Why it is Worth Taking the Online Course «Assessment for Learning»

When we assess, do we support or punish? How to assess without causing harm, but, on the contrary, contributing to motivation? What assessment tools will help teachers and why parents should not require grades? The answers to these questions are given in the online course «Assessment for Learning».

The course has been developed by the Learning Together project + EU project in cooperation with the Online Education Studio EdEra with the financial support of the European Union and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and involvement of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

A conversation about the online course with its co-authors is below.

What the course «Assessment for Learning» is about and who it is intended for

According to the professor of the Department of Primary Education of the Kyiv Borys Grinchenko University Olena Linnik, the course will be useful for primary school teachers as well as for those involved in training primary school teachers, methodologists, NUS trainers, educational managers, basic school teachers, students and students’ parents.

«Many parents have questions – why there are no grades in primary school, how to read the certificate of achievements. Those who want to understand this issue will find answers in the course,» adds Olena Linnik.

Maria Barna, Head of the Office for NUS Coordination and Monitoring of the Lviv Regional In-service Teacher Training Institute, emphasizes that the course should help teachers understand that assessment stands not only for tools to assess students’ academic achievements, but also for teacher’s tools to teach.

«Over the years, teachers have developed a stereotype that assessment is their tool, that they have the right to make a verdict. Teachers are used to assessing what students do not know or cannot do, and the new philosophy of assessment is to see, hear, analyze and fairly assess what students know, can and apply in everyday life, and what transversal skills and value qualities they have developed.

According to the new philosophy, assessment is for learning, it is continuous. When the teacher sees the child’s progress or difficulties, instead of being concentrated on putting a higher or lower grade, he or she should support, motivate and lead to the best result,» says Maria Barna.

«We have spent a long time with methodologists looking for a name for this course, because we didn’t want to name it as simple as “Assessment”. This course is about how to assess children by helping them learn, and not driving them into a rating or putting labels on them using grades. Assessment is about helping and guiding a child, it is not a form of punishment or reward,» adds Olena Linnik.

The course is based on the Finnish experience, but all lectures take into account Ukrainian realities and legislation. It also contains interviews with teachers who share their experience and practices.

«We don’t show perfect teachers, we show real ones who share their experience,» says Iryna Starahina, an expert in education content of the Reform Support Team of the MoH.

There are also interviews with Finnish experts who talk about grades in their schools.

Course structure

The course is based on lectures, and each lecture has additional materials for practice.

In the course, you can learn about:

• assessment systems and practices;
• assessment culture and how to create it in school;
• assessment practices and tools;
• Finnish educational experience;
• practices of Ukrainian teachers.

The first module is about the Assessment System. It describes the values and principles of assessment, assessment of children with special educational needs (SEN), functions and forms of assessment, an example of an annual primary school assessment plan and assessment practices in Finnish schools.

The second module is focused on the Assessment Culture. Here you can learn about the assessment culture and how it works in Finland, how to develop assessment rules, what formative assessment is and how to put it into practice, how to set learning goals, how to carry out summative assessment, self-assessment and peer assessment.

The third module is about Efficient Class Management. It talks about assessment at integrated classes, how to work with smart cards, why to discuss students’ academic progress, how to hold meetings with parents and students, how to work with a student’s certificate of achievements, how to assess during distance learning.

The fourth module deals with Assessment of Learning Outcomes. Here you can get acquainted with the practices of assessing academic achievements in various subjects, how the project-based method works, and what efficient approaches to assessing students’ transversal skills are.

Upon a successful completion of the test, course participants will receive a 30-hour certificate.

What assessment culture is proposed to be used in schools

The modules pay a lot of attention to practices. However, «it is worth starting a conversation about assessment with the assessment culture – how to create it in school, what needs to be changed», experts say. Therefore, the Finnish experience was important. The key concepts in the Finnish culture of assessment, the basics of which can be learnt in the course, are support and trust.

«In Finland, each school develops its own assessment approaches and traditions, they build their own values, rules and procedures. And for every teacher, the child, his or her interests, support, success come first,» explains Olena Linnik.

