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TAJIKISTAN
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RUSSIA EDUCATION AID FOR DEVELOPMENT (READ) TRUST FUND

Development of Classroom Assessment Package for Primary Grades

Module 2. Formative Assessment Strategies

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(Trainer’s Guide)
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1
List of contents
Module 2. Formative assessment strategies – Training Program ............................................... 3
Agenda ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Unit 1. ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Session 1. Changing environment and learning culture by using formative assessment............ 6
Session 2. Making learning more transactional and transparent by using formative assessment
................................................................................................................................................... 11
Session 3. Meeting the range and complexity of students learning needs by using formative
assessment ................................................................................................................................. 14
UNIT 2 ...................................................................................................................................... 22
Session 1. What does formative assessment produce? ............................................................. 22
Session 2. Through formative assessment, how can the teacher involve the learner in co-
constructing learning? ............................................................................................................... 24
Session 3. What should be the teacher’s next steps in using the assessment information in
his/her teaching and learning? .................................................................................................. 25
UNIT 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Session 1. Set of ‘formative assessment toolkit’ strategies ...................................................... 29
Session 2. Differentiation and co-construction in the classroom .............................................. 31
Session 3. Integration of the ‘formative toolkit’ methods and techniques within teaching
pedagogy. .................................................................................................................................. 34

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Module 2. Formative assessment strategies – Training Program

Learning outcomes
After successful completion of this training module candidates will be able to:
• understand what formative assessment involves in practical teaching and learning
strategies
• understand that ‘Formative assessment is not a test but a process that produces not a score
but a qualitative insight into the learner’s understanding’ [Popham W.J.2008]
• become familiar with a research-based set of formative assessment techniques and
methods.

Training resources
• Teacher’s Modules and research publications (see the list below)
• Flipcharts and markers
• Power point presentations (developed by the trainer) if there are appropriate technologies
available

Research publications (Translated in Tajik):

1) Formative assessment for teaching & learning: Boyle & Charles 2013, SAGE
2) David, Mr Bear and Bernstein: Searching for an equitable pedagogy through guided
group work. Boyle & Charles 2012. The Curriculum Journal 23 (1) p.117-133
3) The missing disciplinary substance of formative assessment. Coffey, Hammer, Levin,
Grant 2011. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 48 (10) p.1109-36
4) Formative assessment: Revisiting the territory from the point of view of teachers.
Morrissette 2011. McGill Journal of Education 46 (2) p 247-64
5) From a formative evaluation to a controlled regulation of learning processes towards a
wider conceptual field. Perrenoud.1998. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy &
Practice. 5 (1), p.85-102

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Agenda

Day 1
Time Session title Session objectives
8.00 - 08:30 Presentation of the Module 2 Program and
Learning outcomes
08:30 – 10:00 Session 1. Changing environment and Understand how teachers using
(90 minutes) learning culture by using formative formative assessment have changed the
assessment environment and learning culture of
their classrooms/seminars.
10:00 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 12:00 Session 2. Making learning more Understand how teachers using
(90 minutes) transactional and transparent by using formative assessment make learning
formative assessment more transactional and transparent.
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:30 Session 3. Meeting the range and Understand how teachers using
(90 minutes) complexity of students learning needs by formative assessment meet the range
using formative assessment and complexity of student learning
needs.
14:30 – 15:00 Training Day Wrap Up

Day 2
Time Session title Session objectives
08:30 – 10:00 Session 1. What does formative Recognize that formative
(90 minutes) assessment produce? assessment is not a test but a
process that produces not a score
but a qualitative insight into the
learner’s understanding’ (Popham
W J, 2008)
10:00 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 12:00 Session 2. Through formative assessment, Explain how formative assessment
(90 minutes) how can the teacher involve the learner in empowers pupils to have more
co-constructing learning? involvement in the learning process
through co-construction of learning
with the teacher.

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 – 14:30 Session 3. What should be the teacher’s Supply evidence of understanding that
(90 minutes) next steps in using the assessment it is this assessment and analysis of
information in his/her teaching and pupil thinking that will cause the
learning? teacher to adjust his/her original
teaching plan for the lesson.

14:30 – 15:00 Training Day Wrap Up

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 Day 3
Time Session title Session objectives
08:30 – 10:00 Session 1. Set of ‘formative assessment Demonstrate awareness of the set of
(90 minutes) toolkit’ strategies ‘formative assessment toolkit’
strategies

10:00 – 10:30 Break

10:30 – 12:00 Session 2. Differentiation and co- Demonstrate an understanding and
(90 minutes) construction in the classroom supply an example of the use of the
methods of (i) ‘differentiation’ and (ii)
‘co-construction’ in the classroom
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:30 Session 3. Integration of the ‘formative Demonstrate an understanding of
(90 minutes) toolkit’ methods and techniques within the integration of the ‘formative
teaching pedagogy. toolkit’ methods and techniques
within teaching pedagogy.

14:30 – 15:00 Training Day Wrap Up

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Unit 1.

Session 1. Changing environment and learning culture by using formative assessment

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Understand how teachers using formative assessment have changed the environment and learning
culture of their classrooms/seminars.

Activity 1. Ask participants to work individually. Read below statements and mark them if you
are ‘strongly disagree’, ‘disagree’, ‘neither agree or disagree’, ‘agree’, or ‘strongly agree’.

Distribute the agree/disagree charts (or ask the participants to open appropriate page from their
training module). Ask them to read and tick off an appropriate box. – 5 minutes.

Statement Strongly Disagre Neither Agree Strongl

disagree e agree or y agree
disagree
1. Learners should be involved in setting their
own learning problems [with the guidance of
󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
the teacher] and therefore become researchers 󠆾
to develop solutions to those learning problems.
2. A teacher using formative assessment to
support teaching and learning is a teacher in
󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
‘transmission’ mode, not in a dominant
transaction mode.
3. Formative assessment leads to less dominance
of teacher ‘voice’, more opportunity for pupil
󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
‘voice’ in the classroom teaching, learning and
planning environment.
4. There are far more questions, discussion points
and problems raised by pupils in an active 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
learning transmission mode.
5. Understanding and using more open-style
questioning techniques enable students to 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
reflect and develop as a critical thinker.
6. Understanding why and when to use different
types of talk’ within layered categories of
demand, frequency & usefulness will develop a 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
climate/culture which moves through rich
dialogue between teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil.
7. Real dialogue with pupils should be recognised
as a means of deepening learning and obtaining 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾 󠆾
assessment evidence of pupil understanding

Activity 2. Pair work: After participants will finish reading and marking each statement. Ask
them to work in pairs, share their results. Discuss what they have in common, explain what made
them to select the same respond? What is different and how they explain and convince each
other? – 10 minutes

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Activity 3. Checking understanding. Ask participants to read the below text (tell them the page
from Teacher’s Module) and match with their responds in Activity 1. Guiding questions: What
evidence you have found in the text that proves/doesn’t not prove your selection? Do you still
have the same position to the statements or you would change it because the information in the
text helped you to understand core concept? – 15 minutes

Text:

Learner-centred teaching is based on a differentiated pedagogy. For example, learners

[pupils, students] are involved in setting their own learning problems [with the guidance of
the teacher] and therefore become researchers to develop solutions to those learning
problems. In this way, the classroom environment involves all pupils as active learners
supported by the teacher. The teacher becomes an enabler and facilitator of the individual
[different] learning styles and needs of the pupils.

Review Module 1 work on ‘transmission’ and ‘transaction’ teaching styles. A teacher

using formative assessment to support teaching and learning is a teacher in ‘transaction’
mode, not in a dominant transmission mode.

Formative assessment also leads to more flexibility and fluidity in the traditional roles
between teacher and learner. For example, there is less dominance of teacher ‘voice’, more
opportunity for pupil ‘voice’ in the classroom teaching, learning and planning
environment.

