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9 references
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 12, App C
formative assessmentlearning analyticsfeedback processeslearning intentionsevidence elicitationself-assessmentinstructional decision-makingJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Banihashem and colleagues systematically review 93 studies published from 2011 to 2023 to examine how learning analytics supports formative assessment.
Key ideas
Their coding framework combines three actors—teachers, peers, and learners as self-assessors—with three questions: where learning is going, where it is now, and how to move forward. The review finds that analytics can clarify goals, diagnose current understanding, and support feedback or instructional action, but coverage across the framework is uneven. A central concern is alignment: dashboards or predictions are useful only when their outputs connect to a defensible model of formative assessment and can be interpreted and acted upon.
Why it matters
For educators and designers, the study recommends building analytics around learning intentions, evidence elicitation, feedback processes, and concrete decisions rather than treating data visualisation as formative assessment by itself.
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- Vol 2 TE: App B
inquiry-based learningproject-based learningcooperative learningstructured inquiryscaffoldingformative assessmentindividual accountabilitymeaningful understandingBook chapter Evidence summaryAt a glance
Barron and Darling-Hammond review evidence on inquiry-based, project-based, and cooperative approaches intended to produce meaningful understanding.
Key ideas
Effective designs engage learners in authentic questions and products, but they also provide explicit goals, access to relevant knowledge, structured inquiry, scaffolding, feedback, revision, and opportunities to reflect. Cooperative learning is most productive when groups have shared goals alongside individual accountability and when participation is deliberately organised. The review cautions that minimally guided activity can leave students confused or reinforce misconceptions; active learning is not equivalent to unguided discovery. Examples show students learning disciplinary content while developing communication, collaboration, and self-management.
Why it matters
For educators, the chapter supports ambitious investigations built on careful sequencing and teaching: challenging problems should be paired with models, formative assessment, coaching, and a classroom culture in which students explain and improve their thinking.
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- Vol 2 RE: Chapter 5
inquiry-based learningproject-based learningcooperative learningstructured inquiryscaffoldingformative assessmentindividual accountabilitymeaningful understandingBook chapter Evidence summaryAt a glance
Barron and Darling-Hammond review evidence on inquiry-based, project-based, and cooperative approaches intended to produce meaningful understanding.
Key ideas
Effective designs engage learners in authentic questions and products, but they also provide explicit goals, access to relevant knowledge, structured inquiry, scaffolding, feedback, revision, and opportunities to reflect. Cooperative learning is most productive when groups have shared goals alongside individual accountability and when participation is deliberately organised. The review cautions that minimally guided activity can leave students confused or reinforce misconceptions; active learning is not equivalent to unguided discovery. Examples show students learning disciplinary content while developing communication, collaboration, and self-management.
Why it matters
For educators, the chapter supports ambitious investigations built on careful sequencing and teaching: challenging problems should be paired with models, formative assessment, coaching, and a classroom culture in which students explain and improve their thinking.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapter 4
formative assessmentassessment validitydomain-specific assessmentdiagnostic evidenceteacher knowledgeassessment systemscurriculum alignmentprofessional learningJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Bennett critically examines six connected problems in formative assessment: inconsistent definitions, strong effectiveness claims based on a limited evidence base, insufficient attention to subject domains, weak integration of measurement principles, substantial demands on teacher knowledge and support, and tensions with the wider assessment system.
Key ideas
He argues that formative assessment is not one well-defined intervention, so effects cannot be assumed to transfer across practices or contexts. Useful evidence must be interpreted through a model of how learning develops in a domain, and teachers need tools that elicit diagnostically meaningful information and support appropriate action.
Why it matters
For educators and policymakers, the review recommends treating formative assessment as part of a coherent learning system in which curriculum, instruction, professional learning, classroom evidence, and external assessment work together rather than promoting isolated techniques.
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- Vol 1 TE: App A
- Vol 2 RE: Chapter 11, App C, App D
- Vol 2 TE: App B
- Vol 4 RE: Chapters 9, 11, 17, App A, App B, App C
- Vol 4 TE: App C
- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 13, 15, App A
- Vol 5 TE: App C
formative assessmentfeedback processesteacher questioningself-assessmentpeer assessmentmastery learningstudent self-regulationJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Black and Wiliam review research on classroom formative assessment and find consistent evidence that strengthening feedback processes can improve learning. Assessment becomes formative when evidence about understanding is used to adapt teaching and learning, not simply when a task is labelled informal or frequent.
