I read the ARG pamphlet almost with disbelief, as it seemed so old and dated. The reason for that is that having recently completed a PGCE Secondary in MFL, I had to write, as part of that course, a summary of the differences between Assessment FOR learning and Assessment OF learning. All of the points raised by ARG (1999, 2002) are now 'built-in' to the training programme - not necessarily successfully, but the assumption is made that that is how assessment WILL be done.
However, having read Elliott (2008) and Whitelock (2010) I find that perhaps these principles are not applied quite as widely as I had been led to believe! After years of building 'learning dialogues' and giving 'positive feedback', and encouraging 'peer assessment', I find that, apparently, there are still people teaching who only use assessment to meet the requirements of the curriculum.
Elliot (2008) says assessment 2.0 should be;
• Authentic: involving real-world knowledge and skills.
Personalised: tailored to the knowledge, skills and interests of each student.
• Negotiated: agreed between the learner and the teacher.
• Engaging: involving the personal interests of the student.
• Recognise existing skills:willing to accredit the student’s existing work.
• Deep: assessing deep knowledge – not memorisation.
• Problem oriented: original tasks requiring genuine problem solving skills.
• Collaboratively produced: produced in partnership with fellow students.
• Peer and self assessed: involving self reflection and peer review.
• Tool supported: encouraging the use of ICT
And I fully agree with all of these points, and have always attempted to meet all (or at least most) of these criteria when carrying out assessment. I admit that this is not always easy, as there is often pressure to do 'marking' instead of 'assessment', but have always found it far more helpful.
References:
Assessment Reform Group (ARG) (1999) Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box [Online], ARG, Available at http://assessmentreformgroup.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/beyond_blackbox.pdf (Accessed 20 June 2014).
Assessment Reform Group (ARG) (2002) Assessment for Learning: 10 Principles [Online], London, ARG, Available at http://assessmentreformgroup.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/10principles_english.pdf (Accessed 20 June 2014).
Elliot, B. (2008) Assessment 2.0 [Online], SQA. Available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/461041/Assessment-2-0 (Accessed 20 June 2014).
Whitelock, D. (2010) 'Activating Assessment for Learning: Are we on the way with WEB 2.0?', in Lee, M.J.W. and McLoughlin, C. (eds) Web 2.0-Based E-Learning: Applying Social Informatics forTertiary Teaching, IGI Global.
