Assessment for Learning in Primary Language Learning and Teaching

Maria Britton

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781800410664
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Evaluación y valoración en la educación

This volume provides a detailed account of the practical use of Assessment for Learning (AfL) in primary language classrooms. It gives an in-depth account of the ways in which eight experienced primary language teachers incorporated this type of assessment into their practice and discusses the possible impact of AfL on primary language learning. Key themes discussed in the volume include the relationship between AfL and language learning in childhood, which assessment methods are appropriate for primary-aged language learners, which methods support learner agency and engagement in the learning processes, and possible paths for future action, with a focus on implementation and researching AfL in primary language contexts. The findings of this book are relevant to global contexts and it will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of language education, language assessment and teacher education, as well as to primary and language teachers and school leaders.

1 Introduction to the Book

Introduction

This book is about how assessment for learning (AfL), innovative in mainstream education in the UK and the USA in the early part of the 21st century, is finding its way into the specific curricular context of primary language education. It reflects findings from my own research in Poland where English is taught as a foreign language. Throughout this volume, I also give indications of how AfL might be relevant in the many contexts globally from which the intended readership is drawn.

AfL is an approach that can make a significant contribution to the improvement of the quality of primary language learning and teaching. The claims that learning and achievement could be facilitated by formative assessment (FA) (Black & Wiliam, 1998) have attracted considerable research attention. Despite the criticism (Bennett, 2011; Dunn & Mulvenon, 2009) that questioned the validity of Black and ­Wiliam (1998) comparing the 250 diverse studies in their meta-analysis or the methodological rigour of some of those studies, their 1998 article inspired a significant amount of research. The outcomes of that research, while complex, suggest that AfL and FA may facilitate the learning process (e.g. Earl, 2012; Ruiz-Primo & Furtak, 2006; Sly, 1999).

However, despite a growing research interest in assessment practices in primary language teaching contexts (Prošić-Santovac & Rixon, 2019; Tsagari, 2016) and simultaneously growing interest in FA in language education (Butler & Lee, 2010; Lee & Coniam, 2013; Öz, 2014; Porter, 2019), very little empirical evidence has been reported on the use of AfL with primary-aged learners. Calls for further research of AfL and its potential to benefit learning have also been made (Bennett, 2011; Dunn & Mulvenon, 2009; Nikolov, 2016). This volume addresses that gap by providing a detailed account of the practical use of AfL in primary language classrooms. Furthermore, the discussion of those findings highlights the relationships between using AfL and teaching and learning in primary language classes.

What is Assessment for Learning?

Formative evaluation was initially discussed by Scriven (1967), who applied it to educational programmes. The idea was further developed by Bloom (1984), who argued that a tutor can improve a tutee’s learning by providing feedback (information that an error has occurred) and correctives (interventions which help repair the error). This early principle of providing feedback on the ongoing learning in order to facilitate it seems consistent with the present definitions of FA and AfL, as discussed in Chapter 2.

AfL strategies and techniques

In order to facilitate learning through assessment, teachers are advised to: ensure that learners understand learning objectives (LOs) and criteria for success; elicit evidence of student understanding during lessons; provide feedback which can help to progress learning; help activate learners as learning resources for themselves and for each other (Black & Wiliam, 2009). These key strategies can be implemented through a variety of practical techniques. In order to inform children of the aims of each lesson and the expected outcomes, teachers can introduce, for example, success criteria (SC); LOs; what are we learning today?–type questions (WALT); or I can statements (ICS). Teachers can also use various techniques to provide learners with feedback. This can be done through monitoring while learners are still working on a task, or soon after a task has been completed. The aim of the feedback is to highlight the extent to which children have met the expectations set for them and to indicate next steps in learning. Teachers can use techniques such as colour coding (CC); indicating mistakes without explanations (IMWE); smiley faces (SF); traffic lights (TL); next steps (NST); or two stars and a wish (TSAW), to name just a few examples. These AfL techniques are discussed in detail in Part 2 of this volume.

As outlined above, the purpose of AfL is to support learners in improving their learning outcomes by helping them to reflect on the extent to which they already meet LOs and on how best to move their learning forward. This conceptualisation of AfL seems to be related to other pedagogic initiatives such as cognitive acceleration programmes (Black & Wiliam, 2009), Learning How to Learn (Black et al., 2006) or Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2006).

Contextual consideration

The practical implementation of AfL using key strategies and techniques will vary across educational contexts. It may be shaped by factors such as local assessment traditions and expectations, teacher cognition and knowledge, class size or learner age.

In contexts where it is well established, as is the case in the UK’s mainstream primary education, AfL seems to permeate everyday teaching and may be incorporated under a wider philosophy, such as Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2006). In other teaching cultures, especially those traditionally dominated by competitive, test- and exam-based assessment practices, it is more challenging to embed AfL. In such contexts, teachers may rely on implementing AfL techniques (see Part 2 for examples) into their established practice, rather than changing the teaching culture in order to embed ‘genuine AfL’ (Swaffield, 2011) into it through more democratic or participatory approaches.

In contexts where participatory approaches to teaching and assessment are the norm, sharing the objectives of a lesson and/or SC with learners could be implemented with relative ease. For example, to clarify what outcomes are expected, a teacher might say that by the end of a lesson they would expect each learner to be able to talk about five things which they had done the day before. In this example, the teacher would be focusing the lesson on introducing an element of grammar linked to talking about the past. By representing the pedagogical aim in a way that is personalised and measurable, teachers can make LOs accessible even to young children. Not every objective lends itself well to making it measurable. In such cases, teachers can accompany an LO with SC. For example, when the LO is to describe a person or a character from a story, children can be given a list of components that a good quality text should contain. These could comprise items such as: (1) include looks, likes and habits; (2) use a minimum of seven describing phrases; (3) include at least one question. Such SC would support learners in completing the task by prompting them to describe physical appearance, preferences and typical activities; to use adjectives and adverbs; and to vary sentence structure by introducing at least one question.

