With its focus on formative assessment, this short 21-page book will make for interesting reading for teachers looking to raise attainment.
Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment
Synopsis
Professor Dylan Wiliam and Professor Paul Black are leading experts on formative assessment: the processes by which teachers and learners use information about pupils’ achievements to encourage continuous improvement, relying on feedback and interaction between pupil and teacher. In short, the formal and informal processes teachers and pupils use to gather evidence for the purpose of improving learning.
This brief book examines the many initiatives thrown at education during the 1980s, highlighting the follies of policy introduced without a strong evidence base. The authors’ study of formative assessment is taken as evidence that a change of direction would improve standards of learning, while the authors’ plea is that national policy will grasp this opportunity and give a lead in this direction.