Teachers gradually become more competent and confident in using strategies (such as
guided group working) to address – rather than ignore, as happens in the ‘one size fits all’
transmission model - the complexity of learning needs. A simple example, is that there are
far more questions, discussion points and problems raised by pupils in an active learning
transactional mode.

In the transmission model, pupils were treated as ‘suppliers’ of answers, always in

reactive, responding mode. Far too often these ‘reactions’ were demanded at ‘pace’, which
did not enable the pupil to reflect and develop as a critical thinker about issues. Consider
the importance of understanding and using more open-style questioning techniques. A
teacher cannot change from transmission to transaction without ‘knowledge about
language’ and its effects. For example, teacher can use more open probes prompts such as:
‘What if... ‘Show me how.. ‘Tell me more about....’

It is important that participants understand that there are ‘different types of talk’ within
layered categories of demand, frequency & usefulness. Understanding why and when to
use them will develop a climate/culture which moves through rich dialogue between
teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil to even more sophisticated forms of dialogic teaching.

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 Types of talk

• Rote: the ‘drilling’ of facts, ideas and routines through constant repetition.
• Recitation: the accumulation of knowledge and understanding through questions
designed to test or to stimulate recall of what has previously been encountered or to
cue pupils to work out the answer from clues provided in the question.
• Instruction/exposition: telling the pupil what to do and/or imparting information or
explaining facts, principles or procedures.
• Discussion: the exchange of ideas with a view to sharing information and solving
problems.

• Dialogue: achieving common understanding through structured cumulative

questioning and discussion which guide and prompt, reduce choices, minimise risk
and expedite the ‘hand-over’ of concepts and principles. [Alexander 2005, p.12, in
Boyle & Charles 2013 p.193]

In the formative transaction mode, teachers understand the importance of real dialogue
with pupils as a means of deepening learning and obtaining assessment evidence of pupil
understanding. These teachers work hard to develop a communication culture, supporting
pupil involvement through ‘chains’ of dialogue sequences which pupils will lead and the
teacher will contribute as support or facilitator rather than as the dominant voice. This
developing two-way trust between teacher and pupils leads to pupils becoming involved in
developing own learning and learning targets in collaboration with the teacher. For this to
be achieved the teacher has to model reciprocal dialogue in order to engage desirable
language behaviours. Dialogue not only develops cognition but is also a true affective
domain-development process: ‘when I am heard I am valued’.

Activity 4. Group discussion. Ask participants to share their personal thinking about the
statements and concepts presented in the text. Guide and encourage participants to talk and
communicate own ideas. Sample questions. What from above concepts/terms were new for you?
How would you translate them into practical implementation during teaching and learning
process? Encourage participants to ask questions as well. – 15 minutes

Activity 5. Getting Started: Building Blocks of Differentiated Instruction. (Forsten,

Grant & Hollas, 2006) Present slides 1 to 6 (in a sequence). After each “block”
encourage candidates to think and connect the presented blocks with their own
understanding and share their ideas. – 30 minutes

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Knowing the Learner: Traits of a Quality Teacher:
Teachers need to know as much as possible The teacher believes that all students can
about their students to teach them well, learn, has the desire and capacity to
including learning styles and pace, multiple differentiate curriculum and instruction,
intelligences, personal qualities such as understands diversity and thinks about
temperament and motivation, personal students developmentally, is a risk taker, is
interests, potential disabilities, health, family open to change and well-versed in best
circumstances and language preference. practices, is comfortable challenging the status
P.I.E.S – physical, intellectual, emotional & quo, knows what doesn’t work, is able to
social. withstand staff dissension that may arise. Does
the teacher believe in ‘Growth mind-sets’ or
‘Fixed intelligence’? These have major
implications for teaching learning &
assessment.

Quality Curriculum. Classroom Learning Environment

Curriculum needs to be interesting to students and
The ideal learning environment includes a
relevant to their lives, appropriately challenging and
complex, thought provoking, focused on concepts and balanced student population, appropriate grade
principles and not just facts; focused on quality, not and program placement, priority seating based
quantity; stress depth of learning, not just coverage. on student needs, a reasonable class size,
Consider the importance of ‘Culturally Responsive practices positive discipline, arranges furniture
Curriculum’ or the fact that relevant teaching has been
to promote group work, uses flexible
described as ‘a pedagogy that empowers students
intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by grouping, and has adequate teaching supplies.
using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills and Pupils should feel safe and secure with
attitudes’ (Ladson-Billings, 1994, p.382). Culture freedom to move in and around appropriate
determines how pupils perceive life and their spaces.
relationship to the world. Because culture also
influences how and what pupils learn, education can use
culture to improve self-image and achievement
(Kuykendall, 1989, p.32-33).

Flexible Teaching and Learning Time Instructional Delivery and Best Practices.
Resources Includes flexible grouping, cooperative
Includes team teaching, block scheduling, learning, learning areas, web quests, tiered
tutoring and remediation within school, before assignments which offer choice in selection,
and after-school programs, homework clubs, (Relationships- adapt teaching to the way
multi-age/looping classrooms. Opportunities pupils learn, develop a connection with ALL
for pupils to create, plan and design own pupils, incorporate relatable aspects of pupils’
learning areas based on curriculum and pupil lives- Delivery- keep monologue style
interests. teaching to a minimum).

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 Activity 6. Planning through guided group strategy - 25 munites
Divide the class into groups of five [for division use your primary observation
and analyses of candidates. Make sure that those who you feel that are not
getting focused or have less understanding of the discussed concept are in “a
guided group”]. The main objective is to get the candidates to shape their understanding of the
volume of change in their teaching behavior to change the teaching and learning culture through
formative assessment. Ask groups to discuss each aspects (linking with the ideas from the
text/presentation above) and write what would they adjust to became a formative teacher? After
they finish, groups share their results with others.

Change What would you adjust in your teaching practice?

aspects
Knowing the
Learner

Traits of a
Quality
Teacher

Quality
Curriculum

Classroom
Learning
Environment

Flexible
Teaching and
Learning Time
Resources

Instructional
Delivery and
Best Practices.

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Session 2. Making learning more transactional and transparent by using formative
assessment

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Understand how teachers using formative assessment make learning more transactional and
transparent.

Activity 1. Discussion/dialogue. Post each set of the below questions (or use Slide
7 from PP for Module 2) and encourage candidates to share own ideas. Encourage
or conduct mini-discussion/dialogue for each question/statement. You can
intervene with your thoughts sometimes – just to keep discussion moving forward if necessary. -
20 minutes
• What concerns might pupils/students have when the teacher decided to change from
traditional (transmission) teaching set-up to a differentiated strategy?
• What solutions could you suggest to make that change of strategy easier for the pupils to
accept?
• What classroom guidelines would need to be established as differentiated teaching is
introduced?
• How would you deal with the issue of ‘grading’ in a differentiated classroom?
• What concerns might parents have about the introduction of differentiated teaching
(groups of pupils working at different levels)?
• How could you help the parents to understand potential positives of differentiation for
their child?

Activity 2. Focus Group Discussion. – 30 minutes

Divide the candidates into groups of five or six (depending on the size of the
class). Ask groups to define a FGD facilitator and a note taker. Tell the groups
that the facilitator of each group will receive a FGD questions/statements,
manage group discussion according to the given question (remind the FGD facilitators that they
may develop their own questions related to the given topic) and note taker records responds.

Remind the FGD facilitators:

• Ask an opening question. This could be a very general question

• Make sure that all opinions on that question get a chance to be heard.
• Ask your next question -- and proceed with other questions in the same general manner.
The phrasing of the questions, the follow-ups, the ordering of the questions, and how much
time to spend on each one are points that the leader will have to decide -- sometimes on the
spot.
• When all your questions have been asked, and before the group ends, ask if anyone has
any other comments to make. This can be an effective way of gathering other opinions
that have not yet been voiced.

