Professor Paul Black Biography

The aim of this Masterclass, offered by Paul was to assist us to think about Teachers summative assessment. The presentation focused on the reasons behind the project that he is working on - such as, the success of formative assessment projects, there is little support given to teachers in relation to continuous summative assessment.

Biography

Paul is currently Emeritus professor of science education at King's College London. He took his first degree in physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. He was also a faculty member of the Department of Physics in the University of Birmingham. In 1976 he became professor of science education and director of the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at Chelsea College in London. When Chelsea College merged with King's in 1985, he became the head of the King's Centre for Education Studies, King's College London.

Paul was also chair of the government's task group on assessment and testing in 1987-88 and depute chairman of the national curriculum council from 1989 to 1991.

Academic qualifications, honours and citations

• Honorary life member and former president of the Association for Science Education
• Recipient of the Distinguished Contribution to Science Education Through Research Award from the US National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 2004
• Honorary doctor of Education Kingston University, 2003
• Honorary doctor of the University Open University, 2002
• Medal of the International Commission on Physics Education, 2000
• Vice-president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, 1996-98
• Chair of the International Commission on Physics Education, 1992-98
• Honorary doctor of the University Surrey, 1991
• Fellow of King's College London, 1989
• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), 1983
• Bragg medal and prize of the UK Institute of Physics, 1973 (with J.M. Ogborn)

Publications

The publications listed below are a selection of the many books published by Paul Black. A full list can be found on www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education/staff/pblackpubs.html.

Academic Publications

Atkin, J.M. & Black, P. (2007)
'History of Science Curriculum Reform in the United States and the United Kingdom'
Handbook of Research on Science Education (eds S.K. Abell & N.G. Lederman), pp.781-806
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
ISBN 978-8058-4713 - 0-8058-4713-8

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (2004)
'Classroom Assessment is not (Necessarily) Formative Assessment (and Vice-Versa)'
Classroom Assessment and Accountability - 103rd Towards Coherence Between Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (ed. M. Wilson), pp.183-188
Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the NSSE

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (2004)
'The Formative Purpose: Assessment must first promote learning'
Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability - 103rd Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (ed. M. Wilson), pp.20-50
Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the NSSE

Books, reports and articles in professional journals

Black, P. & Jones, J. (2006)
'Formative assessment and the learning and teaching of MFL: sharing the language learning road map with learners'
Language Learning Journal 34, pp.4-9

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B. & Wiliam, D. (2004)
'Working inside the black box: Assessment for learning in the classroom'
Phi Delta Kappan 86, (1), pp.8-21

Four contributions in Research on Physics Education: Proceedings of the international school of physics "Enrico Fermi" Course CLVI (eds E.F. Redish & M. Vicentini), Amsterdam: IOS press (ISBN 1-58603-425-1):

• Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (2004)
  'Reviewing research into classroom formative assessment', pp.79-89
• Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B. & Wiliam, D. (2004)
  'Research into practice: Formative assessment for learning', pp.91-102
• Black, P. (2004)
  'Testing quality and testing systems', pp.103-115
• Black, P. (2004)
  'Round table summary', pp.643-644