برونوين كويه مديرة معهد بحوث التربية ويلف مالكولم, جامعة وايكاتو نيوزيلندا

1. Formative, Summative and
Accountability Demands for
Assessment to Support and not
Undermine Learning
Bronwen Cowie WMIER
The University of Waikato, New Zealand

2. Outline
1. A systems orientation
2. The New Zealand context
3. Examples of practice

3. 1. A systems orientation
Multiple assessment purposes
• Formative assessment is used to inform action to
enhance teaching and learning, during the learning
• Summative assessment sums up student learning at
a point in time
• Accountability/ accreditation assessment accounts
for and or reports on student or system learning to
others
• Each of these assessment purposes has a role to play
in a productive assessment system
• All assessments must support learning in some way

4. 1. A systems orientation
• The stakeholders and participants in assessment
include:
• Students, teachers, families, schools and their wider
communities. Ministry/ Department of Education personnel
at the regional, state and national levels, policy makers and
politicians
• These stakeholders have different informational needs
(focus, format, time) that need to be met

5. 1. A systems orientation
• Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment interact to
shape and frame students’ educational experiences
and teacher practice
• What really counts in education is what happens when
teachers and students meet. The wisdom of any
decision about education is best judged on the basis of
whether or not it raises the quality of these
interactions. (Atkin and Black, 2003, p. ix)
• Teachers experience multiple accountabilities within
and through assessment

6. 2. The New Zealand context

7. 2. The New Zealand context

8. 2. The New Zealand context
• A national curriculum
• Current curriculum goals pose a challenge to
conventional assessment practices
• The development of student capacity for lifelong learning
• The development of student capacity to use, generate and
critique and not just recall knowledge
• Expectations that all students can and will learn
• Schools and teachers devise local curriculum,
assessment and reporting to build on student and
community needs and interests

9. 2. The New Zealand context
• No national testing at primary
• Light sample system monitoring of students at Year 4 and 8 from
1995
• Recent introduction of National Standards for literacy and
mathematics
• Policy and professional development support for
formative assessment
• Students at the heart of assessment policy

10. 3. Examples of practice from primary science
classrooms
1. Teacher accountability to the curriculum via planning
for instruction and assessment
2. Teachers balancing accountability to students and to
the curriculum
3. Teacher accountability to students for opportunities
for self assessment
4. Teachers balancing formative and summative
assessment
5. Teacher assessment/ reporting to families

11. Example 1:
Accountability to the curriculum via planning
• On the whole primary teachers have a restricted
background in science
• Detailed planning that targets the breadth and depth of
desired learning outcomes can support
• The development of the pedagogical content knowledge
teachers need to teach and assess
• Clarification of student performance expectations (What
might learning look like?) and criteria for quality (How do we
judge success criteria?)
• Coherence and continuity in student opportunities to learn

12. Example 1: Planning framework part 1
Big idea/ task: Learning
area/s:
Key competencies:
Conceptual
learning
outcomes:
Procedural
learning
outcomes:
Nature of
Science:
Technical
skills:
• Framework helps teachers identify ‘big’ ideas
• Think through component and contributing ideas
• Rehearse tasks and anticipate student responses

13. Example 1: Planning framework part 2
Tasks
Macro
idea/ task
Meso
ideas/
tasks
Micro tasks Resourc
es
Planned
interaction
s
Key
Outcomes
/ evidence
1. 1.1
1.2
2. 2.1
2.2
• Teachers link tasks to learning outcomes to performance
expectations
• Sets up tasks as nested and connected
• Teachers rehearse tasks and anticipate possibilities
• Teachers scope interactions

14. 14
Example 1: Teacher thoughts on planning
Some things, concepts need to be deliberately taught, or
brought to children’s attention. You need to know what you
want your children to know. Yes, it made me clarify what
exactly were the ideas, so that I was better able to help the
children. (Lois)
It made me think through each stage thoroughly instead of
always having to think on my toes, which can often mean
missing good opportunities, or not choosing the best way to
do something. (Jenny)

15. Example 2: Balancing accountability to students
and to the curriculum
A combination of planned and interactive formative
assessment
• Planned formative assessment
• Tasks such as quick quizzes, brainstorms,
concept mapping
• Involves the whole class
• Focused on teacher curriculum learning goals
• Interactive formative assessment
• Takes place through teacher-student interaction
• Relies on teacher noticing, recognising and responding to
student learning as it emerges
• Student focused and very demanding for teachers

16. Example 3: Accountability to students for self
assessment
Need to develop student capacity to assess and progress
their own learning
• Peer assessment
• Access to criteria for quality/ success
• Access to resources to inform decision making
!

17. Example 4: Teachers balancing formative and
summative assessment
• Teacher summing up during a teaching sequence
• Teacher summing up at the end of teaching sequence
• Teachers sharing whole class summative assessment
information

18. Example 5: Teacher accountability to families
and the school community
Moving beyond written reports at the end of a period of
teaching and learning
• Engaging families with their child’s learning throughout a
unit of work
• Class websites
• Displays of student work
• Public presentations as a means of reporting to families

19. Concluding comments
• Teachers are responsible for formative, summative and
accountability assessment purposes
• These need to cohere in support of student learning in
the short, medium and long term
• It is difficult for teachers to change their practice in
isolation
• Leadership support and resourcing is crucial at all levels of
the system
• There is value in bringing teachers together to plan and to
discuss student work

20. WWW.WAIKATO.AC.NZ/WMIER +64 7 858 5171