Conclusion
chapter 4 Eliciting Evidence of Learning
Finding Out What Students Know
Discovering Where Students’ Ideas Come From
Practical Techniques
Conclusion
chapter 5 Providing Feedback That Moves Learning Forward
The Quality of Feedback
Feedback as a Recipe for Future Action
Practical Techniques
Conclusion
chapter 6 Activating Learners as Instructional Resources for One Another
Effective Cooperative Learning
Practical Techniques
Conclusion
chapter 7 Activating Learners as Owners of Their Own Learning
Student Self-Assessment
Self-Testing
Self-Regulated Learning
Practical Techniques
Conclusion
About the Author
Dylan Wiliam, PhD, is a consultant who works with educators in North America, the United Kingdom, and many other countries to develop effective, research-based formative assessment practices. He is former deputy director of the Institute of Education at the University of London. From teaching in urban public schools to directing a large-scale testing program to serving in university administration, his professional path has led to a variety of positions at the forefront of education. Dr. Wiliam was also, from 2003 to 2006, senior research director at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey.
During his early years of teaching in inner-city classrooms, Dr. Wiliam focused on physics and mathematics. He later joined the faculty of Chelsea College, University of London, which later became part of King’s College London. Here, he worked on developing innovative assessment schemes in mathematics before accepting leadership of the King’s College Mathematics Education Program.
For three years, Dr. Wiliam served as the academic coordinator of the Consortium for Assessment and Testing in Schools, which developed a variety of assessments for the national curriculum of England and Wales. He then returned to King’s College to serve as dean of the School of Education before being promoted to assistant principal of the College.
In 1998, he coauthored a major review of research evidence on formative assessment with Paul Black, and he has worked with many teachers in the United Kingdom and the United States on developing formative assessment practices to support learning.
In addition to holding a doctor of education degree, Dr. Wiliam has numerous degrees in mathematics and mathematics education. You can keep up with what he is writing at www.dylanwiliam.net and at www.dylanwiliamcenter.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @dylanwiliam.
Introduction
In 1984, I left my job teaching mathematics and science in an urban public school in London to join a research project at the University of London that was exploring the potential of formative assessment to improve student learning. Over a quarter of a century later, this book is the result of that journey.
The book has two main purposes. The first is to provide simple, practical ideas about changes that every teacher can make in the classroom to develop his or her practice of teaching. The second is to provide the evidence that these changes will result in improved outcomes for learners.
In chapter 1, I show why educational achievement is so important and why raising educational achievement needs to be a priority. With higher levels of educational achievement, people are healthier, live longer, contribute more to society, and earn more money. For society, the benefits include reduced criminal justice costs, reduced health care costs, and increased economic growth.
I also outline briefly how previous attempts at reform—including changes to the structure of schooling, to the governance of schools, and to the curriculum, and an increased role for digital technology—have been largely ineffective. These reform efforts have failed to take into account three crucial points.
1. The quality of teachers is the single most important factor in the education system.
2. Teacher quality is highly variable.
3. Teacher quality has a greater impact on some students than others.
In chapter 1, I also show that attempts at improving the quality of entrants into teaching and removing the least effective teachers will result in small effects that will take a generation to materialize. The fundamental argument of chapter 1, therefore, is that to secure our future economic prosperity, we need to help the teachers who are already serving in our schools improve.
In chapter 2, I explore some of the ways that teachers might develop, and estimate how big an impact these changes would have on student outcomes. I show that some popular initiatives, such as learning styles, have no discernible impact on student achievement at all, while others, such as increasing teacher content knowledge, do improve student learning but by much less than people generally assume.
In the second part of chapter 2, I summarize the research on classroom formative assessment practices and show that these practices appear to have a much greater impact on educational achievement than most other reforms. Chapter 2 concludes by outlining what formative assessment is, and what it is not, and presents the five key strategies of formative assessment.
Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 deal in turn with each of the five key strategies of formative assessment.
1. Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and success criteria
2.