Research
The Centre for Formative Assessment Studies (CFAS) was founded in 1988. Its basic conceptualisation was (and remains) the support of teaching, learning and assessment at a range of levels.
At the micro level our aim is to enable teachers to support pupil learning through understanding the inter-changeable roles of the teacher and the learner in the classroom; to develop teachers' understanding of the integrated process of teaching, learning and assessment and of the ways in which assessment strategies such as specific feedback, self and peer assessment can contribute to a supportive and deeper learning process for the pupil. We welcome approaches from schools for collaboration, for support or for formative evaluation projects. Throughout the post-Education Reform Act (1988) decade and the accountability culture of the New Labour Standards' agenda, CFAS has strongly advocated the principles of formative assessment (assessment for learning[DVD]).
At the macro level, these principles have permeated our work in our inputs and advice to national (DfES, QCA) and international (World Bank, UNESCO, Asian Development Bank, Department for International Development, Ministries of Education) policymakers, funders and academic conferences.
Our research methodologies have covered a range of assessment developments, disseminations and evaluations and qualitative and quantitative curriculum surveys, analyses and reporting.