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Chapter Two
Assessment and Learning
Assessment plays an essential part in teaching and learning. Good assessment focuses
mainly on improvement and is used to support progress. It helps learners to know how well
they have learned and provides feedback on how they can do better.
Assessment that is primarily carried out to help pupils learn is usually called formative
assessment, or assessment for learning. Assessment that is primarily used for other
purposes, such as to sort and classify students for placement or to monitor students’
achievement against national standards, is often called summative assessment, or
assessment of learning. There is a need for a better balance between the two kinds of
assessment.
Smith suggests five practical teaching techniques, with a focus on assessment for
learning, namely, through writing and sharing learning intentions; making success criteria
explicit; promoting high quality interaction in lessons; giving verbal and written feedback;
and, promoting and developing self- and peer-assessment.
Teachers must not lose sight of what they want pupils to learn from undertaking the tasks
that they have set for them. Just as it is important to identify clear learning intentions, so it
is to establish clear success criteria. Writing and sharing learning intentions and success
criteria with pupils is an integral part of assessment of learning. It helps pupils to focus on
what they are learning and how they will know that they have learned. It also makes pupils
to be more responsible for their own learning.
The concept of feedback lies at the heart of assessment for learning. The role of the
teacher is not to close the gap for their learners, but to scaffold or support them to close
the gap for themselves through their own effort or with the help of their peers. To help
pupils learn better, there should be more immediate feedback, either verbal or written,
from the teacher as pupils are learning. Feedback should also be a two-way process. In
that way, teachers can clarify what learning has taken place, identify the difficulties pupils
experience and develop future tasks. Alongside this, there needs to be high levels of
interaction in the classroom where pupils are encouraged to think and talk about their
learning. This can be achieved by asking better questions, asking the questions better
and devising activities that promote discussions in class.
Finally, as one of the basic premises on which assessment for learning is built is the need
to help learners to take responsibility of their own learning, teachers should promote
pupils’ self- and peer evaluation. For example, pupils can be encouraged to reflect on their
learning constantly, model good quality products and processes as well as working in pairs
for the purposes of marking and commenting on each other’s work or teaching one
another aspects of the topic being studied.