Assessment in secondary music

Introduction

This free course, Assessment in secondary music, explores assessment in music education. You will consider issues around the purposes of assessment in music, the forms that it takes, how you can ensure that these forms of assessment are appropriate and perceived as legitimate, and how young people can be fully involved in the assessment of their work, including making decisions about what is assessed and how it is assessed. Most of all, however, the course will have at its heart considerations of how music assessment can be musical.

The course identifies and explores some of the key issues and debates around assessment and music in secondary schools. Through coming to understand these issues and debates you will be able to reflect upon and develop your assessment practice. In particular, you will gain greater understanding of how assessment can support the development of young people’s musical understanding.

Now listen to an introduction to this course by its author, Gary Spruce:

Download this audio clip.Audio player: nc3002_2016_pgce_assessing-music.mp3

Show transcript|Hide transcript

Transcript

Introduction to Assessment in secondary music by Gary Spruce

My experience of teaching in secondary schools taught me that assessment is one of the most difficult tasks for music teachers. Often what you want and need to assess in music does not map well onto the general school assessment systems. And the demands of these systems can lead to assessment which is inherently unmusical. For me it is important then that music teachers understand what assessment in music education is for and how it is best carried out in the classroom.

Music teachers need to make the case for approaches to assessment in music that support young people’s musical development and that assess musical learning through musical means. Some creativity is needed in crafting these assessment systems.

This course is aimed at beginner teachers of music in secondary schools. It starts by looking at different forms and functions of assessment, what teachers should be assessing in music, how to make assessment musical. From there it identifies key approaches to assessment in the music classroom which will support young people’s musical development and the key aspect here is involving young people themselves in the assessment processes.

Finally, the unit explores how assessment can be used to help teachers plan for further musical development, not to mention fostering a better understanding of the young people we teach.

Assessment is important and this approach should stimulate your thinking around this tricky area of teaching.

End transcript

Download

 

As you work through the activities you will be encouraged to record your thoughts on an idea, an issue or a reading, and how it relates to your practice. Hopefully you will have opportunity to discuss your ideas with colleagues. We therefore suggest that you use a notebook – either physical or electronic – to record your thoughts in a way in which they can easily be retrieved and re-visited. If you prefer, however, you can record your ideas in response boxes within the course – in order to do this, and to retrieve your responses, you will need to enrol on the course.

This OpenLearn course is part of a collection of Open University short courses for teachers and student teachers.

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• recognise the purposes and forms of assessment and their application in, and implications for, music education

• understand what to assess in music education

• promote assessment for learning in music education

• understand how to use assessment to plan for further learning.

1 Key issue 1: What is assessment for?

Assessment is typically categorised into two main types:

• formative – assessment for learning
• summative – assessment of learning.

1.1 Summative assessment

Figure 1 Examination certificate

Show description|Hide description

This image shows a certificate awarded by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music for Grade 1 piano in 1968.

Figure 1 Examination certificate

Traditionally, one of the primary purposes of summative assessment has been for selection. Many will associate assessment in music education with formal examinations, such as A Levels or GCSEs, or instrumental and vocal grade examinations or, perhaps, music competitions and auditions. The results of these assessments were then used by others, either directly (for example in the case of auditions) or indirectly (in the case of examination marks/grades) to decide who should gain entry to bands, choirs, colleges or universities, etc.

These examinations/auditions, along with assessments such as end-of-term ‘tests’ and end-of-year examinations or assessment at the end of particular projects or modules, are all examples of summative assessment or ‘assessment of learning’ (AoL). Summative assessment is used to provide a snapshot of what a student has achieved in their learning (at its best it will show what they know, understand and can do) at a particular point in time in relation to specific and pre-defined criteria. It is assessment that looks back over what has been achieved.

Maximise

Figure 2 Example of an assessment report

Show description|Hide description

The text in the image reads: Sahid can play simple tunes on the keyboard using his hand in the five finger position. He has memorised some key Italian terms and can use them appropriately. He needs to work harder on his improvisations and listen to a wider range of music.

Figure 2 Example of an assessment report

1.2 Formative assessment

The main differences between summative assessment and formative assessment is that formative assessment is an ongoing process, looks forward and focuses on the development of musical learning. Its primary purpose is to help the teacher to gain an understanding of the young person and the young person to gain an understanding of themselves as a musical learner. It helps to identify any difficulties or misconceptions that the young person might be experiencing as well as where the young person is achieving particularly well.

An important aspect of this form of assessment is that it will involve the young person in the assessment of their learning – often through focused questioning – and thus support them in coming to an understanding of that learning. For example, verbal feedback for Teresa Green could be:

Maximise

Figure 3 Example of verbal feedback

Show description|Hide description

The text in the image reads: Teresa I really liked that improvisation you did in the Samba piece. During the parts of the music where you were playing with the others you sometimes weren’t quite with them. Do you know why that was? How do you think you might correct this? The music had lots of dynamic changes in it. Do you think that more could be made of these or do you feel you got it about right?

