ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the value of helping children to take part in the formative assessment of their work. The aim of formative assessment is improvement of understanding and competence. The involvement of children in assessment of their own and each other's work was among the approaches that were most successful in raising achievement. Setting activities in a meaningful real-life problem supports children's engagement and motivation and helps them to realise that scientific investigation has relevance to such everyday issues. A teacher who regularly discusses their learning with children, often asks the children to explain to others what they have learned, making explicit reference to what they hoped to do or find out. Teachers of older children can share more explicitly with them the criteria they use both in assessing practical skills and reviewing written work. Harrison. C and Howard. S recount how some teachers used a similar approach across the whole range of children's work.
