ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some mentoring suggestions to utilise the three dimensions of assessment – knowledge of assessment; understanding the context for assessment; recognising the impact of assessment – to determine what a beginning teacher knows about assessments and what they need to achieve over time. It provides suggestions for mentors to use to induct a beginning teacher into assessment policies and procedures in their school. The chapter considers mentoring approaches to summative assessment, including alternatives to standardised testing. It then concerns mentoring strategies that mentors could use to support a beginning science teacher in developing formative assessment skills, such as the use of rich questioning and comment-only marking, facilitating self- and peer-assessment to support learning and using summative tests for formative analysis. One of the underpinning arguments for comment-only marking is that where work is graded, many pupils do not pay attention to qualitative feedback in improving their work, but instead rely on the attained grades.
