ENGAGING LEARNERS AND RESPONDING TO THEIR NEEDS Dylan Wiliam - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

NCTM High School Interactive Institute, July 14th , 2014: Atlanta, GA CLASSROOM FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: ENGAGING LEARNERS AND RESPONDING TO THEIR NEEDS Dylan Wiliam (@dylanwiliam) www.dylanwiliamcenter.com

Outline 2 • Why formative assessment needs to be a priority • Formative assessment: what it is and what it isn’t • Strategies and techniques of formative assessment • Supporting teachers in changing practice

3 Why formative assessment needs to be a priority

Why Strategic Formative Assessment? 4 • One principle and one uncomfortable fact about the world – The principle: • "If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him [or her] accordingly” (Ausubel, 1968 p. vi) – The uncomfortable fact: • Students do not learn what we teach.

Why Strategic Formative Assessment? 5 • “Formative assessment is a planned process in which assessment- elicited evidence of students’ status is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional procedures or by students to adjust their current learning tactics.” (Popham, 2008 p. 6 my emphasis)

Building Plan “B” into Plan “A” 6

Relevant studies 7 • Fuchs & Fuchs (1986) • Nyquist (2003) • Natriello (1987) • Brookhart (2004) • Crooks (1988) • Allal & Lopez (2005) • Bangert-Drowns et al (1991) • Köller (2005) • Dempster (1991) • Brookhart (2007) • Dempster (1992) • Wiliam (2007) • Elshout-Mohr (1994) • Hattie & Timperley (2007) • Kluger & DeNisi (1996) • Shute (2008) • Black & Wiliam (1998) • Kingston & Nash (2011, 2015)

Recent meta-analytic findings 8 Content area N 95% confidence interval for effect size Lower Mean Upper Mathematics 19 0.14 0.17 0.20 English Language Arts 4 0.30 0.32 0.34 Science 17 0.06 0.19 0.31 Total 40 Mean effect size ≈ 0.20 A big effect size Equivalent to a 50% to 70% increase in the rate of learning Kingston and Nash (2011, 2015)

9 Formative assessment: what it is and what it isn’t

Formative Assessment: A contested term 10 Long-cycle Medium-cycle Short-cycle Within and Within and Across terms, Span between between teaching units teaching units lessons Minute-by- Four weeks to One to four Length minute and one year weeks day-by-day Monitoring, Student- Engagement, curriculum involved Impact responsiveness alignment assessment

What does formative assessment form? 11 Cycle length Long Medium Short ✔ Curriculum alignment ✔ ✔ ✔ Monitoring progress ✔ ✔ Student involved assessment ✔ ✔ Student engagement ✔ ✔ Teacher cognition about learning ✔ Responsive classroom practice

12 Strategies of formative assessment

Unpacking Formative Assessment 13 Where the learner Where the learner How to get is going is now the learner there Providing Eliciting evidence feedback that Teacher of learning moves learners forward Clarifying, sharing, and Activating students as learning understanding Peer resources for one another learning intentions Activating students as Student owners of their own learning

Unpacking Formative Assessment 14 Where the learner Where the learner How to get is going is now the learner there Teacher Using evidence of achievement to adapt what Peer happens in classrooms to meet learner needs Student

15 The relationship of formative assessment to other policy priorities

Educational Endowment Foundation toolkit 16 Intervention Cost Quality of Extra months evidence of learning Feedback ££ +8 Metacognition and self-regulation ££ +8 Peer tutoring ££ +6 Early years intervention £££££ +6 One to one tuition ££££ +5 Homework (secondary) £ +5 Collaborative learning £ +5 Phonics £ +4 Small group tuition £££ +4 Behaviour interventions £££ +4 Digital technology ££££ +4 Social and emotional learning £ +4

Educational Endowment Foundation toolkit 17 Intervention Cost Quality of Extra months evidence of learning Parental involvement £££ +3 Reducing class size £££££ +3 Summer schools £££ +3 Sports participation £££ +2 Arts participation ££ +2 Extended school time £££ +2 Individualized instruction £ +2 After school programmes ££££ +2 Learning styles £ +2 Mentoring £££ +1 Homework (primary) £ +1

