Despite being an experienced Mathematics teacher in higher secondary, after critically reflecting on and gauging our current classroom practices; I have observed and deeply realised that AfL strategies could be utilised way more powerful than our regular practices.
Learning is a reflective activity that enables us to evaluate the present and create our future plans based on our experiences in the past. It is a cognitive change in our minds, how we acquire knowledge, how we shape our beliefs and perceptions, modify our behaviours and strengthen our skills.
Learning outcomes and instructional intentions behind our teaching practices may have a mismatch. One way of eliciting the students’ prior or present knowledge and identifying to consolidate the level of learning taking place in classrooms is to conduct assessments. It is only through assessment we can evaluate whether our classroom activities and teaching practice are aligned with the intended learning outcomes set beforehand and whether desired progress has been made or not.
Assessments may have a huge impact on learning and enhance students’ metacognitive skills as long as those are properly handled and consistent. I believe they become more purposeful when provided in the form of Assessment for Learning. Assessment Reform Group (2002) defines AfL as “the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.”
Black et al. (2004) claim that any assessment becomes for learning when its design and practice serve to promote students’ learning. Therefore, the term ‘AfL’ refers to a practical and transformative device to enhance students’ learning by keeping the learner at the core of learning activity.
The diagram above displays the functional aspect of AfL. It all starts with diagnosing and the cycle keeps running in a continuous manner. We diagnose students’ level and set targets according to their abilities and aptitudes. Diagnosis is indispensable to be able to give suitable and achievable targets for each individual.
Clarify the learning intentions to the students and make your expectations clear for them. During target setting and defining goals, teachers need to sit with students, brainstorm, provide an exchange of ideas and then make decision altogether. In this way, students would feel more valued and become more responsible and willing to take action.
Organise classroom activities that boost their interest and performance, create a learning culture with peer support. As teachers, we experience that students learn a great deal of information from each other. Thus we utilize cooperative learning environment to build a scaffolding opportunities for students who are lagging behind. Engineer the positive learning environment where everyone gets their share.
Divide teaching into smaller chunks and units, then make the transition between these chunks of knowledge after verification of attainment levels. By this, the understanding level for each part of the curriculum could easily be monitored and relevant measures could be taken on time. Students are able to recognize their misconceptions before building anything over to their existing knowledge that has defects and faults.
Providing constructive feedback helps students to monitor their strengths and weaknesses, and enable them to reinforce their positive aspects and refrain from mistakes that they have done earlier. This process should be handled very cautiously; the precarious feedbacks given by teachers might create a false self-image and even impede learning. Rather than pointing out students’ mistakes and faults, the emphasis should be made on how to earn better outcomes. Keep in mind that, providing constructive feedback is assumed as a source of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for learners. Students thus will be able to cope with maths anxiety, stereotypes related to gender factors, myths about being a maths person and similar narrow mind-sets.
Put AfL strategies into practice. Bartlett (2015) points out that outstanding teachers consistently monitor the progress of students towards shared learning objectives and make it clear at significant key points within the process then adapt their teaching interventions accordingly so that all of them make progress.
An example of building collaborative learning environment is conducting participation quizzes where students need to engage in a particular task or assessments in groups. I find this activity very useful in my Mathematics classes. “Teachers can hone in on various focal points to help students work effectively together during a participation quiz: body positioning that promotes equal access to the conversation and the materials, enactment of group roles, explanation of reasoning, and persistence.” (Watanabe and Evans, 2015, p.299) This activity is useful to attach students to a diverse range of abilities together to fold learning outcomes so that all students feel being part of the learning environment.
Constructing a powerful and inquiry-based classroom atmosphere would be possible by effective questioning. A teacher should focus on engaging the learners rather than instructing a particular information through questioning. Instead of bombarding students with lots of shallow questions, pose just a few rich, open and provocative questions where students could engage in groups of various abilities. Such culture of effective questioning raises metacognitive skills and conceptual understanding.
Another important strategy is using differentiation in the context of AfL. Differentiation refers to modifying our practice and its pace to accommodate the best variation among three parameters namely readiness to learn, individual’s learning needs and interest as their source of inspiration (Barlett, 2015).
Barlett (2015, p.97) points out that “Assessment for learning and differentiation go hand in hand to support a personalised approach to learning and to ensure that all pupils make progress.” We shall be able to put theory into practice in an efficient and skillful manner either by task, by resource, by grouping, by pace, by an outcome, by the support and by questioning in their day-to-day interactions with students. To maximise the impact of this combination and not turning differentiation into discrimination, teachers need to carefully examine the type of activities that they can organise within their classrooms and comprehend priory their ethical judgments.
Once the first cycle of AfL is completed for your students then continue with next by greater visions. As I have mentioned earlier this is a continuous process and requires persistence.
I shall finally stress that AfL should not be understood as a heavy burden on teachers but rather a roadmap to success for teachers and as well as their students. It is all about creating the flow towards success criteria by being aware of what you are doing.
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