Video · Teachers Media
Dylan Wiliam
Dylan Wiliam is one of the most influential voices in UK education over the last thirty years, particularly on assessment for learning. His argument, in a sentence, is that the quality of teaching is only visible in what pupils do — and therefore that the moment-by-moment adjustments teachers make in response to pupil thinking are the real seat of professional expertise.
About this video
Wiliam's work, developed with Paul Black in the late 1990s and refined ever since, gave rise to what most UK schools now call formative assessment or assessment for learning. The five key strategies — clarifying learning intentions, engineering effective classroom discussions, providing feedback that moves learning forward, activating pupils as instructional resources for each other, and activating pupils as owners of their own learning — became the shared vocabulary for a generation of teachers.
The distinctive move Wiliam makes is refusing to separate assessment from teaching. In his framing, formative assessment is not a thing you do after teaching; it's teaching itself, understood as the constant loop of "what do pupils think, and what do I do next in response?" That has practical consequences. Mini-whiteboards, hinge questions, all-pupil-response techniques (ABCD cards, thumbs, exit tickets) aren't gimmicks — they're the everyday mechanics of a teacher trying to see thinking as it happens.
For CPD leaders, Wiliam's recent work has focused on what makes teacher development actually work. His answer is uncomfortable: most CPD doesn't change practice, and the CPD that does change practice looks less like workshops and more like teachers slowly, deliberately building new habits in their own classrooms with a group of colleagues to help.
The five strategies of formative assessment
- Clarifying learning intentions and success criteria. Making it clear to pupils what they're learning and what "good" looks like.
- Engineering effective classroom discussions and tasks. Getting evidence of what pupils actually think, from all pupils, not just the ones who raise hands.
- Providing feedback that moves learning forward. Feedback that tells pupils what to do next, not just what they got wrong.
- Activating pupils as instructional resources for each other. Peer teaching, peer critique, structured group work.
- Activating pupils as owners of their own learning. Self-assessment, metacognition, goal-setting.
Discussion prompts
- Which of Wiliam's five strategies is most visible in your practice? Which is least?
- When you ask a question in class, whose thinking do you actually hear — the whole class, or the two or three who put their hands up?
- What CPD have you done that genuinely changed how you teach, and what CPD hasn't? What's the difference?
Try this in your classroom
- Try one all-pupil-response technique (mini-whiteboards, ABCD cards, or exit tickets) in every lesson for a fortnight. Notice what you now know about pupil thinking that you didn't before.
- Write a hinge question for one of your upcoming lessons — a question where every pupil's answer will tell you whether to move on or reteach. Use it. Adjust accordingly.
- Take one piece of your recent feedback to pupils and rewrite it as "next steps" rather than a judgement. Notice how the framing changes what pupils do with it.