Assessment for Learning online course

By Neil Goalby2015-08-18T09:00:00

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Neil Goalby investigates hinge-point questions and formative assessment to develop pupil learning

Assessment for Learning (AfL) has become a mainstay of science education in schools over the past 15 years. Its central premise is in using formative assessment to develop pupil learning. Earlier this year, several thousand teachers signed up to Assessment for Learning in STEM teaching – a six week online course delivered by two of the main architects of AfL, Dylan Wiliam and Christine Harrison, in collaboration with the University of Leeds.

I am sure AfL was not a new concept for many of the teachers on the course, but over the years various initiatives have piggy-backed the original ideas. This course therefore focused on the central reasons for using AfL techniques in a classroom.

So when do we use the questions for assessment? Neil Goalby discusses hinge-point questionining and how studying Assessment for Learning in STEM teaching made him reconsider how he uses dialogue in the classroom.

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