Questioning: a formative assessment tool Box 11 Practice in classrooms is formative to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted and used by teachers, learners or their peers to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than decisions made in the absence of the evidence that was elicited. Source: Black & Wiliam (2009)
There is strong research evidence that improving formative assessment (Box 11) is the most effective way of raising student performance (Hattie & Timberley, 2007). Questioning can be a good formative assessment tool if the teacher asks appropriate questions, listens to the answers, and builds on the information gained. Student answers sometimes require probing and reflecting on in order to understand what is meant and to expose underlying assumptions which may be impeding progress. This can take time, but is essential for building up clear
communication. It was observed that some trainers are much more skilled than others in this process. The SAT tutors seemed unaware of the power of using student errors to explore and develop conceptual understanding, as is shown by the fact that 90% of the tutors in the questionnaire reported that they tried to teach so that the students did not make mistakes. Many of the questions in the SAT texts are designed to develop understanding; exploring mathematical ideas, making mistakes and subsequently analysing and rectifying them is an important part of this process (Box 12).
Box 12 Es necesario tener lápiz, papel y borrador en mano, no para copiar, sino para resolver personalmente todos y cada uno de los ejercicios, corriendo el riesgo de cometer errores, de tomar caminos esquivados y asumiendo también la responsabilidad de revisar, corregir y de proponer soluciones originales y creativas. Source: Bosquejo General: Manejo de Variables, Unidad 1
It is recommended that: 9. Tutors are supported and mentored in the didactic use of questions and ‘error analysis’ as a formative assessment tool; this includes being informed of the utility of this approach;, experiencing it in training; knowing where it is most appropriate; and being mentored in developing these skills by field assessor accompanimiento. 10. Students are encouraged to experiment, take risks, make mistakes, identify and correct them. This would facilitate exploratory talk.
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