Sue Swaffield (2011), in this well-written and interesting paper, reviews the emergence of assessment for learning in terms of its research roots and two major implementation projects. She then goes on to document how this work was represented differently when used as the basis for policy changes in England which, similar to those in other jurisdictions, appear to be a significant change yet are really - in my words - ‘the same beast in an updated outfit’ - or as Sue points out, "distorted and subverted."
Those of us who are interested in how implementation initiatives can go ‘off track’ will find this paper informative both in terms of assessment for learning and how assessment for learning can be co-opted for other purposes.
Sue Swaffield is one of the International Delegates who will be joining the Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation with the World conference in April 2014. You can review the agenda here and register here.
To cite this article: Swaffield, Sue. (2011). Getting to the heart of authentic Assessment for Learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 18:4, 433-449, DOI: 10.1080/0969594X.2011.582838.
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2011.582838
Sue sent through this note via email:
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for those kind words. Education this side of the pond is getting more and more differentiated among the (currently!) 4 nations of the UK, and the national policy I was writing about was for England, not UK. Which reminds me of another piece I wrote folk may find interesting ... which looked at the leadership of AfL in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is published in one of those huge international handbooks:
Swaffield, S. (2011) ‘Leading assessment for learning’ in T. Townsend and J. MacBeath (Eds.) International Handbook of Leadership for Learning. Rotterdam: Springer. p1047-1065.