EDFD679 - Formative Assessment: Using Assessment to Support Learning

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Unit rationale, description and aim

A longstanding distinction is made between formative assessment (for learning) and summative assessment (of learning), but these are really distinctions about use not kind of assessment, that is, using assessment to support and improve learning versus using assessment to report achievement. Research shows that all assessment shapes learning, potentially positively but sometimes negatively. Relevant research on assessment for learning will be surveyed, focusing on teacher engagement with students within different timeframes (immediate to long-term), alternative forms of assessment, relevant theories of learning, effective feedback processes, adaptation to individual student needs, and using data on learning outcomes to inform teaching and learning. A key issue is engagement of students in their own assessment and learning. Students will analyse their school's and their own assessment policies and practices for effects on student learning and consider ways in which they could design and use assessment more effectively to support student learning. Relevant research methods for research on formative assessment are developed.