The Formative assessment in online teaching and learning during the first COVID-19 Malta lockdown – Educators’ voices, types of practices and users

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62695/PLRY8994

Keywords:

Formative Assessment (FA), Online teaching and learning, synchronous and asynchronous learning, teaching effectiveness and efficiency

Abstract

School closure in March 2020 necessitated a rethinking of the modus operandi in compulsory education as the unpreparedness for the first closure was a crisis management situation due to the huge lacuna in class educators’ and school leaders’ training. Nonetheless, educators tried what they knew best – transporting the traditional classroom approaches online. Understandably, their world has been shaken and with their only safety net being their class comfort zone of practice, this was expected. With the lack of training, the use of formative assessment (FA) within such modality has declined significantly. Further analysis into this decline reveals the use of two types of practices – teacher centredness (one-way traffic) in asynchronous sessions, and shared participation between the teacher and the student (two way traffic) in real time encounters, and four types of users – regressive, consistent, progressive and unwavering/resistors.

Author Biography

Doreen Said Pace, Ministry for Education, Malta

Doreen Said Pace, PhD, has been in the field of education for the past twenty-two years where she has held various roles, including Education Officer for Curriculum and Inclusion, Inclusion Coordinator duties, Head of Department (Assessment), Early Intervention Teacher and class teacher. She is also a part-time lecturer and dissertation supervisor with the Institute for Education and the University of Malta. She has been part of interviewing boards as well as national working groups. Recently, she has earned the professional recognition of Practitioner Status from the Association for Educational Assessment Europe (AEA). Said Pace now forms part of the steering group for Inclusive Assessment of AEA. She has also published articles in international journals and has chapters in edited books

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Published

15-09-2021

How to Cite

Pace, D. S. (2021). The Formative assessment in online teaching and learning during the first COVID-19 Malta lockdown – Educators’ voices, types of practices and users. Malta Journal of Education, 2(1), 142–166. https://doi.org/10.62695/PLRY8994

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