Editorial
The landscape of education and…
Imagine returning from a professional development workshop, or an extended program such as the Management and Leadership (MLS) or the Teacher Leaders’ Program (TLP), brimming with ideas and intention to enhance assessment practices back in school, only to be met with indifference or even resistance. Sadly, whilst the impetus and initiative for assessment change may start from an individual educator, getting “buy in” and constructive collaboration from colleagues may prove challenging. So why not start with having colleagues attend assessment literacy together from the beginning to pre-empt such a challenge? This was our impetus for designing and piloting a new approach to Assessment Literacy professional development for teachers.
We developed a team-based professional development for feedback literacy in 2024 for educators to pursue individual and group learning outcomes. The design of the Team Based Feedback Assessment Feedback Literacy and Leadership programme (“TBFALL”) sought to provide each participant with the knowledge of feedback fundamentals and opportunities to reflect on how their existing practice might be strengthened with the new knowledge. In addition, each school team would be able to develop and implement an assessment change plan which could include an enhanced feedback practice incorporating course learning outcomes.
The course covered the following areas:
• Aligning feedback with assessment standards and task design for learning
• Embedding a learning-oriented feedback pedagogy cycle into the curriculum
• Engaging students holistically in/with feedback in affective, behavioural, and cognitive domains
• Establishing and ensuring the conditions for effective feedback practice: psychological safety and trust for feedback
We conducted three separate pilot runs (two groups with primary schools, the third group with secondary schools and junior college) to road test our curriculum and sort out logistical challenges. After journeying with groups of educators from a total of 17 schools, we present the reflections from our experience. We hope that more educators will be drawn to this format of PD for feedback literacy and are happy to work with you on your journey.
From the course tutors ...
Associate Professor Kelvin Tan
One of the delights of TBFALL from the instructor’s perspective was observing how teachers were able to learn from their team, and learn from other teams. Two examples are shared below where participants learn through the sharing of different school contexts and artifacts, deepening the team’s learning through in-depth discussions.
Example 1: Analysing how feedback is given and to whom
A good example of learning from their team and other teams was in the simple activity of the seven teams indicate the proportion of feedback in their school that was (i) given to a class/group or to individual students, and (ii) that was verbal or written. From the collective inputs (Figure 1), participants were able to appreciate the proportion of verbal and written feedback in their own contexts and relative to others.
This led to further examination of whether such feedback could be readily accessed and appreciated by colleagues. For example, a team who had a high percentage of verbal feedback but relies mostly on file checks to appreciate written assessment feedback, a gap in their assessment leadership to consider would be to identify ways to observe and appreciate teachers’ verbal feedback in class. Discussions between teams on different proportion(s) of written/verbal feedback for individual/common learning gaps was also a concrete opportunity to learn from the practices of other schools.
Example 2: Involving students meaningfully and productively in assessment feedback
What does it mean to involve students meaningfully and productively in assessment feedback? One of the issues we analysed in TBFALL was the partnership between teachers and students in feedback practices. After all, whilst teachers have the professional responsibility to help students find and fix their learning gaps, learning or enhancement in learning may not occur until and unless students are actively involved in understanding and using feedback.
A simple activity was conducted to first chart and unpack the different actions by teachers and students in a complete feedback cycle. In the example below (Figure 2) by teachers from Monfort Junior School, these feedback partnership actions were charted from a macro perspective across an academic year. In addition to permitting teachers to understand and plan their feedback cycle against other instructional plans (such as the scheme of work), it also encouraged teachers to plan for students active involvement in feedback across a period of time in terms of requesting for feedback, responding to feedback, and reflecting on (acting and benefitting from) feedback.
Teaching Fellow, Ms Grace Koh
It was an interesting and enriching experience for me as an instructor of this newly minted team-based approach providing professional development for teachers leading assessment change in their schools. This new format allowed participants to enhance their assessment literacy while providing specific contexts for their discussions by joining the sessions as school teams. It was heartening to see the school teams identify various assessment issues within their schools and journey as a team throughout the sessions to lead assessment change in various areas.
During our pilot run, one team designed a full feedback cycle for Chemistry. They clarified success criteria and involved students in using these criteria to better understand teachers’ feedback. They also created tasks to ensure opportunities for feed forward. Another team focused on assessing 21st Century Competencies, particularly Communication skills. The workshop facilitated the team to identify suitable standards for Communication skills in their context and they too designed a full feedback cycle to develop students’ communication skills.
