I have done a fair bit of reading, and I am fast coming to the conclusion that one of the big problems with assessment in schools is the proportion of it which does not directly help the kids to make progress and learn something better.
AfL is great, but it is often used as a kind of religion whereby the kid, once indoctrinated, can follow reach enlightenment, almost by themselves, once our two ticks and a cross has been added to the bottom of their list.
What is missing, I think, is a smarter decision from some teachers about what we assess, how we assess, and what we do with the findings. The final of these three points is the most lacking in what I see, with literally thousands of assessment bits being done for reasons OTHER than for the learning of the child. Don't believe me, think of this blog when you next do your reports... who is that for, really?
Let's start a second layer to AfL: DfL, where we make conscious decisions about what to change, add, delete of adjust in our teaching, for the benefit of our kids, based on the assessment data we have just gathered. Is it possible to say that an assessment that isn't followed by a decision is a waste of time? I'm thinking hard about this very bold statement...
Anyway, will post some more thoughts on here after the event tomorrow!
Hoping to connect with a good number of interesting folks!
BC
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