Identifying Formative Assessment in Classroom Instruction: Creating an Instrument to Observe Use of Formative Assessment in Practice

Is formative assessment observable in practice? Substantial claims have been made regarding the influence of formative assessment on student learning. However, if researchers cannot be confident whether and to what degree formative assessment is present in instruction, then how can they make claims with confidence regarding the efficacy of formative assessment? If it is uncertain whether and to what degree formative assessment is being used in practice, then any claims regarding its influence are difficult to support. This study aims to provide a vehicle through which researchers can make stronger, more substantiated reports about the presence and impact of formative assessment in classroom instruction. The ability to visually distinguish formative assessment during instruction would enable researchers to make such reports; therefore, this dissertation finds an appropriate method for identifying the presence of formative assessment to be an observational instrument. In this study, a Formative Assessment Observational Instrument was developed for identifying formative assessment use in classroom instruction. The instrument was constructed around five components of formative assessment: understood learning targets, monitoring student learning, feedback, self-assessment, and peer assessment. Each component contained 3-5 scales for observation, each rated on a 1-5 Likert-type scale, totaling 20 items. Pairs of trained raters used the instrument to observe and rate 47 elementary mathematics instructional sessions, evenly divided between 16 teachers, of up to 30 minutes in length. Using the results of these observations, the instrument was evaluated on the basis of reliability across time, reliability across raters, and reliability of scale. Based on these criteria, the instrument was found to be reliable for the purpose of identifying formative assessment in practice, and the instrument identified varying degrees of formative assessment use in terms of item, scale, and teacher. As a result of examining the literature on formative assessment and utilizing this instrument in practice, it was proposed that in order for formative assessment to become a more quantifiable factor in researching influences on student learning, a narrowing and focusing of its definition was in order. Consequently, a more focused definition of formative assessment was suggested, defining formative assessment as a dynamic interchange between teacher and student in which instruction is adapted continuously based on student learning status. This definition narrowed formative assessment to what happens within instruction, calling for outside of classroom uses of assessment to be treated as separate factors in instruction. The definition also affirmed the first three components of formative assessment as comprising the essential nature of formative assessment. It distinguished self-assessment and peer assessment as methods for accomplishing those components, rather than as components themselves

Can Teachers Accurately Predict Student Performance?

In two studies, we examined the effect of professional development to improve mathematics instruction on the accuracy of teachers\u27 monitoring of student learning. Study 1 was conducted with 36 teachers participating in three years of professional development. Judgment accuracy was influenced by the fidelity with which what was learned in the professional development. Study 2 was conducted with 64 teachers from 8 schools, which were randomly assigned to receive professional development or serve as a control. Judgment accuracy was greater for teachers receiving professional development than for teachers who did not and teachers were better to predict students\u27 computational skills

From Sacred to Scientific: Epic Religion, Spectacular Science, and Charlton Heston’s Science Fiction Cinema

This paper analyses how long-1960s cinema responded to and framed public discourses surrounding religion and science. This approach allows for a discussion that extends beyond a critical study of the scholarly debates that surround the place of religion in science during a transitional period. Charlton Heston was an epic actor who went from literally playing God in The Ten Commandments (1956) to playing “god” as a messianic scientist in The Omega Man (1971). Best known for playing Moses, Heston became an unlikely science-based cinema star during the early 1970s. He was re-imagined as a scientist, but the religiosity of his established persona was inescapable. Heston and the science-based films he starred in capitalized upon the utopian promises of real science, and also the fears of the vocal activist counterculture. Planet of the Apes (1968), Omega Man (1971), Soylent Green (1973), and other science-based films made between 1968-1977 were bleak countercultural warnings about excessive consumerism, uncontrolled science, nuclear armament, irreversible environmental damage, and eventual human extinction. In this paper I argue that Heston’s transition from biblical epic star to science-fiction anti-hero represents the way in which the role and interpretation of science changed in post-classical cinema. Despite the shift from religious epic to science-based spectacle, religion remained a faithful component of Hollywood output indicating the ongoing connection between science and religion in US culture. I will consider the transition from sacred to science-based narratives and how religion was utilised across the production process of films that commented upon scientific advances