Teachers as mediators : formative practices with assessment criteria and standards

This paper reports on the findings of a study that investigated formative assessment practices of Senior English teachers in Queensland. This paper focuses in particular on the teachers’ use of assessment criteria and standards with their students for formative purposes. It identifies language difficulties that lead to teacher mediation and interpretation practices. It highlights the processes teachers use to mediate criterial knowledge for their students and the way in which this mediation can influence student engagement with assessment criteria and standards.