INSET: Embedding Formative Assessment

“Excellent! Pragmatic, realistic and no waffle!”

Jean Raleigh, HOD, Bellerby’s College

What are the benefits of embedding formative assessment ?

Embedding Formative Assessment is crucial for fostering a culture of continuous improvement in education. Effective use of formative assessment in the classroom and its use by the teacher in responsive teaching are the bedrock of outstanding practice. By incorporating formative assessment practices, educators can gain valuable insights into student learning, identify areas for improvement, and adapt teaching strategies to meet individual needs, ultimately enhancing student achievement and engagement.

Effective Formative Assessment

• Boosts learner engagement through effective use of assessment techniques, fostering a supportive learning environment where students experience success and motivation increases.
• Helps students to take more responsibility for their own learning as it is a from of assessment that actively involves the learners and encourages them to think about the way they learn. It occurs when learners reflect on and regulate and monitor their learning progress.
• Enhances responsiveness in lessons across your school, empowering teachers to collect better evidence and improve learning every lesson.
• Achieves positive impacts on learner outcomes, as evidenced by the EEF’s report (Feb 2019) showing two additional months’ progress in GCSE Attainment 8 scores for learners in EFA schools.

Formative Assessment & Adaptive Teaching

The benefit in reinvigorating assessment in classrooms and schools is it creates really effective assessment systems, designed to enable the pupils further understanding of the content as well as improve their own awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. Assessment is also an essential aspect of adaptive teaching as it helps to steer teaching and learning to improve outcomes. Formative and summative assessment can be used to inform in-the-moment adaptations and future planning. For example, adaptive teaching may be required if a teacher identifies a gap in their students’ knowledge through a formative assessment strategy, such as the teacher using skilful questioning and students recording their responses on mini-whiteboards. By gaining a snapshot of learners’ current understanding, the teacher can then use a range of in-the-moment adaptations to address any gaps in knowledge or areas of misunderstanding.   

This INSET course is designed to improve teaching and learning across your school by empowering teachers to trial and refine formative assessment techniques.

“Parents’ views on education also appear to be shifting. There is more appreciation of the importance of well-rounded learning, life skills and creativity”.

Michael O’Sullivan, Chief Executive, Cambridge International Examinations

INSET Outline

The Principles of Effective Assessment

• Understanding effective assessment
• Norms of collaboration
• Joined up approach to assessment across the school

Formative Assessment : Implications for teachers

• Aims, objectives, outcomes? Terminology impacts upon results
• Effective questioning techniques
• Creating an environment where it is safe for students to take chances and where support is readily available.

• Expanding teachers’ repertoires; teaching beyond a knowledge-based curriculum

Formative feedback that moves learners forward

• How to inspire and motivate learning through your marking without killing yourself in the process!
• High quality feedback
• Developing learning dialogue
• Adaptive teaching

Activating students as owners of their own learning

• Teaching Cognitive strategies
• Peer & Self assessment strategies that really work!
• Metacognition – learning to learn

Formative and summative assessment can be used to inform in-the-moment adaptations to teaching and future planning. Find out about our Adaptive Teaching INSET here.

JMC Teaching & learning Team

enquiries@jmcinset.com