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April 17, 2023
How can assessment be used to inform the planning and facilitation of learning?
Richardson, T (2023, April 17). Assessment to Learning. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/assessment-to-learning
Assessment to Learning is a formative assessment approach to teaching and learning that focuses on the incremental development of the cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills of students. This focus is achieved by addressing two key points 1) cognitive overload, which impacts on students’ understanding and learning, and 2) the real-life applications of assessment tasks, linked to the lived experiences of students, reflected in their learning journeys, and the commensurate impacts on society.
To provide the reader with some guidance about learning journeys the author would like to commence by outlining an example of a possible learning journey reflected in the topic of ‘Bullying’, and express that learning journey, via the writing of a newspaper article, used as an English assessment artefact.
Before commencing this learning journey, one needs to simply ask the following question: “What is the purpose of having students write a newspaper article on bullying as an assessment artefact?” Clearly, there are the academic and educational requirements associated with meeting the fulfillment of the ever-expanding list of ‘students will learn’ expections and via these learning expections the nexus with educational outcome/s, for example, syllabus and curriculum. However, what happens if one looks at the real-life applications of writing a newspaper article on bullying, and then ties this back to the classroom?
[1]Data (Australian) through a national study highlighted approximately 1 in 4 Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) reported being bullied every few weeks in Australian schools (Google, 2022). While, school bullying was most frequent in Year 5 and Year 8 students (Google, 2022). Within the Australian work place the impact of bullying was reflected in data that suggested 60% of workers experienced some type of bullying in the workplace; 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men (Google, 2022). Further data also indicated school-based anti-bullying programs in Australia were effective in the reduction of school-bullying perpetration by approximately 19%–20% and school-bullying victimization by approximately 15%–16% (Google, 2022).
So, if Australian students are learning how to address, or may be cope with, bullying through Australian school-based anti-bullying programs, why is it that when these students leave school, and move into the Australian work place, they are still experiencing bullying, and possibly higher levels of bullying? Are, for example, the anti-bullying programs at school that addressed the reduction of school-bullying perpetration, and school-bullying victimization, not being effectively articulated into the work place?
Surely, one of the core roles of education, as exemplified in the mission and vision[2] statements of some Australian schools, highlighted below, is for schools to educate students on how to demonstrate actions that reflect respect in order to make a better world.
. . . inspires young women to create a better world . . .
. . . educates boys within an innovative learning culture . . . to become global citizens who contribute to their communities.
Empowered, Resilient . . . World Changing!
. . . empower students to break the limitations, and build the opportunities for their successful future.
As educators we all strive to do our best to have a positive impact on our students’ lives through attempting to educate them to make the world a better place through their actions; for example, inspire, create, contribute, empower and build. One might add that these actions by students represent a very big responsibility for teenagers, remembering that in Australia most students graduate from high school on average at eighteen years of age.
Possibly one way to assist students in address the daunting tasks of creating a better world, becoming global citizens who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and to building the opportunities for their successful future might be through a focus on learning journeys?
AtL’s philosophy espouses a view that acknowledges learning is a complex process but one way that learning can be facilitated is through targeting students’ understanding. For example, the learning of a particular task is reflected in students’ understanding of that task demonstrated either possibly in a written or verbal genre; it should be noted that one of the key attributes of a quality teacher[3] is to check for understanding[4].
Therefore, a lack of learning can be attributed to a lack of understanding whereby, the less one understands something the greater 1) the likelihood of a negative impact on one’s life’s experiences and, as a consequence, 2) one’s learning journey/s. Therefore, two of the seminal applications of AtL’s philosophy focuses on a teacher’s teaching, and student’s learning, through impacting on understanding, via cognitive overload, and linking a student’s life’s experiences to real-life applications and, as a consequence, their learning journeys.
By focusing on the two applications outlined above hopefully students’ learning journeys will be impacted upon in a positive way. So, let us look at the practical application of writing a newspaper article as an assessment artefact on the topic of ‘Bullying’ through understanding, and linking that understanding, to students’ life’s experiences via real-life applications and learning journeys. Remembering that the teaching and the learning focus of the AtL process is addressed later in Part Two: The Teaching and Learning – How to address cognitive overload and impact on understanding.
What grade or grades, within an Australian context, might be the best fit for this topic? Possibly, somewhere between Year 4 to Year 9, with an emphasis on Year 5 and Year 8 students. What is the purpose for writing this newspaper article? So that a student receives an A+ for addressing all of the criteria associated with fulfilling the academic, and educational, requirements of the curriculum and then, possibly heads off into the work force, Australian, to be the 1 in 3 women or 1 in 5 men who is bullied or maybe even worse the perpetrator of that bullying.
My guess is that students need to learn (understand), through being taught how[5] to write a newspaper article on ‘Bullying’, bullying is no longer acceptable in society and needs to be stamped out/eradicated. Possibly, [6]one of the first places to start this learning journey for students is in Australian schools, with a focus on the Years 4 through to 9, and an emphasis on Years 5 and 8.
Within the context of the AtL teaching and learning process the outcome for students is three-fold and reflected in their understanding. First, students meet the requirements of the educational standards associated with the English syllabus by understanding how to write a newspaper article. Second, hopefully students acquire an understanding of the implications associated with bullying in not just their learning journeys but the learning journeys of the other thousands of Australian school students[7], and the understanding of the knock-on effect of bullying in Australian workplaces. Finally, students are hopefully inculcated with the understanding that if change is to occur, with respect to bullying initially at a classroom level, and then moving into society, the action/s for change must commence with them[8].
So, use the power of English, via the teaching and learning of this assessment artefact, to have an impact on society by looking beyond the marks, marks are important but try to focus also on the learning journeys, associated with students in your classroom/s and your school, linked to having completed the assessment task. The teacher needs to ask the question; How will the observable actions of students through having completed the assessment task facilitated through writing a newspaper article on bullying be reflected in my classroom/s, the playground, and in the wider school community?
What evidence, dare I say ‘data’, will the school need to collect on the real-life application of the assessment task to validate the other findings associated with focusing on addressing ‘Bullying’ via the classroom, the school and possibly society through the writing of a newspaper article? The view, based on AtL, is that this assessment task is just one of tasks that falls within the learning journey of enhancing students’ understanding of ‘Bullying’.
Therefore, the impact of understanding bullying from past and current learning journeys, aligned through the AtL teaching and learning process, will hopefully have a positive impact on students’ future learning journeys. For example, the learning journeys associated with understanding other key topics of concern, a part from bullying, via a transition from P to Year 12 facilitated by the real-life applications of assessment tasks, linked to the lived experiences of students amassed through their learning journeys[9].
The AtL process does not add any extra work to the task of writing a newspaper article, rather the AtL process brings the task to life, and possibly provides an avenue for students to engage in not only understanding how to write a newspaper article but also possibly provide an understanding of the far-reaching implications of bullying for them, and most importantly for society in the future. Therefore, the AtL philosophy, via a teaching and learning process, encourages and validates lifelong learning by acknowledging that learning can be observed through students’ understanding reflected in not just the present but the future actions of students. Whereby, those future actions could be 2 minutes, 5 hours, 6 days or 20 years in the future. However, there is one small caveat, due to the very nature of education no one really knows what the future holds for our students.
However, hopefully the future actions of students might culminate in creating a better world, becoming global citizen who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and building the opportunities for their successful future because these future actions were a part of a continuous learning journey for students, which commenced within the context of an educational setting in Pre-school, and then moved continuously forwarded throughout their lives.
Therefore, students, for example, could create a better world, the world of the classroom, within 5 minutes of learning something by displaying behaviors (actions) that reflect respect for each other, and when these actions are built on in their future learning journeys could culminate in impacting on various other ‘worlds’. This is because each learning journey is just as important as the next, and therefore, every learning journey[10] contributes to their (students) lived experiences, and may be the more, as a society, we come to learn (understand) from our lived experiences the better our world might become.