Educational Endowment Foundation toolkit 18 Intervention Cost Quality of Extra months evidence of learning Teaching assistants ££££ 0 Performance pay ££ 0 Aspiration interventions £££ 0 Block scheduling £ 0 School uniform £ 0 Physical environment ££ 0 Ability grouping £ -1

Unpacking Formative Assessment 19 Where the learner Where the learner How to get is going is now the learner there Providing Eliciting evidence feedback that Teacher of learning moves learners forward Clarifying, sharing, and Activating students as understanding Peer resources for one another learning intentions Activating students as Student owners of their own learning

20 Practical techniques for classroom formative assessment

21 Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success

Learning intentions and success criteria 22 • In general, it is a good idea that students know where they are going • But, – It is not always possible – It is not always advisable – It is hard to do well

Goals and horizons 23 • Sometimes, you want all students to learn the same thing – Goal-directed teaching – Key aim: all students reach the same understanding • Sometimes it is OK when students learn different things – Horizon-directed teaching – Key aim: all students learn something of value in the subject

A standard middle school math problem … 24 • Two farmers have adjoining fields with a common boundary that is not straight. • This is inconvenient for plowing. • How can they divide the two fields so that the boundary is straight, but the two fields have the same area as they had before? �

25 �

26 �

How many rectangles? 27 � ( ) ( ) m m - 1 ´ n n - 1 2 2

28 Engineering effective discussions, activities, and classroom tasks that elicit evidence of learning

Kinds of questions: Israel 29 a) 1 6, b) 2 3, c) 1 3, d) 1 2. Which fraction is the smallest? Success rate 88% a) 4 5, b) 3 4, c) 5 8, d) 7 10. Which fraction is the largest? Success rate 46%; 39% chose (b) Vinner (1997)

Eliciting evidence 30 • Key idea: questioning should – cause thinking – provide data that informs teaching • Improving teacher questioning – generating questions with colleagues – low-order vs. high-order not closed vs. open – appropriate wait-time • Getting away from I-R-E (initiation-response-evaluation) – basketball rather than serial table-tennis – ‘ No hands up ’ (except to ask a question) – ‘ Hot Seat ’ questioning

Principles of diagnostic questioning 31 1. A response from every student • ABCD cards, mini-white boards, exit passes 2. Quick checks on understanding, not extended discussions 3. Decision-driven data-collection 4. The right response means the right thinking • Distractor-driven multiple-choice questions • Multiple correct responses

Distractor-driven multiple-choice questions (1) 32 What can you say about the means of the following two data sets? Set 1: {10, 12, 13, 15} Set 2: {10, 12, 13, 15, 0} A. The two sets have the same mean. B. The two sets have different means. C. It depends on whether you choose to count the zero.

Distractor-driven multiple-choice questions (2) 33 What is the median for the following data set? 38 74 22 44 96 22 19 53 A. 22 B. 38 and 44 C. 41 D. 46 E. 77 F. This data set has no median

Multiple correct responses (1) 34 In which of these right triangles is a 2 + b 2 = c 2 ? b c A B a a c b a c C D b b c a a b E F c c b a

Multiple correct responses (2) 35 20 cm What is the area of the semi-circle? æ ö p 2 p ´ 20 p ´ 20 ´ 20 p ´ 10 ´ 10 50 p 20 A. B. C. D. E. ç ÷ è ø 2 2 2 2 2

Developing good questions 36 1. Start by identifying a “hinge - point” in a lesson plan — a point where you need to collect evidence from students in order to decide what to do next 2. Identify any relevant misconceptions a. by discussion with colleagues b. by asking the question as an “exit - pass” 3. Develop the question 4. Ask colleagues to look for possible false-positives 5. Trial the question with students, asking them to explain their choices

37 Providing feedback that moves learners forward

Kinds of feedback: Israel 38 • 264 low and high ability grade 6 students in 12 classes in 4 schools; analysis of 132 students at top and bottom of each class • Same teaching, same aims, same teachers, same classwork • Three kinds of feedback: grades, comments, grades+comments Achievement Attitude Grades no gain High scorers: positive Low scorers: negative Comments 30% gain High scorers: positive Low scorers: positive Butler (1988)