APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING

Assessment for
Learning
What is Assessment for Learning?
Assessment for Learning (AfL) is a teaching approach that generates feedback which can be used to improve
learners’ performance. Learners become more involved in the learning process and, from this, gain confidence
in what they are expected to learn and to what standard. We, as teachers, gain insights into a learner’s level of
understanding of a particular concept or topic, which helps to inform how we support their progression.
We need to understand the meaning and method of giving purposeful feedback to optimise learning. Feedback
can be informal, such as oral comments to help learners think through problems, or formal, such as the use of
rubrics to help clarify and scaffold learning and assessment objectives.

Why use Assessment for Learning?

By following well-designed approaches to AfL, we can understand better how our learners are learning and use
this to plan what we will do next with a class or individual learners (see following diagram).We can help our
learners to see what they are aiming for and to understand what they need to do to get there. AfL makes learning
visible; it helps learners understand more accurately the nature of the material they are learning and understand
themselves as learners. The quality of interactions and feedback between learners and teachers becomes critical
to the learning process.

Where
the learner
is now

Where
How
the learner
to get there
is going

1
 APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING

We can use AfL to help our learners focus on specific elements of their learning and to take greater
responsibility for how they might move forward. AfL creates a valuable connection between assessment and
learning activities, as the clarification of objectives will have a direct impact on how we devise teaching and
learning strategies. AfL techniques can support learners in becoming more confident in what they are learning,
reflective in how they are learning, more likely to try out new approaches, and more engaged in what they are
being asked to learn.

What are the challenges of incorporating

Assessment for Learning?
The use of AfL does not mean that we need to test learners more frequently. It would be easy to just increase
the amount of summative assessment and use this formatively as a regular method of helping us decide what
to do next in our teaching. We can judge how much learning has taken place through ways other than testing,
including, above all, communicating with our learners in a variety of ways and getting to know them better
as individuals.

Excerpts from the Approaches to learning and teaching series, courtesy of Cambridge University Press and
Cambridge Assessment International Education: cambridge.org/approachestolearning

Assessment for Learning in this series

As we have seen, Assessment for Learning improves performance through:
• a shared understanding of the direction of learning and the end goals
• generating feedback so that the learner knows where they are on the journey towards those goals
• working with learners to devise and adapt teaching programmes and opportunities for learning, in order to
help each individual learner on their journey.
To achieve desired results, it is essential that the learner is involved throughout the process, thereby inspiring
engagement and confidence.
In this series, we aim to provide you with the tools to successfully implement an Assessment for Learning
approach. We provide clear goals in line with the Cambridge Primary Mathematics curriculum framework, and
we provide a range of resources and techniques to help you gather the information about your learners which
you will need to plan, adapt and tailor your teaching to meet their specific needs.

Understanding where the learner is going

We would encourage you to look through the ‘How to use this book’ pages with your learners so that they are
familiar with the organization and features of each unit.
At the start of each Learner’s Book section you will find a set of learning intentions (We are going to … boxes),
written in learner-friendly language. In the Teacher’s Resource, you will see these again, this time using the
learning objectives from the curriculum framework so that you can be reassured of full coverage and understand
more clearly how the section objectives fit into the curriculum as a whole. These are accompanied by success
criteria so that you have measures against which to monitor your learners’ progression.
At the end of each section, the Look what I can do! box revisits the learning intentions of the unit so that
learners can self-assess their progress.

2
 APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING

Understanding where the learner is now

Before learning
Each stage starts with a Diagnostic check (available to download from Cambridge GO as part of this Teacher’s
Resource). This test deals with the knowledge and skills which are a prerequisite for success as learners start to
work through the stage. It aims to inform teachers and learners whether the foundations are solid and whether
remedial work is required before knowledge and skills are built upon as a part of the spiral curriculum. It can
also indicate whether the group are confident in certain areas, meaning less time need be spent on these. Of
course, teachers will also learn which individuals will need special support in order to fulfil their potential.
Each unit starts with a Getting started exercise to tease out prior learning. It’s useful for you to know what
learners already know so that you can tailor your teaching; it’s helpful for learners to prime themselves for new
learning by activating schemata (mental frameworks which help us understand new information) and engaging
with the topic; and this process also offers an opportunity for confidence-building peer teaching. Please also
see the Diagnostic questions section in the Improving learning through questioning document (available to
download from Cambridge GO as part of this Teacher’s Resource).

