Assessment

A stimulus for professional discussion

Assessment
Professional Learning Module

Contents
Overview of the resource 1
Using the resource 2
What is the assessment challenge? 3
What is the role of diagnostic, formative, summative assessment? 4
What does the research say? 8
How can I help my students express their thinking? 11
How can we collaboratively look at student work? 16
How can we best plan assessment for a unit of work? 18
Additional resources 20
References 22

i
 Overview of the resource
The focus of this professional learning resource is in supporting teachers to
consolidate and extend their assessment practice. A number of assessment
techniques are modelled and opportunities are provided for teachers to
practise these techniques.
The three components of the resource complement one another and
should be used together to ensure effectiveness of the resource.
Science by
Doing

GUIDE: Assessment
Assessment
Professional

Assessment
l discussion
This written guide provides information which supports
Learni

professiona
A stimulus for
consolidate
teachers to role of
e supports

the assessment ideas and techniques explored in the

t practice. The is
their assessmen assessment
summative
ng Resource

formative and assessment

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digital resources. A list of additional resources and a

planning tool are included.
SBDPLR1-A

DVD: Modelling Assessment Techniques

The focus of the DVD is on exploring a number of options
Pr
of
ess
ion

for science assessment. It illustrates that there are multiple

a l Le a

Modelling
Assessment
rn i n g Re

Techniques
DVD
opportunities and techniques for assessment. The DVD
so u

shows assessment techniques ‘in action’ as implemented

Acknowledgement:
rce

Science by Doing is supported

by the Australian Government.
Disclaimer: The views expressed
herein do not necessarily represent
the views of the Australian
Government Department of
Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations.

by four teachers.

ur
ce
CD-ROM: Exploring and Practising
Assessment Techniques
so
Re
ing
essional Learn

Exploring
and Practising
Assessment
Techniques
The interactive CD-ROM describes, illustrates and provides
CD-ROM
practice opportunities for a range of assessment techniques.
Pr o f

Acknowledgement:
Science by Doing is supported

Suggestions are made about how to build a repertoire of

by the Australian Government.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein
do not necessarily represent the
views of the Australian Government
Department of Education,
Employment and
Workplace Relations.

assessment ideas, and on how to use checklists and rubrics

to apply criteria to assess student work.

1
Using the resource
The components of the resource have been prepared to use in the
following sequence:

View the DVD:

Modelling Assessment Techniques

Interact with the CD-ROM: Exploring

and Practising Assessment Techniques

Read the book: Assessment

Share reflections and planning with colleagues

It is envisaged that you will revisit the DVD and CD-ROM as you expand
your assessment repertoire. You might begin by initially incorporating
diagnostic assessment techniques into a unit of work, for example, and
then revisit the CD-ROM when deciding on
developing and using a rubric to assess
student work.
While this resource can be explored
by an individual teacher, it is highly
recommended that the experience
be shared among colleagues. This
could be achieved by exploring
the resource with a colleague,
designing/participating in a
workshop based on the resource
for a group/faculty/department,
or using it as a focus for discussion
within a professional learning
community. The act of reflecting and
sharing of experiences is considered
essential to ensuring the effectiveness of
this resource.
2
 What is the assessment challenge?

Assessment drives learning. While some in education would like to

deny this statement, most of us recognise its pragmatic truth. Students
know it. Teachers know it. Instead of being in a state of denial, perhaps
it would be better if we simply accepted the statement and responded
to its challenges. The challenges are simple yet profound. If you wish to
improve the quality of learning you must also improve the quality of how
we observe and measure learning.
This idea resonates with the history of science. Our science understanding
has evolved as our ability to observe and measure has evolved. Consider
the impact of the telescope, the electron microscope or statistical
modelling on the different facets of science. Each of these advancements
profoundly affected the quality of observation and measurement and as
a result led to a much deeper understanding of the world in which we live.
In science education, one of the challenges is that the common end of
unit/term test is directly related to the transmission model of learning.
Unfortunately, many (but not all) of these tests tend to emphasise
memorisation and low-level thinking. While there is value in the easy-
to-administer multiple-choice test, there are also limitations in what it
measures. Learning occurs in different ways and takes many forms, so
there is a need to use a variety of assessment measures to effectively
determine what a student understands.
For science, the process of observation and measurement
is continuous and embedded. For effective learning,
assessment also needs to be a continuous embedded
process. In considering this continuous element one
needs to appreciate the three phases of assessment;
diagnostic, formative and summative. In simple terms
these are the beginning, middle and end
parts of the assessment process.