Both schools piloted their new assessment design and were glad to share that they see growth in the development of their students, with some taking more ownership of their learning. Teachers are now looking forward to further refining their assessment designs for deeper and wider implementation, so that more students can benefit from the improved assessment design.
The combination of joint sessions and individual school consultation sessions also benefitted participants by allowing them to learn from other schools during the joint sessions and receive specific input on their assessment change plans during the individual consultations. Schools appreciated the input from the NIE instructors at the various stages of planning and implementation, which provided suggestions, solutions, and sometimes more food for thought for the team.
Teaching Fellow, Ms P. Durka Devi
The distinctive feature of the team-based professional development model is its capacity to unite teams from various school settings while guiding them towards a shared objective. In this manner, it replicates a school ecosystem where different departments come together to review their current practices, co-construct their understanding of good feedback practice and plan for a sustainable professional learning cycle in their own schools. The additional benefits are that (1) the good ideas are shared, learnt from and borrowed, (2) the not so good ideas are shared, critiqued and refined, and (3) in a very safe learning environment.
The sessions provided many insights relevant to my roles as a tutor and professional learning designer, of which I share three below.
· Seeing “feedback” through the eyes of our students.
This was a critical step in initiating feedback change. By engaging in activities such as role play and stories, teams were able to understand the importance of prioritising students’ interactions and experiences with feedback when planning for change.
· Output is what we create; outcome is the impact we make.
The success of the plan does not lie in its product but the difference it brings to students’ learning. By using an outcome-focused approach, teams were able to streamline their plans towards optimal use of resources (time, tools etc.) for clearly defined short-, medium- and long-term impact on student learning.
· Learning flourishes in an open culture
The learning environment enabled participants to share their practices openly, including those that were successful and those that were not. One approach to leading change could be creating such an environment where teachers can engage in reflective group discussions and collaborative problem-solving.
From course participants ...
Waterway Primary Group Reflection
The PD sessions reinforced our shared commitment to creating a culture of care and excellence in learning and assessment in our school. The learning experience, which included both the sharing of expert knowledge and constructive feedback on current practices, provided us with a deeper understanding of assessment feedback practices and their role in fostering a supportive learning environment. The journal articles and information shared were timely and thought-provoking, offering new insights and perspectives that we can apply to our contexts. The customised guidance to individual schools was useful in providing us with areas for growth. What stood out most to us was the final session, where schools shared their practices and experiences. Despite being at different stages in our journey, the exchange of ideas was incredibly insightful. Overall, the sessions reinforced the importance of ongoing professional development and the value of learning from each other as we continue to refine our teaching practices. We are looking forward to continuing this journey and integrating what we have learnt as we continue to hone our craft in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in our classrooms.
Ming Lee, HOD/Chem from HCI (College Section)
The workshop has been extremely significant to our professional development in terms of feedback literacy. Firstly, the theories shared help us understand feedback from a more comprehensive perspective, and make a lot of sense, hence we could apply some of them into our project with relative ease. It also provides frameworks to test and evaluate our current or revised practices. Secondly, the sharing of feedback practices tried-and-tested either by instructors or by other schools lend a lot of authenticity, allowing us to see how the theory may be applied in various contexts. Thirdly, the individual coaching sessions are super helpful! The insightful feedback and suggestions customised to our context really motivated us to push on with our project despite a very busy Semester 2. After the workshop, our team gained a refreshed understanding of feedback, and were able to test-run revised practices to try to engage students more effectively, while not burdening teachers’ load unnecessarily.
Interested in working with your team to address feedback issues in your school?
Join us at the “Professional Development for Feedback Literacy: A Team-based Approach for Assessment Leadership”.
Just as the teachers benefitted from collegial and collaborative learning in TBFALL, we too benefitted from learning from concurrently conducting the sessions. Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) are commonly set up in schools to conduct action research or simply to enable teachers to learn collaboratively by addressing classroom assessment issues. It was indeed our pleasure to design and conduct a form of professional development that could permit teams of educators to learn professionally from us, from their team members, and from other teams. The final presentations of learning and imminent plans for (collegial) assessment change were persuasive and a testament to the quality of learning from our participants, and we certainly look forward to more opportunities to work with more educators in the future.
For more information, please visit our course website. Registration for the course will close by end February.