Professional development in assessment for learning (AfL) for students with developmental disabilities

This article draft draws on an ongoing project in a school in Malmö. The project is a collaboration between Daniel Östlund, Ph D., and senior lecturer at Kristianstad University and Lotta Anderson, Ph D. and senior lecturer at Malmö University. The plan is for us to write the article together during the fall/winter. The project started in April 2014 and we are finishing the project in December 2015. We have been working with the teachers and paraprofessionals to develop their teaching and formative assessment skills over two semesters (fall 2014 and spring 2015). This fall we are evaluating the project together with the participants and they are also going to write articles about their work in the project, which will become an anthology. Overall Abstract This study reports on a research and development project in a Swedish primary school with seven self-contained classes for pupils with developmental disabilities alongside 6 additional classes of students without disabilities. In recent decades there has been movement towards more collaborative ways to develop pedagogical practice in Swedish schools and this project draws on collaboration between the special teachers and paraprofessionals in this school and, the municipality and researchers from two universities (Kristianstad university and Malmö University). The aim of the project was to contribute to the teachers’ and the paraprofessionals’ professional development in the field of assessment for learning (AfL) with the goal of improving students’ achievements. Research by Black & Wiliam (1998) and Hattie (2008) has shown that assessment for learning (AfL)/formative assessment is a powerful tool for improving students’ achievements, but there is not much research conducted with regard to students with developmental disabilities. This research and development project can hopefully contribute new knowledge to this field. The data include observations, interviews, group discussions and documents produced in the project and were collected in a Swedish primary school over a period of 12 months. Analytically, the paper is inspired by Biestas (2010) ideas of education and the model in which Biesta refers to three functions of education: (1) qualification, which involves providing participants with knowledge, (2) socialization, which is concerned with integrating individuals into existing social, cultural and political orders through the transmission of norms and values; and (3) subjectivation, which concerns the process of individuation, or becoming a free agents of action, responsibility and independence. Preliminary results indicate that both teachers and paraprofessionals have developed their educational philosophy and have developed the ability to give students feedback that helps them to improve their learning. From a student perspective, because of the professionals' changed ways of giving feedback and informing the students about their achievements, the students have become more engaged and involved in their own learning and have become more aware of the educational goals they are working towards and the strategies for “how to get there”. The project has also been using peer feedback developed with the support of the use of Ipads and smartboards as tools to give the student opportunities to reflect on their own and their peers' learning by watching videotaped lessons