Professional Studies

Introduction to AfL
(Assessment for Learning)
Aims of the Session:

1. Understand the concept of AfL

2. Explore the importance of AfL to

student learning

3. Utilise practical techniques for

our own teaching
 Assessment for
learning involves
using assessment in
the classroom to raise
pupils’ achievement

- Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority
The 10 Principles of AfL:
1. Assessment for learning should be part of
effective planning of teaching and learning

2. AfL should focus on how students learn

3. AfL should be recognised as central to

classroom practice
The 10 Principles of AfL:
4. AfL should be sensitive and constructive
because any assessment has an emotional
impact

5. AfL should take account of the importance of

learner motivation

6. AfL should promote commitment to learning

goals and a shared understanding of the criteria
by which they are assessed
The 10 Principles of AfL:
7. Learners should receive constructive
guidance about how to improve

8. Learners need information and guidance in

order to plan the next steps in their learning

9. AfL develops learners' capacity for self-

assessment so that they can become reflective
and self-managing
The 10 Principles of AfL:
10. AfL should recognise the full range of
achievements of all learners

• A*-A ratings?
• A*-C ratings?
• League Tables?
• “Value Added”?
A Challenge:
 What was
our learning
objective?
Learning Objectives:
“Defining objectives which clarify exactly what
learning you hope will take place is a crucial
skill for the effective teacher”
– Davison and Leask, 2005

 Learning Aims = general statements

 Learning Objectives = specific goals

Identify… List…
Solve…

By the end of this

session…
Demonstrate…
Describe…
State…
LO:
To create a piece of
music for an advert
Learning Aims:
To create a piece of
music for an advert
By the end of the lesson, I will create a
piece of music for an advert…

Steve Vai Solo.mp4

LO:
To create a piece of music for an advert

Success Criteria:

- A piece that persuades people to

buy nappies
- Use of simple instruments
- Features children singing
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Even better…
Skill Area

Verbs for
your
Lesson
Aims

Suggested
Activities
• Tell, uncover, show, list, locate, repeat, define, KNOWLEDGE
explain, investigate, recall…
• Summarise, relate, experiment, demonstrate, COMPREHENSION
explain, reword, discuss…
• Try, diagram, perform, make, put into action, build, APPLICATION
report, employ, relate, draw, construct, adapt…
• Study, combine, separate, categorise, detect,
examine, inspect, discriminate, take apart,
ANALYSIS
generalise, compare, analyse, scrutinise…
• Hypothesise, predict, create, invent, produce,
modify, extend, design, formulate, develop, build,
SYNTHESIS
compile…
• Interpret, justify, decide, criticise, judge, solve, rate, EVALUATION
assess, appraise…
For example…
Learning Aim:

To identify key features

of Propaganda in WW1

Learning Outcomes:

A list of three things

these sources have in
common
For example…
Learning Aim:

To make links between

WW1 and more recent
propaganda

Learning Outcomes:

•A list of 3 things the

sources have in common
•A list of 3 things that
they do not
•EXT – An assessment of
their impact
• Tell, uncover, show, list, locate, repeat, define, KNOWLEDGE
explain, investigate, recall…
• Summarise, relate, experiment, demonstrate, COMPREHENSION
explain, reword, discuss…
• Try, diagram, perform, make, put into action, build, APPLICATION
report, employ, relate, draw, construct, adapt…
• Study, combine, separate, categorise, detect,
examine, inspect, discriminate, take apart,
ANALYSIS
generalise, compare, analyse, scrutinise…
• Hypothesise, predict, create, invent, produce,
modify, extend, design, formulate, develop, build,
SYNTHESIS
compile…
• Interpret, justify, decide, criticise, judge, solve, rate, EVALUATION
assess, appraise…
AfL is like Hip Hop…

…it’s got key elements

Key Elements of AfL:
using effective questioning techniques

using marking and feedback strategies

sharing learning goals

peer and self-assessment

 Stilton!

Brie!

1
2
What OfSTED look for now:
 Greater emphasis on achievement and well-
being
◦ May observe small parts of lessons, as well as the
whole session
◦ Greater weighting on attainment
◦ “progress”
◦ More focus on individual groups ( students from
ethnic minority backgrounds, gifted and talented …)
◦ Ambition to improve student learning
 Formative
assessment…is clearly
a direction of change
which could improve
standards of learning

- P. Black, 2001
Formative and Summative
Assessment A
summary
Practice, health of the
check question learning

Formative 1 Formative 2 Summative

Second formative, builds

on previous feedback
Motivation and self-esteem
Students need
- P. Black, 2001
to believe they
can achieve

Demotivated
No grade = no
students will
comparison to
see little point
others
trying

Change to a
“Try this next
time…” learning
conversation
Formative and Summative
Assessment

Graded

Formative 1 Formative 2 Summative

Identify… List…
Solve…

By the end of this

session…
Demonstrate…
Describe…
Have we met our objectives?
State…
 The illiterate of the 21 st

century will not be those

who can read and write…
but those who cannot
learn, unlearn and relearn

- Alvin Toffler