Assessment is at the heart of teaching and learning. It allows teachers to make informed decisions about the needs of our learners in order to make further progress. There are two main types of assessment: formative and summative.
Formative assessment: Runs alongside the learning and informs the teacher and the children about next steps.
Summative assessment: Takes place at the end of a block of learning and sums up where learners have got to, in relation to agreed benchmarks. Usually this takes the form of an end of unit quiz or test.
Purpose of Assessment
According to Sharp et al (2014) The main functions of assessment are:
- To inform planning for future teaching
- To inform pupils about their own learning and progress and involve them in the process of assessment
- To inform subsequent teachers and the school about the pupils learning, progress, and attainment.
- To inform parents about their children’s learning and progress.
Formative Assessment
Formative assessment, sometimes called Assessment for Learning (AFL), runs alongside the learning and informs the teacher and the children about next steps. It is ongoing and a regular part of the teacher’s role. Formative assessment is an essential component of classroom work, and its development can raise standards of achievement (Black and William, 1998).
It allows teachers to determine their children’s needs and their current level of understanding. This can allow teachers to make an informed choice. It might inform future planning, giving teachers a guide for how to adapt the next activity to build on a learners current understanding or skill level.
Black and Harrison (2004) listed four main principles in the assessment of science. These are:
- Teachers must start from where the learners are.
- Learning has to be done by the learners and not done for them
- In order to learn the learners must understand the learning targets
- Learners need to talk about their learning and reflect upon it.
The climate in the classroom is very important AFL will flourish best when pupils feel confident and safe in the classroom. They feel comfortable about sharing their ideas without ridicule or embarrassment (Hodgson 2010).
Assessment as Learning
Assessment as learning draws on the cognitive principle that pupils are more likely to remember knowledge if they practise retrieving that knowledge over extended periods of time. It involves pupils recalling information successfully from long-term memory into their working memory. (Ofsted 2021)
Retrieval practice refers to the act of recalling learned information from memory, and in doing so the memory is made stronger (Jones, 2019). Younger children benefit from more guided retrieval practice tasks, for example, adding knowledge to a partially completed concept map (Ofsted 2021).
See Jones (2019) for more on retrieval practice as a strategy in the classroom.
Supporting Assessment in Primary Science
There are various guides you can refer to that will support assessment in your science lessons. Here are a few you get you started.
Teacher Assessment in Primary Science: https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/assessment
CIEC Enabling Accurate Teacher Assessment in Primary Science: https://www.york.ac.uk/ciec/resources/primary/enabling-accurate-teacher-assessment/
PLAN Assessment: https://www.planassessment.com/
Formative Assessment Techniques
I’ve already looked at many of the assessment techniques in other posts on this blog such as concept cartoons, labelling diagrams etc. Such as:
Self-Assessment
Self-assessment has an essential role to play (Black and Harrison, 2004). To be successful the children should know what the desired goals for particular activities are. The learning intentions and outcomes should be clearly stated. Children can identify where they are in relation to these goals and understand how they can take steps to achieve them.
There are many different quick self-assessment techniques that can be employed through the course of a lesson to allow immediate feedback. The teacher can quickly see how well the class as a whole understands a concept, and who needs additional help. These can be linked to the learning objectives and success criteria.
Quick self-assessment techniques can include:
Whiteboards: All the children have a mini-whiteboard and pen on their table. When asked by the teacher they can rank their understanding on a scale of 1 to 3 or draw smiley or sad faces. They can write their number on the whiteboard and hold it up for the teacher to see.
Traffic Lights: The children can rate their understanding on a coloured scale. Give students red, amber and green cards to show when asked, or they could label their work with a colour. Green meant that they totally understand, amber meant they had partial understanding, and red meant they don’t understand and need more help.
Thumbs up: The children can put their hands in the air when asked by the teacher. A thumbs-up gesture means they understand. Thumbs down means they need more help. A sideways thumb means they partially understand.
Peer Assessment
Peer-assessment builds on the notion of learning as a co-constructivist activity where learning occurs as a result of social interaction. Children can take ownership for their learning and see it as a process in which they are involved and can make a contribution.
In pairs, children can mark each other’s work. They can assess it against specific criteria, ideally agreed between themselves or as a class. Children are able to demonstrate their own understanding through assessment comments they give on their partners work.
See Black and Harrison (2004) for more on this.
The TAPs Project
The Teacher Assessment in Primary Science Project (TAPS) has put together a very useful bank of resources which supports teachers and schools in developing their assessment systems. It covers formative and summative assessment, monitoring of pupil progress and whole-school reporting. It’s an excellent resource for all primary teachers to take a look at. https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/assessment
Useful Links
Black, P. and Harrison, C., (2004) Science Inside the Black Box. Assessment for Learning in the Science Classroom. GL Assessment. http://www.btsa.uk/library/files/Science-inside-the-black-box.pdf
Black, P., & William, D. (2010). Inside the Black Box Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44836144_Inside_the_Black_Box_Raising_Standards_Through_Classroom_Assessment
Harlen, W., (2006). Teaching Learning and Assessing Science 5-12. (Sage)
Hodgson, C., (2010) Assessment for Learning in Primary Science: Practices and Benefits. National Foundation for Educational Research. https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/AAS02/AAS02.pdf
Jones, K. (2019) Retrieval Practice. Research and Resources for Every Classroom. John Catt.
Ofsted Research Series: Science (2021) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-science/research-review-series-science#assessment
PLAN Assessment: https://www.planassessment.com/
Teacher Assessment in Primary Science. Primary Science Teacher Trust. https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/assessment
Sharp, J., Peacock, G., Johnsey, G., Simon, S., and Smith., R., (2014) Primary Science: Teaching Theory and Practice (Achieving QTS Series). Learning Matters. Ch8.
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