Assessment is not only a moment- it's a process

Frequently the students' perception of assessment distinguishes it from the teacher's purpose of it. Often students only focus on the assessed grade they receive but assessments include much more! Assessment in the classroom sets learning goals, establishes clear standards for success and gives the students learning-oriented feedback. Furthermore assessment practices do not only influence the students' learning but also how they learn. For that case it's clearly visible that the way teachers provide assessment should be purposefully so that the students are enabled to reach their whole learning capacity. 

The new edition of the course “Effective formative assessment and feedback management in education” took place in Bologna from 29/05/2023 to 03/06/2023. The participants came from all across Europe, with Kevin from Koba Heli vzw - Campus Sint-Ursula (Belgium) , Cristina and Ana Paula from Agrupamento de Escolas de Arganil (Portugal), Vanessa from The Kinkaid School(USA), Ana from Pučko otvoreno učilište Koprivnica (Croatia), Viktorija from The Ljubljana secondary School for Hairstyling (Slovenia) and Helga, Kristín , Ásta and Kristín from the Commercial College of Iceland.

The course initiated with the distinction between summative and formative assessment. Together we pointed out that assessment is not only a moment in which a student receives feedback of his performance in class but rather a whole cycle, which starts before and continues after a student gets feedback of his or her achievements. Through this, the attendees discovered powerful assessment strategies that can be used to activate prior knowledge and to mobilize learning motivation. 

In addition to giving meaningful and thoughtful assessment the courses offered digital, cutting-edge methods to check the students' learning achievement. The participants approached various applications and useful digital assessment and feedback techniques which can be used practically in their mundane work to obtain an overall overview of every single student's learning achievement. Whereby they can show a real interest to every single learner, which facilitates the opportunity to react to difficulties and uncertainties. This allows to avoid harmful and blaming situations in the class and permits the teacher an insight into the individual learning process. Which leads us to another issue of the course - the growth mindset. We had many infectious discussions during the course and accordingly we also debated the importance of developing and teaching a growth mindset. “Praise the process, not the person!”

Finally we dedicated our course to another notable topic: giving and receiving feedback. Through Ted-Talks, personal exchange, exercises and role plays the participants vividly enacted ordinary situations in their school lives and experienced how they can give feedback during their day appropriately and purposefully. Together we enriched our toolbox to provide feedback and with that to foster and motivate the students' learning achievement and development. Furthermore the participants also obtained tools to receive feedback generally and also from their students to develop themselves as well.

Taking everything together we experienced a memorable week with loads of intercultural exchanges and  infectious and inspiring debates and social activities. Within this course every participant empowered one another with sharing their ideas stimulated by the new course content they received and which  enriched their assessment and feedback tools. We hope you all take a huge backpack full of experiences, perspectives and memories back to your hometown. It was a pleasure to have you here in Bologna!

Discover more about this course here.

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