Assessment is for Learning

Assessment FOR Learning: high quality interactions

Developing listening and talking skills

NEW A project from five Midlothian primary schools who wanted to develop children's listening and talking skills as part of a drive to improve literacy skills.

Developing questioning skills

NEW An ASG in Midlothian set out to improve the quality of classroom interactions, based on thoughtful questions, careful listening and reflective responses.

Training support staff in assessment for learning

NEW Support for learning assistants at Merkland School, which caters for pupils with additional support needs, were trained in the principles of assessment for learning to help support a whole-school approach to the area.

Science - St Columba's

NEW Inverclyde ASG involved staff from a secondary science department and three associated primary schools to build upon past experience of AifL and further develop assessment practice within the context of Curriculum for Excellence.

Aberdeenshire Home Economics Curriculum Support Group

The aim was to integrate formative assessment strategies into course development; to identify the impact on pupils in terms of self-motivation, their progress in analytical skills, and their understanding of the learning and teaching process. 

Investigating quality interactions in the nursery

This group of four nursery classes in South Lanarkshire considered ways of improving interactions so that it would challenge the thinking of both adults and children.

Involving children and parents in setting personal learning goals

This ASG in East Dunbartonshire set out to more fully involve children and their parents in setting learning goals for individual children.

Plockton Primary School

The school found that questioning leads to skills development and thus to the development of informed attitudes.

Using ICT to involve parents and improve staff/child interactions

This ASG in West Dunbartonshire brought together four local authority nurseries and one private nursery to explore the use of ICT in Assessment for and of Learning.

Using questioning to help children with additional support needs

The group's aim was to improve the quality of interactions between teachers and pupils with additional support needs (ASN), whether one to one, in small groups or as part of in-class support.

Using questions to support the development of listening and talking

This project began when one of the teachers involved realised that listening and talking could provide a way of extending work in P4-P7 on Literacy Circles to earlier stages in the school.

Using questions to improve thinking in mathematics

These teachers aimed to review how they used classroom questioning in order to improve their pupils’ capacity for engaging in mathematical thinking.
an image of two school pupils talking
'I found it difficult not to question the pupils and lead them along my line of thought; however their confident and open explanations of their own ideas soon became the main factor in discussion.'