assessment

Learning Intentions

In many English schools, it is quite common for teachers to begin the lesson with sharing the Learning Intention(s) (also commonly referred to as Learning Objectives) with students. Although wording may differ slightly, these tend to relate around the following three categories:

• To know…

• To understand… (sometimes "know how"…)

• To be able to…

An assessment system which relies heavily on making inferences about individuals, teachers, and schools from just end-of-course examination data can be seen as hugely problematic; to some one of the principle issues is that, by doing so, a serious threat to validity has occurred: construct under-representation. What this means is that, since only a small part of the entire taught curriculum can be assessed, other equally important learning outcomes go untested. (Brookhart et al., 2019).

Assessment Reform Group (1999) Assessment for learning - Beyond the black box, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge School of Education.

Bjork, R. and Bjork, E. (1992) A new theory of disuse and an old theory of stimulus fluctuation, In: A. Healey, S. Kosslyn and E. Siffrin (Eds.) From learning processes to cognitive processes: Essays in honor of Wiliam K. Estes, (Vol. 2, pp. 35-67), Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

There is over fifty-years’-worth of research evidence to suggest that formative assessment, when used effectively, can have a significant impact on pupil outcomes. Despite the wealth of research into, and exemplification of good practice, formative assessment in some countries like England, for example, has not had the impact it promised (Coe, 2013) because it has become confused in some schools, is weak in practice, and, therefore, requires clarifying.

To support teachers in developing their understanding of formative assessment, this MESHGuide: 

Detailed advice about what can be expected of children at different ages and stages is given in the following three documents.

The first, from UNICEF indicates different development stages of children in different regions.