Key ideas
The review examines teacher questioning, feedback, self-assessment, peer processes, mastery learning, and the effects of grades and comparison. Productive feedback helps learners recognise a goal, compare their current state with it, and take action to close the gap. Students' beliefs, motivation, and active role are therefore central. The authors also stress that implementation demands substantial changes in classroom practice.
Why it matters
For educators, the review supports eliciting thinking, interpreting evidence, giving information that guides next steps, and involving students in criteria and self-regulation rather than relying on marks or praise alone.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapter 4
formative assessmentassessment evidencefeedback for learninglearning intentionssuccess criteriaclassroom discoursestudent agencyself-regulationJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Black and Wiliam develop a theoretical account that places formative assessment inside a broader model of pedagogy.
Key ideas
They define practice as formative when evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or peers to make better-grounded decisions about next steps than they could make without that evidence. The article connects classroom interaction with theories of instruction, feedback, self-regulation, and the regulation of learning. It identifies key strategies: clarifying intentions and criteria, engineering discussions and tasks that reveal understanding, providing feedback that moves learning forward, activating students as resources for one another, and activating them as owners of learning.
Why it matters
For educators, the theory shifts attention from assessment instruments to decision processes: who needs evidence, what inference it supports, and how the resulting action changes the course of learning.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapter 15
sustainable assessmentformative assessmentself-regulated learningevaluative judgementfeedback literacyassessment designself-assessmentcalibrationJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Boud and Soler revisit sustainable assessment: assessment designed not only to support current coursework but also to develop learners' capacity to meet future learning demands.
Key ideas
Reviewing how the idea evolved over fifteen years, they connect it with formative assessment, self-regulation, feedback, and students' ability to make informed judgements about the quality of their own work. Sustainable practice cannot depend indefinitely on teachers supplying corrective information; learners need opportunities to interpret standards, compare work with criteria, seek and use feedback, and calibrate their decisions. The authors argue that these capacities must be built across a programme rather than attached to isolated tasks.
Why it matters
For educators, the article recommends examining how assessment design contributes to long-term learning, creating repeated opportunities for evaluative judgement, and aligning present requirements with the kinds of decisions students will later make independently.
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- Vol 1 TE: App A
- Vol 2 RE: Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, App A, App D
- Vol 2 TE: App B
- Vol 4 RE: Chapter 10
- Vol 4 TE: Chi, M. T. H. (2009). Active-constructive-interactive: A conceptual framework for differentiating learning activities. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1(1), 73–105
- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
prior knowledgeconceptual understandingknowledge transfermetacognitionformative assessmentlearner-centered environmentsknowledge-centered environmentslearning communitiesBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
This National Research Council synthesis connects findings about cognition, development, neuroscience, and classroom learning. It describes expertise as organised, conceptually connected knowledge that supports recognition and transfer, not simply a larger store of facts.
Key ideas
Learners enter instruction with prior knowledge and beliefs that shape new understanding; teaching must therefore elicit and work with existing conceptions. Metacognitive approaches help students plan, monitor, and revise their learning. The book characterises effective environments as learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred, and community-centred, with these dimensions designed coherently. It also examines children’s learning, brain development, teacher learning, and educational technology.
Why it matters
For educators, the synthesis supports building deep disciplinary structures, making thinking visible through formative assessment, cultivating metacognition, and designing supportive communities in which knowledge can be applied beyond the original lesson.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapter 9
rubric designformative assessmentperformance criteriaperformance descriptorsanalytic rubricsholistic rubricsself-assessmentgrading practicesBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Brookhart explains rubrics as coherent sets of criteria accompanied by descriptions of performance quality.
Key ideas
Effective criteria represent the learning students should demonstrate, not incidental features of the task, while performance-level descriptions show a meaningful continuum rather than vague labels or point counts. The book distinguishes analytic from holistic rubrics and general from task-specific rubrics, showing how each serves different instructional and grading purposes. It addresses constructing, revising, and using rubrics with students for feedback, self-assessment, goal setting, and grading. Poor rubrics can fragment quality or reward compliance; well-designed ones focus attention on important learning.
Why it matters
For educators, the guidance recommends beginning with the intended learning, selecting observable criteria, describing genuine differences in quality, testing the rubric against student work, and involving learners so the tool supports judgement and improvement instead of merely calculating scores.
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- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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