The AtL’s philosophy engages teachers and students in a process that requires each person, the teacher and the student, to think deeply about assessment tasks by focusing on the application of knowledge in the future, and how that future knowledge might impact on their learning journeys. This future knowledge is not bound by the A+’s students might receive from their teacher/s, instead how the understanding of that knowledge, the A+’s, is/was exhibited in their lived experiences, for example, in the classroom now, and most importantly, in future learning journey/s.
So possibly, in some small way, thanks to the English teacher, who taught their students the humble newspaper article on the topic of ‘Bullying’, those students might contribute, in their future actions, to creating a better world, becoming global citizen who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and building the opportunities for their successful future.[11]
The next section to be presented by the author will relate to Part Two - The Teaching and Learning – How to address cognitive overload and impact on understanding. This section will provide the reader with an overview of AtL’s teaching and learning process by addressing 1) student cognitive overload, via 2) teacher, student and parent understanding, through the 3) application of incremental teaching, learning facilitated by a 4) focusing on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge due to the 5) use of future actionable knowledge, and 6) multi-dimensional discourse.
Part Two
This paper represents the second installment of a three-part focus on Assessment to Learning. The first paper, Part One, addressed the unpacking AtL through a focus on the concept of a student’s learning journey. Part One touched on the application of assessment tasks, via the lived experiences of students, reflected in their individual learning journeys, and the possible commensurate impact of those individual learning journeys on society.
Part Two, which this paper addresses, unpacks the following; 1) student cognitive overload, via 2) [1]teacher, student and parent understanding, through the 3) application of incremental teaching and learning facilitated by a 4) focus on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge due to the 5) use of future actionable knowledge, assisted by 6) multi-dimensional discourse.
The purpose of Part One was to provide the reader with two key points. First, an overview of the AtL process by highlighting how important the need is to acknowledge that a student’s education is comprised of a learning journey and not simply a destination. Second, to ensure that a student’s learning journey, via their assessment tasks, can be implemented, and therefore, validated by the future actions of those students in society.
Part Two builds on Part One by outlining the teaching and learning that underpins the AtL process. As highlighted in Part One the main emphasis of the teaching and learning, associated with the AtL process, focus on addressing [2]parent, student and teacher understanding.
. . . a lack of learning can be attributed to a lack of understanding whereby, the less one understands something the greater 1) the likelihood of a negative impact on one’s life’s experiences and, as a consequence, 2) one’s learning journey/s. Therefore, two of the seminal applications of AtL’s philosophy focus on a teacher’s teaching, and student’s learning, through impacting on understanding, via cognitive overload, and linking a student’s life’s experiences to real-life applications and, as a consequence, their learning journeys.
Understanding
AtL’s focus on understanding is reflected in three key points. First, students understand the assessment task, second, students understand the implications of the assessment task, and finally, students understand how points one, and two, are reflected in their future actions within society.
The purpose of Part Two is to address the first point; students understand the assessment task. Therefore, [3]Part Two unpacks the teaching and learning associated with AtL through initially discussing cognitive overload and then moving onto explaining how cognitive overload can be impacted upon, in a positive way, to facilitate a student and teacher’s understanding of the assessment task.
Central to this understanding, and seminal to the application of AtL, is an emphasis on future actionable knowledge (FAK). FAK represents the foundations for assisting students and teachers to use knowledge effectively in their present and future actions. Whether those actions relate to understanding how to write an essay, behave in the school play ground or eventually in society. Therefore, the teaching and learning associated with the AtL process is based on addressing a student’s future actions by providing them with the knowledge, information, to facilitate a diminishment in their gaps-in-knowledge. The view is that by addressing gaps-in-knowledge the student will acquire an enhanced understanding of the assessment task.
The first step in the application of the Atl process, through teaching and learning, is to deal with student cognitive overload, via gaps-in-knowledge.
Student cognitive overload is a very simple concept that involves addressing gaps-in-knowledge[4], through future actionable knowledge, to facilitate understanding. Cognitive overload occurs when an individual’s capacity to understand something is negatively impacted upon due to their inability to cognitively process all of the information being received by them because they are unable to determine [5]future actionable knowledge.
Simply, stated cognitive overload occurs a) when an individual is overwhelmed with knowledge about a topic or subject, because b) they are not positioned, either mentally or physically, c) to use that knowledge effectively, as a result, d) of a continuing increase in their lack of understanding about that topic or subject. A student experiences cognitive overload when the information being presented to them does not diminish their gaps-in-knowledge but instead further increases their gaps-in-knowledge.
Therefore, the focus of diminishing a student’s gaps-in-knowledge is to impact positively on their understanding of a subject or topic so that their gap-in-knowledge, and, as a consequence, their understanding of the assessment task linked to that topic or subject increases. To facilitate an increase in a student’s understanding, through diminishing their gaps-in-knowledge, there is a focus on future actionable knowledge (FAK). However, to maximize the impact of FAK the AtL process encourages the incremental development of knowledge through structured actionable knowledge[6], which is facilitated through FAK.
The incremental development of knowledge aligns itself with the teaching and learning associated with assisting students to understand how to complete an assessment artefact. Therefore, the AtL process centers on the cognitive thinking skills associated with the ‘how’ and not the ‘why’. By focusing on the ‘how’ the AtL process requires the student, and the teacher, to target their attention, and thinking, on the process. For example, ‘How to get that response?’ as opposed to ‘Why did you get that response?’.
Through emphasizing a focus on the process linked to moving forward, AtL encourages the use of FAK by drawing the student’s and teacher’s thinking away from simply an outcome, instead the learning journey associated with that outcome.
Consequently, the teaching and learning process is linked to providing the students with the knowledge, and, as a result, a focus on diminishing gaps-in-knowledge, to move forward towards a destination, which is reflected in their understanding of an assessment artefact. Therefore, when acknowledging FAK the teacher, and the student, continually think about providing information, FAK, which facilitates the ‘How will I get there – the intended learning journey?’ as opposed to ‘Why did I get there – the destination?’ This focus on the ‘How will I get there?’ reflects AtL’s emphasis on incremental teaching and learning and multi-dimensional discourse.
Multi-dimensional discourse addresses the multi-level discussions that take place between the teacher, the student and the student’s peers when the student engages in their learning journey. The emphasis here is that learning is a journey and the sum of the experiences of those involved in that journey can contribute to addressing gaps-in-knowledge. Therefore, multi-dimensional discourse reflects the discussions that teachers, students and peers have with respect to assisting each other in moving forward in their learning journey.
The focus of these discussions’ center around FAK whereby, the teacher, student and peers are constantly focusing on ‘How can I assist this person, or myself, to move forward in this learning journey to reach the stated outcome?’ The information being presented is always focusing on future actions – where to next; how do I get there? as opposed to past actions – this is where you failed and ‘why?’.
As a consequence, the discussions that transpire between the participants is always about the ’How?’ and not the ‘Why?’ However, to facilitate these discussions there needs to be a structured application to the teaching and learning process, and, as a result, this process needs to be incremental.
The AtL process, due to an emphasis on formative assessment, focuses on the learning journey as a series of interconnected tasks, where completion of one task follows on to the next task and so on until the learning journey is completed. In this way the emphasis in the teaching and learning process is about planning ‘How’ to get to a destination, as opposed to, simply focusing on the destination.
Consequently, each step in the teaching and learning process is about diminishing gaps-in-knowledge through the teacher and the students’ understandings being impacted upon as each stage of the learning process is completed. Therefore, the outcome is broken down into very specific ‘How’s?’ as opposed to ‘Why’s?’
The teacher, within the context of the AtL teaching and learning process is required to plan the learning journey, which they and their students are going to undertake. Within this planning process the teacher focuses on the incremental development of knowledge, whereby, the acquisition of knowledge is reflected in understanding, via a continuous diminishment in gaps-in-knowledge. This diminishment in gaps-in-knowledge is the result of the multi-dimensional discussions that take place been the participants; teacher, student and peers. Whereby, the focus of these discussions emphasizes the ‘How?’ so that the direction of the teaching and learning aligns always with moving forward towards the outcome. Therefore, incremental learning is aligned with the stages of cognitive development.