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Focus group Discussion Questions

Central to effective teaching and learning

What does ‘effective’ mean in an educational context?
What is ‘effective’ teaching? Describe an example of an effective lesson (session) of teaching
that you have experienced or supplied.
What is ‘effective’ learning? How does the teacher know if learning is effective?
We talk about the ‘complexity of learning’. What does that ‘complexity’ mean in teaching and
learning situations?
How does the teacher know if the learning that has taken place is the right ‘next step’ in that
pupil’s learning trajectory?

Formative assessment happens all the time in the classroom

What does that statement mean?
So what is the difference between assessment and teaching and learning?
How does the teacher know that ‘assessment’ is taking place?
Should the pupil know that assessment is taking place?
Does this mean that the teacher is always setting test or quizzes for the pupils?
What does the teacher ‘do’ with all the information s/he gets from these assessments?

Activity 3. Summary and comparison. – 20 minutes

1) Ask FGD facilitators summarize the results, agree with the group.
2) Ask groups to read the survey results in England below and compare with their
FGD results? What are common findings? What is different? Discuss with your peers.

Survey Results

We have heard many teachers state that ‘formative assessment helps me plan the ‘next steps’ for
the pupils’: Research evidence:
From a recent survey of 350 schools in England, over two thirds of the teachers on being asked
what importance they gave to formative assessment in their planning for teaching, responded that
they gave it a very high priority (90% responded that they gave it a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ priority).
However, on being asked to elaborate on ‘why’ they had assigned such a high level of priority, the
schools supplied a range of responses. Some of these did not have a strong relationship between
the assignment of a priority and the supplementary question ‘why’.

The main classifications of response on this question emerged as follows: approximately 40% of
the sample of teachers reported that they had given a very high importance to formative assessment
because it ‘informs next steps’ or ‘it informs the next teaching plan’, both of these responses were
considered and counted in the same category. The next categories most reported were: 12% of
schools stated that formative assessment ‘informs all our planning’, 8% stated that they gave a
very high priority to formative assessment because it ‘helped them assess where children are’.
Eleven percent [11%] of the sample reported that formative assessment enabled ‘personalised
learning’ and this justified the high priority they gave to formative assessment.

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Six percent [6%] of respondents stated that formative assessment supplied ‘an accurate way to set
targets’. The only other significantly reported reason for the high priority given to formative
assessment in planning was that ‘it supports the identification of pupil needs enabling the setting
of differentiated targets for lessons’, [6%] of the sample – the low percentage supplying a clear
indicator that the notion of differentiated planning for teaching is not yet seen as a pre-requisite
for formative assessment by the majority of teachers.

There was then a wide range of low frequency responses across the schools: in summary these
included: ‘child’s personal next steps’ ; ‘informs pace and value-added’; ‘targeted activities’;
‘effective comments for the child’; ‘generates flexible teaching groups’; ‘change planning to cater
for pupils’ needs’; ‘match work to pupils’ needs’; ‘enjoyment’; ‘accurate picture of what children
are learning’; ‘recommended by Ofsted’ and ‘a requirement says the Local Inspector’. Equally
low frequency but possibly more valid representations of what formative assessment means were
supplied as ‘teachers to be highly responsive to pupil’s needs’ and ‘to adapt and adjust daily’;
‘update plans on a daily basis for each child’ and ‘instant feedback to children’.

[From ‘Formative assessment for teaching and learning’, Boyle & Charles 2013, SAGE, p.15-17]

As can be seen from the above responses, despite the very high percentage reporting
prioritisation of formative assessment, schools clearly have very different definitions of what
formative assessment is and what is its purpose. The correlations between the level of
importance a teacher gave to formative assessment and the reason for that prioritisation, showed
no significant relationship.

Message: it is important that teachers understand what formative assessment IS and how it is
integrated within effective teaching and learning. [See Module 1]

Marks, grades or comments

Teachers often find that close analysis & specific comments [shared oral and shared written]
are more effective than ‘marks’ for improving student performance and for supporting all
students to learn effectively. It is not always easy to teachers to reduce or decrease the frequency
of mark-usage. Sometimes students and their parents prefer marks because they have
traditionally been used to them – so sensitivity and clarity in the process of replacing marks by
comments is necessary.

Activity 4. Discussion/dialogue (adjusting understanding). Post each set of the

below questions (or use Slide 8 and 9 from PP for Module 2) and encourage
candidates to share own ideas. Encourage or conduct mini-discussion/dialogue for
each question/statement. You can intervene with your thoughts sometimes – just to keep
discussion moving forward if necessary. - 20 minutes

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Session 3. Meeting the range and complexity of students learning needs by using formative
assessment

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Understand how teachers using formative assessment meet the range and complexity of student
learning needs.

Activity 1. Brainstorm. Ask teachers: Do you differentiate students during teaching?

How do you do it? What purposes guide your differentiation? (Why do you differentiate
students?) Listen and note teacher’s responds. List the purposes for diferentitiatin that
teachers mention. – 10 minutes

Activity 2. Shaping the understanding. Discuss the following after the brainstorm. – 5
minutes

If formative assessment is carried out on a fairly regular basis, the result is pressure to
differentiate’ [Perrenoud 1991, p.89]

Any audience however carefully selected is heterogeneous. When given the same tuition, the
pupils do not progress at the same pace or in the same way. If one is intent on formative
assessment, sooner or later one must face the fact that that no overall adjustment can meet their
needs. The only appropriate answer is differentiated teaching.

Consider the implications of ‘setting’- children in a ‘loser’ [low level; defecit] classroom
at an early age. Those children then become locked in and locked down throughout their
school careers (Boaler 2014).

Consider the basic misunderstanding of how pupils learn:

Example: a teacher has been given the ‘top set’ in mathematics to teach but instead of
analysing the pupils’ learning across a profile of ability, the teacher treats the pupils all
as a homogenous mass.
Learning will not be effective [at either indivual or group level] because of the teacher’s
basic failure to understand the necessity of differentiating for learning to be effective and
matched to learning needs.

Why differentiate?

‘Because pupils do not have the same abilities nor the same needs nor the same way of
working; an optimal situation for one pupil will not be optimal for another. One can write a
simple equation: diversity in people + appropriate treatment for each = diversity in approach’
[Perrenoud 1998 p.86]

14
 Activity 3. Visiting experts. Divide the class into 3 groups. Give each group related
sections of the below texts. Ask them to read and discuss the ideas and evidences.
Define an expert from among their members. Closed Group Practice: members of the
group ask the “expert” to tell them about assigned text. Other members ask him/her questions and
help him to construct appropriate respond. Ask the “experts” from each group rotate to another
group after you clap twice. The “experts” rotate to other groups and discussed assigned concept.
Give each “expert” 5 minutes to teach peers from other groups and answer their questions. Overall
you need 15 minutes for preparation and 15 minutes for rotation.

GROUP 1. Assessment must help in diagnosing a pupil’s problems and difficulties (and
strengths ) in learning.

Consider the implications of the proliferation of ‘intervention’ groups in which pupils needs are
seen to be outside of classroom ‘norms’ and labelled as ‘slow’ ‘lower’ ‘poor’ learners.
The findings from Radford et al study 2011 reported these labels as in constant use to describe
‘learners’.

