Assessment and feedback in educational contexts

Differentiated Learning

Simply because a teacher treats all students 'the same' does not mean that all of his or her students are being treated fairly. For example, expecting a child with dyslexia to read an assignment as quickly, without support, as his or her non-dyslexic peers, does not promote the child's ability to learn. This is why differentiated instruction is so essential. "Differentiation is a philosophy that enables teachers to plan strategically in order to reach the needs of the diverse learners in the classrooms today to achieve targeted standards. As individuals come to school with varying learning styles and numerous intelligences, differentiated instruction becomes a means of addressing the learning needs of everyone in the classroom" (Assessment strategies, 2011, BOE). Differentiated instruction requires teachers to use a variety of strategies and have a flexible lesson plan.

Teachers must have many different pedagogical 'tools' on hand to teach. For example, when teaching a unit on ancient Egypt, a teacher might lecture, provide visual handouts, and schedule a trip to a local museum. This would address the specific strengths of verbal, visual, and kinesthetically-oriented learners. Using students' multiple intelligences and creating a multisensory lesson ensures that more students will comprehend the content and feel a sense of excitement and mastery about what transpires in the classroom. Differentiated instruction that uses multiple intelligence theory strives to look beyond the 'box' of a system that solely measures student accomplishments in terms of performance on linguistically or mathematically-oriented tests (Smith 2005).

Just as instruction must be differentiated, so must the methods used to evaluate what learning has taken place. Assessment, evaluation, and grading must also have differentiated components. "As students are working, it is time for the teacher to provide assessment both informal and formal in order to provide feedback so improvement can be made. If the teacher waits to the end of instruction, it might be too late for skill development and to make corrections to information that present incorrectly. By assessing the student during the learning situation, the teacher can alter his or her activities to re-teach or enhance the content." (Assessment strategies, 2011, BOE). Assessments forms may include quizzes or other forms of relatively short-term feedback that are used to enhance the instruction of the students. Assessments increase student self-awareness of what they are learning and help teachers understand student's levels of comprehension. Differentiated approaches may include classroom team projects, presentations, or other methods that go beyond conventional paper-based formats.

Evaluation, in contrast to assessment, is summative in nature. Examples of evaluations include final exams, the presentation of final portfolios, and long-term group projects. Differentiated assessment may involve including multiple components on a test, such as listening as well as reading comprehension; having to interpret a map or graph; allowing different media to be included in the student's portfolio, or grouping children of various learning orientations together and allowing them to make different contributions to the final project (like creating an illustration vs. writing the text of the presentation to the class). Grouping students of different ability levels to encourage 'peer teaching' is another option when dealing with a class with different ability levels (Enhance learning with technology, 2011, Guidance Learning with Technology).

Differentiated grading will always be controversial because of concerns about what constitutes 'fairness.' Is it fair to hold a student to a seemingly lower standard, because the student faces additional learning challenges? How to ensure that the teacher's perceptions of those challenges are accurate? This is why pre-assessment is an important component of the grading process. Before defining the criteria by which students will be assessed at the beginning of the unit, teachers are able to create a timeline of improvement expectations for individual students. The expectations of the grading process should be clear from the beginning of the year and/or unit.

The need for fair grading embodies a core principle of differentiated instruction: "Never separate assessment from instruction; rather integrate assessment into instruction by making informal assessments a way of life in your classroom" (Differentiated learning, 2011, NCTM). However, this type of integrated assessment is not always possible when students must reach certain performance standards or benchmarks in their learning, which virtually all students must in the modern educational system. Differentiated instruction tends to emphasize qualitative assessment more than quantitative assessment, because presentations and portfolios are easier to tailor to the learning needs of each child without seeming unfair, in contrast to multiple-choice exams. However, grading can be differentiated in almost every component of classroom learning. For example, students in an English or math class might receive harder words or problems for extra credit, while less accomplished students may be offered additional drills as an opportunity to earn extra points (Chalupa 2004:3).