The teacher focuses on ensuring that the student ‘understands’ the knowledge so they can then move onto the next stage of their learning journey. By approaching teaching and learning in this format the student, through specifically aligned incremental cognitive development, engages in the learning through diminishing gaps-in-knowledge, as opposed to increasing gaps-in-knowledge that culminates in cognitive overload and therefore, a failure to possibly attain the learning outcome, tied to a failure in understanding the assessment artefact.
Returning back to the original focus of Paper Two the emphasis was on addressing cognitive overload through focusing on understanding. AtL deals with cognitive overload by acknowledging that cognitive overload is the result of a student and teacher being impacted upon by knowledge that they cannot process, whereby, process is reflected in an inability to move forward by converting that knowledge into FAK.
To placate the situation outlined above the AtL process focuses on addressing cognitive overload through incremental cognitive development facilitated by careful planning that focuses on the ‘How?’; the processes associated with moving towards a learning outcome. This moving forward is reflected in the use of FAK that is developed through multi-dimensional discourse. The underlying purpose of cognitive incremental development, via FAK, is to address understanding by an emphasis on dealing with diminishing gaps-in-knowledge. Through a diminishment in gaps-in-knowledge the AtL process addresses understanding, and, as a consequence cognitive overload.
With Paper Two completed the final paper, Paper Three, will deal specifically with the application of AtL through an in-class example.
This section represents the third and final installment of a three-part focus on Assessment to Learning. The first paper, Part One, addressed the unpacking of AtL through a focus on the concept of a student’s learning journey. Part One touched on the application of assessment tasks, via the lived experiences of students, reflected in their individual learning journeys, and the possible commensurate impact of those individual learning journeys on society.
Part Two unpacked the following; 1) student cognitive overload, via 2) [1]teacher, student, and parent understanding, through the 3) application of incremental teaching and learning facilitated by a 4) focus on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge due to the 5) use of future actionable knowledge, assisted by 6) multi-dimensional discourse.
The purpose of Part One was to provide the reader with two key points. First, an overview of the AtL process by highlighting how important the need is to acknowledge that a student’s education is comprised of a learning journey and not simply a destination. Second, to ensure that a student’s learning journey, via their assessment tasks, can be implemented, and therefore, validated by the future actions of those students in society.
Part Two built on Part One by outlining the teaching and learning that underpins the AtL process. As highlighted in Part One the main emphasis of the teaching and learning, associated with the AtL process, focuses on addressing [2]parent, student and teacher understanding.
. . . a lack of learning can be attributed to a lack of understanding whereby, the less one understands something the greater 1) the likelihood of a negative impact on one’s life’s experiences and, as a consequence, 2) one’s learning journey/s. Therefore, two of the seminal applications of AtL’s philosophy focus on a teacher’s teaching, and student’s learning, through impacting on understanding, via cognitive overload, and linking a student’s life’s experiences to real-life applications and, as a consequence, their learning journeys.
AtL’s focus on understanding is reflected in three key points. First, students understand the assessment task, second, students understand the implications of the assessment task, and finally, students understand how points one, and two, are reflected in their future actions within society.
The purpose of Part Three is to provide a practical approach to the application of AtL within a school based on the implementation of Parts One and Two.
Possibly, a good example of how AtL could be applied within a school context would be through referring to Part One and the reference to:
. . . what happens if one looks at the real-life applications of writing a newspaper article on bullying, and then ties this back to the classroom?
Remembering that two of the seminal focuses of AtL relates to addressing cognitive overload, and an emphasis on Future Actionable Knowledge (FAK), linked to understanding, the purpose of writing a newspaper article on ‘bullying’ is not simply about the writing of the article. Instead, the FAK associated with the student’s understanding, facilitated by addressing cognitive overload, and the application of knowledge in the future.
Whereby, this future acknowledge could be demonstrated in various ways, for example, in the ‘present,’ via a student’s behavior in the classroom, playground, family environment ‘today,’ and through similar behaviours in the ‘future’ linked to ‘tomorrow.’
Therefore, by hopefully ensuring that students understand the task, via addressing cognitive overload, facilitated by incremental teaching and learning, highlighted by a focus on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge, and emphasizing the use of future actionable knowledge, developed by multi-dimensional discourse, students will be better positioned to hopefully engage in ‘their learning journeys'.
The first task that needs to be undertaken by the teacher/s is to address cognitive overload, via diminishing gaps-in-knowledge. To facilitate this the teacher needs to plan, and this planning is achieved by engaging with the AtL lesson plan overview structure. This structure is outlined below in Table 1:
Knowledge
Sequencing
Pedagogy
Checking
Outcomes
Table 1 – AtL lesson plan overview
The focus of this structure is to address the three key questions outline below;
1) What knowledge will need to be taught to assist the student in achieving their learning outcome?
2) How will this knowledge be taught to the student to achieve this learning outcome?
3) Why is this knowledge necessary, and why is this knowledge being taught this way?
The emphasis of this structure, as highlighted above, relates specifically to knowledge and the development of that knowledge with respect to the teacher/s first engaging with the task with view to commence their ‘learning journey’ through the teaching and learning associated initially with the ‘knowledge.’ In this case the knowledge associated with the writing of a newspaper article on ‘bullying.’
Question number one is addressed through the AtL lesson plan’s overview, via the teacher planning for the Knowledge the student requires to attain a learning outcome, in this example, the writing of a newspaper article on ‘bullying.’
The second question, focusing on how will this knowledge will be taught to the student to achieve this learning outcome, is reflected in the AtL lesson plan’s overview structure through Sequencing, Pedagogy and Checking. This process is outlined below:
How will this knowledge be Sequenced to provide students with an understanding? The sequencing of knowledge is then followed by pedagogy and this focus on pedagogy highlights; How will this knowledge be taught (Pedagogy), via a focus on hard, soft and values skills, to facilitate understanding? Finally, Checking relates to both What and How through first addressing; What strategies will be used to Check student understanding of the knowledge by the teacher? and second, how will these strategies be used to Check student understanding of the knowledge by the teacher? With respect to; How will these strategies be used to Check student understanding of the knowledge by the teacher? relates to the application of these strategies at each learning outcome.
The final aspect of AtL’s lesson plan’s overview, question three, relates to the Outcome. Where the Outcome is based on the teacher’s Sequencing, Pedagogy and Checking of What Knowledge needs to be understood by students and what the teacher expects to see the student provide to indicate an understanding of the sequenced key learning outcomes?
The Outcome produced, needs to reflect FAK; the [1]demonstration and then application of knowledge to suggest the student understood the knowledge, and can now move on to the next key learning outcome. Therefore, FAK is about the student having the necessary skills to understand the task, by moving through the incremental stages of learning, while also providing the student with insights into how this knowledge might be demonstrated within their learning journeys, via their present and future actions.
By using the AtL lesson plan's overview structure above the teacher/s then plan the unpacking of the teaching and learning associated with the writing of a newspaper article on ‘bullying.’
Within a collaborative environment the teacher/s commence by working through the AtL lesson plan's overview structure by addressing the following provided below to commence the teachers’ and students’ learning journeys/
First, what knowledge will students need to be taught with respect to the writing of a newspaper article on bullying? For example, the structure of a newspaper article, information about bullying etc. Second, how will this knowledge be sequenced to best facilitate student understanding of writing a newspaper article on bullying. What knowledge needs to come first, second and third so that the student obtains an incremental development of this knowledge, which hopefully impacts on cognitive overload. Remembering that the focus on knowledge and the sequencing of that knowledge reflects future actionable knowledge (FAK). How will the sequencing of this knowledge assist the student in their understanding of the task? For example, if the teacher/s decide to first teach – newspaper structure will this be the best way forward for the student to be positioned to use this knowledge to move forward to the next sequenced activity and so on? Through the sequencing of knowledge, the student’s cognitive overload is addressed, in addition to, a focus on diminishing gaps-in-student knowledge.
