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Several studies have demonstrated that substantial learning gains are possible when teachers use formative assessment in their classroom practice. At the heart of most definitions of formative assessment lies the idea of collecting evidence of students’ thinking and learning, and based on this information modifying teaching to better meet students’ needs. Such regulation of learning processes would require skills to elicit the thinking underlying students’ oral and written responses, and the capacity to make suitable instructional decisions based on this thinking. When the continuation of the teaching is contingent on the information that appears in such assessments additional knowledge and skills are required compared with a more traditional approach to teaching.

Today, sufficient knowledge about how to help in-service teachers and pre-service teachers develop their formative classroom practice is lacking. In the pursuit of gathering research evidence about the specific content and design of professional development programs and teacher education courses in formative assessment, it is important that we know what kinds of skills and knowledge teachers need to successfully orchestrate a formative classroom practice.

The aim of this study is to identify activities and characterize the knowledge and skills that a teacher of mathematics uses in her formative assessment practice during whole-class lessons.

The study is a case study of a teacher’s formative assessment practice during mathematics lessons in year 5. The data were analysed by identifying a) the formative assessment practice b) the teacher’s activities during the formative assessment practice and c) the teacher knowledge and skills used during the activities.

The main result of the study shows that the formative assessment practice is a very complex, demanding and difficult task for the teacher in several ways. For example, during short term minute-by-minute formative assessment practice the teacher uses knowledge and skills to eliciting, interpreting and use the elicited information to modify instruction to better meet student learning needs. She also helps students’ to engage in common learning activities and take co-responsibility of their learning. In the minute-by-minute formative assessment practice the teacher also handles new mathematics (to her), unpredictable situations and makes decisions about teaching and learning situations in a matter of seconds. 

Ett flertal studier har visat att implementering av formativ bedömning ökar elevers lärande i matematik. I hjärtat av de flesta definitioner av formativ bedömning finns iden om att samla belägg om elevers tänkande och lärande, och utifrån beläggen anpassa undervisningen så att den möter elevernas behov. En sådan reglering av lärandeprocessen kräver kunskap om hur man framkallar den typ av svar som visar hur elever tänker. Det krävs också förmåga att välja ett lämpligt sätt anpassa undervisningen. När undervisningen kontinuerligt anpassas efter den typ av bedömning som beskrivits, så behövs ytterligare kunskap jämfört med den kunskap som behövs för att genomföra en mer traditionell undervisning.

Idag saknas tillräcklig kunskap om hur man kan utbilda och stödja lärare och blivande lärare att utveckla sin formativ bedömningspraktik. För att veta vilket innehåll och vilken design kompetensutbildningar i formativ bedömning bör ha så är det viktigt att vi vet vilka specifika kunskaper och förmågor en lärare behöver för att kunna genomföra en framgångsrik formativ bedömning.

Studiens syfte är att identifiera aktiviteter och att karaktärisera de kunskaper och förmågor en matematiklärare använder i sin formativa bedömningspraktik under lektioner i helklass.

Fallstudien följer en lärares formativa bedömningspraktik under matematiklektioner i årskurs 5. Data analyserades med avseende på a) lärarens formativa bedömningspraktik b) lärarens aktiviteter under denna praktik och c) de kunskaper och förmågor som läraren använde för att genomföra dessa aktiviteter.  Studiens huvudresultat visar att den formativa bedömningspraktiken är mycket komplex, krävande och svår på flera sätt för läraren att göra. Till exempel, under en formativ bedömningspraktik som sker minut-för-minut så använder läraren kunskaper och förmågor för att framkalla, tolka och använda den informationen för att bättre kunna möta elevens behov. Läraren hjälper också eleverna att engagera sig i och ta ansvar för sitt lärande under lärandeaktiviteter. Under denna praktik så hanterar läraren även för henne ny matematik, oförutsägbara situationer och fattar beslut om undervisning inom loppet av sekunder.

Research reviews show that formative assessment has great potential for raising student achievement in general, but there is a need for reviews of formative assessment in individual subjects. This review examines its impact on student achievement in mathematics through an assessment of scientific journal articles published between 2005 and 2014 and indexed in Web of science. Through the use of search terms such as ”formative assessment”, ”assessment for learning” and ”self-regulated learning”, different approaches to formative assessment were included in the review. While varying in approach, they all share the defining characteristic of formative assessment: agents in the classroom collect evidence of student learning and, based on this information, adjust their teaching and/or learning. The results show positive relations between student achievement in mathematics and the ways of doing formative assessment included in the review.

The ability to self-regulate one’s learning has been associated with academic success, and recognized as an important component in successful life-long learning. But studies on how characteristics of ordinary classroom practices provide or impair opportunities for students to develop self-regulate learning skills are rare. This study examines in what ways learning situations in authentic classroom practices provide opportunities for the students to develop self-regulated learning skills, and how students experience these opportunities. The analysis is based on data from classroom observations of three teachers’ mathematics lessons, and on interviews with their students. The results show that the opportunities for students to develop self-regulated learning skills were mainly provided by learning situations in which the teacher modeled the skills, and most often the students did not recognize these situations as opportunities to develop the skills. However, they did so more often when they had an active role in the learning situations.