Training guide

View

2. What is assessment for learning?

At the end of a topic, teachers will usually set a test. This is ‘summative assessment’ and tells you what learners know about that topic. Often, teachers are dismayed by how learners perform in the test, feeling disappointed that learners do not seem to know very much.

An effective teacher will have strategies that will help them to find out what learners know and understand at the start of a topic (elicit prior knowledge) and to monitor learning as they go along so they can adjust their plans if necessary (formative assessment). In this way, there will be no surprises when it comes to the test! This is called assessment for learning and is different from formal testing (assessment of learning).

Assessment of learning scores are often used to rate teachers’ or schools’ ability to move student achievement based on the results of single, point-in-time tests. In the Zambian primary education context, the end of year exams and the national exams at Grade 7 are Assessment of Learning.

Assessment of learning scores can also be used formatively. When teachers return a test to children, they can design follow-up activities for children to work on either independently or together, to explore what went well and why, but also what went wrong and why, and how they might improve their answers.

Assessment for learning (AFL) takes place constantly in every classroom. It helps you to track learning and support learners as you go along. Learners will become more involved in the learning process and be aware of what they are expected to learn and to what standard. In this course the focus is assessment for learning.

Activity 3.2

Take a look at this video of a Grade 7 science class. Would you describe this as Assessment of or for Learning?



In your Teacher Notebook make individual notes about your reasons for identifying it as Assessment of or for learning.

Now share your thinking with one or two colleagues. Did you arrive to the same conclusion?