Referring to the above the link to FAK is also addressed, through multi-dimensional discourse, via determining the sequencing of knowledge to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge at a rate to hopefully ensure that students move long their learning journey, as opposed to, being lost in that journey. FAK is about – how can this knowledge be used in the future to assist in value-adding to the students position in their learning journey? Consequently, when discussions take place between the student, the teacher, and their peers (multi-dimensional discourse) the focus is on not the feedback – where the student had gone wrong, instead the feedforward – how can the student’s current knowledge be value-added to enable the student to move forward to their next learning stage. Therefore, whether that knowledge is associated with, for example, the stages of moving within an assessment task or within society, the purpose of any multi-dimensional discourse is about the forward movement of knowledge to achieve the next learning outcome based on ensuring that the student has clarity about their current learning journey’s position.
Next is the focus on pedagogy. This focus reflects to two key areas. First, how will this sequencing of knowledge, relating to writing a newspaper article on bullying, be taught at each point, the incrementally sequenced elements of the students learning journey? And second, how will 21st century skills be included within the pedagogy to facilitate FAK that impacts not only on the student’s understanding of this knowledge acquisition, the incremental development of knowledge to complete the assessment task, but also how this knowledge might be applied in the present and the future?
To facilitate this the teacher/s then focus on the key areas of 21st century skills reflected in; Cognitive Thinking Domain, Intrapersonal Domain, and Interpersonal Domain (See Table 2 below).
Cognitive Domain - Thinking
Intrapersonal Domain – Existing within the person’s mind
Interpersonal Domain – People Skills
*Critical, and **creative thinking, ***reasoning, #argumentation, ##innovation
*Involves a process that moves the individual through identification and recall of information, organization and selection of facts and ideas, use of facts, rules, and principles, separating a whole into component parts, combining ideas to form a new whole, developing opinions, judgements, or decisions.
** innovation, initiative and enterprise, curiosity and imagination, creativity, generating and applying new ideas, identifying alternatives, seeing or making new links
***the process of taking in information and making inferences based on what an individual knows to be true.
#the action or process of reasoning systematically in support of an idea, action, or theory.
##new idea, device or method.
character (resilience, mindfulness, open-and fair-minded, self-awareness), leadership, effective oral and written communication, using language, symbols and texts, communicating ideas effectively with diverse audiences, digital citizenship (being safe, positive and responsive), and *concepts
*Concepts are mental representations, abstract objects or abilities that make up the fundamental building blocks of thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. Therefore, students develop concepts based on their cognitive mastery.
adaptability/flexibility, management (self, career, time, planning and organizing), leadership, citizenship, cultural awareness, ethical (and moral) understanding, relating to other (interacting with others), recognizing and using diverse perspectives, participating and contributing, community connections
Table 2 - Cognitive Thinking Domain, Intrapersonal Domain, and Interpersonal Domain
Reflected within the ‘how,’ the strategies that the teacher employs to teach students, are the elements of hard, soft and values skills. Consequently, when the teacher/s initially plan/s their AtL lesson plan’s overview on addressing the assessment task, there is the need to focus on ‘how will there be the inclusion of hard, soft and values skills?’ Therefore, when the teacher/s looks at the structure of their initially planning, they need to also ensure that within that planning there are strategies in place that acknowledge not just the hard skills but also the soft and values skills. The hard skill is built into the assessment task, while the soft, and values, skills are woven into the fabric of the assessment task. It is, via, the application of the soft, and values skills that FAK is developed via a focus on today and tomorrow.
One of the key aspects linked to the use of soft, and values, skills is for the teacher, the student, and the parent to be positioned to acknowledge and measure these skills. To facilitate this there is first, the need to define what these skill sets look like second, determine how these skills sets will be measured, and finally, how the measurement of the skills sets will be reflected in the student’s present and future knowledge?
The first area, defining the skills sets can be undertaken by collaborative discussions between the teachers, the students, and parents (this discussion does not have to involve the parents with students in the class rather the parent body, for example, the P&C?)
Based on these discussions there is an agreement on definitions for the soft, hard and values skills. Second, once agreement has been reached on the definitions for soft, hard and values skills the next task is to focus on how the teacher will measure those skills. Again, there is collaboration between the teachers, the students, and parents to determine first how these skills might be presented in the classroom and then second, how might these presented skills be measured within the classroom?
Finally, and most importantly, how might the students display these skills within the school community; which includes the school, their homes, and their lives now and in the future? The alignment of FAK to the student’s future actions occurs through the student addressing the following four questions:
1) My understanding of the world now based on this new knowledge;
2) The impact of this new knowledge on my future and those around me;
3) Based on this impact how will I apply and demonstrate this new knowledge;
4) To help shape a better world.
Referring to the writing of a newspaper article on bullying the outcome, as reflected in the AtL plan’s overview, highlights the completion of the task but also the deeper thinking associated with the task that moves beyond simply receiving an A or B for the task. Based on the knowledge research by the student, and using Australia as an example, the students may have discovered the following.
Data through a national study highlighted in Australia approximately 1 in 4 Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) reported being bullied every few weeks in Australian schools (Google, 2022). While, school bullying was most frequent in Year 5 and Year 8 students (Google, 2022). Within the Australian work place the impact of bullying was reflected in data that suggested 60% of workers experienced some type of bullying in the workplace; 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men (Google, 2022). Further data also indicated school-based anti-bullying programs in Australia were effective in the reduction of school-bullying perpetration by approximately 19%–20% and school-bullying victimization by approximately 15%–16% (Google, 2022).
The nexus to this data above focuses on if students are learning how to address, or may be cope with, bullying through school based anti-bullying programs in Australia, why is it that when these students leave school, and move into the work place, they are still experiencing bullying, and possibly higher levels of bullying? Are, for example, the anti-bullying programs at school that addressed the reduction of school-bullying perpetration, and school-bullying victimization, not being effectively articulated into the work place?
The student would then engage the knowledge from the perspective of addressing the four key questions outlined above. This engagement would be reflected in the student asking themselves the following questions, based on bullying.
Therefore, as equally important as receiving a good result in the assessment task there is also a focus on the use of writing a newspaper article on bullying to possibly have an impact on society by looking beyond the marks, marks are important but try to focus also on the learning journeys, associated with students in the classroom/s and school, linked to having completed the assessment task. The teacher needs to ask the question; How will the observable actions of students through having completed the assessment task on bullying, facilitated through writing a newspaper article, be reflected in the classroom/s, the playground, and in the wider school community?
Therefore, the impact of understanding bullying from past and current learning journeys, aligned through the AtL teaching and learning process, will hopefully have a positive impact on students’ future learning journeys. For example, the learning journeys associated with understanding other key topics of concern, a part from bullying, via a transition from P to Year 12 facilitated by the real-life applications of assessment tasks, linked to the lived experiences of students amassed through their other learning journeys[2].
The AtL process does not add any extra work to the task of writing a newspaper article, rather the AtL process brings the task to life, and possibly provides an avenue for students to engage in not only understanding how to write a newspaper article but also possibly provide an understanding of the far-reaching implications of bullying for them, and most importantly for society in the future. Therefore, the AtL teaching and learning process encourages and validates lifelong learning by acknowledging that learning can be observed through students’ understanding reflected in not just the present but the future actions of students. Whereby, those actions could be 2 minutes, 5 hours, 6 days, or 20 years in the future, and unfortunately, due to the very nature of education no one really knows what the future holds.
However, hopefully these future actions might culminate in students creating a better world, becoming global citizen who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and building the opportunities for their successful future because these future actions were a part of a continuous learning journey for students, which commenced within the context of an educational setting in Pre-school, and then moved continuously forwarded throughout their lives.
The AtL process requires students, and teachers, to think deeply about assessment tasks by focusing on the application of knowledge in the future, and how that future knowledge might impact on their learning journeys. This future knowledge is not bound by the A+’s students might receive, instead how the understanding of that knowledge, the A+’s, is/was exhibited in their lived experiences, for example, in the classroom now, and most importantly, in future learning journey/s.
So possibly, in some small way, thanks to the humble newspaper article on the topic of ‘Bullying’ some students might contribute in their future actions, via their learning journeys, to create a better world?
