Research findings
Ngā kitenga rangahau
The most comprehensive review of research on formative assessment in recent years was carried out by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam at King’s College, London.21
Black and Wiliam define formative assessment as follows:
In this paper, the term “assessment” refers to all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by their students in assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment becomes “formative assessment” when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet the needs. [Emphasis is included in the original].22
They conducted a detailed analysis of 250 sources of robust research or reviews of research on formative assessment.
All of these [most careful] studies show that innovations which include strengthening the practice of formative assessment produce significant, and often substantial, learning gains … Many of them show that improved formative assessment helps the (so-called) low attainers more than the rest, and so reduces the spread of attainment whilst also raising it overall. [Emphasis is included in the original].23
Although these findings refer originally to the primary, secondary, and tertiary education sectors, they are relevant to the early childhood setting as well. The findings highlight the role of empowering processes and of reciprocal and responsive relationships in formative assessment. The review concludes that the following practices are important for effective formative assessment: meaningful and interesting tasks, the active involvement of learners, a culture of success, the opportunity for all learners to express their ideas, and self-assessment.
Meaningful and interesting tasks
Black and Wiliam,24 writing about strategies and tactics for teachers’ formative assessment work, include a discussion of the nature of educational tasks that form the basis for assessments. They cite research that concludes that tasks should: be interesting; offer reasonable challenge; help learners to develop short-term, self-referenced goals; focus on meaningful aspects of learning; and support the development and use of effective learning strategies. In early childhood settings where children have a sense of belonging, tasks/activities/projects will encourage learning goals through which children understand and “own” the questions and problems.
The active involvement of learners
Black and Wiliam emphasise the need in effective formative assessment to secure the responsible and thoughtful involvement of all learners. They highlight the importance of the nature of each teacher’s beliefs about learning. If the teacher assumes that knowledge is to be transmitted and understanding will develop later, “formative assessment is hardly necessary”:
If, however, teachers accept the wealth of evidence that this transmission model does not work, even by its own criteria, then the commitment must be to teaching through interaction to develop each pupil’s power to incorporate new facts and ideas into his or her understanding.25
Early childhood teachers characteristically teach through interaction and develop a number of strategies to encourage the involvement of every child (including knowing the children well, which is an outcome of listening as well as noticing, recognising, responding to, and revisiting documentation about the child).
A culture of success
Black and Wiliam comment that:
What is needed is a culture of success, backed by a belief that all can achieve.26
A culture of success should be promoted where every student can make achievements by building on their previous performance, rather than by being compared with others. Such a culture is promoted by informing students about the strengths and weaknesses demonstrated in their work and by giving feedback about what their next steps should be.27
Such a culture avoids the idea that the capacity to learn is a fixed inner quality that cannot be changed by effort. In classrooms where the culture focuses on feedback in the form of rewards – “gold stars”, grades, or class ranking – then “where they have any choice, pupils avoid difficult tasks … Many are reluctant to ask questions out of fear of failure.”28 A key issue here is the beliefs that teachers hold about the learning potential of all their students.29 Also, Black and Wiliam state, “There is evidence from many studies that learners’ beliefs about their own capacity as learners can affect their achievement.”30 The narrative formats for assessment being developed in New Zealand early childhood contexts, learning stories for instance, are designed to contribute to a culture of success. They need to be accompanied by the teacher’s belief in the potential of all children.
The opportunity for all learners to express their ideas
Black and Wiliam also conclude that all learners should have an opportunity to express their ideas:
The dialogue between pupils and a teacher should be thoughtful, reflective, focused to evoke and explore understanding, and conducted so that all pupils have an opportunity to think and to express their ideas.31
In early childhood, assessments frequently include, or follow on from, children expressing their ideas. Teachers ensure that all children have this opportunity to express themselves and that discussions are genuinely reciprocal.
Self-assessment where learners take responsibility for their own learning
What this [research] amounts to is that self-assessment by pupils, far from being a luxury, is in fact an essential component of formative assessment.32
An essential element is for teachers to provide “the stimulus and help for pupils to take active responsibility for their own learning”.33 A number of exemplars provided in the Kei Tua o te Pae series include children commenting on and evaluating their own learning. Revisiting documented assessments with peers, teachers, family, and whānau provides further opportunities for the children to do this.
These research findings on effective formative assessment can be seen to parallel the five strands of Te Whāriki:
- Belonging – meaningful tasks
- Well-being – active involvement by learners
- Exploration – a culture of success
- Communication – the opportunity for all learners to express their ideas
- Contribution – self-assessment.