Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Assessment, Feedback and Pupil Progress Syllabus

Distinguish closed (lower-order) from open (higher-order) questions.

Closed questions have one short correct answer and check recall/factual knowledge; open questions invite explanation, reasoning or evaluation and probe deeper understanding. Effective teachers blend both deliberately.

What is 'Probing' or 'Process questioning' designed to elicit?

It pushes a pupil beyond an initial answer to justify reasoning, e.g. 'Why?', 'How do you know?', 'Can you give an example?', revealing the depth and security of understanding.

Name three whole-class responsive (every-pupil-response) techniques.

Mini-whiteboards (show me), multiple-choice fingers/ABCD cards, and choral response. All let the teacher see every pupil's answer simultaneously rather than sampling one volunteer.

Why are mini-whiteboards valued for assessment during lessons?

They give the teacher a simultaneous, visible response from every pupil, providing fast whole-class data on understanding, keeping all pupils accountable, and allowing immediate responsive teaching.

What does it mean to 'adapt teaching in response to assessment evidence'?

Using what assessment reveals about pupils' understanding to change the lesson there and then or in future lessons, e.g. reteaching a concept, adding scaffolding, regrouping, or accelerating, rather than ploughing on regardless.

What is 'responsive teaching'?

Teaching in which the teacher continually elicits evidence of learning and adjusts instruction in response. It reframes formative assessment as the act of changing teaching based on what pupils currently understand.

What does 'adaptive teaching' mean, and how does it differ from rigid differentiation by task?

Adaptive teaching means adjusting explanations, scaffolds, questioning and practice in response to pupils' needs while keeping high expectations and the same ambitious curriculum for all. It avoids permanently giving lower-attaining pupils a narrowed or capped task.

What are the three feedback questions in Hattie and Timperley's model?

'Where am I going?' (the goal/feed up), 'How am I going?' (current performance/feed back), and 'Where to next?' (the next step/feed forward).

List four characteristics of effective feedback.

It is specific, focused on the task/process rather than the person, actionable (tells the pupil what to do next), and timely. Good feedback also relates to clear success criteria.

Why should feedback focus on the task or process rather than the pupil's ego or ability?

Because praise/criticism aimed at the self ('you're clever/poor at this') does not improve performance and can harm motivation, whereas task- and process-level feedback gives pupils information they can act on to improve.

According to the EEF, roughly how does feedback rank as a teaching strategy for impact and cost?

Feedback is rated as a very high-impact, low-cost approach (around +6 months' progress in EEF evidence), provided it is acted upon by pupils.

What is the single most important condition for feedback to improve learning?

That the pupil actually receives, understands and acts on it. Feedback that is never read or used has no effect on learning, however well written.

State three principles from the 2016 'Eliminating Unnecessary Workload around Marking' report.

Marking should be meaningful, manageable and motivating. It should serve a clear purpose, be proportionate to its impact on learning, and not be done for the sake of accountability or to satisfy observers.

Give three efficient alternatives to extensive written marking.

Whole-class feedback sheets, live/verbal feedback during the lesson, and coded marking or self/peer-marking against a mark scheme. These reduce workload while still informing teaching.

What is 'whole-class feedback' and why does it reduce workload?

The teacher reads a set of work, notes common strengths, errors and misconceptions on one sheet, then addresses them with the whole class. It avoids writing individual comments while still acting on assessment evidence.

What is 'directed improvement and reflection time' (DIRT)?

Dedicated lesson time in which pupils read feedback and act on it, e.g. correcting errors, redrafting, or answering teacher follow-up questions, ensuring feedback leads to improvement.

Why is acting on feedback considered more important than the quantity of feedback given?

Because learning gains come from the pupil's response, not the teacher's input. Lots of detailed marking with no pupil follow-up wastes teacher time and produces little improvement.

What is self-assessment and one condition for it to be effective?

Pupils judging their own work against clear success criteria or a model. To be effective they need explicit, well-understood criteria and training in how to apply them honestly.

What is peer-assessment and a key benefit of using it well?

Pupils giving each other structured feedback against shared criteria. Benefits include deeper understanding of quality/success criteria, increased pupil responsibility, and reduced teacher marking, provided it is modelled and scaffolded.

Name a common risk of self- and peer-assessment and how to mitigate it.

Inaccurate judgements due to vague criteria or limited subject knowledge. Mitigate by providing clear success criteria, worked exemplars/models, sentence stems, and teacher modelling of the feedback process.

What does 'recording and monitoring pupil progress over time' involve?

Systematically capturing assessment outcomes across a sequence of teaching to see whether pupils are improving relative to their starting points and curriculum expectations, enabling early identification of those falling behind.

Distinguish 'attainment' from 'progress'.

Attainment is a pupil's level of achievement at a point in time (a score/standard). Progress is the change in attainment over time relative to a starting point. A pupil can have low attainment but strong progress, and vice versa.

What does it mean to 'use data to inform teaching and intervention'?

Analysing assessment data to identify which pupils, groups or content need additional support, then planning targeted teaching or intervention and later checking its impact, rather than collecting data for its own sake.

What is a diagnostic assessment used for?

To pinpoint specific strengths, gaps and misconceptions in a pupil's knowledge so that teaching or intervention can be precisely targeted, rather than simply producing an overall grade.

What is the risk of 'data overload' in schools and how is it avoided?

Collecting and inputting so much tracking data that it consumes teacher time without improving teaching. It is avoided by collecting fewer, higher-quality data points that are genuinely used to inform action ('meaningful tracking').

What three questions does the DfE recommend schools ask before collecting assessment data?

Is it purposeful (will it improve outcomes)?, is it valid/reliable, and is it the minimum needed? Data collection should be efficient and proportionate to its impact on pupils.

What is 'gap analysis' in the context of assessment data?

Examining performance question-by-question or topic-by-topic to identify specific areas of weakness across a class or cohort, so reteaching and intervention can target precisely where pupils struggled.

What is a key principle when reporting pupil progress to parents and carers?

Reports should be clear, honest, jargon-free and accessible, giving an accurate picture of attainment and progress plus specific next steps and how parents can support, rather than vague or purely positive comments.

Why must teachers be careful with the language and labels used when reporting to stakeholders?

Because labels (e.g. levels, grades, sets) can mislead, demotivate or be misinterpreted by parents. Reports should explain what a pupil can do and what they need to do next, in plain language.

Besides parents, name two other stakeholders to whom pupil progress may be reported, and why.

Senior leaders/governors (for accountability and resource decisions) and external bodies such as Ofsted or the next teacher/school (for transition and assurance of standards). Each needs information at an appropriate level of detail.

What is the difference between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment?

Norm-referenced compares a pupil's performance against that of other pupils (ranking, e.g. standardised scores); criterion-referenced compares performance against fixed standards or learning objectives, regardless of how others did.