Final thoughts

Assessment practices in secondary schools in New Zealand are currently in a state of flux. Recent changes to the senior secondary school exit qualification have caused many to question the “long-held tradition of viewing assessment-for-qualification as

the main purpose for learning in the senior secondary school” (Hipkins et al., 2007, p. 18). The potential for assessment systems to support and enhance students’ learning has received increasing recognition recently.

This research project investigated students’ perception of the formative potential of NCEA in the mathematics classroom. Using a theoretical framework developed by Sadler (1989), it identified that the structure inherent in SBA has the potential for NCEA to satisfy both summative and formative purposes of assessment. It can be concluded that this potential is still to be fully realised.

Despite teachers’ pedagogical strategies, students’ knowledge of assessment criteria is underdeveloped. This underdevelopment reduces the potential for students’ independent use of self-assessment strategies. This project has also identified that teachers and students held differing views on preferred feedback practices. The teachers perceived that students did not read written feedback and this perception significantly influenced the amount of written feedback that they offered to students. In contrast, students clearly displayed that they read, valued and used scaffolded written feedback to improve their learning. While the teachers preferred to offer oral

189 feedback, students preferred to engage with their peers to use the feedback to develop corrective strategies and deepen learning.

The project has made a number of practical and theoretical suggestions to improve students’ understandings of the assessment criteria they are working towards, and to more effectively integrate the collaborative use of formative feedback into students’ learning experiences. In particular, it has suggested two additional perspectives on the development and use of formative assessment in a sociocultural learning environment. Firstly, that students’ knowledge of the role of formative assessment is socially and contextually situated, and develops through the social interactions that occur in the classroom. Secondly, the potential exists for formative assessment practices to stimulate collaborative learning opportunities within communities of practice.

It should be noted that a move towards using models of assessment that promote learning will not in itself bring about changes in teaching and learning, It is not enough that we have an assessment tool that potentially allows for a formative model of assessment to become the norm in New Zealand classrooms. Teachers must be supported with appropriate professional development and research. It will take time before the effective use of formative assessment as an integral component of learning becomes the norm in senior mathematics classes. As Harlen (2005) notes, “it takes a good deal of support—and courage—for teachers to turn round their practices from being test-oriented to being learning-oriented (p. 210). However, if we can achieve this then the perception of the role of the teacher can change from being the ‘judger of student competence’ to the ‘guider of students’ learning’ (Crooks, 2006).

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