RSA#1 Creating a Focus on Learning

Peer Reviewed Article

RSA#1 Creating a Focus on Learning

Teachers who establish that their focus is on learning, will then search for ways to be able to assess learning. One essential way for teachers to ensure focus is on learning is to implement formative assessments. In their book, Learning By Doing, Dufour, Dufour, Eaker, and Many state the importance of formative assessments. They quote many other educators and authors who describe formative assessments.

Fullan (2005) states the following:

Assessment for learning…when done well, this is one of the most powerful, high-leverage strategies for improving student learning that we know of. Educators collectively at the district and school levels become more skilled and focused at assessing, disaggregating, and using students’ achievement as a tool for ongoing improvement. (p. 71).

The article The Concept of Formative Assessment from the online source, Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation (Boston, 2002) states that teachers can use formative assessments to make beneficial changes in instruction. As teachers focus on learning and use the data collected from formative assessments, they can then begin to decide future instruction to give intervention or enrichment to students. The article lists the purpose and benefits of formative assessment, as well as, describing examples of formative assessments. Teachers whose Professional Learning Committees focus on learning could use these examples to help determine overall how the students in each area or grade level are performing based on the formative assessment.

Both resources state that formative assessments are assessments for learning. These assessments help the teacher modify his/her instruction to help each student based on the results of the formative assessments. The article relays the same message as the book Learning By Doing in describing that once teachers have established the same essential curriculum, use common pacing, while sharing what practices are working, they can then asses the quality of student learning through formative assessments.

 

Boston, C. (2002). The concept of formative assessment. Retrieved from http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=9

Stiggans, R., & DuFour, R. (2009). Maximizing the power of formative assessments. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(9), 640-644

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Comic from http://www.niu.edu/assessment/Manual/overview.shtml

“When done well, formative assessment advances and motivates, rather than merely reports on student learning. The clearly defined goals and descriptive feedback to students provide them with specific insights regarding how to improve, and the growth they experience helps build their confidence as learners."

 -Stiggins & Dufour, 2009