Notes from July 2012 Residential

July 2012 Residential

Meeting 1

Explore the ethnographic approach in language assessment (e.g. Hill & McNamara, 2012)
Consider what sort of participant schools would suit
Read up on 

• Case studies (see Yin)

• Situated Literacies ed. Barton

• Assessment literacy

• Teachers' understanding of formative assessment

• Teacher cognition (Borg, 2003)

• Definitions of formative assessment

Meeting 2

Fulcher's focus on PRINCIPLES is important and would apply to informal assessment
Should decide what to foreground and background in study
Could use formative vs summative CBA as a lens through which to examine factors which inhibit or enable formative assessment (e.g. learner autonomy, exam-driven culture, assessment literacy)
Follow up on:

• Classroom-based Language Assessment 

• Kathryn Hill's research

• 2013 Language Testing special issue on Assessment Literacy

Meeting 3

Tentative RQs:
RQ1. What are the assessment practices of EL teachers in Singapore?
RQ2. How do they balance formative and summative assessment in the classroom?
RQ3. What are the factors that enable and inhibit their use of formative assessment?
Should not bring factors I'm interested into the RQs (e.g. washback), but choose one as a focus RQ, e.g. assessment literacy, because it can make a considerable contribution to PD?

Framework for CBA: TIERNEY 2006Changing practices: influences in classroom assessment
Model missing resources and materials (ready made)
Note mediating sources - variables

Follow up:

• Black and Wiliam on formative assessment

• Van lier

• Focus on formative - precise end point (narrow to writing? Digital writing?) in order to include all influences

• Use model to analyse data?

• Ethnographic methods for classroom research