During learning
The exercises in the Learner’s Book and Workbook allow learners to practise mathematical skills and applying
their knowledge. The Learner’s Book also includes Let’s investigate features at Stages 1 and 2, and Think like a
Mathematician features in Stages 3–6. These features contain activities that encourage learner discussion and
investigation, and provide an opportunity to dig deeper into learner reasoning to discover any misconceptions or
gaps in knowledge. You can address these immediately or use them to inform planning of future lessons.
At different points in the Learner’s Book, projects provide an opportunity for low-floor high-ceiling challenges
(activities that are accessible for all learners while also providing opportunities to stretch all learners), where all
learners can achieve collaboratively to the best of their ability.

After learning
You may wish to keep learner portfolios using products of the projects and Let’s investigate / Think like a
mathematician activities. You may well wish to record some examples of performance from projects and
spoken tasks, whether these are documented or presented to class.
At the end of each section of the Learner’s Book, there is a Look what I can do! box containing ‘I can’
statements. These revisit the learning intentions from the start of the unit. In Stages 1 and 2, each box includes
a smiley face and a neutral face. Learners can tick a box for each statement to show how confident they feel
about it. The features are intended to be used for self-assessment. You may want to read the statements together
as a class and then ask each learner to evaluate themselves against the statement. It is good practice for learners
to reflect on their own experience and evaluate themselves against criteria. They are taking responsibility for
their own learning when they can identify areas where they are less confident and then take steps to get support.
Encourage learners to ask themselves ‘what will I do next?’
Learners may sometimes struggle to evaluate themselves against the statements. It can be helpful to provide
examples. For instance, for the statement ‘I can read and write whole numbers greater than 1000’ you could write
some numbers on the board and ask if the learners can read them, then say some numbers that learners need to
write down. You could also ask learners to think of tests for themselves or other learners – what could they do
to demonstrate the statement?
At the end of each unit, you will find Check your progress exercises, which revisit the key learning intentions to
assess retention.

3
 APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING

Each unit has a corresponding end-of-unit test (available to download from Cambridge GO as part of this
Teacher’s Resource). The end-of-unit test covers many of the learning objectives in the unit and provides the
opportunity for learners to show what they can do using their learning from the unit. Record which objectives
the learners are successful in and any misconceptions you identify from the learners’ responses in the test.
Use this to inform your future planning, for example reusing starter activities for the unit during later units.
We recommend allowing learners 30 minutes to complete each end-of-unit test (allow an additional ten minutes
for set-up and completion of the activity). We would advise against giving marks as feedback in order to
optimize learner-specific, qualitative feedback. Once you have given learners their feedback, you could ask them
what they plan to do differently based on the feedback they have received. For example, if a learner has made
errors through rushing their work, they could plan to check each solution a second time before moving on to the
next question. It is helpful for learners to implement any feedback before moving on to a new topic, so you could
ask them to revisit one or more questions in the test before moving on.

Longer term
(Stages 3–9 only) At the mid-point in the course and the end of the year, there are larger tests (the Mid-
point and End-of-year tests). These are designed to encourage a backwash effect (the positive impact on
learning caused by testing) on your learners. The results of these tests might also be useful as one part of
your reporting process. The Mid-point test will provide valuable feedback to help you address problem areas
in both knowledge and skills. The results from the End-of-year test will be useful for the next year’s teaching,
wherever that learner may be.

How to get there: improving performance

We have looked at a number of points on the learning journey where progress is checked. How you wish
to respond to the outcomes at these intervals is your choice, as the teacher. Only you know each individual
well enough to be able to respond in the most appropriate way to ensure that each and every learner gets the
guidance required to continue on their learning journey.
Nevertheless we have developed some tools to save you time, provide you with some ideas and help you provide
for your learners.
• The projects are open-ended activities where learners are encouraged to perform to the best of their
ability. You could take on a coaching role to encourage individuals to focus on those areas which they
are struggling with.
• The Workbook includes activities in three tiers of difficulty. You may wish to direct learners to the tier
which is most appropriate for them, or you may wish to encourage learners to go as far as they can.
• The Teacher’s Resource also includes advice on differentiation and differentiated worksheets.
• The Teacher’s Resource includes tips within the lesson notes to help learners fulfil their potential.
• Each unit in the Teacher’s Resource focuses on an aspect of teacher development. This may include
AfL or differentiation.