AN INTRODUCTION TO EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS

Refining The Focus For Research And Formulating A Research Question
Box 1.3 - Introduction
Assessment, the judgement or evaluation of students’ learning and understanding
[Sadler, 1989], is traditionally associated with testing and examination or
a sequence of teacher-led questions. With the inception of league tables,
emphasis on summative assessment in schooling has increased. Arguably this
is detrimental to learning and understanding, which the summative method, by
definition, contributes little to [Black and Wiliam, 1998b]. However, assessment
need not exclusively be summative, an assessment of learning, but rather may
be used to inform and enhance understanding: an assessment for learning
(AfL). This enables students to become aware of the quality of understanding
they demonstrate and how they can improve, a process more efficacious than
trial-and-error learning, constituting an evaluative feedback loop [Sadler, 1989].
Using formative assessment effectively could therefore bring learning to learn,
rather than learning to be tested to the forefront of education [Black and
Wiliam, 1998b; Black, McCormick, James and Pedder, 2006]. Interest in using AfL
strategies is evident from the numerous research articles, which examine their
effects on students and teachers at all educational levels.
Given the learning benefits that AfL strategies may provide, I undertook
a case study investigating the classroom use of peer-assessment in a context
under-explored in the existing literature. The participants were members
of my Year 10 triple award class, at a Suffolk upper school, studying a GCSE
biology module. I first aimed to describe the students’ perceptions of
peerassessment
and the relationship between how they thought it had affected their
learning, and their assessed understanding of the material. Secondly, exploring
the process, rather than the outcome, I examined the intra-peer-assessment
student interactions. This research was carried out in accordance with the ethical
guidelines specified by the British Educational Research Association [BERA,
2004: 4], with the participants’ informed, voluntary consent. Only students’ first
names are used in this report.
18