Research strongly suggests that the most vulnerable of learners, who are in need of a carefully
differentiated, layered and sequenced set of teaching and learning strategies, are being
misunderstood [mis-labelled] as pupils ‘with learning difficulties’ who require a separate
pedagogical intervention by a special needs support-teacher.
ALL pupils require differentiated work programmes on which they collaborate with their peers –
NOT, exclusion and segregation from classrooms as if they have a disease! (Boyle & Charles,
p.189

It is essential that formative assessment has a clear definition [See Module 1] so that its practice
can be understood, and therefore used with purpose and clarity for more effective learning support
by teachers. The literature in the research field offers several interpretations and definitions.

For example, Coffey et al (2011) suggest that ‘formative assessment should be understood and
presented as nothing other than genuine engagement with ideas, which includes being responsive
to them and using them to inform next moves’ (p. 1129). While James Popham’s definition states
clearly that ‘formative assessment is not a test but a process that produces not so much a score but
a qualitative insight into student understanding’ (Popham 2008, p.6). The process and outcomes
of formative assessment are the focus for Bennett [2011 p. 7] whose definition links the teaching,
learning and assessment activity through, ‘formative assessment involves a combination of task
and instrument and process’.

GROUP 2. Assessment must enable teacher to supply the next appropriate learning
experience for a pupil.
‘Formative assessment takes place day by day and allows the teacher and the student to adapt their
respective actions to the teaching/learning situation in question. It is thus, for them, a privileged
occasion for conscious reflection on their experience’ (Audibert, 1980, p.62).

15
Audibert means that formative assessment is constant analysis of a connected moving picture [the
pupil]: if the action [adjustment to teaching] taken on the basis of the assessment is effective
(‘effective’ being defined within the iterative nature of learning in which pupils will re-visit
concepts several times on their learning journey), the learner will have progressed and his/her
misconceptions are being supported for more effective learning.

Formative assessment is a rich source of information about the pupil. The pupil’s knowledge,
understanding and skills will have been evaluated on many occasions and in many contexts.
Assessment cannot be used formatively if it is only intermittent. Learners develop all the time, not
just at the end of a unit of work or a term, year or key stage. Just as assessment is a continuous
iterative process, so also must the recording of progress be a continuum, an ongoing activity. The
formative assessment activity must be within from current classroom practice. Formative
assessment is NOT externally produced tests, quizzes, work sheets for whole class consumption
and completion. An assessment task should build on a learner’s current experience. The task needs
to be clearly, carefully and precisely constructed to enable the learner to demonstrate what he or
she knows. Assessment needs to be understood as tightly integrated within teaching and learning.
Therefore ‘the more the assessment is integrated into situations, it becomes interactive and lasts;
it has more chance of enduring the further it distances itself from normative or summative
evaluation, the province of tests and exams and their consequences’ (Perrenoud 1998, p 100).

Perrenoud goes even further by questioning teaching pedagogy, practices and style.:

‘in the absolute an ideal teaching approach would be to do without all assessment. All the feedback
necessary for learning would be incorporated in the teaching situation, without it being necessary
for the teacher to observe and intervene in order to bring about learning progress. In other words
it is absurd to proceed with formative assessment without first calling into question current
teaching methods and without seeking, as a priority, to make the teaching situations more
interactive and richer in spontaneous feedback’ [Perrenoud 1991, p.94]

For example, if a teacher during a teaching session is assessing a learner’s understanding of

alphabetic principles (phonemes), we would not expect that teacher to present a worksheet on the
26 letters of the alphabet. Rather there would be multiple assessment routes for that concept: for
example, how the child reads, how the child writes, what form of code the child uses to write, what
multi-modal techniques support the child’s reading access and impact upon development.

These are all normal teaching activities with which the learner is comfortable (based on the premise
that cognitive progress links to our affective and conative domains), however they are also forms
of assessment.

Group 3. How do teachers vary instruction methods to meet the range and complexity of
student learning needs?

Discussion points.

Teachers should ensure that lessons include different approaches to explaining new concepts,
provide options for independent classroom work and encourage students who have engaged with
a new concept to help their peers.

16
Explore: Zones of proximal development [Vygotsky 1986]. For Vygotsky, pupils learn by
solving problems with and alongside peers more capable than themselves. This social interaction
is seen by Vygotsky as the essential factor to take pupils through their current learning zone to
the proximal [or potential] zone of development.

Teachers need to develop formative approaches which enable them to explore pupils’ thinking
and problem-solving strategies by seeking explanations of why the group members did certain
things in certain ways.

This requires an understanding by teachers of the necessary role of socio-cognitive

apprenticeships, for example in writing development.
Englert [2006, p.211] discusses the establishment of communities of practice in which pupils
‘pupils participate in ‘inquiry-based conversations about texts, learning to treat printed words as
thinking devices’.

When pupils interact on a frequent basis they have a greater opportunity to understand and
internalise, ‘thereby laying the foundation for the development of dialogical skills that support
text production’ [Rijlaarsdam 2008 p.60].

Explore: ‘paired writing’, ‘collaborative writing’ through ‘author switch’ methods [Using
Multiliteracies and Multimodalities to support young children’s learning, Charles & Boyle 2014
SAGE]

Teachers should use a range of approaches to assess student understanding of what has been
taught. They may use concept based assessment to determine a student’s profile of understanding
and learning when s/he first enters a new school or phase or continuously during the school term
to help shape teaching and learning strategies.

During classroom interaction teachers must encourage dialogue and develop a range of
questioning techniques. Dialogue and questioning should be ‘grown’ so that students feel that it
is ‘the normal behaviour’ for them to be involved in originating, generating and leading in those
sessions.
Consider the implications of other adults working with groups of children. For example, do they
understand how their oral style can potentially ‘open up’ or ‘close down’ pupils’ dialogue and
communications skills, even their thinking processes?

Questions regarding causality or open-ended questions often reveal a student’s misconceptions.

For example, it is important to examine power relations in dialogue sessions. It is imperative that
mutual respect and the deregulation of roles has taken place not on a superficial level but that a
genuine authentic classroom culture has been created.

Otherwise pupils will simply supply what the teacher wants to hear [recitation script] or pupils
will remain monosyllabic in verbal responses.

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Alexander (2005, p.12) states that the cumulative aspect of dialogic teaching is possibly the
toughest to achieve in the classroom. However to achieve dialogic discourse and practices-
expedites the handover of concepts and principles.

Teachers should initiate ‘feedback loops’ with verbal or written feedback on a student’s work.
Consider carefully the amount and type of feedback written on a pupil’s piece of work.
Too much may cause ‘overload’ and the demand within a hierarchy of concept difficulty. For
example, orthographic aspects measured against legible handwriting. What does the pupil focus
on?

Teachers and researchers have found that the most effective feedback is a dialogue process
which is timely, specific and tied to explicit criteria. There are multiple ways of
sharing/disseminating process of feedback.
For example, small groups, 1-to-1 and large group sessions as some may be common to the
group. Be mindful of the sensitivity aspects linked to affective and conative domain learning –
for example, learner identity: how positive is this?

Crucially, teachers must adjust their planning and teaching strategies to meet those learning
needs identified through formative assessment.

Activity 4. Shaping the understanding. Discuss the following after the brainstorm. –
10 minutes. Talk about above concepts. Discuss and help teachers to shape their
understanding and also assess to what extend teachers are in the right comprehension
track. – 10 minutes

Activity 5. Guided Group Discussion/Case Study. – 20 minutes

Divide the teachers into groups of five. Ask them to read and discuss/evaluate
each of the presented classroom scenarios (cases). Present the below questions as
discussion points. Sit with a group observe, guide and shape their understanding.

What are your comments on the three scenarios?

Which teacher(s) differentiate?
Do any of them match your definition of differentiation? If so, how?
In which classroom do you think learning is most effective?

