Assessment and learning
While high profile assessment events like NAPLAN and Year 12 exams draw attention to formal methods of evaluating learning, assessment is in fact a part of daily life in schools, right from the early years. Assessments take many forms, including observations, discussions, quizzes and portfolios. They can be informal or formal, very brief or extensive, and occur across the year.
In the IB Primary Years Program, which students undertake from ECLC to Year 6 at Wesley, we want students to feel comfortable when being assessed. This is important for their wellbeing, but also to ensure that the data that we collect provides an accurate illustration of what they know and can do. Teachers use a range of strategies to build student familiarity with the purpose and form of each assessment, which can be referred to as their assessment literacy. One valuable strategy is described by educational author Doug Lemov as 'building a culture of error' in the classroom.
Making errors is a part of learning, particularly when we are being challenged. Often, we can feel embarrassed about our errors and want to hide them. Within the classroom, teachers strive to build a culture where, rather than hiding our errors, we actively seek out and share them so they can be addressed. This culture can be encouraged through the language we use around errors, modelling, setting expectations that errors will occur and praising risk taking.
In the primary year levels we use whiteboards (or whiteboard tables) so that all students are actively engaged in answering questions and responses are highly visible, supporting instant feedback. On whiteboards, errors can be quickly changed, and the experience is kept positive and encouraging. Bringing error correction into a public forum ensures that all students know that everyone makes errors, and that error identification leads to new learning. Alongside promoting psychological safety, this replaces the assessment fear that what is not known might be found out. For when students know that once identified, errors can be addressed, errors may be reframed as a welcome opportunity to expand knowledge and skills.
Sarah Ho, PYP Coordinator
