Like most schools across Australia, FMS will issue school reports at the end of this term. This surprises many people, who hold the common misconception that Montessori students aren’t assessed. This couldn’t be further from the truth!
While Montessori students are not assessed in the traditional test and exam format, they are assessed continually, daily and personally throughout their Montessori journey.
Traditional assessment: What do tests, quizzes, and grades really measure?
Let’s first think about traditional forms of assessment and how they are designed to monitor students’ learning.
Rather than a measure of how much students have learned, grades tend to measure how good students are at getting good grades.
If we want students to have curiosity and intrinsic motivation to understand, it’s important to recognise that grades inhibit that process. Rather than concentrating on learning, the student’s focus becomes what it takes to get a good grade.
When students are preparing to take a test or quiz, they are practicing specific knowledge or skills and trying to anticipate what will be asked. In the process, they are trying to fulfill external expectations. Preparing for a test requires effort, practice and concentration. Often, once the exam is over, students lose interest in the content because their relationship with the material is about learning for a specific goal: to achieve a grade or pass the exam.
While we hope that grades measure how well students have mastered central concepts, the very act of administering a test and assigning a grade means that the outcome is based more on how well students take the test rather than how much they have learned.
What grades measure: knowledge of specific content, memorisation, preparation for expected questions.
What grades do not measure: effort, creativity, grit, compassion, sense of place in society, character, capability, intelligence, critical thinking, problem solving, discernment, ability to respond to the unexpected.
Montessori assessment
It’s worth thinking about what we want to assess in our students. What is the ultimate outcome of their education? Do we want students to acquire content, knowledge and the ability to apply formulas, or do we want them to be able to apply this knowledge to new or existing situations? How do we want them to demonstrate this?
Authentic student assessment
If we focus on authentic assessment, we are asking that students apply what they have learned to a new situation. We may require students to use their own judgment to discern what information and skills are relevant and how they can be used to solve a problem or present information. Similar to how adults are “tested” in work or personal life, authentic assessments are often tied to a real-world or complex situation.
Authentic assessments offer students the opportunity to rehearse, practice, consult resources, and get feedback so as to refine what they are doing. Students can be innovative in this process and as a result, are often extremely self-motivated.
In Montessori classrooms, authentic assessments may take the form of:
- Role-playing or performing a historical event and exploring what might have happened if things during that time period had changed.
- Drawing a diagram of how a process works and showing what happens if a variable changes.
- Creating an advertisement or brochure to highlight qualities or review something learned.
- Writing a diary entry for a real or fictional character.
- Composing a poem, play, newspaper article, or persuasive letter to share important concepts.
- Writing a letter to a friend explaining a problem or technique.
Montessori students love demonstrating what they have learned in creative, authentic ways. They present to their peers. They grapple with concepts. They even sometimes teach younger classmates.
Formative assessment: How Montessori teachers keep track of learning
In addition to authentic assessment, Montessori teachers (guides) use their extensive training in observation techniques to understand students’ learning process, steps toward mastery, and needs for support. This is called formative assessment.
Formative assessment is a continuous, low-stakes, responsive process. This means that students are getting feedback and information while their learning is taking place. Through observation, the teacher is gauging students’ progress, determining what has been effective, and identifying what could be improved in the learning process. There are no grades involved, however the goal is mastery of the skill or content.
In a Montessori classroom, formative assessment can look like:
- The educator observing students during a lesson presentation and during the students’ independent follow-up work.
- Student reflection in work journals.
- One-on-one conferencing with the educator and the student.
- Discussion and review of content or skills.
- Students informally or formally presenting their work.
- Student self-evaluations.
- Students correcting their mistakes and reflecting on what they learned from those mistakes.
Formative assessment doesn’t have to be teacher-driven. In fact, in Montessori classrooms, students are often getting feedback and information about their learning from the classroom materials, many of which are designed to help children learn from their mistakes as they check their own work.
Formative assessment is a collaborative process that happens “with” students rather than “to” students. Montessori students and teachers partner to get to know their strengths, interests, and needs. Because this is an ongoing, collaborative process, the guide and students can make small, immediate, impactful decisions to support well-being, learning-goal achievement, and self-efficacy.
What are the results?
When students experience authentic and formative assessment as integral aspects of their education, they become self-directed learners because they are active agents in their learning process.
This translates to agency in other environments and throughout life.
Student agency, different assessments for different purposes and frequent feedback are key features of the OECD future of education project for 2030. Learn more about that here. Yet again, fundamental features of the Montessori education system not in the future, but right now!