Step 1 Case study Looking inside three classrooms: (Tomlinson, C. 1999)

Classroom One
Mr Appleton is teaching about Ancient Rome. His students are reading the textbook in class
today. He suggests that they take notes of important details as they read. When they finish, they
answer the questions at the end of the chapter. Students who don’t finish must do so at home.
Tomorrow they will answer the questions together in class. Mr Appleton like to lecture and
works hard to prepare his lectures. He expects students to take notes. Later, he will give a quiz

18
on both the notes and the text. He will give students a study sheet before the test, clearly spelling
out what will be on the test.

Classroom Two
Mrs Baker is also teaching about Ancient Rome. She gives her students graphic organizers to use
as they read the textbook chapter and goes over the organizers with the class so that anyone who
missed details can fill them in. She brings in photographs of the art and the architecture of the
period and tells how important the Romans were in shaping our architecture, language and laws.
When she invites some students to dress in togas for a future class, someone suggests bringing in
food so that they can have a Roman banquet- and they do. One day, students do a word search
puzzle of vocabulary words about Rome. On another day, they watch a movie clip that shows
gladiators and the Colosseum and talk about the favoured ‘entertainment’ of the period. Later,
Mrs Baker reads aloud several myths, and students talk about the myths that they remember from
6th grade. When it’s time to study for the test, the teacher lets the students go over the chapter
together, which they like much better than working at home alone, she says. Mrs Baker also
wants students to like studying about Rome, so she offers a choice of 10 projects. Among the
options are creating a poster listing important Roman gods and goddesses, their roles, and their
symbols; developing a travel brochure for ancient Rome that a Roman of the day might have
used; writing a poem about life in Rome; dressing dolls like citizens of Rome or drawing the
fashions of the time; building a model of a n important ancient Roman building or a Roman villa;
and making a map of the Holy Roman Empire. Students can also propose their own topic.

Classroom Three
Mrs Cassell has planned her year around a few key concepts that will help students to relate to,
organize, and retain what they study in history. She has also developed principles or
generalizations that govern or uncover how the concepts work. Further for each unit, she has
established a defined set of facts and terms that are essential for students to know to be literate
and informed about the topic. She has listed skills for which she and the students are responsible
as the year progresses. Finally, she has developed essential questions to intrigue her students and
to cause them to engage with her in a quest for understanding. Mrs Cassell’s master list of facts,
terms, concepts, principles, and skills, stems from her understanding of the discipline of history
as well from the district’s learning standards. As the year evolves, Mrs Cassell continually
assesses the readiness, interests, and learning profiles of her students and involves them in goal
setting and decision making about their own learning. As she comes to understand her students
and their needs more fully, she modifies her instructional framework and her instruction.
Ms Cassell is also teaching about ancient Rome. Among the key concepts in this unit, as in many
other throughout the year, are culture, change and interdependence. Students will be responsible
for important terms such as ‘republic’ ‘patrician’ ‘plebeian’ ‘veto’ ‘villa’, and Romance
language; names of key individuals- ‘Julius Caesar, ‘Cicero’ and ‘Virgil’ and names of important
places- the ‘Pantheon’ and the ‘Colosseum’.

For this unit, students explore key generalizations or principles: Varied cultures share common
elements. Cultures are shaped by beliefs and values, customs, geography and resources. People
are shaped by and shape their cultures. Societies and cultures change for both internal and
external reasons. Elements of a society and its cultures are interdependent. Among important
skills that students apply are using resources on history effectively, interpreting information from

19
resources, blending data from several resources, and organizing effective paragraphs. The
essential question that Mrs Cassell often poses to her students is ‘How would life and culture be
different if you lived in a different time and place?’

Early in this unit Mrs Cassell’s students begin work, both at home and in the classroom on two
sequential tasks that will extend throughout the unit as part of ancient Rome. Both tasks are
differentiated. For the first task, students assume the role of someone from ancient Rome, such as
a soldier, a teacher, a healer, a farmer, a slave, or a farmer’s wife. Students base their choice
solely on their interests. They work both alone and with others who select the same topic and use
a wide variety of print, video, computer and human resources to understand what their in ancient
Rome would have been like. Ultimately, students create a first-person data sheet that their
classmates can use as a resource for their second task. The data sheet calls for the person in the
role to provide accurate, interesting, and detailed information about what he or she would live,
how he or she would be treated by law, what sorts of problems or challenges he or she would
face, the current events of time, and so on. Teacher works with the whole class and small groups
evaluating data sources, writing effective paragraphs and blending information from several
sources into a coherent whole.

The second task calls on students to compare and contrast their lives with the lives of children of
similar age in ancient Rome. Unlike the first task, which was based on student interest, this one
is differentiated primarily on the basis of student readiness. The teacher again assigns each
student a scenario establishing his or her family context for the task: For example, ‘You are the
eldest son of a law maker living during the later years of the period known as Pax Romana.’ Mrs
Cassell bases the complexity of the scenario on the student’s skill with researching and thinking
about history. Most students work with families unlike those in their first task. Students who
need continuity between the tasks however can continue in a role familiar from their first
investigation.

Activity 6. Critique of Classroom One (Mr Appleton) Two (Mrs Baker) Three
(Mrs Cassell). Post each of the below questions (or use Slide 10 from PP for
Module 2) and encourage candidates to share own ideas. Encourage or conduct
mini-discussion/dialogue for each question and provide evidences from the lesson scenarios.
Allow plenty of time for candidates to reflect critically on each case. – 10 minutes

What are your comments on the three scenarios?

Which teacher(s) differentiate?
Do any of them match your definition of differentiation? If so, how?
In which classroom do you think learning is most effective?

For trainers: During discussion you can summarize using below evaluation of the scenarios.

Mr Appleton may have a sense of what he wants his students to know at the end of the road, but
not about what his students should understand and be able to do. He teaches facts, but no key
concepts, guiding principles or essential questions. With a fact based curriculum, differentiating
instruction is difficult. Perhaps some students could learn more facts and some fewer, perhaps

20
some students could have more time to drill the facts, and some less. It’s difficult to envision a
defensible way to differentiate a fact-driven curriculum.

Mrs Baker also appears to lack a clear vision of the meaning of her subject, of the nature of her
discipline and what it adds to human understanding, and why it should matter to a young learner
to study old times. There is little clarity about facts-let alone concepts, guiding principles, or
essential questions. Further, she confuses folly with engagement. She thinks that she is
differentiating instruction, but without instructional clarity, her activities and projects are merely
different-not differentiated. Because there is no instructional clarity, there is no basis for
defensible differentiation.

Mrs Cassell plans for what students should know, understand, and be able to do at the end of a
sequence of learning. She dignifies each learner by planning tasks that are interesting, relevant,
and powerful. She invites each student to be enthused and to wonder. She determines where each
student is in knowledge, skill, and understanding and where he or she needs to move in their
learning trajectory. She differentiates instruction to facilitate that goal. For her, differentiation is
one piece of the mosaic of professional expertise. It is not a strategy to be plugged in
occasionally or often, but is a way of thinking, a philosophical positioning. Differentiation is not
so much about the ‘stuff’ as the ‘how’, if the ‘stuff’ is poorly conceived, the ‘how’ is doomed.

Activity 7: Comparison of traditional and differentiated classrooms

Ask teacher[s] to think about the traditional classroom descriptions supplied below
and (i) to add some more of their own and (ii) write their own comparative descriptions for
a differentiated classroom (Activity sheet presented to the student with some of the
‘traditional’ side of the chart filled in. There are one or two examples on the ‘Differentiated’
side but the majority remain blank for student completion)

Traditional classroom Differentiated classroom (Tomlinson

1999)

Student differences masked or acted upon Student differences are studied as a basis for
when problematic planning.

Assessment is most common at the end of Student complexity at the heart of everything
learning to see ‘who got it’ - ‘learning is messy’

A relatively narrow sense of intelligence Focus on multiple forms of intelligence is

prevails (fixed intelligence) evident (Growth mindset- Dweck)

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UNIT 2

Session 1. What does formative assessment produce?

