Presentation by: Martin Jones
Session: C | Time: 10:05AM – 10:45AM | Location: Room 203
Following on the work of John Hattie and others, Mulgrave has recently been focusing on efforts to improve teacher feedback, as well as student target-setting, in order to improve student learning.
Live-Time Assessment involves openly sharing key assessment results and feedback with both students and parents soon after the assessment takes place. The feedback is recorded in a visible manner and is easily accessible.
Evidence shows that timely, effective feedback can lead to increased student learning. By ensuring feedback is transparent to both students and parents, we hope to enhance learning and keep parents better informed about their child’s progress.
The process of live-time assessment replaces the need for traditional anecdotal report cards, as parents receive ongoing updates about their child’s progress in a more immediate – rather than retrospective – manner. This approach mirrors the practices of formative assessment and assessment for learning.
We believe that both the retrospective, summative nature of formal reports, and the style in which they are written, are no longer fit for purpose.
The process of live-time assessment provides an overview of a student’s progress at any point of the year, includes clear language which is specific to the task and expected learning outcomes, and provides clear guidance to students about the ways in which they can improve their learning.
Another advantage is that students develop an ongoing portfolio of their progress, improvement, and areas for growth in each subject area. This portfolio can then be used in student-led conferences, during which students discuss the progress they have made and the ways in which they have used teachers’ feedback to improve their learning and understanding.
We initially piloted this practice through the use of Google Spreadsheets. This is a highly scalable innovation which can be implemented at no cost for any school with access to the Google Suite tools.
We are at the beginning of this research, and still have various elements to craft and clarify, but we believe this form of assessment – with its focus on the authentic, the timely, and the actionable – has potential to improve student performance.
Abstract: 558