Page 35 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

CHAPTER 4 | assessment for learning and as learning
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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING AND AS LEARNING
• analyse and interpret evidence of learning;
• give and receive specific and timely descriptive feedback about student learning;
• help students to develop skills of peer and self-assessment.
Teachers will also ensure that they assess students’ development of learning skills and work habits in Grades 1 to 12, as set out in Chapter 2 of this document, using the assessment approaches described above to gather information and provide feedback to students.
Principals support the fulfilment of these policy requirements by encouraging continuing professional development among staff and by fostering a school-wide collaborative learning culture based on the sharing of knowledge and on a sense of collective responsibility for outcomes.
CONTEXT
It is worth noting, right from the start, that assessment is a human process, conducted by and with human beings, and subject inevitably to the frailties of human judgement. However crisp and objective we might try to make it, and however neatly quantifiable may be our “results”, assessment is closer to an art than a science. It is, after all, an exercise in human communication.
(Sutton, p. 2)
Students’ interest in learning and their belief that they can learn are critical to their success. After reviewing the impact of testing on students’ motivation to learn, Harlen and Deakin Crick (p. 203) recommended the use of assessment for learning and as learning – including strategies such as sharing learning goals and success criteria, providing feedback in relation to goals, and developing students’ ability to self-assess – as a way of increasing students’ engagement in and commitment to learning.
Assessment plays a critical role in teaching and learning and should have as its goal the development of students as independent and autonomous learners. As an integral part of teaching and learning, assessment should be planned concurrently with instruction and integrated seamlessly into the learning cycle to inform instruction, guide next steps, and help teachers and students monitor students’ progress towards achieving learning goals.
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