Assessment for learning: what it is and how to use it in every lesson
Assessment for learning is the everyday use of evidence about what pupils understand to decide what should happen next in their learning, by the teacher and by the pupils themselves. It happens during teaching, not after it, and its purpose is to improve learning rather than to grade it. A quick question answered on mini whiteboards, a well-chosen multiple-choice question before new content, and a comment a pupil must act on are all assessment for learning if they change what happens next. This guide explains what it is, how it differs from assessment of learning, and how to use it in a multilingual classroom without adding to your marking.
Table of contents
What is assessment for learning?
Assessment for learning, often shortened to AfL and closely related to formative assessment, treats assessment as part of teaching. Cambridge’s guide Getting started with Assessment for Learning describes it as an approach that creates feedback which is then used to improve learners’ performance, with the aim of closing the gap between where a learner is now and where they need to be.
The idea gained wide attention through Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s 1998 article Inside the Black Box. They argued that raising standards depends on what teachers and pupils do in classrooms, that feedback improves learning when it gives each pupil specific guidance on strengths and weaknesses, preferably without an overall mark, and that schools tend to overemphasise marks and grading at the expense of useful advice.
The key word is use. A quiz is not assessment for learning in itself. It becomes assessment for learning when the evidence changes the teaching or helps pupils improve.
Assessment for learning vs assessment of learning
| Assessment for learning | Assessment of learning | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To improve learning while it is happening | To measure and report what has been learned |
| When | During a lesson or unit | At the end of a unit, term or course |
| Main users | The teacher and the pupils | Pupils, families and the school |
| Typical forms | Questioning, whiteboards, drafts, exit tickets, feedback to act on | End-of-unit tests, examinations, reports |
| Result | A decision about what to do next | A mark, grade or level |
| Example | A check shows many pupils confuse two terms, so the teacher reteaches before moving on | An end-of-term test is marked and the results are reported to parents |
The two are not opposites. The same task can serve both purposes: a mock examination is assessment of learning when it produces a grade, and assessment for learning when the class spends the next lesson working on the questions most pupils found hard. Some writers also use the term assessment as learning for pupils assessing themselves and each other, which is part of the approach described below.
Why assessment for learning is important
- Teaching adapts before misunderstandings settle. Discovering at the end of a unit that pupils misunderstood week one leaves little time to fix it.
- Pupils learn what quality looks like. When success criteria are clear, pupils can check and improve their own work instead of waiting for a mark.
- Feedback gets used. Feedback that pupils act on in lesson time has a purpose. Comments on a returned test that nobody reads do not.
- It separates language from understanding. In a multilingual class, a weak written answer might mean a pupil misunderstood the idea, or understood it and could not yet express it in English. Well-designed checks help you tell the difference.
- It gives you something specific to tell families. “She can now explain X; next she needs to work on Y” is more useful at a parent meeting than a grade on its own.
The five key strategies of assessment for learning
Dylan Wiliam and colleagues organised formative assessment into five key strategies in Classroom Assessment: Minute by Minute, Day by Day, published by ASCD in 2005. They remain a practical way to plan assessment for learning:
| Strategy | What it looks like in class | In a multilingual classroom |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success | Show a model answer and ask pupils what makes it good; build the criteria with them | Show criteria next to a worked example, with key words highlighted, not as abstract descriptions |
| 2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions and learning tasks | Hinge questions, mini whiteboards, no-hands-up questioning with thinking time | Use diagrams, numbers and multiple choice so answers do not depend on writing fluency |
| 3. Providing feedback that moves learners forward | Comments that tell pupils what to do next, with lesson time to do it | Keep comments short and concrete; point to a model the pupil can compare with |
| 4. Activating learners as the owners of their own learning | Self-assessment against criteria; learning logs; pupils set their next step | Sentence starters: “I can… / I am not sure about… / Next I will…” |
| 5. Activating learners as resources for one another | Peer review against a checklist; explain-to-your-partner routines | Pair pupils deliberately; allow discussion in a shared home language before feedback in English |
Assessment for learning examples you can use tomorrow
- Mini whiteboards. Every pupil answers at once and holds up their board, so you see the whole class, not just the few who put their hands up.
- Hinge questions. A multiple-choice question at the point where the lesson could go either way. Each wrong option matches a common misconception, so the pattern of answers tells you what to do next.
- No hands up, with thinking time. Ask, pause, then choose who answers. Everyone has to think, and quieter pupils are included.
