Teacher Noticing and Informal Assessment for Learning

• In Event: 65.044 - Studying Informal Formative Assessment: Conceptual Advances and Methodological Approaches

Abstract

Objective

Assessment for Learning (AfL) interactions provide teachers with formal and informal, contextualized information about student understanding and patterns of participation. The effectiveness of informal AfL depends on what teachers notice, and how they respond to enable students to negotiate meaning within the classroom cultural, social and material contexts. Drawing on three studies of teacher interactions, the purpose of this paper is to propose some of the preconditions for effective teacher noticing in informal AfL interactions.

Theoretical Perspectives

Pryor & Crossouard (2008) use the terms “metacontextual reflection” and “recognition through reflection” to encapsulate the sociocultural framing of learning as an ongoing interaction and process of meaning making. To understand how teachers might undertake and accomplish AFL as a dynamic, contingent and responsive process of responding to emergent learning we turn to the notion proposed by Mason (2002) of disciplined noticing – working to become more sensitive to notice opportunities so that one can act creatively in the moment.

Method

The data used to identify the preconditions for effective teacher noticing draws from three studies: a three year investigation of student teacher views of and beliefs about assessment (Smith et al., 2014); a two year study into culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment (Cowie et al., 2010), and a one year study of informal AfL teacher practices (Willis, 2011).

Results

The following themes were evident in teacher AfL reasoning and actions across the studies and as such appeared to provide a dynamic/reflective frame that disciplined what they attended to:

• Teacher beliefs about the purpose and format of assessment shaped what opportunities for AfL were noticed and marked.
• Teacher pedagogical content knowledge shaped the student actions teachers attended to and the interpretations they made of these.
• A growth view of learning and respect for students meant that teachers took responsibility to notice how students made meaning. This included seeking greater understanding of the wider funds of knowledge students brought to the context.
• Collaborative routines and repeated activities triggered resonance (Mason, 2002) and teacher noticing often switched from interaction with individuals to interacting with a class.
• Concern with metasocial development and fostering the “collaborative narration” of meaning and identities (Pryor & Crossouard, 2008, p. 15) was integral to AfL.

Scholarly Significance

Within the complexity that is a classroom in action teachers can only attend to some aspects of what is happening. Sociocultural framings of assessment for learning direct teacher gaze towards patterns of participation and the ways students take up or not the resources and opportunities available to them. By understanding more about how teacher attention – what they notice - is disciplined or framed we anticipate that teachers, through their AfL interactions, will be able to access greater opportunities to enhance the quality of learning performances for learners and teachers.

Authors

• Bronwen Cowie, University of Waikato

• Jill Willis, Queensland University of Technology

• Christine Harrison, Kings College, London