Designing an observation instrument for assessment for learning practice

In Assessment for Learning (AfL), assessment is a tool used to support students’ learning. In the last decades, research has shown the potential of AfL on student learning. Implementation of AfL in practice however, has proven to be complicated and a concrete discriminative operationalization of AfL practice is lacking. Aim of this study is to support the implementation of AfL and to operationalize AfL in an observation instrument for AfL practice. For the design of the observation instrument, a literature search was conducted to find an applicable theoretical framework for AfL and to describe teachers’ activities in AfL practice in concrete processes. The search resulted in the identification of the three main processes of AfL for teachers, students and peers: 1) identifying where learners are going; 2) where they are in their learning and 3) how to get there, as the theoretical framework for the design of the observation instrument. Theory on feedback (dialogues) and monitoring and scaffolding was used to describe teachers’ activities in the three main processes of AfL. The resulting observation instrument is presented in this paper. To determine if the instrument meets its intended goals, the instrument was tested in observing teachers in their practice. Results show that the instrument is appropriate to identify and discriminate between AfL practices and that the instrument is suitable for coaching teachers in their change to AfL.