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4 references
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 1, 3, 5, App B
- Vol 5 TE: App C
formative assessmentfeedback usequality criteriaself-monitoringevaluative expertiseassessment exemplarsfeedback-based revisionself-regulated learningJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Sadler develops a theory of formative assessment for complex work judged against multiple criteria. Feedback becomes formative only when information about performance is used to reduce the gap between a learner’s current work and a desired standard.
Key ideas
To do this independently, students must understand what quality means, compare their own work with that standard, and possess strategies for closing the gap. Teacher comments alone cannot produce self-monitoring if standards remain tacit or students lack evaluative expertise. Exemplars, comparison, discussion of criteria, and authentic experience making judgements can help learners develop a concept of quality, including aspects not readily captured by analytic rubrics. The account applies most strongly to open, qualitative performances rather than tasks scored simply right or wrong.
Why it matters
For educators, formative design should move beyond delivering corrections: make quality visible through varied examples, involve students in justified judgements, connect feedback to revision, and create repeated cycles of production and improvement. The long-term aim is not permanent teacher dependence but the learner’s growing ability to monitor and regulate work while it is being produced.
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- Vol 5 TE: App C
formative assessmentassessment for learningconstructivist assessmentsociocultural assessmentself-assessmentfeedbackopportunity to learnassessment equityJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Shepard argues that assessment should be reconceived as part of a learning culture rather than as a separate apparatus for ranking and control. Earlier measurement traditions were shaped by behaviourist and differential-psychology assumptions that treated ability as relatively fixed, separated tests from instruction, and favoured decontextualised items.
Key ideas
Contemporary cognitive, constructivist, and sociocultural research instead portrays learning as building understanding through prior knowledge, participation, language, tools, and disciplinary practice. Assessment should therefore make thinking visible, support feedback and self-assessment, use meaningful tasks, and help teachers adapt instruction. Classroom assessment and external accountability serve different purposes and should not be allowed to distort one another. Equity requires attention to opportunity to learn, cultural and linguistic context, and the consequences of assessment use.
Why it matters
For educators, the article supports eliciting explanations and strategies, discussing criteria and exemplars, involving learners in judgement, and using evidence while learning is still changeable. A learning culture maintains high expectations but treats error as information and assessment as a reciprocal process embedded in teaching, not merely a score delivered afterward.
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- Vol 5 RE: Chapter 12
data-based decision makingteacher data literacyformative assessment datainstructional adaptationstudent groupingprofessional learning supportcollaborative inquiryimplementation sustainabilityJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Tayem and Bourgeois map how K–12 teachers use data-based decision making and what is known about training, practice, and outcomes. Their scoping review identifies geographic and temporal concentrations in the literature, especially studies from the United States and the Netherlands and clusters published during 2016–2017 and 2020–2022.
Key ideas
Research has focused more on elementary and in-person settings than secondary or online schooling. Across studies, teachers use assessment and other data to identify learner needs, set goals, select or adjust instruction, group students, and monitor progress. Interventions can improve teachers’ data use and sometimes student outcomes, but implementation is constrained by data literacy, beliefs, time, access to usable information, collaboration, leadership, and the alignment of tools with instructional work. One-off training is unlikely to sustain change; teachers benefit from continuing support that joins technical analysis with pedagogical interpretation and opportunities to act on findings.
Why it matters
The authors highlight uneven terminology and methods and call for research in underrepresented contexts, stronger outcome designs, and attention to long-term sustainability. Data should inform professional judgement rather than mechanically dictate decisions.
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- Vol 6 RE: Chapters 6, 7, 14, App A, App D, App E
professional learning inquiryadaptive expertiseknowledge buildingformative assessmentcollaborative inquiryinstructional improvementunderserved learnersschool leadershipBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Timperley reframes professional development from programmes delivered to teachers into professional learning organised around effects on students. At the book’s centre is an inquiry and knowledge-building cycle: identify what learners need to know and do; examine what educators need to learn; deepen relevant content, pedagogical, and assessment knowledge; create new learning opportunities; and evaluate what changed for students.
Key ideas
Evidence is used diagnostically rather than as a compliance score, and discrepant outcomes become reasons to investigate teaching, context, and assumptions. Professional learning must meet a double demand—offer immediately useful responses while developing adaptable principles teachers can apply to unfamiliar problems. Case examples from New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom illustrate respectful but challenging dialogue, external expertise, formative assessment, collaborative inquiry, and attention to learners who have been underserved. School leaders influence whether inquiry is safe, focused, resourced, and sustained; facilitators need expertise in both content and adult learning.
Why it matters
The book rejects evaluating professional learning by participation or satisfaction alone. Its test is whether educators build adaptive expertise and create demonstrably better opportunities, engagement, learning, and well-being for students.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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