DEVELOPING A 'NOSE FOR QUALITY' : NURTURING THE EVALUATIVE CAPACITY OF STUDENT WRITERS

Synopsis:

Sadler (1989) argues that for effective and sustainable formative assessment to take place in classrooms, students have to develop the capacity and ability to monitor their own learning and take corrective action. Students will remain dependent on teacher feedback as the primary resource for learning unless teachers enable them to develop ‘a nose for quality’ (Claxton, 1995), the capacity to evaluate their own learning and to grow into autonomous, self-regulated learners.

This session will demonstrate how teachers can develop their students’ ‘nose for quality’ through explicit instruction, and class and group-based dialogues around accounts of strengths, weaknesses and how students’ work can be improved. These student work exemplars, together with formative assessment processes and strategies, form the basis for student inquiry into quality.

Presenter:

Mr William Groose
Ang Mo Kio Primary School