Why is AfL Important in Primary Foreign Languages?

A note on clarification of the terms which I use to refer to various age groups is introduced here, given their varied meanings in different school systems. UNESCO’s (2011) International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) uses the term primary to refer to children who start compulsory education around the age of 6 up to the end of primary schooling, approximately the age of 12. In language education, the term young learners (YLs) has been used since the 1980s. Initially, it referred to adolescents. However, in recent years it seems to have evolved and now also encapsulates younger children as ‘the age at which children begin to learn additional languages in school contexts has fallen rapidly, with national policy currently stabilising somewhere between the ages of 6–9 years in government-funded schools in many parts of the world’ (Enever & Driscoll, 2019: 3). To illustrate the confusion surrounding the terminology associated with the learners’ age, Ellis (2014) lists a plethora of terms used to refer to various subgroups, arguing that more consistency is needed in the field. In this volume, I follow the terminology adopted by Enever and Discoll (2019), which is consistent with the UNESCO (2011) classification. Consequently, I use the term primary to refer to children aged approximately 6–12 years old.

While many teachers believe that primary-aged children should be assessed and that outcomes of assessment in primary languages should predominantly serve to inform future teaching (formative function), the practices they report seem to rely largely on mini summative tests (Rea-Dickins & Rixon, 1999). These focus predominantly on lexical and grammatical aspects of language proficiency and tend not to be incorporated into the teaching and learning activities. This volume demonstrates clearly that AfL is much better suited to fulfilling the formative function of assessment.

Studies conducted in various teaching contexts globally have identified the key characteristics of effective and valid assessment of primary languages. Most significantly, assessment processes should incorporate setting clear goals, monitoring progress towards those goals, frequent questioning and providing quality feedback (Edelenbos & Vinjé, 2000); assessment methods should account for the way in which children learn languages (McKay, 2006); and assessment tasks should be contextualised through teaching activities, designed in a child-friendly format and implemented over a period of time, not as a one-off event (Hasselgreen, 2000). Strategies and techniques inherent to AfL can offer a practical solution to address such recommendations.

Overview of the Book

The purpose of this book is threefold: to provide much needed insights into the practical use of AfL in primary language teaching and learning by reporting in detail the ways in which eight experienced primary language teachers implemented this type of assessment into their practice; to discuss the relationship between AfL and language learning in childhood; and finally, to highlight paths for future action with the focus on implementing and researching AfL in primary language contexts. To best serve these purposes, this volume is divided into three parts. Following this introductory chapter, in Part 1, I set the scene by clarifying the theoretical framework of AfL (Chapter 2) and reviewing the current body of knowledge about assessment and learning in primary languages (Chapter 3). The review is completed with a discussion of studies that focus on the relationship between learning and assessment in childhood from either the cognitive constructivist (Chapter 4) or the sociocultural perspectives (Chapter 5).

Part 2 includes Chapters 6–9, which focus on different aspects of the practical implementation of AfL. Throughout Part 2, I also reflect on the possible impact that the practical implementation reported in each chapter could have on learning. I ground the discussion in the findings from my own research into the use of AfL with learners aged 7–11. The significant data set which I collected by observing lessons, analysing school documents and interviewing teachers resulted in several useful outcomes. First, it allowed for creating an inventory of AfL techniques used in primary language lessons, complete with a detailed account of the ways in which they were used (Chapters 6 and 7). Secondly, a comparative analysis of the use of AfL in the two age groups (7–9 and 10–11) highlighted some interesting age-specific considerations relevant to the implementation of AfL (Chapter 8). Thirdly, analysing the frequency and diversity of use across teachers resulted in identifying factors which may facilitate or impede the use of AfL (Chapter 9). Part 2 concludes by proposing a model of AfL implementation in primary language education, identifying four distinct types of classroom practice (Chapter 9).

Part 3 concludes this volume. In Chapters 10 and 11, I consider different aspects of the impact that implementing AfL could have on teaching and learning additional languages in a primary school context. Chapter 10 focuses on the interactions that occur during the use of AfL, highlighting some possible links between AfL and improved achievement. In Chapter 11, I synthesise the findings about the relationship between AfL and the teaching and learning processes that occur in lessons. The discussion focuses around the concept of the assessment spiral. I propose that this is an accurate and helpful way of capturing the process of AfL in primary language learning and that it can be used as a springboard for further research into the impact of AfL on improving achievement. Finally, in Chapter 12, I consider useful directions for future action with regard to implementing and researching AfL and age-appropriate assessment methods in contexts where children are learning languages.

Part 1
Defining Assessment
for Learning in Primary
Contexts

2 What is AfL in Primary Language Teaching Contexts?

I would say that AfL is a kind of philosophy that involves measuring your students’ progress minute-by-minute of the lesson on the ongoing basis and checking that they have the understanding of something and it also involves them knowing what to do in order to achieve goals

(T2/FG)

Introduction

In this chapter, I discuss the theoretical framework of assessment for learning (AfL). The picture that emerges from a review of the literature demonstrates that there is a need for clarifying the terminology used, especially the definitions of formative as...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction to the Book
• Part 1 Defining Assessment for Learning in Primary Contexts
• Part 2 Implementing AfL in the Classroom
• Part 3 Impact of AfL on Learning
• References
• Appendices
• Index