Duration: 90 minutes

Session learning objective:

• Recognize that formative assessment is not a test but a process that produces not a score
but a qualitative insight into the learner’s understanding’ (Popham W J, 2008)

Activity 1. Brainstorm. Present the below statement (Slide 10, PPP Module 2). Ask
teachers to share their ideas: What does this statement mean to you as a teacher who is
going to use formative assessment in your classroom? – 15 minutes

Statement: ‘If the teacher does not form an appropriate picture of what is going on ‘in the
pupil’s head’, there is little likelihood of the teacher’s action having a decisive effect in adjusting
the learning process.’ (Perrenoud 1991,p 88)

Activity 2. Present below statement and talk to the teachers. You or teachers may stop
and ask questions for clarifications or checking understanding. – 20 minutes

Assessment must contribute to your knowledge of what a pupil can do

It is attention to pupil thinking that will cause the teacher to adjust his/her original plan for a lesson.
Formative assessment will create ‘learning objectives’ for pupils that a teacher will not have had
in his/her conceptual planning at the outset – and at two levels. One at the level of conceptualisation
– how the pupil understands the concept – while the other objective is at the level of how the pupil
approaches the theme/concept. The teacher should be constantly working to move pupils into
engaging with the theme/concept as researchers and away from the ‘ritualised classroom game’
(Lemke 1990) of telling the teacher what they think s/he wants to hear.

In conceptualising assessment as ‘learner behavioural analysis’, the teacher is formatively

assessing pupil thinking by paying close attention to their demonstrations through behaviours and
outcomes of that thinking. S/he wants to understand what the pupils are thinking and why – as
surely would any participant in any meaningful discussion.

Formative assessment should be understood and presented as genuine engagement with ideas,
which includes being responsive to them and using them to inform next learning steps (Coffey et
al 2011, p. 1129). For example, the teacher is exploring ideas about rainfall with a group of primary
pupils. She originally had set up the dialogue linked to weather in a discussion of words and
phrases such as ‘wet’, ‘cloudy’ and ‘splashing in the puddles’. One child extended the discussion
into the related area of her own bath time and used vocabulary related to that experience such as
‘the water washes over me’. In this context the formative teacher re-shaped her original idea and

22
teaching concept to the perspective and location of the learners; for example, the child whose
thinking had moved onto ‘water’ produced a ‘water’ poem.

Activity 3. Guided Group Discussion/ Reflections/Questions. – 30 minutes

Divide the teachers into groups of five. Ask them to read and derive the respond
with evidences from the text. Sit with a group observe, guide and shape their
understanding.

What are the practical implications of these statements for application by the teacher in the
classroom situation?
Formative assessment will reveal ‘learning objectives’ that a teacher will not have had in his/her
conceptual planning at the outset – and at two levels. The first level is one of conceptualisation –
how the pupil understands the concept – while the other is at the level of how the pupil
approaches the theme [concept]. The teacher should always be working to support pupils into
engaging with the concept as researchers.]

In conceptualising assessment as ‘learner behavioural analysis’, the teacher is formatively

assessing pupil thinking by paying close attention to the demonstrations through behaviours and
outcomes of that thinking. The teacher needs to understand what the pupils are thinking – and
why – just like any participant in a meaningful discussion.

‘Any audience however carefully selected is heterogeneous. When given the same tuition, the
pupils do not progress at the same pace or in the same way. If one is intent on formative
assessment, sooner or later one must face the fact that that no overall adjustment can meet their
needs. The only appropriate answer is differentiated teaching.’ [Perrenoud 1991, p.89]

Activity 4. Written assignment. – 25 minutes

Why do you think as a new teacher you might feel that your definition of
differentiation was not the same as your colleagues OR that you have ‘no
opportunities to differentiate’? How would you argue the case for the need to differentiate?
Ask candidates to write AND EXEMPLIFY their own understanding of the given case/questions.
Candidates select the format of the written work (they may develop a presentation, diagram,
concept maps, bring in some visual/filmed material etc.). Ask them to show references and
demonstrate how this can be inserted in the text.

23
Session 2. Through formative assessment, how can the teacher involve the learner in co-
constructing learning?

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Explain how formative assessment empowers pupils to have more involvement in the learning
process through co-construction of learning with the teacher.

Activity 1. Brainstorm. Ask teachers: Have you ever heard term “co-construction”?
What is con-construction? Listen to teachers’ responds and note them – 15 minutes

Activity 2. Present below statement and talk to the teachers (Slides 12 and 13). You or
teachers may stop and ask questions for clarifications or checking understanding. – 20
minutes

What is co-construction?
A simple, practical but research-based definition would be that it is the active involvement of
pupils in sharing the development of learning alongside the teacher; (adult or peer) the
individualisation of the learning trajectory [Boyle & Charles 2013 p.152].

To collaborate in the development of learning, the teacher firstly has to understand where the
learner is in his/her learning trajectory on the concept being taught. Then the teacher has to
understand that assessment is NOT a summative measure or metric but IS a continuous
supportive learning process. Once the teacher has reached that understand then co-constructive
progress towards effective pupil learning is likely to happen.

That progress will be reinforced and heightened if the teacher works with [collaborates with] the
pupil in adjusting his/her teaching to match the learning need identified by the formative
assessment process. The timing of this adjustment is the crucial aspect of intervening when the
pupil needs that specific support to understand the concept or to progress his/her thinking to a
deeper level.

Formative assessment implies empowering the pupil to have more control over his/her learning,
to understand the adjustments to his learning behaviours and thinking that are required, and is a
continuous process not a summative measure.

Perrenoud sets the model for the optimum state of pedagogy to be achieved by a well-trained
teacher who understands that formative assessment supports the learner within a de-regulated
classroom. Perrenoud insists that ‘in the absolute an ideal teaching approach would do without
all formative assessment. All the feedback necessary for learning would be incorporated in the
situation, without it being necessary for a teacher to observe and intervene in order to bring about
learning progress. In other words it would be absurd to proceed with formative assessment
without first calling into question the teaching methods and without seeking, as a priority, to

24
make the teaching situations more interactive and richer in spontaneous feedback.’ (Perrenoud,
1991).

Activity 3. Practical application of co-construction. Ask teachers to work in

groups of four or five. Ask the groups to select one lesson plan (subject and
grade) (they may use the sample lesson plan from Teacher’s Guide – 2016).
Review the lesson plan and define what to add/change to introduce activities/methods that
support co-construction. [they can re-write the lesson plan or create a new one] – 30 minute

Activity 4. Visiting experts. One member from each group (Activity 3) rotate to
another group to present and discuss the adjustments made by the group to the
lesson plan. Trainer also will rotate from one group to another to observe, evaluate
and direct presenters. Adjust teacher’s understanding of the co-construction and applying it at
classroom level. Trainer should have an opportunity to sit in each groups and listen and help the
presenter once. – 25 minutes.

Wrap up the session by pointing out (providing clear evidences) why is co-construction
is important in student’s developing their knowledge and skills? How formative
assessment can support co-construction?

Session 3. What should be the teacher’s next steps in using the assessment information in
his/her teaching and learning?

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Supply evidence of understanding that it is this assessment and analysis of pupil thinking that will
cause the teacher to adjust his/her original teaching plan for the lesson.

Activity 1. Brainstorm. Ask teachers: What should teachers be doing to use

assessment effectively in the classroom? – 10 minutes

Activity 2. Focus group discussion. Divide the teachers into groups of five.
(Following the FGD rules/instruction) and them to conduct FGD based on the
below case: - 20 minutes

“Classroom assessment involves teachers and pupils working together.” How can teachers
and pupils work together over assessment? ‘I thought assessment was a test of what the pupils
could do’ (Anonymous teacher).

