Assessment for learning in Hong Kong schools: Implementation and evaluation

To create the most efficacious model for implementation of an AfL programme in Hong Kong schools, the project team developed a set of intervention materials (practices articulated, made available and sustained through workshops, Teacher Learning Community meetings, and collegial classroom observations) for subject teachers at the primary school level. The intention is that this should be extended to the secondary level in the second year of the project. The project team collected data which shows that these Assessment for Learning practices have improved student outcomes in Hong Kong schools. Pre-intervention and post-intervention tests were tailor-made to fit content and process knowledge developed by the teacher cohort during the single year of the project. Scores on the tests with experimental and control groups were compared and contrasted and a measure of the success or otherwise of the interventions was developed. However, it is important to provide a means of determining both the scale and type of effects of such an implementation and a properly theorized description of what happened during the intervention. Measuring student outcomes provides one piece of the jigsaw but not a complete picture. In order to connect any changes in student outcomes to the intervention, the project team used a variety of other data-collection methods, including classroom observations, structured and semi-structured teacher questionnaires and interviews, and student questionnaires and interviews. Process data were collected during the implementation, and were found to be especially useful in documenting the effects of this implementation.