AFLA - Assessment for Learning in Africa: Improving Pedagogy and Assessment for Numeracy in Foundation Years.

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The low level of numeracy skills of millions of poor and marginalised students, particularly in developing nations, is of international concern. This project focuses on improving these through developing teachers' and teacher trainers' pedagogical and assessment skills in extremely deprived urban areas in South Africa and Tanzania. Eighteen schools and three training colleges will be involved.Our approach is to develop classroom materials for primary school numeracy and use these as the basis for workshops and for the development of teacher learning communities in each area. The workshops will focus on how formative assessment ('Assessment for Learning') can be used to enhance the quality of the teaching and learning of numeracy. The aim is to improve teachers' own numeracy skills and their understanding of how numeracy can be more effectively communicated to their students. The workshops and teacher learning communities will draw on the extensive experience which has been generated by the implementation of Assessment for Learning internationally. One task for participants will be to adapt this experience to the limited resources of schools in slum areas (for example, large classes and few materials).The project team includes researchers with extensive experience of implementing formative assessment internationally, numeracy specialists and academics based in the two countries who are familiar with local conditions. The work will take place over three years beginning in April 2016 and has four phases. The first is a preparatory phase in which participants are confirmed and briefed and materials are developed. Baseline testing is conducted. The second phase (January to March 2017) sees the implementation of the workshops in both countries, the establishment of teacher learning communities along with visits to schools by mentors. These continue in the third phase (April - December 2017) along with the analysis of the workshops and a second round of tests. The final phase (January 2018 - March 2019) incorporates interviews, visits and the production and dissemination of findings.To monitor the impact of the project, the team will develop a variety of instruments. These include classroom observation schedules which monitor the fidelity of the implementation, contextually relevant SES measures, and numeracy tests for use in the classrooms. The tests will provide pre- and post- implementation data, matched to control schools, which will allow evaluation of the impact of the project on numeracy outcomes. The data will also be used to benchmark standards against other tests. Further analyses relating outcomes to demographic data will be conducted.The wider impact of the project will be in providing new knowledge and expertise in an under-researched area: how to support the pedagogy and assessment of teachers working in challenging areas with limited resources. This includes producing material which can sustain implementation locally. A book for practitioners and teacher educators will be written for practitioners and teacher educators. Other outputs will include podcasts of best practices in classrooms and writing for a range of media outlets as well as interviews and other media appearances.We know a good deal about the teaching of numeracy and productive Assessment for Learning. However this has been largely based on well resourced education systems. This project deliberately involves itself in far more challenging circumstances in order to develop ways of contributing to teaching and learning in the more marginal and disadvantaged circumstances in which millions of students find themselves.