Assessment to Learning is a formative assessment approach to teaching and learning that focuses on the incremental development of the cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills of students. This focus is achieved by addressing two key points 1) cognitive overload, which impacts on students’ understanding and learning, and 2) the real-life applications of assessment tasks, linked to the lived experiences of students, reflected in their learning journeys, and the commensurate impacts on society.
To provide the reader with some guidance about learning journeys the author would like to commence by outlining an example of a possible learning journey reflected in the topic of ‘Bullying’, and express that learning journey, via the writing of a newspaper article, used as an English assessment artefact.
Before commencing this learning journey, one needs to simply ask the following question: “What is the purpose of having students write a newspaper article on bullying as an assessment artefact?” Clearly, there are the academic and educational requirements associated with meeting the fulfillment of the ever-expanding list of ‘students will learn’ expections and via these learning expections the nexus with educational outcome/s, for example, syllabus and curriculum. However, what happens if one looks at the real-life applications of writing a newspaper article on bullying, and then ties this back to the classroom?
[1]Data (Australian) through a national study highlighted approximately 1 in 4 Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) reported being bullied every few weeks in Australian schools (Google, 2022). While, school bullying was most frequent in Year 5 and Year 8 students (Google, 2022). Within the Australian work place the impact of bullying was reflected in data that suggested 60% of workers experienced some type of bullying in the workplace; 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men (Google, 2022). Further data also indicated school-based anti-bullying programs in Australia were effective in the reduction of school-bullying perpetration by approximately 19%–20% and school-bullying victimization by approximately 15%–16% (Google, 2022).
So, if Australian students are learning how to address, or may be cope with, bullying through Australian school-based anti-bullying programs, why is it that when these students leave school, and move into the Australian work place, they are still experiencing bullying, and possibly higher levels of bullying? Are, for example, the anti-bullying programs at school that addressed the reduction of school-bullying perpetration, and school-bullying victimization, not being effectively articulated into the work place?
Surely, one of the core roles of education, as exemplified in the mission and vision[2] statements of some Australian schools, highlighted below, is for schools to educate students on how to demonstrate actions that reflect respect in order to make a better world.
. . . inspires young women to create a better world . . .
. . . educates boys within an innovative learning culture . . . to become global citizens who contribute to their communities.
Empowered, Resilient . . . World Changing!
. . . empower students to break the limitations, and build the opportunities for their successful future.
As educators we all strive to do our best to have a positive impact on our students’ lives through attempting to educate them to make the world a better place through their actions; for example, inspire, create, contribute, empower and build. One might add that these actions by students represent a very big responsibility for teenagers, remembering that in Australia most students graduate from high school on average at eighteen years of age.
Possibly one way to assist students in address the daunting tasks of creating a better world, becoming global citizens who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and to building the opportunities for their successful future might be through a focus on learning journeys?
AtL’s philosophy espouses a view that acknowledges learning is a complex process but one way that learning can be facilitated is through targeting students’ understanding. For example, the learning of a particular task is reflected in students’ understanding of that task demonstrated either possibly in a written or verbal genre; it should be noted that one of the key attributes of a quality teacher[3] is to check for understanding[4].
Therefore, a lack of learning can be attributed to a lack of understanding whereby, the less one understands something the greater 1) the likelihood of a negative impact on one’s life’s experiences and, as a consequence, 2) one’s learning journey/s. Therefore, two of the seminal applications of AtL’s philosophy focuses on a teacher’s teaching, and student’s learning, through impacting on understanding, via cognitive overload, and linking a student’s life’s experiences to real-life applications and, as a consequence, their learning journeys.
By focusing on the two applications outlined above hopefully students’ learning journeys will be impacted upon in a positive way. So, let us look at the practical application of writing a newspaper article as an assessment artefact on the topic of ‘Bullying’ through understanding, and linking that understanding, to students’ life’s experiences via real-life applications and learning journeys. Remembering that the teaching and the learning focus of the AtL process is addressed later in Part Two: The Teaching and Learning – How to address cognitive overload and impact on understanding.
What grade or grades, within an Australian context, might be the best fit for this topic? Possibly, somewhere between Year 4 to Year 9, with an emphasis on Year 5 and Year 8 students. What is the purpose for writing this newspaper article? So that a student receives an A+ for addressing all of the criteria associated with fulfilling the academic, and educational, requirements of the curriculum and then, possibly heads off into the work force, Australian, to be the 1 in 3 women or 1 in 5 men who is bullied or maybe even worse the perpetrator of that bullying.
My guess is that students need to learn (understand), through being taught how[5] to write a newspaper article on ‘Bullying’, bullying is no longer acceptable in society and needs to be stamped out/eradicated. Possibly, [6]one of the first places to start this learning journey for students is in Australian schools, with a focus on the Years 4 through to 9, and an emphasis on Years 5 and 8.
Within the context of the AtL teaching and learning process the outcome for students is three-fold and reflected in their understanding. First, students meet the requirements of the educational standards associated with the English syllabus by understanding how to write a newspaper article. Second, hopefully students acquire an understanding of the implications associated with bullying in not just their learning journeys but the learning journeys of the other thousands of Australian school students[7], and the understanding of the knock-on effect of bullying in Australian workplaces. Finally, students are hopefully inculcated with the understanding that if change is to occur, with respect to bullying initially at a classroom level, and then moving into society, the action/s for change must commence with them[8].
So, use the power of English, via the teaching and learning of this assessment artefact, to have an impact on society by looking beyond the marks, marks are important but try to focus also on the learning journeys, associated with students in your classroom/s and your school, linked to having completed the assessment task. The teacher needs to ask the question; How will the observable actions of students through having completed the assessment task facilitated through writing a newspaper article on bullying be reflected in my classroom/s, the playground, and in the wider school community?
What evidence, dare I say ‘data’, will the school need to collect on the real-life application of the assessment task to validate the other findings associated with focusing on addressing ‘Bullying’ via the classroom, the school and possibly society through the writing of a newspaper article? The view, based on AtL, is that this assessment task is just one of tasks that falls within the learning journey of enhancing students’ understanding of ‘Bullying’.
Therefore, the impact of understanding bullying from past and current learning journeys, aligned through the AtL teaching and learning process, will hopefully have a positive impact on students’ future learning journeys. For example, the learning journeys associated with understanding other key topics of concern, a part from bullying, via a transition from P to Year 12 facilitated by the real-life applications of assessment tasks, linked to the lived experiences of students amassed through their learning journeys[9].
The AtL process does not add any extra work to the task of writing a newspaper article, rather the AtL process brings the task to life, and possibly provides an avenue for students to engage in not only understanding how to write a newspaper article but also possibly provide an understanding of the far-reaching implications of bullying for them, and most importantly for society in the future. Therefore, the AtL philosophy, via a teaching and learning process, encourages and validates lifelong learning by acknowledging that learning can be observed through students’ understanding reflected in not just the present but the future actions of students. Whereby, those future actions could be 2 minutes, 5 hours, 6 days or 20 years in the future. However, there is one small caveat, due to the very nature of education no one really knows what the future holds for our students.
However, hopefully the future actions of students might culminate in creating a better world, becoming global citizen who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and building the opportunities for their successful future because these future actions were a part of a continuous learning journey for students, which commenced within the context of an educational setting in Pre-school, and then moved continuously forwarded throughout their lives.
Therefore, students, for example, could create a better world, the world of the classroom, within 5 minutes of learning something by displaying behaviors (actions) that reflect respect for each other, and when these actions are built on in their future learning journeys could culminate in impacting on various other ‘worlds’. This is because each learning journey is just as important as the next, and therefore, every learning journey[10] contributes to their (students) lived experiences, and may be the more, as a society, we come to learn (understand) from our lived experiences the better our world might become.
The AtL’s philosophy engages teachers and students in a process that requires each person, the teacher and the student, to think deeply about assessment tasks by focusing on the application of knowledge in the future, and how that future knowledge might impact on their learning journeys. This future knowledge is not bound by the A+’s students might receive from their teacher/s, instead how the understanding of that knowledge, the A+’s, is/was exhibited in their lived experiences, for example, in the classroom now, and most importantly, in future learning journey/s.