«The Finns are talking not about the norm, but about learning progress and development,» adds Iryna Starahina. «It is important to support children in their efforts, not to be a judge, to show the value of effort. Our assessment culture had been punitive before the reform began. The children were afraid of assessment.»

«The assessment culture offered in the course also assumes that at the beginning of the school year, children understand where they are going to and what they should achieve», says Maria Barna.

«To start learning a new assessment culture, you need to become tolerant of children’s imperfections and recognize your own imperfections», notes Iryna Starahina.

«There is no need to demand high results from children. Changes begin when people recognize who they are. We create our own portrait first, and then the mechanism of changes is launched.»

According to Olena Linnik, the resistance to modern assessment methods is due to many parents and teachers’ experience in school.

«It’s hard to give up the stereotype. How is it – there will be no assessment? We need to develop the ability to accept child’s success or failure as the success or failure of their own work, and the desire to help them achieve the highest result. Then the children will understand that the teacher is a friend who is on their side.»

Assessment forms

«Even in the academic community, when asked “What are the forms of assessment?” they often answer: oral and written. And the fact that there is formative assessment, which has come together with self-assessment and peer assessment that can take place both orally and in writing, can still be forgotten even by the academic community,» says Iryna Starahina.

What do you need to know about formative assessment?

Formative assessment requires a more detailed and broader feedback.

«The teacher not just puts a grade, but explains what needs to be further developed, what is missing and what tasks need to be worked on. If the figure is without explanation, it is difficult for a child to understand what to do next,» says Olena Linnik.

Iryna Starahina is sure that «familiarization with assessment practices is impossible without a dialogue.» It is therefore important to have feedback in every form of assessment.

It is also important for the teacher to learn how to track learning progress, to see all little things in differences between child’s skills.

«For example, those children who can read can be divided into several groups: the ones who read texts expressively and with understanding, the ones who read mechanically and without emotions, the ones who read some words. There are many differences in each of these groups, which means that appropriate assistance should be provided,» believes Iryna Starahina.

Besides, for assessment, it is essential to give children exactly as much help as they need. To do this, it is important to see the differences. If it is too much, then the child expects everything from the teacher, if it is not enough, the child becomes helpless.

The course contains practical techniques – how to set goals, develop assessment criteria, use peer and self-assessment, how to provide feedback and draw up an annual assessment plan.

«There are examples of checklists how to carry out assessments, specific forms, examples of tasks and a sample of assessment of the entire topic from the beginning to the end,» Olena Linnik says.

«We also tried to show how the certificate of achievements should work throughout the year, and not just twice a year. The annual assessment plan used by teachers in Finland can be found in annexes. There are our developments, the experience of teachers of pilot schools – formative assessment, assessment in an inclusive class, assessment in grades 1-2, 3-4, assessment in distance learning conditions.»

The tools of formative assessment can be different. Maria Barna has developed an algorithm for assessing a separate task with colors. Green – fully completed, blue – completed with a few mistakes, more «yes» than «no», orange – more «no» than «yes», yellow – not done at all.

«I tell teachers, “Avoid red.” The child knows what is behind each color. When teachers use this technique, they assess the result of each task according to a particular expected result. I teach teachers: record moments, see what motivates the child to work. This frees the child from fear, children have the right to make mistakes and know that they will be helped.»

Here and at this link you will find examples of diagnostics developed by Maria Barna.

What are the relationships between summative assessment and formative assessment?

Summative assessment is necessary in order to assess the level of achievement at a particular stage of learning. It is important to keep in mind the relationships between summative assessment and formative assessment.

«You also need to be able to summarize the results, and use them for not passing a verdict, but for talking to a child through formative assessment – what needs to be done not to make mistakes next time.

Do not forget that these are not two poles – when we provide support at one pole and make a verdict at the other one. There should be a transition all the time. We have seen our level and set a goal for the future,» explains Iryna Starahina.

Maria Barna believes that it is worth reviewing the role of educational strategic management bodies in regulating the assessment system.

«If it is declared that an institution has the freedom of creating its own assessment system, then let it use this right, observing national requirements: it should apply formative assessment based on the principles of a competence approach.»

This material was prepared for the Learning Together project and published on the NUS portal in 2021.

This document was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.