Figure 3 Example of verbal feedback

‘Assessment for learning’ (AfL) by its very nature focuses not only on a young person’s learning but also on a teacher’s teaching. Teachers who use AfL most effectively – and who are often the most successful teachers – are those who reflect upon the information gained from AfL and ask themselves the question, ‘So what does this mean for my teaching?’ They use AfL as a means to evaluate their own teaching and then draw upon this evaluation to inform their planning.

1.3 Evaluating assessment

Both summative and formative assessment represent different ways of getting to know students as musicians and musical learners. However, they are not mutually exclusive. As Fautley and Savage (2008) have pointed out, aspects of, and information from, summative assessment events can be used formatively (Figure 4). Equally, the evidence gained cumulatively from ongoing, formative assessment can also be used in a summative way and for selection.

Figure 4 The formative use of summative assessment (Fautley and Savage, 2008, p. 27)

Show description|Hide description

The diagram is headed ‘The formative use of summative assessment’. From the heading a dotted rule goes to 2 triangles that have links to other text and boxes with text. The left-hand triangle links out to summative assessment, looks back and past achievement, as well as to the right-hand triangle. The right-hand triangle links out to formative assessment, looks forward and future achievement, as well as to the left-hand triangle. At the bottom of the diagram is an arrow going from left to right labelled ‘Time’.

Figure 4 The formative use of summative assessment (Fautley and Savage, 2008, p. 27)

The main focus in this course will be on the way in which assessment opportunities and information can be used to support students’ progressive development as musicians and to inform teachers’ planning for musical learning.

2 Key issue 2: What are we assessing in music and how should we assess it?

There are three kinds of musical knowledge:

• Knowledge ‘about’ music: the ‘facts’ of music, such as the number of strings on a violin, who had the Christmas number one in 2015, what an ‘ostinato’ is, etc.
• Knowledge of the ‘how’ of music: for example how to maintain a regular pulse or how to be able to play scales correctly.
• Knowledge ‘of’ music: gained from immersion in musical experience and activity and leading to an understanding of music’s unique expressive character – much in the way that one would know a person.

The last of these types of knowledge is the reason why we engage with music; it is that unique individual and collective relationship that we have with it. The other kinds of knowledge can support and enrich our knowledge of music but they are never sufficient of themselves and consequently should not be taught or assessed in isolation.

However, knowledge of music provides significant challenges for developing assessment strategies for music learning. It is much easier to pin down knowledge ‘about’ or knowledge of ‘how’, which is why music assessment has often focused on these types of knowledge: because of their ease of assessment not because they are more valuable or legitimate.

Some of these examples are somewhat extreme (however, they are all taken from actual examples of music assessments) and it is the case that ‘knowing’ these things can be useful. However, the usefulness of such knowledge is limited if it is abstracted from a musical context where knowledge ‘of’ music might be developed. It then becomes potentially damaging if used exclusively (or even primarily) as a means of assessing musical understanding and assessment. However, the responses are easy to mark!

2.1 How do we best assess musical learning and understanding?

Figure 5 Sequencing work

Show description|Hide description

Pupils in a music classroom using keyboards linked to computers.

Figure 5 Sequencing work

If developing young people’s knowledge of music is to be at the centre of your teaching, it should also be at the centre of both the way in which you assess and what you assess. In this section we set out seven principles that we believe should underpin all so that it supports the development of knowledge of music.

First, and foremost, assessment should be musical. It should, over a period of time, encompass the full range of what it is to be musical and reflect the many ways in which people engage with music across a range of styles, traditions and cultures. For example, teaching and assessment that focuses exclusively or primarily upon performing and composing using notation provides a narrow musical experience and an inadequate basis upon which to assess musical understanding and achievement. These assessments should provide opportunities for all young people in a class or group to demonstrate their musical understanding and achievement.

Second, assessment should be integrated into teaching and take place through and within music-making and responding to music. Young people should be assessed as they engage in activities that would be recognisable as musical ones outside the context of formal music education.

Third, assessment should focus on developing the quality of young people’s musical work. This then moves the emphasis of assessment away from the musical object – the composition, the performance, the listening test – to the learning student; how they demonstrate engagement with music across a range of musical activities and experiences. Assessments that depend on a single musical event or example of work will by definition be inadequate as they will not give a true picture of the young person’s attainment and consequently fail to provide the formative support they need to move forward.

