EDST5100 Chap.4 Assessment for Learning
Assessment for Learning
This chapter classifies assessment by how evidence is used. Assessment for learning adapts teaching, assessment as learning builds learner monitoring, and assessment of learning supports judgement against goals or standards.
Worked cases redesign feedback so criteria, diagnosis, action and opportunity connect, while keeping reporting and certification functions visible.
A task does not become formative because it happens often or before a final submission. Evidence must be used to alter teaching or learning. Assessment for learning helps a teacher decide what explanation, practice or support comes next.
Assessment as learning helps students interpret criteria, monitor progress and set goals. Assessment of learning supports reporting, certification and other public judgements. One instrument can contribute to several functions, and those purposes may complement or compete with one another.
Feedback becomes useful when it links a destination, a diagnosis and an action.
A score may record a judgement without showing how to progress. A detailed comment may still fail if it arrives after the opportunity to revise. Effective feedback identifies the relevant criterion, locates a specific gap, gives the learner a realistic move and provides a setting in which that move can be used.
Learner self explanation can turn teacher information into assessment as learning.
Assessment literacy extends beyond instrument design. Educators need to make fair, contextualised and trustworthy inferences while building learners' capability to participate. Begin with the conclusion you need to support, then ask whether the task provides relevant evidence and what consequences follow from its use.
The chapter applies this reasoning to the course rubrics so broad criteria such as depth, literature and structure become concrete revision decisions.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Assessment for learning and instructional adaptation
- 02
Assessment as learning and learner self monitoring
- 03
Assessment of learning and public judgement
- 04
Destination, current evidence and next action in feedback
- 05
Teacher and student assessment literacy
- 06
Validity, consequence and the interplay of assessment purposes
Worked example · free
Turn a verdict into formative feedback
- 2Clarify the criterion and identify the precise unsupported claim.
- 2Give one actionable revision using contrasting evidence and an explicit warrant.
- 2Require learner self explanation and provide an opportunity to use the feedback.
Key terms
- Formative assessment
- Assessment whose evidence is used to adapt teaching or learning while development remains possible.
- Summative assessment
- Assessment used to judge achievement against goals or standards for reporting and certification.
- Assessment literacy
- Knowledge and skill for making fair, contextualised and trustworthy assessment decisions.
- Feedback
- Information connecting current performance, a valued destination and an actionable route for improvement.
- Validity
- The defensibility of an interpretation and use made from assessment evidence.
Assessment for Learning FAQ
Is a frequent quiz automatically formative?
No. Frequency describes timing, not function. A quiz becomes formative when its evidence changes teaching or gives learners a usable opportunity to improve. If scores are only recorded for reporting, the quiz primarily serves assessment of learning even when it occurs every week.
How does assessment as learning differ from feedback?
Assessment as learning places the learner inside the judgement process through criteria use, self monitoring and goal setting. Feedback can contribute, but comments delivered by a teacher do not guarantee learner participation. The learner needs to interpret the evidence, decide on action and apply that action to later work.
Why can one assessment serve several purposes?
A task can produce evidence for learner revision, teacher adaptation and public reporting. Those uses may complement or compete with each other. Analyse who receives the evidence, which decision changes and what consequence follows instead of assigning one fixed label to the instrument.
Assessment move
For every assessment case, write the intended inference, the audience and the decision that follows. Redesign one comment using destination, diagnosis, action and opportunity. Compare what the evidence tells the teacher with what it tells the learner, then identify any reporting consequence that could alter classroom use.
Practise reclassifying the same quiz under different consequences: recorded score, teacher reteaching and student self correction. Explain why the function changes even when the questions stay fixed. End by checking the validity of the inference and the opportunity learners receive to act. Add one unintended consequence and decide whether the design, communication or later use of the evidence should change.
Check whether the learner can understand the criterion without already knowing the answer. Name the next observable action that would show whether feedback has become usable learning rather than information alone.
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