For effective learning

assessment needs to
be a continuous
embedded process.

3
What is the role of diagnostic, formative
and summative assessment?

Diagnostic assessment

Diagnostic assessment normally occurs at the start of a unit of study. In

the medical field the idea of diagnosis is to examine a person so as to
determine the nature of the disease or ailment that may be affecting the
person. In education, diagnostic assessment is used to determine
a student’s understanding of a concept or topic.
If one accepts that learning is the process of constructing understanding
from experience, then it is important to have a picture of the students’
ideas. From science education research we have found that many students
have strong and persistent ideas that have been acquired from their
experiences. In some cases the act of teaching requires the teacher to
confront these ideas before the student can develop a science view of the
world. We often call these intuitive ideas ‘misconceptions’ or ‘alternative
conceptions’. Many of these misconceptions are based on the common
language we use, for example ‘cats see in the dark’.
Others are based on direct experience. For a student who observes the
sun rising in the east and setting in the west it is not unreasonable to
come to the conclusion that the Sun revolves around the Earth. In fact this
view, which was proposed by Ptolemy, existed for hundreds of years up
to the time of Galileo. If a teacher is to teach a unit on the solar system or
seasons, it is important to determine to what degree students think the
earth revolves around the sun. And you need to
do this in a way that genuinely identifies
their real understanding, not their
‘book’ understanding.

4
 One of the difficulties of
diagnostic assessment is
that students will sometimes
tell you what they think you
want to know rather than
what they really think. For this
reason, diagnostic assessment
should not be presented in the
traditional, formal assessment
manner. In fact, it should be
unobtrusive, brief and even fun.
It also should not have numbers
associated with it. To give a diagnostic test,
mark it and then tell a student they achieved 6/10 from the test defeats
the purpose of the assessment.
Diagnostic assessment is mainly for the teacher, not necessarily for the
student. It is to inform the teacher what students understand so the
teaching sequence can be planned to meet their needs and help students
develop a rich understanding. In the case of the earth/sun relationship,
for a teacher to simply tell students that the earth revolves around the sun
does not necessarily change their thinking. When Galileo actually gave
the church that information there was strong resistance to the idea. A
teacher, like Galileo, needs to provide the evidence by which students can
deconstruct their understanding.

Formative assessment

It was suggested that diagnostic assessment is mainly for the teacher.

The reverse is the case for formative assessment. Formative assessment is
primarily for the student. It is essentially the mechanism by which feedback
is provided so as to inform and help the student learn. The idea behind
formative assessment is that feedback will assist in the changes and
construction of the student’s final deep understanding. The term attempts
to capture the sense that this assessment will provide information for the
student’s evolving concepts.

5
There is sufficient evidence that the more feedback a student receives
the better the student will learn. While sometimes detailed feedback is
important, students benefit from brief but continuous feedback.
While the emphasis of formative assessment is on the student, it is obvious
that such information will also help the teacher adjust his/her teaching
to what students need.
There is a simple axiom which is very true for students: "nothing succeeds
like success". The phrase suggests that success breeds success. The true
value of formative assessment is that learning can be broken down to small
steps with an assessment dimension. Formative assessment helps the
students move from one step to the next in a positive and successful manner.

6
 Summative assessment

Summative assessment usually occurs at the end of a unit of study.

Essentially, it is a summary of what and how well the student has learnt.
The information from summative assessment is often converted into a
grade measurement and this grade reported to parents and students.
Commonly, summative assessment is associated with end-of-unit pencil
and paper tests. This does need not necessarily have to be the case. In the
following pages there is a range of assessment techniques outlined. Some
of these techniques lend themselves to summative assessment.
Perhaps the most used summative assessment technique in science is the
multiple-choice item test. The attractiveness of this approach is that it is
easy to administer and mark. Multiple-choice items are particularly useful
for low level thinking activities like knowledge recall and definition of
terms. They can be used for higher order thinking but require much effort
in their preparation. Even despite this preparation the correct answer can
be open to individual interpretation. One useful technique is to provide an
opportunity for students to explain the reason for their answer selection.
There are a few important principles to consider when developing
summative assessment. These principles also apply to the other forms
of assessment.
1. One principle is the importance of quality. It is more important to have
fewer quality assessment items that effectively determine and measure
what the student understands rather than many items that are similar
with a tendency to only measure a student’s memory. In this case less
can indeed measure more.
2. Another important principle is that of variety. There needs to be a
variety of techniques so that you as a teacher can be confident the
student has understood the science ideas. Some concepts lend
themselves better to certain assessment approaches. That is why this
module outlines a range of approaches.

