Assessment in secondary geography

# 2.2 An integrated approach

If assessment is to support learning, then how it is carried out is of prime importance. It is not simply what a teacher does but also how it is done that is important. To make AfL integral to learning try to:

- Identify what you want students to learn; use appropriate tasks and blend in activities that will allow AfL in terms of individuals’ techniques and skills, understanding of wider concepts and ability to apply their understanding in less familiar contexts.
- Assess students as individuals as they learn at different rates; they learn different things from each other and from their experiences; and some develop misconceptions. Then teaching can be matched to needs of individuals. Include opportunities for students to respond to feedback.
- Integrate continuous, systematic assessment into every lesson so that evidence is used to adapt teaching to meet learning needs – in this way it becomes AfL (Black et al., 2004, p. 10).
- Assess the effectiveness of your teaching: use evidence about the effectiveness of the teaching decisions that you take (approaches, resources, tasks, activities, timings and so on) to inform modifications within lessons or sequences.

Without the process of adapting teaching and learning, the assessment is not formative – it is merely frequent.

## Activity 4 Integrating AoL and AfL

Allow about 1 hour 15 minutes

#### Part 1

Revisit the files from the GA web page that you saved for Section 1 Activity 2.

- An assessment and progression framework for geography: read the last two sections.
- Progression and assessment without levels (PowerPoint presentation): read slides 17–27 and the accompanying notes.

#### Part 2

The PowerPoint presentation includes some examples based on a tectonics unit. Look at slide 13 to pick out ‘what to assess’, using the age-related benchmark expectations from page 4 of the Framework pdf.

Think about how this will translate into ‘how’, using slides 23–26.

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#### Part 3

Thinking about the shorter term, read Sidhu (2011), Why use AfL? Dusting off the black box.

- How do his experiences relate to the four tips for making AfL integral to teaching ?

Identifying what you want students to learn

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Assessing students as individuals
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Integrating assessment into every lesson

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Assessing the effectiveness of your teaching:
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OpenLearn - Assessment in secondary geography
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