25
 Activity 3. Check and compare your understanding. Ask groups to read the below
text and compare with their responds in Activity 2 above. Also ask them to tell peers
what ne information they got from the text. – 20 minutes.

Classroom assessment involves teachers and pupils working together

According to socio-constructivist learning theory, individuals assimilate knowledge and concepts

after restructuring and reorganising it through negotiation with their surroundings, including
fellow learners (Hager & Hodkinson 2009, Rogoff 1990). All pupils do not learn all that is taught
and teachers cannot know what and how well concepts are understood without using some process
to establish pupil understanding. Since each pupil has his/her own unique socially constructed
context, ideas, concepts and meanings are not fixed nor standardised across a group or class of
pupils. Therefore the individual outcomes of learning situations will be diverse. The word
‘assessment’ derives from the Latin word ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit beside’ – this can be taken to
imply a close proximity or association between the assessor and the learner in the assessment
process.( Good 2011).

Criticism of an assessment process which had traditionally been designed to grade and certificate
led to the emergence of formative assessment, a conception designed to support pupils’ learning
processes. ‘Beginning in the 1960s researchers and authors from a range of disciplinary
backgrounds weighed in against the proliferation of classification practices stemming from the
American psychometric current, thus opening the way to prioritising assessments that measured
students’ learning’ (Morrissette 2011 p. 249). These researchers included, in sociology (Becker
1963, Bourdieu & Passeron 1970; Perrenoud 1998, 2004;), anthropology (Rist 1977);
palaeontology (Gould 1981); philosophy (Foucault 1975) and in evaluation (Crooks 1988, Mehan
1971, Popham 2008), have drawn attention to issues such as the consequences of testing practices
on narrowing classroom pedagogy and culture.

‘For example the secondary adaptations (plagiarism, cramming) that pupils develop in a context
which continually threatens their integrity and self-esteem; the cultural biases of the tests used to
assess their learning; the ‘instrumental illusion’ that is, the ingrained belief that it is possible to
exclude all the interpretive processes which are necessarily involved in these practices; and finally
the power ascribed to evaluation practices that, on the one hand, contribute to a form of control
and standardisation and on the other, perpetuate social disparities’ (Morrissette 2011 p. 249). From
those beginnings, there has been an increasing interest in formative principles and functions of
assessment serving to support pupils’ learning rather than to grade pupil outcomes.

In exercising the craft of good teaching, learning and assessment, an educator must reach into the
learner’s hidden levels of knowing and awareness in order to help the learner reach new levels of
thinking (Lindley, 1993).

Questions can prompt responses ranging from simple recall of information to abstract processes
of applying, synthesizing, and evaluating information (Zepeda, 2009).

Research by Khan & Inamullah (2011, p.1) observed the use of lower-order and higher-order
questions at secondary level, their study found (although small in scale-20 teachers over 28 days)
that most of the questions asked were low-level cognitive questions. Among 267 questions 67%

26
were knowledge based, 23% were comprehension based, 7% were application based, 2% were
analysis based and 1% was synthesis based, and the ration of evaluation questions was nil.

Higher-order thinking occurs with higher level questions. Teachers play an important role in
engaging students in higher order thinking by asking higher order questions. A teacher can raise
the level of critical thinking and help children in reflective thought by the proper use of questions
(Hollingsworth, 1982).

Framing questions that are challenging, open-ended and uncluttered with extraneous information
supports higher order thinking (Wang & Orig 2003).

Activity 4. Ask groups to work together and create at list five questions for
the above text (Classroom assessment involves teachers and pupils working
together) using How, Why, What if …? How can … be applied? What is
difference between … and …? Ask them to write each question in a separate slip of paper. –15
minutes

Activity 5. Quiz. Collect all questions from the groups (Activity 4). Mix them in the
box. Ask each group to take a question, discuss in groups for 30 seconds and respond.
Encourage other groups to add or provide more comprehensive answer. – 15 minutes

Activity 6. Presentation of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Development. Use

slides 14 and 15 (PPP Module 2) to present Bloom’s Taxonomy. Refer to other training
modules and guides on Bloom’s Taxonomy. – 10 minutes

Asking questions to improve learning: Bloom’s Taxonomy Context

Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) provides a useful way to think
about when and how to use questions in teaching. Bloom identified six types of cognitive
processes and ordered these according to the level of complexity involved. Ideally, questions that
require ‘lower-order thinking (often closed questions) to assess students’ knowledge and
comprehension with questions that require ‘higher-order thinking’(often open questions) to
assess students’ abilities to apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate.

Asking Questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy

Category Definition Question words Example

Evaluation Judgement making Judge, appraise, How successful will

value decisions about evaluate, assess President Obama’s
issues health plan be
addressing the
concerns of low-
income families?

27
 Synthesis Combining ideas, Compose, Design an experiment
creating an original construct, design, that will allow you to
product predict separate the
components in this
solution.
Analysis Subdividing into Compare, contrast, Analyze the Supreme
component parts, examine, analyse Court actions of the
determining motives. late nineteenth
century in terms of
Social Darwinism
Application Problem solving, Interpret, apply, Apply the law of
applying information use, demonstrate supply and demand
to explain the current
increase in fruit
prices
Comprehension Interpreting, Restate, discuss, Describe the major
paraphrasing describe, explain differences between
modern and
postmodern art
Knowledge Memorising, recalling Who, what, when? What are the main
information Define, recall, list theories used in
discussing different
learning styles?

Activity 6. Evaluation of questions. Read out some questions that teachers developed
in Activity 4. Ask teachers to define what level of Taxonomy they reflect. – 10
minutes

Activity 7. Written assignment. Ask teachers to select a subject topic (any of three
subjects (math, language and nature) ask them to use subject standards (competencies)
and develop 3 higher order thinking questions based on the last three levels of Bloom’s
Taxonomy.

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UNIT 3

Session 1. Set of ‘formative assessment toolkit’ strategies

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Demonstrate awareness of the set of ‘formative assessment toolkit’ strategies

The eight techniques or strategies of the ‘toolkit’ (These are presented separately
for information but they are used in an integrated manner in training and in the
classroom)

Activity 1. Present each of the eight formative assessment strategies of the toolkit
use slides 16 to 23 – presentation and + discussion after each presented strategy. 30
minutes +
Slide contents:
Differentiation

• To the extent that pupils do not have the same abilities, nor the same needs nor the same
way of working, an optimal situation for one pupil will NOT be optimal for another
pupil: one can write a simple equation: Diversity in pupil + appropriate treatment for
each = diversity in teaching approach. (Perrenoud 1998)

Observation

• Observation of process has to be planned for. It must be analytical, purposeful and

structured to identify and feed into individual learning trajectories.
• Where is the pupil in his/her learning?
• What does the pupil need to do?
• Where is the pupil going in his/her learning?

Guided group strategy

Guided group teaching offers many things:

• A strategic organisational device;

• An optimal opportunity for specific and focused teaching;
• A small group situation enabling learning to be planned tightly offering ready access for
learner to teacher
• A rich opportunity for teacher to focus assessment observations within small group
• Pupils become part of the process of collaborative knowledge-building.

29
Analysis and feedback

• Through analysis of each pupil’s learning behaviours and outputs, the teacher achieves a
deeper understanding of each pupil’s learning strengths and needs

• Specific, individualised feedback is then shared with each individual, supplying the
specific information required to support next steps in learning development.

Co-construction

• Co-construction involves the pupil in active participation with the teacher and peers in
sharing the construction of knowledge.
• The pupil becomes active rather than passive on the learning journey.
• The pupil learns to shape and deepen their understandings and opinions in negotiation
with their peers.

Self-regulated learning

• Means the development of learner autonomy.