Summary of assessment purposes

Diagnostic Formative Summative

Teacher planning planning reporting

Student feedback feedback

7
 What does the research say?

Ideally, "assessment serves the purpose of learning and is

consistent with and complementary to good teaching".
(Goodrum, Hackling & Rennie, 2001, P144)

"No single test can capture student performance

across an entire subject domain."
(Looney, 2009)

"A good education makes knowledge, skill and ideas useful.

Assessment should determine whether you can use your learning,
not merely whether you learned stuff."
(Wiggins, 2006)

"..formative assessment is a process, one in which information about

learning is evoked and then used to modify the teaching and learning
activities in which teachers and students are engaged."
(Black, et al., 2003)

"Diagnostic assessment assists teachers to understand what

students know and don’t know and provides direction for
subsequent instruction. Formative assessment is ongoing, often
informal assessment that enables teachers to monitor students’
progress and provide feedback to address difficulties and keep
them on track to achieve the intended learning outcomes."
(Goodrum & Rennie, 2006, P12)

8
"The performance of students on open investigation tasks varies with task
and context. A judgment based on a single work sample would therefore
be unreliable. It is necessary to make judgments about a student’s level
of performance based on a collection of investigation work samples.
A portfolio approach to collection of work samples is most effective."
(Hackling, 2000)

"Self-assessment by pupils, far from being a luxury, is in fact an essential

component of formative assessment. When anyone is trying to learn,
feedback about the effort has three elements: recognition of the desired
goal, evidence about present position, and some understanding of a way
to close the gap between the two. All three must be understood to some
degree by anyone before he or she can take action to improve learning."
(Black & Wiliam, 1998)

"Achieving transferability means you have learned how to adapt

prior learning to novel and important situations. In an education for
understanding, learners are constantly challenged to take various ideas and
resources (such as content) they encounter and become adept at applying
them to increasingly complicated contexts."
(Wiggins, 2006)

"Within its many purposes, assessment should serve the purpose of

learning. Assessment should encourage longer-term understanding
and enable the provision of detailed diagnostic information to support
student learning. It should show what students know, understand and
can demonstrate. It should also show what they need to do to improve.
In particular, some of the important science learning aspects… require a
variety of assessment approaches."
(National Curriculum Board, 2009, P13)

"All skills have to be used in some context and scientific process skills are
only scientific if they are applied in the context of science. Otherwise they
are general descriptions of logical and rational thinking which are used in
many areas of human endeavor."
(Harlen, 1999)

9
 "One of the powerful ideas in evidence-based models of teaching
and learning is that teachers need to move away from considering
achievement data as saying something about the student, and start
considering achievement data as saying something about their teaching.
If students do not know something, or cannot process the information,
this should be cues for teacher action, particularly teaching in a different
way (the first time did not work!). Merely ascribing to the student the
information that they can or cannot do something is not as powerful as
ascribing to the teacher what they have or have not taught well."
(Hattie, 2005)

"To begin at the beginning, the choice of tasks for classroom work and
homework is important. Tasks have to be justified in terms of the learning
aims that they serve, and they can work well only if opportunities for pupils
to communicate their evolving understanding are built into the planning."
(Black & Wiliam, 1998)

"Potentially, one of the most effective ways to reconcile educational

innovation and high-stakes assessment is through the introduction
of innovative approaches to assessment. These may include new
methodologies for assessment, as well as new technologies that can
measure complex skills and reasoning processes."
(Looney, 2009)

"Assessment for diagnostic purposes determines children’s

performance abilities in a particular science domain, such as
conceptual understanding or inquiry capabilities."
(Shepardson & Britsch, 2001)

"The present emphasis in secondary schools on traditional testing

that focuses on the extent to which students memorise and recall
science facts hinders the development of meaningful understanding.
Traditional assessment leads teachers to teach traditionally and this is
why many students find science uninteresting and lacking in relevance.
Traditional assessment practices represent a significant barrier to
innovation and the implementation of a more student-centred
and inquiry-oriented approach…"
(Goodrum, Hackling & Rennie, 2001,P177)

10
 ce
ur

How can I help my students

so
Re
ing
essional Learn
Exploring

express their thinking?

and Practising
Assessment
Techniques
CD-ROM

Pr o f
Acknowledgement:
Science by Doing is supported
by the Australian Government.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein
do not necessarily represent the
views of the Australian Government
Department of Education,
Employment and
Workplace Relations.

