Building an assessment culture in classrooms 
Gert van der Westhuizen and Harm Tillema

Overview:
Assessment can be a tool for learning as well, but there is more to it than involving students in giving feedback (to their peers). Integrating new ways of thinking about assessment with instruction and curriculum requires a careful (and often painstaking) process of building a “learning” culture in classrooms. This asks a lot from teachers and their students. The talks are presented with reference to specific research projects, which dealt with implementing an assessment for learning culture. The talk will also provide some ideas on getting started on the road.
 
Bios:
Gert Van der Westhuizen is Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Johannesburg. His research interests include interactions studies in school and professional learning by means of discourse and conversation analyses.  He has participated in various research projects on learning conversations in and outside of school and in teacher education. Prof Van der Westhuizen teaches postgraduate courses on learning in interaction, psychology of learning, and conversation analysis.  
 
Harm Tillema is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg. From 1991 – 2014 he was Senior Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Leiden University (The Netherlands).  Tillema received his PhD in Education in 1983 at the University of Utrecht, entitled: “Teachers as Designers – professional development in planning lessons”.  His main field of interest is professional learning and development, especially in teaching and teacher education.