- Exit tickets. One or two questions at the end of the lesson. Sort them into “got it”, “nearly” and “not yet”, and use the piles to plan tomorrow’s starter.
- Comment-only feedback with a task. Instead of a grade, write one specific next step and give lesson time to act on it: “Rewrite your conclusion using two figures from your table.”
- Stronger and weaker answers side by side. Ask pupils which is better and why. The success criteria stop being abstract.
- Find and fix. Put a mark in the margin next to a line with an error, but do not correct it. Pupils find and fix it themselves.
- Confidence checks, followed by evidence. Traffic-light cards or thumbs show how confident pupils feel. Because confidence and understanding are not the same thing, follow up with a quick question.
Worked example: one assessment for learning cycle in a Year 7 maths lesson
The following is an illustrative example of how the five strategies connect in a single lesson on comparing decimals.
- Share the intention and criteria. The learning intention is “Compare and order decimals”. The success criterion is “I compare decimals using place value, not the number of digits.”
- Teach, then ask a hinge question. After the explanation, pupils answer on mini whiteboards: Which number is largest? A: 0.45 B: 0.4 C: 0.125 D: 0.09
- Read the pattern. A is correct. A pupil choosing C is probably treating decimals like whole numbers and assuming longer means larger. A pupil choosing B may believe that fewer decimal places always means a larger number. A pupil choosing D may be looking only for the largest digit. Because the question uses numbers rather than sentences, the result shows understanding of place value, not reading ability.
- Decide. If nearly every board shows A, the class moves on. If a group chose B or C, the teacher reteaches that group with a place-value grid while the others start a harder ordering task.
- Give feedback pupils must act on. During independent practice, the teacher writes short prompts such as “Check question 4 using the grid” rather than a mark, and pupils correct their work before the lesson ends.
- Close with self-assessment and an exit ticket. Pupils complete “I can… / I am still unsure about…” and answer one final comparison question. The tickets decide who starts the next lesson in the reteaching group.
Every step produced evidence, and every piece of evidence changed a decision. That is the test of whether assessment for learning is really happening.
How to support assessment for learning without more marking
- Ask fewer, better questions. One well-designed hinge question can tell you more than ten quick oral questions answered by the same confident pupils.
- Use whole-class feedback. Read a set of books, note the three most common errors, and address them with the whole class at the start of the next lesson.
- Mark less, respond more. Not every piece of work needs written comments. Work that pupils will not act on rarely needs detailed marking.
- Plan hinge questions as a department. A shared bank of questions for each unit, with the misconception behind each wrong answer, saves everyone time.
- Protect lesson time for acting on feedback. If pupils never get time to respond, written feedback becomes a record for adults rather than a tool for pupils.
Assessment for learning is most useful when it is designed into the curriculum rather than added afterwards. Teachers who want to study that design in depth can do so in a master’s in curriculum and instruction online, which includes a module on curriculum, instruction and assessment design.
Frequently asked questions
Is assessment for learning the same as formative assessment?
The terms are closely related and often used interchangeably. Both describe using evidence of pupils’ learning to adapt teaching and help pupils improve while learning is still happening. Some writers use assessment for learning for the broader classroom approach, including self-assessment and peer assessment, and formative assessment for the process of gathering and using the evidence itself.
What is the most effective way to assess student learning?
It depends on the purpose. To decide what to teach next, quick checks that every pupil answers, such as whiteboards, hinge questions and exit tickets, are usually the most informative. To report achievement, well-designed tests and tasks are needed. In both cases, match the task to the learning intention and design it so the answer reveals understanding rather than reading or writing fluency.
How do I use assessment for learning with pupils who are new to English?
Design checks that separate the idea from the language: diagrams to label, items to sort, numbers, multiple-choice options and short oral answers. Give thinking time and allow discussion in a shared home language first. Provide sentence starters for explanations. When a written answer is weak, check orally before concluding that the pupil has not understood.
Does assessment for learning mean more marking?
It should mean less. Much of assessment for learning happens live in the lesson through questioning, whiteboards and short checks, not in exercise books. Whole-class feedback, comment-only marking on selected pieces and lesson time for pupils to act on feedback usually produce more improvement than detailed written comments on everything.
For teachers and school leaders who want to research assessment in depth, the doctorate in educational assessment offered through Taito Education is the Doctorate in Education in Assessment & Quality Assurance in Education, awarded by Guglielmo Marconi University, Italy. It runs over three years and is studied fully online.