There are many and varied approaches which provide a

vehicle for students to express their thinking. Some are better
suited to some phases of assessment (i.e. diagnostic, formative,
and summative) than others. A few examples are presented here.

Interviews
Diagnostic Formative Summative

✔ ✔
What: Teacher ‘interviews’ students on a particular concept or topic during
an informal conversation.
How: Students usually work in small groups with the teacher circulating
the room and interacting with each group. Student conversation is focused
on a prompt such as a picture, graph, diagram, table of data, etc. Teacher
uses effective questioning, for example, probing, paraphrasing and
prompting to draw out, clarify and refine students’ ideas.
Purpose: Interviews are best used to
identify preconceived ideas or
persistent misconceptions.
They provide a snapshot of
current student thinking. This
information can then be
used to inform how a unit
or learning sequence is
progressed.
Finding out more: Refer
to the Exploring and
Practising Assessment
Techniques CD-ROM.

11
Concept maps
Diagnostic Formative Summative

✔ ✔ ✔
What: Concept maps allow students to represent diagrammatically what
they know about the links and relationships between concepts.
How: Depending on the assessment phase, students can be provided with
a set of related concepts/ideas/words, or the class could brainstorm a list,
or students could work in pairs or individually to come up with a list.
The list is then reorganised or rearranged by students to show the links
and relationships.
Purpose: To determine how well students understand and make sense of
the connections between isolated yet related concepts. Learning journeys
and shifts in thinking can be mapped if concept maps are created at the
beginning of a unit and built upon and amended as the unit progresses.
Finding out more: Refer to the Modelling Assessment Techniques DVD,
Exploring and Practising Assessment Techniques CD-ROM, Inquiry-based
Teaching professional learning resource.

Notebooking
Diagnostic Formative Summative
✔ ✔
What: Science notebooks provide a record of student thinking and
classroom experiences and are used much as a scientist would, before,
during and after all investigations. They are a place where students
formulate and record their questions, make predictions, record data,
observations, illustrations, understandings, reflections and new concepts
they have learned.
How: Notebooks can be electronic or hard copy. If hard copy, the
notebook should be separate from the normal student workbook.
Sentence starters, discussion starters and writing prompts can be used to
assist students with making entries.
Purpose: Notebooks help students develop, practice and refine their
science understandings. They provide a place where language, data and
experience are brought together to form meaning for students. When
used for diagnostic and formative assessment they provide evidence
of student thinking and learning.
Finding out More: Refer to the Student Learning professional
learning resource.
12
Rubrics
Diagnostic Formative Summative

✔ ✔
What: A rubric is a feedback and assessment tool that lists the criteria
for a piece of work. Unlike a checklist, there are several categories for each
criterion which allows a more fine-tuned assessment to be given. Often,
the categories relate to score points so that an overall grade can
be awarded.
How: Using curriculum documents identify the critical knowledge and skill
features of the task that will be assessed. Determine what each of these
looks like at an accomplished level, and work back from that point to
define gradations such as beginning and developing.
Purpose: The rubric clearly sets out for students what ‘counts’ in the
assessment of their work. If provided to students at the outset of an
assessment task it can provide direction for their efforts in completing
the task. For the teacher, collated data from the application of a rubric
provides an effective means of identifying whole-class strengths and
weaknesses. Rubrics can also be useful to guide peer reviewing and
student self assessment.
Finding out more: Refer to the Modelling Assessment Techniques
DVD, Exploring and Practising Assessment Techniques CD-ROM, rubrics
provided in the Science by Doing curriculum units.

13
Peer review
Diagnostic Formative Summative

✔
What: Peer review involves students working in small groups, usually pairs,
to act as a critical friend and review a fellow student’s work.
How: Students look at one another’s work and the reviewer gives
feedback, including weaknesses or problems along with suggestions for
improvement. This process is often most successful if students are guided
by a checklist or rubric in their review.
Purpose: Peer reviewing reinforces that feedback need not only come
from the teacher, and models the work of a scientist (most journals
are peer reviewed). The reviewee benefits from having an opportunity
to explain and answer questions about their work, and may receive
suggestions about how their work may be improved. The reviewer benefits
from viewing and applying assessment criteria which in turn informs the
way that they look at their own work.

