Tests as productive learning opportunities

Abstract

This presentation reports on work in progress derived from a study funded by the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong, entitled Primary English Assessment for Learning (PEAL). This project has as one of its main themes the development of instructional power from teaching processes which precede and follow tests. The main aims of the paper are threefold: 1) To analyze English teachers’ instructional strategies which bridge formative and summative functions of assessment; 2) To examine under what circumstances internal school tests act as a barrier to formative assessment and under what circumstances they can be supportive; 3) To review the potential of tests to provide useful information to key stakeholders: teachers, students and parents. The paper is exploratory in nature and draws on qualitative data collected in Hong Kong primary schools. The research method involves: semi-structured interviews with teachers to identify their views and beliefs about assessment and its relationship with classroom practice; informal interactions with students to gauge their response to tests; classroom observations, mainly of lessons preceding and following tests in order to understand the interface between teaching and testing; and documentary analysis of test papers and student samples of work. Standard qualitative data analysis procedures are utilized, involving data reduction, summarizing, coding and categorizing. The main interim findings relate to the potential of ‘test paper review’ and ‘consolidation days’ to enhance learning after a test; the risk of testing in the early years de-motivating lower achieving students; and tensions between performance or achievement goals and learning or mastery goals. The significance of the paper relates to its contribution to assessment theory in terms of the exploration of synergies between formative and summative assessment. The paper also carries implications for the development of a context-sensitive version of formative assessment. In other words, where testing is frequent and pervasive negative impacts may be reduced if appropriate follow-up learning interventions are carried out after a test is taken.