ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING IN MALTA: IS IT AN INNOVATION OR A GRADUAL BUILD UP? Doreen Said Pace Ministry for Education and Employment, Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education Department of Curriculum Management (MALTA) Abstract This paper takes a retrospective reflective look at almost over two decades, 1995-2016, of Maltese educational reforms that have shaped the present vision and mission of the Ministry and the respective Directorates of Education. In particular, this reflection analyses the type of teaching and learning philosophy that permeates, and is promoted in these educational reforms. With the recent introduction of Assessment for Learning (AfL) support, in Maltese state primary schools during the 2011-2012 scholastic year, I am interested in finding out whether AfL should be regarded as a policy scaffolding process or, yet, another reform. My interest in researching this area arose, primarily, from my professional position of Head of Department in Assessment and the struggles I faced in advising different schools in the introduction, implementation and sustainability of AfL. Secondly, it stemmed from my concern that some practitioners were seeing it as another reform while others claimed that there is a lot of fuss about something which was already long in use. Despite these claims, the conclusions of this reflective process indicate that, when looking at AfL, from a policy lens view, AfL was a gradual build up process, however, from a class practitioners’ point of view it was hardly existent and therefore, yes, another reform. Keywords: Assessment for Learning, practices, policy, innovation, teaching and learning, educational reforms. 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Assessment is the heart and soul of any teaching and learning programme. What might be different between learning programmes are the purpose and timing of assessment. If the assessment is used for selecting learners and to judge past performance, then the assessment is referred to as assessment of learning or as more commonly known, summative assessment. Put simply, summative assessment is that kind of assessment which takes a snapshot of the learner’s cognitive ability at that point in time. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of all the effort made during the year. If the assessment, on the other hand, is seen and carried out as a walk through companion, then such assessment is referred to as assessment for learning or more commonly known as formative assessment. Therefore, the term assessment can be seen as an overarching term encapsulating different branches of assessment such as the summative, formative and continuous assessment with the latter used interchangeably for formative assessment. Though AfL and formative assessment may be used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. For AfL to qualify and be formative then the assessor must provide the feedback and, more importantly, the time to learners to act on that feedback. In the absence of feedback, AfL cannot claim to be formative and, to me, neither for learning too. Sadler has explained it as the passage from information to formation [1]. Therefore, giving feedback is not simply about informing the learner but also in monitoring and taking note of the kind of formation that has taken place. It follows that the major stake of the learner’s growth resides on the learner rather than the teacher [2]. This implies that an AfL culture requires a learner who is cognitively active during the learning process [3]. In asserting this, Wiliam supports a much earlier affirmation made by Sadler that a cognitively active learner consisting in a process of continuous formation necessitates a change in the role of both the teacher and the learner. The role is directly related and dependent on the type of assessment in place. A well balanced educational system has a place for different branches of assessment. This has already been discussed by the pioneers of assessment for learning [4], among others, that the two main types of assessment, formative and summative, can survive well together in an educational 1 The reflections presented in this paper reflect solely my professional experience in the role of Head of Department. In no way, they are meant to be generalised or attributed to the professional experience of other Heads of Department in Assessment. Proceedings of ICERI2016 Conference 14th-16th November 2016, Seville, Spain ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1 3484