So possibly, in some small way, thanks to the English teacher, who taught their students the humble newspaper article on the topic of ‘Bullying’, those students might contribute, in their future actions, to creating a better world, becoming global citizen who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and building the opportunities for their successful future.[11]
The next section to be presented by the author will relate to Part Two - The Teaching and Learning – How to address cognitive overload and impact on understanding. This section will provide the reader with an overview of AtL’s teaching and learning process by addressing 1) student cognitive overload, via 2) teacher, student and parent understanding, through the 3) application of incremental teaching, learning facilitated by a 4) focusing on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge due to the 5) use of future actionable knowledge, and 6) multi-dimensional discourse.
Part Two
This paper represents the second installment of a three-part focus on Assessment to Learning. The first paper, Part One, addressed the unpacking AtL through a focus on the concept of a student’s learning journey. Part One touched on the application of assessment tasks, via the lived experiences of students, reflected in their individual learning journeys, and the possible commensurate impact of those individual learning journeys on society.
Part Two, which this paper addresses, unpacks the following; 1) student cognitive overload, via 2) [1]teacher, student and parent understanding, through the 3) application of incremental teaching and learning facilitated by a 4) focus on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge due to the 5) use of future actionable knowledge, assisted by 6) multi-dimensional discourse.
The purpose of Part One was to provide the reader with two key points. First, an overview of the AtL process by highlighting how important the need is to acknowledge that a student’s education is comprised of a learning journey and not simply a destination. Second, to ensure that a student’s learning journey, via their assessment tasks, can be implemented, and therefore, validated by the future actions of those students in society.
Part Two builds on Part One by outlining the teaching and learning that underpins the AtL process. As highlighted in Part One the main emphasis of the teaching and learning, associated with the AtL process, focus on addressing [2]parent, student and teacher understanding.
. . . a lack of learning can be attributed to a lack of understanding whereby, the less one understands something the greater 1) the likelihood of a negative impact on one’s life’s experiences and, as a consequence, 2) one’s learning journey/s. Therefore, two of the seminal applications of AtL’s philosophy focus on a teacher’s teaching, and student’s learning, through impacting on understanding, via cognitive overload, and linking a student’s life’s experiences to real-life applications and, as a consequence, their learning journeys.
Understanding
AtL’s focus on understanding is reflected in three key points. First, students understand the assessment task, second, students understand the implications of the assessment task, and finally, students understand how points one, and two, are reflected in their future actions within society.
The purpose of Part Two is to address the first point; students understand the assessment task. Therefore, [3]Part Two unpacks the teaching and learning associated with AtL through initially discussing cognitive overload and then moving onto explaining how cognitive overload can be impacted upon, in a positive way, to facilitate a student and teacher’s understanding of the assessment task.
Central to this understanding, and seminal to the application of AtL, is an emphasis on future actionable knowledge (FAK). FAK represents the foundations for assisting students and teachers to use knowledge effectively in their present and future actions. Whether those actions relate to understanding how to write an essay, behave in the school play ground or eventually in society. Therefore, the teaching and learning associated with the AtL process is based on addressing a student’s future actions by providing them with the knowledge, information, to facilitate a diminishment in their gaps-in-knowledge. The view is that by addressing gaps-in-knowledge the student will acquire an enhanced understanding of the assessment task.
The first step in the application of the Atl process, through teaching and learning, is to deal with student cognitive overload, via gaps-in-knowledge.
Student cognitive overload is a very simple concept that involves addressing gaps-in-knowledge[4], through future actionable knowledge, to facilitate understanding. Cognitive overload occurs when an individual’s capacity to understand something is negatively impacted upon due to their inability to cognitively process all of the information being received by them because they are unable to determine [5]future actionable knowledge.
Simply, stated cognitive overload occurs a) when an individual is overwhelmed with knowledge about a topic or subject, because b) they are not positioned, either mentally or physically, c) to use that knowledge effectively, as a result, d) of a continuing increase in their lack of understanding about that topic or subject. A student experiences cognitive overload when the information being presented to them does not diminish their gaps-in-knowledge but instead further increases their gaps-in-knowledge.
Therefore, the focus of diminishing a student’s gaps-in-knowledge is to impact positively on their understanding of a subject or topic so that their gap-in-knowledge, and, as a consequence, their understanding of the assessment task linked to that topic or subject increases. To facilitate an increase in a student’s understanding, through diminishing their gaps-in-knowledge, there is a focus on future actionable knowledge (FAK). However, to maximize the impact of FAK the AtL process encourages the incremental development of knowledge through structured actionable knowledge[6], which is facilitated through FAK.
The incremental development of knowledge aligns itself with the teaching and learning associated with assisting students to understand how to complete an assessment artefact. Therefore, the AtL process centers on the cognitive thinking skills associated with the ‘how’ and not the ‘why’. By focusing on the ‘how’ the AtL process requires the student, and the teacher, to target their attention, and thinking, on the process. For example, ‘How to get that response?’ as opposed to ‘Why did you get that response?’.
Through emphasizing a focus on the process linked to moving forward, AtL encourages the use of FAK by drawing the student’s and teacher’s thinking away from simply an outcome, instead the learning journey associated with that outcome.
Consequently, the teaching and learning process is linked to providing the students with the knowledge, and, as a result, a focus on diminishing gaps-in-knowledge, to move forward towards a destination, which is reflected in their understanding of an assessment artefact. Therefore, when acknowledging FAK the teacher, and the student, continually think about providing information, FAK, which facilitates the ‘How will I get there – the intended learning journey?’ as opposed to ‘Why did I get there – the destination?’ This focus on the ‘How will I get there?’ reflects AtL’s emphasis on incremental teaching and learning and multi-dimensional discourse.
Multi-dimensional discourse addresses the multi-level discussions that take place between the teacher, the student and the student’s peers when the student engages in their learning journey. The emphasis here is that learning is a journey and the sum of the experiences of those involved in that journey can contribute to addressing gaps-in-knowledge. Therefore, multi-dimensional discourse reflects the discussions that teachers, students and peers have with respect to assisting each other in moving forward in their learning journey.
The focus of these discussions’ center around FAK whereby, the teacher, student and peers are constantly focusing on ‘How can I assist this person, or myself, to move forward in this learning journey to reach the stated outcome?’ The information being presented is always focusing on future actions – where to next; how do I get there? as opposed to past actions – this is where you failed and ‘why?’.
As a consequence, the discussions that transpire between the participants is always about the ’How?’ and not the ‘Why?’ However, to facilitate these discussions there needs to be a structured application to the teaching and learning process, and, as a result, this process needs to be incremental.
The AtL process, due to an emphasis on formative assessment, focuses on the learning journey as a series of interconnected tasks, where completion of one task follows on to the next task and so on until the learning journey is completed. In this way the emphasis in the teaching and learning process is about planning ‘How’ to get to a destination, as opposed to, simply focusing on the destination.
Consequently, each step in the teaching and learning process is about diminishing gaps-in-knowledge through the teacher and the students’ understandings being impacted upon as each stage of the learning process is completed. Therefore, the outcome is broken down into very specific ‘How’s?’ as opposed to ‘Why’s?’
The teacher, within the context of the AtL teaching and learning process is required to plan the learning journey, which they and their students are going to undertake. Within this planning process the teacher focuses on the incremental development of knowledge, whereby, the acquisition of knowledge is reflected in understanding, via a continuous diminishment in gaps-in-knowledge. This diminishment in gaps-in-knowledge is the result of the multi-dimensional discussions that take place been the participants; teacher, student and peers. Whereby, the focus of these discussions emphasizes the ‘How?’ so that the direction of the teaching and learning aligns always with moving forward towards the outcome. Therefore, incremental learning is aligned with the stages of cognitive development.
