Hello all, This discussion thread is interesting to me in the way it 
has begun to connect good teaching and learning.  I think many of the 
best teachers (in fact, most anyone who is truly expert at something) 
cannot always verbalize or articulate in research/education terms 
exactly what it is they are doing "that is working."  Often, the 
elements of an expert performance are so automatic and intuitive that 
they can't be readily remembered or quantified for those who want to 
name/identify them. I think this follows along with Jan's train of 
thought; there are probably many really good teachers who are using 
formative assessment everyday but don't think of their practices as 
assessment, probably because they have become so focused on 
high-stakes testing and assessment?
Best regards, Priscilla Carman


>Hello Jan:

>

>In my view, you are not rambling.  If I may rephrase, you are describing the

>data field--learning, education, the teacher-student relationship, etc.  The

>closer we get in our research to the actual qualities of good teaching, the

>less tension we should experience.

>

>Researchers are not studying something static or unhistorical.  Rather we

>are looking at something that is already on-going, that was operative long

>before any researcher came on the scene, and that is actually responsible

>for research communities having developed in the first place--education.

>Without it, we would have no research communities.

>

>Thus, the research community (theory, etc.) takes up the reflective mode of

>human consciousness--but now as a separated and institutionalized function

>of a highly nuanced field--education.  But that community emerged from, was

>separated off from, and is now returning to, that same educational

>experience to understand it and to formalize what is essential to it.   Some

>researchers, however, do not seem to see themselves in this way.  Rather, we

>seem to have unnecessary conflict for many reasons--too many to develop

>here.

>

>But education still is living and ongoing--and the data--teachers and

>students--still know when what we are doing works--when a student really

>understands something and needs no more help in that understanding.  Much

>that is essential to and experienced by the teacher-student is not captured

>in the research--especially in poorly grounded research.

>

>>From my understanding of it (and from cognitional theory), the idea of

>formative assessments comes close to capturing what is already essential to

>the educational experience--thus, it resonates regularly with what teachers

>and students are already doing when we experience "It works."

>

>We shouldn't be so surprised--and we wouldn't be--if we understood what I

>think you are trying to say--that our data field already holds within it the

>operating essentials that researchers are trying to tease out, rather than

>create and apply to something foreign to themselves, as if the data field

>were somewhere else besides already in the classroom.

>

>In formative assessments, as well as for the idea of action research,

>teachers and researchers are returning the "ends" to the data (the

>student)--differentiating, formalizing, and naming what has always been

>common to good teaching--and with those assessments as being FOR the

>student--recognizing that the student is not the means, but the proper end

>of the process (their understanding), and not in the assessments, e.g., for

>funding streams.

>

>Regards,

>

>Catherine King

>

>

>

>----- Original Message -----

>From: "David J. Rosen" <djrosen at comcast.net>

>To: <specialtopics at nifl.gov>

>Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 7:46 AM

>Subject: [SpecialTopics 796] Re: Formative assessment in adult

>foundationskillsin England

>

>

>>  Forwarded for Jan Eldred:

>>

>>  From: "Jan Eldred" <jan.eldred at niace.org.uk>

>>  Date: February 27, 2008 9:57:27 AM EST

>>  To: "John Vorhaus" <J.Vorhaus at ioe.ac.uk>, <specialtopics at nifl.gov>

>>  Subject: RE: [SpecialTopics 759] Formative assessment in adult

>  > foundation skillsin England

>>

>>  This is a fascinating discourse....I've not been very active in it

>>  but have followed the work along the way, keen to learn and understand.

>>

>>  Much of John's [ John  Vorhaus'] analysis makes sense to me...the

>>  nomenclature, what's being learned from very different case studies

>>  and what we seem to be understanding from observation.

>>

>>  some thoughts:

>>

>>  It strikes me that perhaps there isn't a tension between what we see

>>  as good teaching and learning and formative assessment but that

>>  perhaps what we're doing in our work is surfacing/highlighting/

>>  pulling together those features of teaching and learning which are so

>>  implicit that teachers and learners aren't always aware of what they

>>  are, the impact and the significance of them.  Perhaps what we're

>>  describing as formative assessment is a series of on-programme

>>  assessment processes and activities which we're identifying,

>>  observing and describing because they appear to lead to the outcomes

>>  of learning we feel are of the highest order ie autonomy, learning to

>>  learn, achievement etc etc etc...

>>

>>  When teachers protest that they are doing them perhaps the difference

>>  is the consciousness, the planning, the awareness of what is being

>>  looked for in the process and the involvement of the learner in the

>>  process which is different.  So identifying something,naming it and

>>  indicating the value for learning justifies classifying it as

>>  something which is not just good teaching and learning.....but we

>>  would say that formative assessment is part of good teaching and

>>  learning.

>>

>>  Or am I rambling??

>>  Do tell me!!

>>

>>  One small point, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the term

>>  instruction....unless it's used to describe particular pedagogical

>>  activities...

>>

>>  Jan

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

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>

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-- 
Priscilla S. Carman
Literacy Specialist
Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy
The Pennsylvania State University
208F Rackley Building
University Park, PA  16802-3202
PH: 814-865-1049     FX: 814-863-6108