm of assessment for learning, assessment and learning are closely related. In fact, they are extremely intertwined. As you already know, the purpose of feedback in assessment for learning is to help students improve their learning.
If we really want students to make use of the feedback they receive, feedback must be delivered at a point where they still have time to understand it, plan their next steps accordingly, and implement changes to improve their product and their learning strategies. This means that assessment and feedback are no longer placed at the end of the learning sequence. Instead, they must really be integrated into the learning sequence.
In practice, this has two major implications:
Feedback must be provided throughout the learning sequence
At the beginning of this module, we defined feedback as a process in which a student creates meaning from the informationthey receive about their performance. This, of course, implies a very active role of the student; but it also implies that the student receives some information about how they performed at a specific task, oriented at how they could improve their performance.
Reflection activity:
Take a look at these situations where a teacher is giving feedback to their students.
Is the feedback they are giving formal or informal?
Assessment moments must be planned within and throughout the learning sequence
Assessment and feedback are no longer placed at the end of the process. They’re now integrated in the learning process and, therefore, is considered in the continuum of the instructional design. This completely changes how teachers design tasks and plan the learning sequence.
Let’s take a look at a traditional learning sequence.
Students start and finish successive tasks, which are not connected. Students only receive feedback at the end of each task.
There are some aspects of this task design that hinder assessment for learning.
- THE TIMING. Formal feedback is only given at the end of each task. Students don’t have the opportunity to understand what they did right and wrong, nor to integrate the changes to improve the task.
- THE COMMENTS. This task design promotes summative assessment only. The possibilities of assessment for learning are completely limited to informal feedback, which is most likely not sufficient. Because no formal feedback is planned in the sequence, assessment for learning is at risk.
- THE APPLICATION. Tasks are successive, but not connected. Therefore, when students make sense of feedback, they don’t have the possibility to apply their learning and show how they improved.
Now that the limitations have been identified, we can think of alternative task designs that support assessment for learning.
Let’s take a look at two different models.
Students complete one longer task, which is divided into several phases. The teacher formally revises each phase, which allows students to make changes before the final delivery.
Students complete different shorter tasks. Students receive formal feedback at the end of each task. The tasks are connected; the learning outcomes are superposed.