Self assessment
Diagnostic Formative Summative
✔ ✔
What: Self assessment involves students standing back and making an
objective assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their work.
How: The process works best if students are provided with some
guidelines when looking at their work. Checklists and rubrics are
particularly useful.
Purpose: Students may use the information to identify what they need to
do to improve the quality of their work (when used formatively), or may
compare the information with the feedback received from the teacher
(when used summatively) to identify similarities and differences in they way
the work is perceived by both the teacher and student.

14
Portfolios
Diagnostic Formative Summative

✔ ✔
What: A portfolio is a collection of work that demonstrates a student’s
skills, knowledge and/or development. It may also include, or be
presented with, some type of commentary that explains how and why the
evidence in the portfolios reflects the student’s abilities.
How: Students compile a selection of work over an extended period
of time that best demonstrates a learning journey and the abilities
developed. Portfolios can be submitted for assessment or, even better, can
be presented by the student in an interview context with teachers, parents,
peers etc.
Purpose: Portfolios provide an effective means of assessing real or
authentic tasks, such as designing and conducting experiments, project
work or group work as they demonstrate growth over time.

Student Report
Diagnostic Formative Summative
✔ ✔
What: A student (or students) prepares a written report on an investigation
the student has carried out. The report outlines the question being
investigated, methodology used, data gathered, analysis of data and
final conclusion.
How: It takes time to develop experience in writing a science report.
Initially, it is helpful if the teacher provides a template which outlines the
various sections of the resource and what information belongs where.
Purpose: The student report can be used to determine aspects of the
student's inquiry skills including the ability to present and analyse data.
Finding out more: Refer to the Doing Science Investigations curriculum unit.

15
 How can we collaboratively
look at student work?
It is not uncommon for science staff to come together to examine
student work. The purpose of this sharing is to develop a more
consistent approach to assessing student work. In statistical terms
this means improving the reliability of the assessment.
The following approach is one variation on how this can be done.

Staff members are provided with three pieces of student work that
are perceived as high quality work, average quality and possible poor
Step 1
quality, plus a suggested marking scale or rubric.
No comments are made on the quality of the work at this stage.
It is helpful to have multiple copies of the student work pieces and
a good idea to use numbers rather than student names to identify
each piece.

Group members spend the next 10 minutes (or a suitable time

according to nature of work samples) working silently and
Step 2 individually looking at the work samples and recording marks
and comments.

Each work sample is then examined in turn by the group with

individual staff sharing their assessment and comments. From the
Step 3 ensuing discussion a consensus is reached with the marking scale
or rubric adjusted accordingly.

The process is repeated with three new pieces of student work

Step 4 and further discussion.

After the process of refining the marking approach there is

considerable value in spending time reflecting on the teaching
Step 5 and learning process that has created the student work and
considering how improvements could be made.

16
Questions such as these may be useful
to consider:
? What teaching strategies seem to be effective?

?  hat changes to teaching strategies

W
appear necessary?

? What elements of the work appear to require

scaffolding/differentiation?

? What would you have liked to see in the student work that
you did not? And what kinds of tasks could provide
this information?

? What does this process make you think about in terms

of your own practice and about teaching in general?
If you are interested in learning more about different protocols for
examining student work then visit the Looking at Student Work website
at www.lasw.org/methods.html
One worthwhile protocol that may have potential value in exploring
further is the ATLAS protocol.

17
 How can we best plan assessment
for a unit of work?

ur
ce To support and extend the ‘Plan Assessment
so

for a Unit of Work’ section of the Exploring and

Re
ing
essional Learn

Practicing Assessment Techniques CD-ROM you

Exploring
and Practising
Assessment
Techniques
CD-ROM

may find it helpful to consider these ‘before’ and

Pr o f

Acknowledgement:
Science by Doing is supported
by the Australian Government.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein

‘after’ planning tools.

do not necessarily represent the
views of the Australian Government
Department of Education,
Employment and
Workplace Relations.

Before writing the unit…

Successful teaching requires teachers to design evaluation activities
that provide acceptable evidence of students’ learning, and to develop
learning experiences that lead to success on those activities. By first
considering what students are expected to learn and then determining
how that can be measured, the design of strategies for teaching and
learning can be tied closely to what students are expected to do to
demonstrate their learning. This is referred to as ‘backward design’ or
‘understanding by design’ (Wiggins & McTighe 2005).

Identify key intended learning outcomes

Step 1

Align assessment task/s with the intended

Step 2 learning outcomes

Design student learning activities to provide

Step 3 opportunities for students to develop the full range
of intended outcomes.

