Somewhere in the vast halls of learning that make up Freedman Towers there is a copy of Inside The Black Box, by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam.
This book was all about assessment for learning or, should I say, assessment for learning, not the usual assessment of learning. The former empohasises the benefits of assessment which helps the student learn and improve while the course is still going on. After all, in a way there’s not much point in telling someone they haven’t understood something when it’s too late for them to do much about it.
I especially remember “wait time”. Many teachers ask the class a question and then answer it themselves. I said to a teacher whose lesson I’d been observing that the students had had a nice little rest while he conducted a question and answer session all on his own.
Inside The Black Box explains the benefits of waiting enough time for a student to respond.
Funnily enough, although I found the book immensely useful, I had never suffered from the wait time issue. In fact, I remember in one of my first lessons, teaching ‘A’ Level Economics, waiting for several minutes for any kind of response before turning to the wall and asking, “So what do do you think?”
There have been a number of spin-offs of Inside The Black Box, including this one from Mary Webb and Margaret Cox:
As the title suggests, this applied the principles of Inside The Black Box to the subject of ICT.
In 2014 I wrote an article called 5 Assessment for Learning techniques for ICT or Computing, which you may find interesting.
Anyway, the reason I mention this now is that I found out earlier this evening that Paul Black has passed away, so I just wanted to acknowledge his part in helping me become a better teacher.