Abstract:

The intervention approach used by the Education Support Services Assessment team identifies a range of teaching strategies that have been shown to be effective in professional development to build the assessment ability of teachers in both primary and secondary schools in a New Zealand setting. The overall outcome of the professional development has been to develop a programme of learning that address identified needs of students, while engaging students in the learning, through the effective use of data/evidence and a range of formative assessment strategies.
The professional development has been focussed on enhancing student learning and building confidence and capability across the curriculum through improving student achievement in literacy. A particular emphasis has been in sharing formative assessment approaches and strategies that have been effective within primary and secondary schools and in promoting the need for all teachers to build literacy capability of students across all the learning areas of the curriculum. The intervention has promoted the use of effective pedagogy with teachers and leaders. Throughout the programme a range of formative assessment strategies have been identified and trialled, that have enabled teachers to create a supportive learning environment that helps students build capability in their areas of need in reading. Within the programme there has been a focus on use of student voice as a window into the teaching and learning that is occurring within classrooms. The strategies used by the facilitators to obtain reliable student voice evidence will be shared. Participants will be introduced to an approach to formative assessment that focuses on using student achievement data in reading to identify learning strengths and weaknesses. The presentation will use reading data/evidence from diagnostic assessments to identify student learning needs. These approaches will be modelled and shared.
In addition, ways for school leaders to link use of the Teaching as Inquiry cycle to teacher improvement and appraisal, and the use of student voice to reinforce the teachers’ actions will be introduced. The programme has also worked to build sustainability within schools by establishing systems and processes for school leaders to use to build teachers skills and strategies through use of the Teaching as Inquiry approach.
Opportunities for discussion and feedback from participants will occur throughout the presentation.
GOALS OF PROGRAMME
• To use data/evidence to identify the strengths and weaknesses of students in a class
• To identify strategies that are most likely to help students to learn, incorporating a range of formative assessment opportunities including:
 use of learning intentions and success criteria to ensure students know what they are learning and why,
 use of feedback and feed-forward to identify next learning steps for students;
 use of effective questioning strategies to develop students cognitive processes
 use of self and peer assessment to build student confidence in reflecting on and talking about their learning
• To focus on the reading/writing process across the curriculum and link to formative assessment approaches
• To introduce the Teaching as Inquiry framework as a tool for teachers to focus teaching and learning in all curriculum areas for improved student achievement

Keywords:

Assessment, formative assessment, effective pedagogy, teaching and learning, student voice.