One of the great strides in education over the last ten to fifteen years is in valuing diverse approaches to assessment and the benefits of innovative assessment. This includes moving away from assessment of to assessment for learning. Montessori curriculum has always embedded these innovative measures and vehicles for feedback to the learner as an intrinsic part of the learning materials and environment. As it is very intentionally embedded in the learning continuum to empower and build the learner’s confidence it can be an elusive piece in parent perception of the great strengths and benefits of the science and genius of Montessori.
Assessment for learning is different from formative assessment, the technique known to most traditionally schooled people. While formative assessment is about providing teachers with evidence, assessment for learning is about continuous assessment and about informing students about themselves. Formative assessment reveals who is and who is not meeting ‘outcomes’ or ‘standards’; assessment for learning tells teachers what progress each student is making toward meeting a learning outcome as they are learning —when there is still an opportunity to employ the feedback. In the formative assessment scenario the teacher typically provides the feedback to the learner.
When evaluation focuses on the results or outcomes of a program, it is called 'summative. Summative assessments are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional program and teaching at the end of an academic year or a set time. The aim of summative assessment is to judge student competency after an ‘instructional phase’ is complete. They are used to determine student mastery of certain competencies and to identify areas that need to improve. Summative assessment seeks to identify which students have reached the top of the learning curve. It holds students and their teachers accountable for achieving required outcomes - judging learning quantitatively at a particular point in time. Examples are large-scale, on-demand state and district assessments, as well as traditional classroom assessments, e.g. tests and quizzes, typically used for report card grading.
In the Montessori learning environment there is a continuous array of assessments for learning used to help students learn more—to lead them deeper into their own learning. Montessori assessment traverses many styles of assessment including authentic assessment – ‘the measurement of "intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful" – as well as performance based assessment.
For example, authentic assessment “ … seeks to assess many different kinds of abilities in contexts that recreate situations in which those abilities are used. Students read real texts, write for authentic purposes about meaningful topics, and participate in authentic literacy tasks such as discussing books, keeping journals, writing letters, and revising a piece of writing until it works for the intended audience. Both the material and the assessment tasks look as natural as possible.” Authentic assessment stresses the thinking behind work, the process, as much as the outcome.
Performance-based assessment aims at a demonstration of the scope of student knowledge on a subject rather than simply measuring the accuracy of responses to a select series of questions. Assessments become more than single events occurring at the end of the teaching. They become part of the learning process and keep students aware of their progress and confident enough to continue striving.
In the assessment for learning process, instructional decisions are made by students and their teachers. Thus, students use assessment information too, using evidence of their own progress to better understand what comes next for them. It relies on the class curriculum so that what has been learned and what comes next is clear to all throughout the learning. Assessment for learning motivates by helping students monitor and identify their success. Assessment for learning happens continuously throughout the learning process. Students have a clear vision of the learning task from the beginning of the learning, as well as an understanding of the progression to competence. Students also have continuous access to descriptive (as opposed to evaluative or judgmental) feedback from the teacher; information that helps them to improve the quality of their work.
These proactive assessments – which are at the heart of the Montessori approach to student-directed learning – allow students to engage with their own learning process and to successfully negotiate the road to mastery and learning competency. Each of these specific practices draws the learner more deeply into taking responsibility for her or his own success. Over time these real indicators of learning generate and support an intellectually sophisticated, competent self-directed learner – the goal for every Montessori student.
Sources and references
Assessment for learning: putting it into practice, Paul Black, Chris Harrison, Clara
Montessori and Assessment, Haines, Annette M.
Montessori Assessment Outline, North American Teachers Association
