A4L, AfL or Assessment for Learning

There is a plethora of materials available for AfL. To save everyone having to look for them all the time, I have updated the weblinks on the del.icio.us site. This is also available as an rss feed. Within Norfolk, the links are also available within the Netmedia VLE. Please feel free to contact us with further links to add to the list.

As a result of the work described previously, we put some ideas together:

The following needs to be considered when setting up such CPD:

• Permissions to video students need to be obtained.
• If the video is recorded, the copyright remains with NCC and the recording must not be shown to third parties or be publicised without prior permission of those filmed.  It can be used by the teachers involved to reflect upon the lesson.  For security reasons tapes should be wiped at the end of the process.
• A focus for the observation needs to be agreed. This might affect the positioning of the unit.
• All parties involved need to agree the role of the observer (i.e. passive, active involvement when requested, active support with intervention)
• Pupils need to be informed prior to the lesson.  They need to be reminded of expected behaviour, including the need to eliminate unnecessary noises, such as tapping etc.
• At the beginning of the lessons pupils need to be reminded of the purpose of the observation and how it will be used by teachers.
• Pupils should be given an opportunity to greet the person joining the lesson remotely.  Alternatively, once the video conferencing has been acknowledged, the TV showing the remote teacher/observer can be turned off.  This results in anonymity for the observer and less distraction for the class.  However, students must still be made aware of the observation taking place.
• If students have greeted the person at the beginning, they should also have an opportunity to say good bye.
• The observer needs to have access to all lesson materials prior to the lesson, particularly the lesson plan.
• A live internet connection for both parties is desirable, if the observer takes a more active role.
• A feedback time needs to be arranged.  Feedback can take place through the unit, face to face or through alternative video conferencing facilities, such as Flashmeeting.
• The observer needs to mute their microphone to avoid distractions to the lesson, whenever they are taking a passive role.

Technical considerations:

• The connection needs to be tested prior to the observation.
• The unit and microphone needs to be positioned appropriately in the room.  It could be in a corner, or in the vicinity of the people to be observed more closely (e.g. teacher, small group).
• The remote control needs to be configured with the right number of presets for different angles and parts of the room.
• If the IWB or display is used, the unit needs to be set up to focus onto it.  The teacher needs ensure that lights are switched off and on accordingly during the lesson.
• Where ICT lesson are observed, it is beneficial to have flat screen monitors, rather than CRTs.  The refresh rate of the CRTs causes noticeable flickering through remote observation.

Video conferencing with classroom observation might be used to focus on improving the following aspects of teaching:

• Behaviour for learning
• Getting class to listen
• The way the teacher interacts with the class (particularly NQTs)
• Structure of lesson Aims, Assessment criteria, Plenary
• The change over from one activity to the next
• How to do whole class discussion
• listening to Q&A, class talk
• listening to student conversations and positioning the unit to listen to groups
• Getting the students to present to second audience

It might be less suitable for:

• Viewing students work
• Seeing the whole class
• picking up on all aspects of the classroom and interaction (you miss whatever is not in the camera view)

KS4 and AfL seem to have a rather mixed relationship. In many respects, assessment for learning works well in many classrooms. Teachers are explaining examination criteria in detail, they point out what else needs to be done or learnt. When it comes to coursework however, there seems to be some difficulty in developing good practice. “Letting students get on with the work” seems to be given preference. I wonder, whether we should lobby the QCA to include in the examination criteria the following aspects:

• can give feedback to a fellow student and apply examination criteria to their work
• can break the task into manageable chunks
• can allocate appropriate amounts of time to each task
• can complete a weekly tracking document, which shows what they have done and what they will do next.

Maybe I’m wrong and students are already assessed on this. Maybe doesn’t need to be explicit?

Some of the strategy materials on assessment for learning are great and really detailed. However, too much detail is often a problem for busy teachers. When I asked an adviser, how she enables people to have a quick introduction to AfL, she pointed out booklet no. 12 in the Pedagogy in Practice pack. Its predictably called ‘Assessment for Learning’ and contains a nice overview of the topic. The section on ‘Helping pupils recognise the standards they are aiming for’ is quite useful, as it is often quite difficult to enable student to understand National Curriculum Levels and other assessment criteria created for Adults.

You can download the booklet here and it’s also in our link collection.

I witnessed an interesting example of peer assessment yesterday. Pupils in a year 6 class had been producing a small webpage on an e-portfolio about the coast. When they were shown how to post a reflection on someone else’s page, t Read the rest of this entry »