Primary assessment
“The teacher’s job is not to transmit knowledge, nor to facilitate learning. It is to engineer effective learning environments for the students. The key features of effective learning environments are that they create student engagement and allow teachers, learners, and their peers to ensure that the learning is proceeding in the intended direction. The only way we can do this is through assessment. That is why assessment is, indeed, the bridge between teaching and learning.”
― Dylan Wiliam, Embedded Formative Assessment, 2011
Teachers expertly draw on a range of rich assessment strategies to monitor and track individual student progress, inform future directions for student learning and provide ongoing feedback to students.
There are a range of resources available to support teachers in refining their assessment practices, including:
- our statewide staffroom forums where teachers can participate in discussions with curriculum specialists and colleagues and access resources about assessment practices
- The Check-in assessment is an online reading and numeracy assessment for students in Years 3 to 9.
- K-6 teaching and learning sequences for all key learning areas which highlight opportunities for monitoring student learning through a range of assessment strategies
- professional learning on demand to build teachers’ skills and capacity to support teaching and learning, including a session on strategies for assessment and feedback
- formative assessment resources for students who require additional challenge and extension
- adjustments to assessment tasks that allow students to demonstrate what they know and what they can do in relation to curriculum outcomes
- the Strong, Start, Great, Teachers resource, which provides teachers with advice and resources around defining and implementing assessment with intent.
- The Digital learning selector is a searchable resource for practical activities and tools appropriate for embedding assessment in your classroom practice.
When planning and programming, teachers consider the four questions that comprise the teaching and learning cycle:
- Where are my students now?
- What do I want my students to learn?
- How will my students get there?
- How do I know when my students get there?
Effective assessment
Learn about the five elements of effective assessment practice.
By embedding strategies throughout the teaching and learning cycle, teachers ensure that assessment practices are linked to learning experienced by students. Effective assessment practices are responsive and result in change to teacher practice, based on student need.