Towards Assessment as Learning: Findings from online courses for secondary school teachers

Abstract

Today's school has to deal with several critical issues related to assessment, such as the excessive focus on grades and the lack of a shared understanding of assessment methods and aims. Assessment becomes formative when the evidence gathered is used to adapt teaching practice to pupils' learning needs. Teachers should move towards Assessment as Learning, characterised by appropriate tasks, development of evaluative competence, and involvement of students in feedback processes. This contribution presents two online research-training courses on assessment in secondary schools. They involved 240 secondary school teachers and consisted of a training and a workshop part. Courses were mainly based on teacher involvement, allowing for recursive feedback processes. We analysed data from an entry questionnaire, a One Minute Paper submitted during the course, and the workshop. The data analysis highlights the main difficulties related to assessment, suggestions, and reflections of the participants. We noticed the importance of workshop and group work to reflect on the transformation of practices. Finally, the interaction with the teachers was indeed valuable in understanding the sustainability of the proposal and refining it.