Fourth, assessment criteria should be specific to the project or topic being studied and the context of the musical activity and assessment should grow from this context. For example, it would be inappropriate to assess the performance of a song from Wicked by the same criteria as a folk song or an aria from a Mozart opera. Equally, one would not assess a minimalist composition by the same criteria as a reggae song. The starting point for assessment criteria is the music: what is important and of value within the particular musical tradition or culture within which the young person is working.

Fifth, assessment processes and criteria should be open to ‘unexpected’ learning that has not been planned for as well as to learning that is brought into the classroom from musical learning beyond the school. Teachers should try to avoid assessment ‘myopia’ by only recognising learning they had planned for and expected!

Sixth, assessment should involve young people in assessing their own work and that of others through discussion and self and peer assessment. Discussion between the teacher and young person is particularly important so that the teacher can gain an understanding what the young person is trying to achieve and also what they think they have achieved. This points up the importance of agreed and shared criteria and, as the young people develop into agentive musicians, criteria that is negotiated between them and the teacher.

Seventh, assessment done well will help teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and support them in future planning for young people’s musical learning. We cannot say that teaching has occurred if there is no evidence of musical learning. As Jo Glover (2008, p. 1) says, ‘The connection between teaching and learning is not hard wired – we cannot say “I teach therefore you will learn”.’

If these principles are followed, then assessment has a good chance of providing feedback and information that supports young people in reflecting upon their learning and developing understanding of what they need to do to improve.

3 Key issue 3: How do we promote assessment for learning?

Black et al. (2003) identify four main ways in which assessment for learning can be promoted:

• through questioning
• through feedback
• through sharing criteria
• through self and peer assessment.

You will explore each of these in turn and then briefly examine the importance of talking with young people about their assessment and their music-making.

3.1 Questioning

As we have noted, one of the main purposes of assessment is to help us to come to know our students better as musicians. Questioning in the widest sense of the word is a key way to achieve this. Traditionally, questioning has been used primarily to test understanding of propositional knowledge; for example:

• How many strings does a violin have?
• What does pianissimo mean?
• Who shot John Lennon?

These are what are known as ‘closed questions’ and tend to focus on knowledge about music. They are questions that are rooted in ‘facts’ about music and there is a tendency when asking such questions to require instantaneous or near-instantaneous responses – a kind of musical pub quiz.

However, questioning can be used in much more subtle and enriching ways to engage young people in their learning, to find out what they are trying to do in their music, and to encourage them to reflect upon and critically evaluate their work. Such questioning encourages young people to think about their music-making and what they are trying to achieve.

Black et al. suggest that in order to ensure that questioning is at its most effective, teachers should:

Examples of questions that explore a child’s engagement with music and their understanding of its expressive power (their ‘knowledge of’ music) might be:

• That piece you have just played, what feeling or mood did you want the music to express?
• How would you change the way you played it if you wanted it to express the opposite feeling or mood?
• If you were composing some music to create these feelings what would you do?

Examples of questions that you might use to ensure that you and the young people have a common understanding of what they and you are trying to achieve and which explore ‘success criteria’ might include:

• What are we learning today?
• What are we going to do [musically] to help us to learn this?
• How will you know if you’ve learned this?

However, if such questions are to be effective then they need to be used in a thoughtful way and not mechanistically.

3.2 Feedback

Feedback is critical in ensuring that young people make progress in their musical learning. Feedback can take a number of forms. Occasionally it may be written but more often it will be verbal feedback that is rooted in dialogue between teacher and pupil. Feedback should identify what has been done well, what can be improved and ways in which such improvements can take place.

To be effective, however, feedback also needs to be detailed and undertaken sensitively and at appropriate times and places. Feedback should provide a basis for moving forward. It should be rooted in what the child can do and offer a clear way forward for taking the ‘next steps’ in their learning. These steps should be negotiated, clearly defined, achievable and engaging.

The point at which a teacher intervenes to give feedback is important and goes to the centre of the creative process. Most models of creativity are predicated on the idea of the creative process being one of the stages of engagement with musical materials and ideas. Young people need to be given the space in order to develop at their own pace and engage with music in their own way. As Philpott says, ‘suggestions and interventions in what is already a successful creative process can breed resentment and alienation’ (Philpott and Spruce, 2007, p. 215). Interventions might be used for the following reasons:

• to praise and reassure the young people that what they are doing is on the right track
• to suggest and discuss musical ideas with the young people
• to refocus young people back onto the aims of the lesson when their concentration has slipped.

In all of this, however, we must not lose sight of the fact that it is possible to ‘feedback’ musically – through music. This can be done simply by performing to the young person another way of playing a phrase (many instrumental teachers do this) or by demonstrating what the addition of a particular dynamic nuance could add to their composition. It could also be through a form of musical dialogue, perhaps within the context of an improvisation.

3.3 Sharing criteria

We identified the importance of shared criteria in one of key principles for music assessment that were discussed in the previous section.

