Assessing Students' Affect Related to Assessment for Learning

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick StigginsASSESSING STUDENTS’ AFFECTRELATED TO ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNINGAN INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS*Rick Stiggins, ETS Assessment Training InstituteW. James Popham, UCLAAssessment for learning (AFL) represents a way forteachers and their students to employ the assessmentprocess and its results instructionally in their classrooms.Ample research evidence indicates that AFL, if properlyimplemented, will improve students’ mastery of what’sbeing taught in class and, thus, is apt to enhanceperformance on external achievement tests dealing with thatcontent (Black and Wiliam, 1998a, 1998b). However,because AFL is, in many ways, a particularly strongstudent-focused approach to instruction, an approach inwhich students become personally involved in monitoringand adjusting how they are attempting to learn, thisachievement-enhancing assessment strategy is almostcertain to also have an impact on students’ affect, that is,their personal perceptions and predispositions about theirlearning. Indeed, when employed properly, AFL uses thoseperceptions and predispositions to drive learningproductively forward.One of the cornerstones of AFL is that both teachersand students must maintain an ongoing picture of students’achievement progress based on a variety of formal andinformal assessment tactics. Frequent assessments providethe kind of continuous feedback that teachers need todetermine what comes next in the student’s learning, andthat students need to learn how to do better the next time.Frequent feedback, therefore, contributes to the student’ssuccess which feeds a growing sense of confidence. Yet,teachers who currently implement AFL have no systematicway of discerning the affective impact of this approach ontheir students. In an effort to provide teachers with tools fortracking students’ affect related to AFL, we have developedthree age-appropriate affective inventories for use byteachers who wish to discern the impact of their instructionon those affective dispositions most likely to be influencedby an AFL approach. All three inventories (grades 3-6, 7-9,and 10-12) are appended to this introduction.We understand that concern for student affect certainlyis relevant in the primary grades too. However, inquiriesinto the matters addressed herein are best handled throughdirect personal interaction between teachers and theirstudents. Inventories such as those presented in theAppendix are used most productively beginning in earlyelementary grades.Two Affective FociTwo affective variables are especially likely to beinfluenced by teachers who employ AFL in their classes:academic efficacy and eagerness to learn.Academic efficacy. Academic efficacy refers to astudent’s perceived ability to succeed and the student’ssense of control over her or his academic well being. If anAFL class is working the way it should, most students willreceive instructional tasks that coincide well with theircurrent achievement levels. As a consequence, thosestudents are apt to be successful in learning what they aresupposed to learn so that ongoing assessments will providethem with evidence of their success. Even moreimportantly, through the use of formatively-orientedassessments, initially unsuccessful students will bereceiving guidance regarding how to adjust their learningtactics so that they will ultimately become successful.Accordingly, if an AFL classroom is functioningappropriately, students’ perceptions of their personalacademic prowess should (1) remain high or (2) improvesubstantially if such perceptions begin at a low level. Inother words, students’ sense of academic efficacy should,therefore, remain strong or become stronger as time goesby. If this is not occurring, then a teacher might wish toconsider implementing efficacy-enhancing instructionalsuggestions such as those offered on pages 4 and 5.Eagerness to learn. A second affective variableassociated with an AFL instructional approach is students’eagerness to learn. Clearly, teachers would like students notonly to believe they are capable of learning (as representedby students’ academic efficacy) but teachers would also likestudents to want to learn. Ideally, if AFL is working the wayit is supposed to work, students’ eagerness to learn willThis version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers1The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers