From descriptive assessments to synthetic judgements in the recent Ministerial Ordinance
Giorgia Slaviero, Beatrice Doria, Marina Lerma, Valentina Grion
In contemporary pedagogical debate, the assessment of learning is recognised as a central aspect of educational processes, particularly given the role that feedback can play in supporting student improvement and active participation. It is within this framework that the exploratory research presented in this paper is situated. The study was conducted with 30 pupils from two Year 5 primary school classes to analyse the relationship between two types of teacher feedback — synthetic judgements relating to the task and process-oriented feedback — and improvement in an authentic maths task, as well as to examine the characteristics of the feedback produced by the pupils in the subsequent peer assessment. An analytical rubric was used to assess performance before and after the feedback was provided, which was followed by a revision of the task and peer assessment; the data collected were then subjected to descriptive and inferential quantitative analysis. Although both groups showed a significant improvement between the pre- and post-feedback phases, the average increase was descriptively greater in the group that received process-oriented feedback. The analysis of peer feedback, conducted according to the model by Hattie and Timperley (2007), also highlights partial consistency with the model proposed by the teachers, as feedback focusing on the individual predominates in the group that received summary judgements, whilst in the group exposed to process-oriented feedback the distribution appears more balanced and more task- and process-oriented; in both groups, however, no self-regulatory feedback emerged. Overall, the results suggest the educational potential of process-oriented feedback and highlight the need to intentionally design and support peer feedback and assessment practices in primary schools.
Keywords
Assessment for learning, descriptive assessments, primary school, synthetic judgements, participatory assessment.