The teacher focuses on ensuring that the student ‘understands’ the knowledge so they can then move onto the next stage of their learning journey. By approaching teaching and learning in this format the student, through specifically aligned incremental cognitive development, engages in the learning through diminishing gaps-in-knowledge, as opposed to increasing gaps-in-knowledge that culminates in cognitive overload and therefore, a failure to possibly attain the learning outcome, tied to a failure in understanding the assessment artefact.
Returning back to the original focus of Paper Two the emphasis was on addressing cognitive overload through focusing on understanding. AtL deals with cognitive overload by acknowledging that cognitive overload is the result of a student and teacher being impacted upon by knowledge that they cannot process, whereby, process is reflected in an inability to move forward by converting that knowledge into FAK.
To placate the situation outlined above the AtL process focuses on addressing cognitive overload through incremental cognitive development facilitated by careful planning that focuses on the ‘How?’; the processes associated with moving towards a learning outcome. This moving forward is reflected in the use of FAK that is developed through multi-dimensional discourse. The underlying purpose of cognitive incremental development, via FAK, is to address understanding by an emphasis on dealing with diminishing gaps-in-knowledge. Through a diminishment in gaps-in-knowledge the AtL process addresses understanding, and, as a consequence cognitive overload.
With Paper Two completed the final paper, Paper Three, will deal specifically with the application of AtL through an in-class example.
This section represents the third and final installment of a three-part focus on Assessment to Learning. The first paper, Part One, addressed the unpacking of AtL through a focus on the concept of a student’s learning journey. Part One touched on the application of assessment tasks, via the lived experiences of students, reflected in their individual learning journeys, and the possible commensurate impact of those individual learning journeys on society.
Part Two unpacked the following; 1) student cognitive overload, via 2) [1]teacher, student, and parent understanding, through the 3) application of incremental teaching and learning facilitated by a 4) focus on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge due to the 5) use of future actionable knowledge, assisted by 6) multi-dimensional discourse.
The purpose of Part One was to provide the reader with two key points. First, an overview of the AtL process by highlighting how important the need is to acknowledge that a student’s education is comprised of a learning journey and not simply a destination. Second, to ensure that a student’s learning journey, via their assessment tasks, can be implemented, and therefore, validated by the future actions of those students in society.
Part Two built on Part One by outlining the teaching and learning that underpins the AtL process. As highlighted in Part One the main emphasis of the teaching and learning, associated with the AtL process, focuses on addressing [2]parent, student and teacher understanding.
. . . a lack of learning can be attributed to a lack of understanding whereby, the less one understands something the greater 1) the likelihood of a negative impact on one’s life’s experiences and, as a consequence, 2) one’s learning journey/s. Therefore, two of the seminal applications of AtL’s philosophy focus on a teacher’s teaching, and student’s learning, through impacting on understanding, via cognitive overload, and linking a student’s life’s experiences to real-life applications and, as a consequence, their learning journeys.
AtL’s focus on understanding is reflected in three key points. First, students understand the assessment task, second, students understand the implications of the assessment task, and finally, students understand how points one, and two, are reflected in their future actions within society.
The purpose of Part Three is to provide a practical approach to the application of AtL within a school based on the implementation of Parts One and Two.
Possibly, a good example of how AtL could be applied within a school context would be through referring to Part One and the reference to:
. . . what happens if one looks at the real-life applications of writing a newspaper article on bullying, and then ties this back to the classroom?
Remembering that two of the seminal focuses of AtL relates to addressing cognitive overload, and an emphasis on Future Actionable Knowledge (FAK), linked to understanding, the purpose of writing a newspaper article on ‘bullying’ is not simply about the writing of the article. Instead, the FAK associated with the student’s understanding, facilitated by addressing cognitive overload, and the application of knowledge in the future.
Whereby, this future acknowledge could be demonstrated in various ways, for example, in the ‘present,’ via a student’s behavior in the classroom, playground, family environment ‘today,’ and through similar behaviours in the ‘future’ linked to ‘tomorrow.’
Therefore, by hopefully ensuring that students understand the task, via addressing cognitive overload, facilitated by incremental teaching and learning, highlighted by a focus on diminishing-gaps-in-knowledge, and emphasizing the use of future actionable knowledge, developed by multi-dimensional discourse, students will be better positioned to hopefully engage in ‘their learning journeys'.
The first task that needs to be undertaken by the teacher/s is to address cognitive overload, via diminishing gaps-in-knowledge. To facilitate this the teacher needs to plan, and this planning is achieved by engaging with the AtL lesson plan overview structure. This structure is outlined below in Table 1:
Knowledge
Sequencing
Pedagogy
Checking
Outcomes
Table 1 – AtL lesson plan overview
The focus of this structure is to address the three key questions outline below;
1) What knowledge will need to be taught to assist the student in achieving their learning outcome?
2) How will this knowledge be taught to the student to achieve this learning outcome?
3) Why is this knowledge necessary, and why is this knowledge being taught this way?
The emphasis of this structure, as highlighted above, relates specifically to knowledge and the development of that knowledge with respect to the teacher/s first engaging with the task with view to commence their ‘learning journey’ through the teaching and learning associated initially with the ‘knowledge.’ In this case the knowledge associated with the writing of a newspaper article on ‘bullying.’
Question number one is addressed through the AtL lesson plan’s overview, via the teacher planning for the Knowledge the student requires to attain a learning outcome, in this example, the writing of a newspaper article on ‘bullying.’
The second question, focusing on how will this knowledge will be taught to the student to achieve this learning outcome, is reflected in the AtL lesson plan’s overview structure through Sequencing, Pedagogy and Checking. This process is outlined below:
How will this knowledge be Sequenced to provide students with an understanding? The sequencing of knowledge is then followed by pedagogy and this focus on pedagogy highlights; How will this knowledge be taught (Pedagogy), via a focus on hard, soft and values skills, to facilitate understanding? Finally, Checking relates to both What and How through first addressing; What strategies will be used to Check student understanding of the knowledge by the teacher? and second, how will these strategies be used to Check student understanding of the knowledge by the teacher? With respect to; How will these strategies be used to Check student understanding of the knowledge by the teacher? relates to the application of these strategies at each learning outcome.
The final aspect of AtL’s lesson plan’s overview, question three, relates to the Outcome. Where the Outcome is based on the teacher’s Sequencing, Pedagogy and Checking of What Knowledge needs to be understood by students and what the teacher expects to see the student provide to indicate an understanding of the sequenced key learning outcomes?
The Outcome produced, needs to reflect FAK; the [1]demonstration and then application of knowledge to suggest the student understood the knowledge, and can now move on to the next key learning outcome. Therefore, FAK is about the student having the necessary skills to understand the task, by moving through the incremental stages of learning, while also providing the student with insights into how this knowledge might be demonstrated within their learning journeys, via their present and future actions.
By using the AtL lesson plan's overview structure above the teacher/s then plan the unpacking of the teaching and learning associated with the writing of a newspaper article on ‘bullying.’
Within a collaborative environment the teacher/s commence by working through the AtL lesson plan's overview structure by addressing the following provided below to commence the teachers’ and students’ learning journeys/
First, what knowledge will students need to be taught with respect to the writing of a newspaper article on bullying? For example, the structure of a newspaper article, information about bullying etc. Second, how will this knowledge be sequenced to best facilitate student understanding of writing a newspaper article on bullying. What knowledge needs to come first, second and third so that the student obtains an incremental development of this knowledge, which hopefully impacts on cognitive overload. Remembering that the focus on knowledge and the sequencing of that knowledge reflects future actionable knowledge (FAK). How will the sequencing of this knowledge assist the student in their understanding of the task? For example, if the teacher/s decide to first teach – newspaper structure will this be the best way forward for the student to be positioned to use this knowledge to move forward to the next sequenced activity and so on? Through the sequencing of knowledge, the student’s cognitive overload is addressed, in addition to, a focus on diminishing gaps-in-student knowledge.