18
After writing the unit…
This check list can be used as a planning tool to take into account
aspects of assessment when designing or modifying an existing
unit of work.

Assessment check list for a unit of work ✔

Have I considered this aspect?

Include tasks to uncover misconceptions

and/or the student’s current level of understanding or skill.

Incorporate a number of assessment strategies (cartoon

scenarios, rubric etc.) for diagnostic, formative and
summative assessment.

Include a variety of tasks so that the student has multiple

opportunities to demonstrate understanding/skill.

Include opportunities to assess both understanding of

concepts and of process skills.

Make assessment criteria explicit (e.g. supply a rubric before

students begin task).

Go beyond assessment of isolated science facts to consider

higher-order thinking skills.

Incorporate opportunities for frequent feedback on

student work.

Ensure that evidence of student learning will serve as

a guide for the next appropriate step in learning.

Provide students with opportunities to demonstrate the

mastery of concepts and process skills by applying these
to new contexts (ie demonstrate transfer of learning).
Consider opportunities for student self assessment and/or
peer assessment.

Consider opportunities for working with colleagues to design

the unit of work – including developing agreed assessment
criteria to determine student progress.

19
Additional resources a number of different assessment
types and the advantages and
• Science Education Assessment disadvantages of these; and
Resources (SEAR) is a free resource discusses the effective use of
for primary and secondary portfolios as a learner-centred
teachers, funded by the Australian reporting procedure.
Government Department of
Education, Employment and • Improving Student Achievement:
Workplace Relations (DEEWR). A practical guide to assessment
SEAR was developed in response for learning. Curriculum
to the need for a rich, searchable Corporation (Toni Glasson, 2009).
databank of science assessment This book includes tips on
tasks as a resource for teachers. designing learning intentions
SEAR is available at http://cms. and success criteria, examples
curriculum.edu.au/sear/ of checklists and rubrics,
and provides guidance for
• Primary Connections: Linking implementing peer and student
science with literacy is a self assessment.
partnership between the
Australian Academy of Science
(the Academy) and DEEWR.
Primary Connections focuses on
developing students’ knowledge,
skills, understanding and
capacities in both science and
literacy. The materials aim to
enhance primary school teachers’
confidence and competence for
teaching science. They are also of
value to secondary teachers and
include assessment planning tools
and resources.
Primary Connections is available
at http://www.science.org.au/
primaryconnections/
• Little Books of Big Ideas:
How to succeed with learner-
centred assessment. Curriculum
Corporation (Jeni Wilson & Kath
Murdoch, 2006).
This book provides practical
suggestions for managing
assessment; gives examples of

20
• Digital resources for science
assessment – The Le@rning
Federation (http://www.
thelearningfederation.edu.
au) is an Australian Government
initiative that makes and licenses
digital curriculum content to
support teaching and learning.
The materials are available free of
charge to all Australian and New
Zealand schools. The Le@rning
Federation distributes this content
to education authorities.
To access the science content,
including content with an
assessment focus, visit http://www.
thelearningfederation.edu.au/
for_teachers/access_information/
access_information.html
• Assessment for learning website.
Science assessment tasks can
be accessed from the site. The
website also includes professional
learning resources and research
articles. The content of this
website has been developed
by Curriculum Corporation
on behalf of the education
departments of the states,
territories and the Commonwealth
of Australia. http://www.
assessmentforlearning.edu.au/
default.asp
21
References
Bell, B. and Cowie, B. (2001)
Formative Assessment and Science Education. Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Norwell, MA

Bennett, R.E. (2009)

Formative Assessment: can the claims for effectiveness be substantiated?
Paper presented at International Association for Educational Research 35th
Annual Conference

Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998)

Inside the Black Box: raising standards through classroom assessment.
Phi Delta Kappa, 80(2), 139-148

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., and Wiliam, D. (2003)
Assessment for learning: Putting into practice.
Open University Press Berkshire, England

Courtney, C. (March, 2009)

Making School Work. North and South.

Forster, M. (2009)
Informative Assessment: Understanding and guiding learning. Paper
presented at the 14th Australian Council for Educational Research
Conference Assessment and Student Learning: collecting, interpreting and
using data to inform teaching.

Goodrum, D., Hackling, M., & Rennie, L. (2001).

The status and quality of teaching and learning of science in Australian
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23
Project Management
Project Director: Professor Denis Goodrum,
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This resource was written by: Gayl O’Connor,
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