This article draws on a survey of 83 teachers, to explore the concepts of 'assessment for learning', 'assessment' and 'learning'. 'Assessment for learning' is categorized as meaning: monitoring pupils' performance against targets or objectives; using assessment to inform next steps in teaching and learning; teachers giving feedback for…

A description is given of an experiment investigating the applicability of a cybernetic theory in teaching children psychomotor skills. Results showed a learning effect in copying for younger subjects, in tracing for older subjects, and in tracking for all subjects. (GK)

The substantial use of educational television by the Open University has not yet taken advantage of the potential for interactive learning through use of video replay. The traditional broadcast format has predominated. (MSE)

Discussion of the educational use of videoconferencing focuses on a videoconference in South Africa that showed the development of a puppetry production. Topics include scaffolding in the learning process; feedback from learners; assessing the use of videoconferencing, including cost issues; suggestions for using videoconferencing as an…

Explores the value of action research as a tool for educational practitioners to examine and potentially improve their own practice and thus enhance student learning. Discusses the relationship between feedback, formative evaluation, action research, and other educational research; and provides examples of evaluation enquiries from India and…

Discusses a concept used at the University of Twente based on increased flexibility in learning options and the active student in which there are assignments submitted and monitored via a Web-based course management system. Outlines conceptual aspects of feedback as part of the assessment process, particularly feedback supported by a Web-based…

Congruent with the University of South Australia's mission to widen access, first-year students of business studies enter the university with a wide range of educational backgrounds and experiences. Previous work (Meyer & Shanahan, 1999) has revealed that such students vary considerably in their views about what learning is, and how they engage in…

Describes individual assessment cards devised by an English-as-a-Foreign-Language teacher in Japan. This system consists of giving each student her own individual assessment card at the beginning of each lesson. The focus of the information recorded on the card relates to the process of learning English. (Author/VWL)

In a discussion of the role of language in education, education is viewed as a semiotic apprenticeship, or opportunity to gain the cultural tools and practices for meaning-making in construction of knowledge. This process occurs through guided participation in discipline-based forms of inquiry. In this enterprise, language is seen as having a…

A quantitative research synthesis (meta-analysis) was conducted on the literature concerning the effects of feedback on learning from computer-based instruction (CBI). Despite the widespread acceptance of feedback in computerized instruction, empirical support for particular types of feedback information has been inconsistent and contradictory.…

Comparison is made between the techniques of research used in the physical sciences and those used in educational research, and the relative weakness of the reproducibility of educational research findings is noted. It is pointed out that while monitoring and feedback are essential in any research endeavor, they present difficulty in educational…

A general analysis of the learning process precedes the discussion of a teaching model designed to provide effective control of the process of attaining knowledge. Features of the model discussed include preliminary knowledge, motivation, presentation and activities, feedback, and planning the assimilation process of a complete subject. A 21-item…

Writing groups, used in many English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition classrooms, pose problems for some students from collectivistic cultures such as Japan and China. Suggested reasons are the individual benefit goal, the need for feedback rather than group harmony, and strained group dynamics. (Contains 41 references.) (Author/LB)

This paper focuses on reconfiguring assessment processes so that they support a learning function, in addition to the more traditional measurement function. In the first half of the paper we discuss a framework for "learning-oriented assessment" derived from a project carried out in Hong Kong. We conceptualize learning-oriented…

The instructional components of mediation, a teaching technique used in dynamic assessment, were evaluated with 100 four-year-old children attending daycare or preschools in London, Ontario. The effects of familiarization with task materials, task-specific rule teaching, and elaborated feedback were assessed using a pretest-posttest design.…