• Requires the deregulation of the traditional transmission and passive reception model.
• The teacher models transactional classroom behaviours. [Review transaction]
• This continual modelling enables the learners to become accustomed to the practice of
the self-generation of thoughts and actions.
• Effective teaching, learning and assessment requires that there is learner autonomy.

Dialogue and dialogic

• Dialogue is at the core of human transaction.

• Dialogue between teacher and pupil is at the core of learning.
• From ‘real’ dialogue, the teacher gains valid assessment information for use in specific
planning for learning.
• Dialogic is a structured extended process of shared dialogue in which groups of learners
are involved and enabled to lead the learning process.

Reflective planning

• Formative teaching, learning and assessment requires conscious reflection on the day’s
teaching. This influences the teacher’s planning of differentiated activities for the next
teaching session.
• This reflection enables the teacher to edit daily planning for learning consolidation,
progression or re-strategising depending on how pupils have responded to teaching and
learning in each session.

30
 Activity 2. Guided group work.
Tasks: Ask teachers to work in groups of five. Use the Teacher’s Module
(where there is more information about these 8 strategies) to have discussion
around the below questions. Develop a brief presentation and present to whole class. Select a
group to observe, guide and help to manage the given task. – 30 minutes

Key questions which are always used as a framework for using this formative toolkit:

• How do we teach pupils to ask the right questions?

• How do we discover pupils’ understanding in any area of learning [subject]?
• How do we know that pupils are developing new understandings?
• What assessment strategies can we use that allow us to become partners with our children
in the quest for deep understandings?

Activity 3. Presentation of Guided group work outcomes (Activity 2 above).

Ask each group to present their vision on the given questions. Organize discussion
among the class.

Session 2. Differentiation and co-construction in the classroom

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Demonstrate an understanding and supply an example of the use of the methods of (i)
‘differentiation’ and (ii) ‘co-construction’ in the classroom

Activity 1. Brainstorm. Organize brain storm activity based n the given statement and
question. – 10 minutes

‘If the teacher does not form an appropriate picture of what is going on ‘in the pupil’s head’,
there is little likelihood of his/her action having a decisive effect in adjusting the learning
process.’ (Perrenoud 1991,p 88)

How would you respond to the following statement from Perrenoud’s research?

Activity 2. Present slides on differentiation (Slides 24 to 28. PPP Module 2). After
each logical pauses stop and organize discussion of the presented ideas, texts or
questions. - 30 minutes

Presentation contents:

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Differentiation

‘No formative assessment without Differentiation’ (Perrenoud p. 88-90, 1991)

• To the extent that pupils do not have the same abilities, nor the same needs nor the same
way of working, an optimal situation for one pupil will NOT be optimal for another
pupil: one can write a simple equation: Diversity in pupil + appropriate treatment for
each = diversity in teaching approach. (Perrenoud 1998)

As a teacher, how would you plan to address the differences in pupil learning pace?

‘Any audience however carefully selected is heterogeneous. When given the same tuition, the
pupils do not progress at the same pace or in the same way. If one is intent on formative
assessment, sooner or later one must face the fact that that no overall adjustment can meet their
needs. The only appropriate answer is differentiated teaching.’

What is Differentiation?

In your own education journey so far what types of teaching strategies have you come across?

Have you experienced strategies that were designed for your own individual learning needs?
How successful were these in supporting your learning?
What did you feel were the advantages/disadvantages of teaching strategies such as: ‘setting’,
‘streaming’, ‘ability grouping’, ‘tracking’ and ‘differentiating’.

The term ‘differentiation’ is widely used in reference to teaching and learning but what does it
actually mean and why should we be considering it?

Globally classroom instruction uses a ‘aim for the middle’ approach in which the teacher aims
the lesson at a level which s/he thinks is accessible to the majority of pupils. The teacher
provides a single text, lecture or activity, sets single homework assignment, works at a single
pace and gives a single assessment with the hope that most learners will grasp the essentials
before the lesson ends and s/he moves on to the next lesson. (Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development [ASCD], 1997).

For a teacher ‘hope’ is not good enough!

Differentiation supplies a strategy which enables the teacher to match her/his teaching to the
individual/group needs within the learners in the classroom.

‘Differentiated instruction is both a way of thinking about teaching and learning and a model for
guided instructional planning which responds to students’ needs. Students’ varied needs are the
reason for differentiation’. (ASCD, 2011)

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‘Differentiated instruction is guided by a teacher’s core beliefs about the nature of intelligence,
the factors influencing motivation for learning, and the roles of teacher and students in the
learning process.’ (ASCD, 2011)

Activity 3. Presentation and discussion of co-construction strategy.

Present Slide 29 (Module 2). Organize discussion and dialogue during or after the
presentation. – 15 minutes.

Co-construction

• Co-construction involves the pupil in active participation with the teacher and peers in
sharing the construction of knowledge.
• The pupil becomes active rather than passive on the learning journey.
• The pupil learns to shape and deepen their understandings and opinions in negotiation
with their peers.

Activity 4. Written assignment. Ask teachers to described their understanding and use
of (i) differentiated teaching and (ii) learner-involvement through co-construction in
teaching and learning process. 35 minutes

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Session 3. Integration of the ‘formative toolkit’ methods and techniques within teaching
pedagogy.

Duration: 90 minutes
Session learning objective:
• Demonstrate an understanding of the integration of the ‘formative toolkit’ methods and
techniques within teaching pedagogy.

Notes for the Trainer:

The eight interconnected concepts of formative assessment form an integrated teaching, learning and
assessment strategy. These are illustrated in section 3.1 above. However, it is important that the teacher
understands that these are not techniques to be learnt and practiced as individual methods.

These are integrated strategies and methods through which teachers access, process, analyse, focus, plan
and use evidence about pupil learning to intervene appropriately to support continued and effective progress
in that learning.

Formative assessment is an intrinsic and essential part of the teaching and learning process and provides the
specific learning-progress information [elicitation of evidence] that enables each teacher to support learning
progress matched to the individual, specific and complex needs of pupils.

Pupils’ learning needs have to be central to the planning for teaching and learning. This focus on
identifying where pupils are in their learning trajectories and understanding how to support those identified
learning needs with matched instructional strategies will lead to improved, more effective, deeper learning
[Allal & Lopez 2005; Boyle & Charles 2013].

Formative assessment requires the empowering of pupils to have more involvement in the learning process
through the co-construction [formative toolkit method] of learning with the teacher.

The teacher has to understand and practice that assessment is a continuous process not a summative
measure or judgement.

The evidence that the teacher elicits from the formative assessment process has to be planned [see:
reflective planning: formative toolkit method] into support for the pupil with the pupil’s involvement
[self regulation formative toolkit method] as an active participant in that learning process.

Professional [pedagogical] development issues for the teacher should include full understanding of the
integrated use of the eight formative toolkit methodologies for the more effective learning support of the
learner.

Reflecting on your experiences, discussions, activities in working through these three sets of tasks in this
Unit, evidence [through your preferred choice of medium] your understanding of a model of using
integrated elements of the formative toolkit in a classroom session which you have or would lead with your
pupils.

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 Activity 1. Project Work. Teacher will work in small groups and complete
their project work on “Integration of the ‘formative toolkit’ methods and
techniques within teaching pedagogy”. 50 minutes

Instructions:
1) Teacher’s select subject and grade (math, language or nature)
2) Select a sample lesson/topic from the Syllabus or Teacher’s Guide
3) In groups they discuss, debate and try to integrate of formative toolkit methods within a
lesson plan or series of lessons.
4) Design a lesson plan with demonstration how toolkit methods are integrated.

Activity 2. Presentation and evaluation of the lesson plans in terms of the integration of
the toolkit methods. – 40 minutes

Activity 3. Summary and wrap up session.

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