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.