Referring to the above the link to FAK is also addressed, through multi-dimensional discourse, via determining the sequencing of knowledge to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge at a rate to hopefully ensure that students move long their learning journey, as opposed to, being lost in that journey. FAK is about – how can this knowledge be used in the future to assist in value-adding to the students position in their learning journey? Consequently, when discussions take place between the student, the teacher, and their peers (multi-dimensional discourse) the focus is on not the feedback – where the student had gone wrong, instead the feedforward – how can the student’s current knowledge be value-added to enable the student to move forward to their next learning stage. Therefore, whether that knowledge is associated with, for example, the stages of moving within an assessment task or within society, the purpose of any multi-dimensional discourse is about the forward movement of knowledge to achieve the next learning outcome based on ensuring that the student has clarity about their current learning journey’s position.
Next is the focus on pedagogy. This focus reflects to two key areas. First, how will this sequencing of knowledge, relating to writing a newspaper article on bullying, be taught at each point, the incrementally sequenced elements of the students learning journey? And second, how will 21st century skills be included within the pedagogy to facilitate FAK that impacts not only on the student’s understanding of this knowledge acquisition, the incremental development of knowledge to complete the assessment task, but also how this knowledge might be applied in the present and the future?
To facilitate this the teacher/s then focus on the key areas of 21st century skills reflected in; Cognitive Thinking Domain, Intrapersonal Domain, and Interpersonal Domain (See Table 2 below).
Cognitive Domain - Thinking
Intrapersonal Domain – Existing within the person’s mind
Interpersonal Domain – People Skills
*Critical, and **creative thinking, ***reasoning, #argumentation, ##innovation
*Involves a process that moves the individual through identification and recall of information, organization and selection of facts and ideas, use of facts, rules, and principles, separating a whole into component parts, combining ideas to form a new whole, developing opinions, judgements, or decisions.
** innovation, initiative and enterprise, curiosity and imagination, creativity, generating and applying new ideas, identifying alternatives, seeing or making new links
***the process of taking in information and making inferences based on what an individual knows to be true.
#the action or process of reasoning systematically in support of an idea, action, or theory.
##new idea, device or method.
character (resilience, mindfulness, open-and fair-minded, self-awareness), leadership, effective oral and written communication, using language, symbols and texts, communicating ideas effectively with diverse audiences, digital citizenship (being safe, positive and responsive), and *concepts
*Concepts are mental representations, abstract objects or abilities that make up the fundamental building blocks of thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. Therefore, students develop concepts based on their cognitive mastery.
adaptability/flexibility, management (self, career, time, planning and organizing), leadership, citizenship, cultural awareness, ethical (and moral) understanding, relating to other (interacting with others), recognizing and using diverse perspectives, participating and contributing, community connections
Table 2 - Cognitive Thinking Domain, Intrapersonal Domain, and Interpersonal Domain
Reflected within the ‘how,’ the strategies that the teacher employs to teach students, are the elements of hard, soft and values skills. Consequently, when the teacher/s initially plan/s their AtL lesson plan’s overview on addressing the assessment task, there is the need to focus on ‘how will there be the inclusion of hard, soft and values skills?’ Therefore, when the teacher/s looks at the structure of their initially planning, they need to also ensure that within that planning there are strategies in place that acknowledge not just the hard skills but also the soft and values skills. The hard skill is built into the assessment task, while the soft, and values, skills are woven into the fabric of the assessment task. It is, via, the application of the soft, and values skills that FAK is developed via a focus on today and tomorrow.
One of the key aspects linked to the use of soft, and values, skills is for the teacher, the student, and the parent to be positioned to acknowledge and measure these skills. To facilitate this there is first, the need to define what these skill sets look like second, determine how these skills sets will be measured, and finally, how the measurement of the skills sets will be reflected in the student’s present and future knowledge?
The first area, defining the skills sets can be undertaken by collaborative discussions between the teachers, the students, and parents (this discussion does not have to involve the parents with students in the class rather the parent body, for example, the P&C?)
Based on these discussions there is an agreement on definitions for the soft, hard and values skills. Second, once agreement has been reached on the definitions for soft, hard and values skills the next task is to focus on how the teacher will measure those skills. Again, there is collaboration between the teachers, the students, and parents to determine first how these skills might be presented in the classroom and then second, how might these presented skills be measured within the classroom?
Finally, and most importantly, how might the students display these skills within the school community; which includes the school, their homes, and their lives now and in the future? The alignment of FAK to the student’s future actions occurs through the student addressing the following four questions:
1) My understanding of the world now based on this new knowledge;
2) The impact of this new knowledge on my future and those around me;
3) Based on this impact how will I apply and demonstrate this new knowledge;
4) To help shape a better world.
Referring to the writing of a newspaper article on bullying the outcome, as reflected in the AtL plan’s overview, highlights the completion of the task but also the deeper thinking associated with the task that moves beyond simply receiving an A or B for the task. Based on the knowledge research by the student, and using Australia as an example, the students may have discovered the following.
Data through a national study highlighted in Australia approximately 1 in 4 Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) reported being bullied every few weeks in Australian schools (Google, 2022). While, school bullying was most frequent in Year 5 and Year 8 students (Google, 2022). Within the Australian work place the impact of bullying was reflected in data that suggested 60% of workers experienced some type of bullying in the workplace; 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men (Google, 2022). Further data also indicated school-based anti-bullying programs in Australia were effective in the reduction of school-bullying perpetration by approximately 19%–20% and school-bullying victimization by approximately 15%–16% (Google, 2022).
The nexus to this data above focuses on if students are learning how to address, or may be cope with, bullying through school based anti-bullying programs in Australia, why is it that when these students leave school, and move into the work place, they are still experiencing bullying, and possibly higher levels of bullying? Are, for example, the anti-bullying programs at school that addressed the reduction of school-bullying perpetration, and school-bullying victimization, not being effectively articulated into the work place?
The student would then engage the knowledge from the perspective of addressing the four key questions outlined above. This engagement would be reflected in the student asking themselves the following questions, based on bullying.
Therefore, as equally important as receiving a good result in the assessment task there is also a focus on the use of writing a newspaper article on bullying to possibly have an impact on society by looking beyond the marks, marks are important but try to focus also on the learning journeys, associated with students in the classroom/s and school, linked to having completed the assessment task. The teacher needs to ask the question; How will the observable actions of students through having completed the assessment task on bullying, facilitated through writing a newspaper article, be reflected in the classroom/s, the playground, and in the wider school community?
Therefore, the impact of understanding bullying from past and current learning journeys, aligned through the AtL teaching and learning process, will hopefully have a positive impact on students’ future learning journeys. For example, the learning journeys associated with understanding other key topics of concern, a part from bullying, via a transition from P to Year 12 facilitated by the real-life applications of assessment tasks, linked to the lived experiences of students amassed through their other learning journeys[2].
The AtL process does not add any extra work to the task of writing a newspaper article, rather the AtL process brings the task to life, and possibly provides an avenue for students to engage in not only understanding how to write a newspaper article but also possibly provide an understanding of the far-reaching implications of bullying for them, and most importantly for society in the future. Therefore, the AtL teaching and learning process encourages and validates lifelong learning by acknowledging that learning can be observed through students’ understanding reflected in not just the present but the future actions of students. Whereby, those actions could be 2 minutes, 5 hours, 6 days, or 20 years in the future, and unfortunately, due to the very nature of education no one really knows what the future holds.
However, hopefully these future actions might culminate in students creating a better world, becoming global citizen who contribute to their communities, being World Changing and building the opportunities for their successful future because these future actions were a part of a continuous learning journey for students, which commenced within the context of an educational setting in Pre-school, and then moved continuously forwarded throughout their lives.
The AtL process requires students, and teachers, to think deeply about assessment tasks by focusing on the application of knowledge in the future, and how that future knowledge might impact on their learning journeys. This future knowledge is not bound by the A+’s students might receive, instead how the understanding of that knowledge, the A+’s, is/was exhibited in their lived experiences, for example, in the classroom now, and most importantly, in future learning journey/s.
So possibly, in some small way, thanks to the humble newspaper article on the topic of ‘Bullying’ some students might contribute in their future actions, via their learning journeys, to create a better world?