It is important that the teacher and young people have a shared understanding of what the criteria for success might be, whether this is negotiated or imposed. If what the young people are trying to achieve and the criteria that are being used to assess the effectiveness of their work do not correspond, then it is unlikely that the assessment process will be seen by the students as relevant or legitimate, or provide meaningful information about their musical learning.

Sharing criteria is, as we have suggested, a potentially much richer process than simply devising criteria (however laudable these might be) and then simply informing the students what these are – ‘sharing’ in the sense of ‘telling’. Shared criteria can form the basis of pupil–teacher dialogue, which can result in students feeling they have a stake in the assessment process rather than it simply being an externally driven force that is being done to them.

An important part of this dialogue is negotiating with students the criteria by which their work is to be assessed. This may involve, as Gipps says, ‘extended interaction between pupil and teacher to explain the task’ (in Spruce, 2002, p. 127) and the basis for what the teacher counts as success either in their own terms or in terms of an externally imposed set of criteria such as examination criteria. Young people are then in a position to apply such criteria in an informed way to their own and others’ work.

Young people can also be involved in defining the terms of assessment and the criteria for success. As Ross and Mitchell argue:

In other words, an important part of assessment is to ascertain what it is that the pupil is trying to achieve and express; ‘teachers and young people should sit down together in regular shared acts of assessment through talk’ (Ross and Mitchell, 1993, p. 100). Talking with students enables teachers to understand what it is that the young people are trying to achieve and to ensure that this is taken into account in the assessment of their work.

3.4 Self-assessment

Self and peer assessment is a key element in enabling students to engage critically with their own work and that of others. Through doing this they can identify their strengths and plan how to move forward in their musical learning. Self and peer assessment encourages young people to actively engage in their own learning and to gain ownership of that learning. However, if self and peer assessment is to work well it needs to be carefully planned. It needs to be seen by the students as of value by complementing and adding to assessments carried out by the teacher or other external authority.

Dialogue between teacher and pupil(s) also forms an important part of self and peer assessment and is linked to the sharing (in the true sense of the word) of criteria discussed in the previous section. Criteria that are negotiated, agreed and founded on a shared understanding of what is to be achieved and how that achievement is to be valued allows for:

• a dialogue about assessment between pupil and teacher based upon a common and agreed understanding
• young people evaluating how well they have achieved against the learning objectives and outcomes. This results in greater learner autonomy and independence, which leads to…
• the knowledge and understanding that allows young people to decide (with the support of teachers) what it is they need to do next to develop their musical learning.

4 Key Issue 4: How do we use assessment evidence to plan for learning?

In this final section you will consider the ways in which assessment information can be used to enable a teacher to evaluate and reflect upon their own assessment and teaching in relation to their students’ learning. We pose a series of questions and discussion points to enable you to structure your thinking when planning for teaching, learning and assessing in the music classroom. We ask you to consider issues relating to evaluating and reflecting upon your own teaching under three main headings:

1. Assessment: a question of value
2. Teacher as observer
3. Teacher as musical critic.

4.1 Assessment: a question of value

In this section you will focus on the extent to which assessment is of ‘value’ to the teacher and their students. Questions relate to the assessment’s fitness for purpose, how it is planned for and the appropriateness of what students are being asked to do.

4.2 Teacher as observer

This second section identifies the things a teacher should be considering and the questions they should be asking of themselves as they observe the young people working in their lessons. These questions add a qualitative dimension to the assessment process that focuses upon students’ engagement with their musical learning.

4.3 Teacher as musical critic

In this final section, you will consider the questions teachers might ask when evaluating the extent to which their assessment approaches support young people’s musical learning.

4.4 Your assessment practice

These two final activities are designed to bring together your learning from this course and to encourage you to reflect on your assessment practice.

Conclusion

In this free course, Assessment in secondary music, you have looked at assessment in music from a range of perspectives. You began by looking at the broad differences between formative and summative assessments and their workings out and implications for music education. You then learned about some key principles for ensuring that assessment in music education is always musical assessment. From there, you moved on to look at the different ways in which assessment for learning might be promoted in the musical classroom. The course concluded by considering ways in which assessment can be used by music teachers to support their planning.

References

Acknowledgements

This free course was written by Gary Spruce.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course:

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Course image

© courtesy Jason Kubilius

Figures

Figure 1: courtesy of Gary Spruce

Figure 4: Fautley, M. and Savage, J. (2008) Assessment for Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools, Exeter, LearningMatters

Figure 5: Redsnapper/Alamy

Don't miss out

If reading this text has inspired you to learn more, you may be interested in joining the millions of people who discover our free learning resources and qualifications by visiting The Open University – www.open.edu/ openlearn/ free-courses.