Assessment – Assessment and the Curriculum

Continuing the theme of assessment the next few posts are going to involve a trek around the QCA website to summarise the information and exemplification found there.

The QCA ‘Assessment and the Curriculum‘ page is a good starting point when considering how you will monitor the day to day progress of students as they traverse the brave new world of the new KS3 curriculum. The page contains useful links to:

Periodic Assessment: – Milestone monitoring of progress within a unit of work

Effective periodic assessment:

• is based on existing evidence drawn from classroom activity/lessons
• requires evidence from a wide range of contexts, for example observation of group work, class discussions, oral responses, class work, homework
• can be based on individual or group activities
• will be most effective where outcomes can feed directly into medium- and short-term planning
• requires a structured, consistent approach to the review of evidence
• depends upon good subject knowledge and a clear understanding of progression in key concepts and skills within the subject.

Periodic assessment has several benefits. It:

• does not require special assessment activities but involves taking the opportunities provided by planned teaching and learning
• has the potential both to offer a profile of pupils’ current achievement as well as formative outcomes (Where are these learners now? Where should their learning go next?)
• can be used to assess achievement across the whole curriculum
• reveals aspects of the curriculum that need to be strengthened
• supports evaluation of progress and the setting of appropriate learning targets at both individual and group level.

These bullets are taken straight from the QCA website. I would strongly urge all curriculum managers to pay close attention to what this type of assessment should and could be whilst subject leaders are busy considering their contribution to the new curriculum. Regular end of topic testing is not best practice! Creative and imaginative approaches to curriculum change won’t succeed if approaches to assessment are staid, outdated and have limited impact on learning.

Gathering Evidence for Periodic Assessment: – Outcome focused teaching leads to simplified monitoring

“No single item provides a complete picture, but a review of such a range of work leads to fairer, more complete judgements of learners’ strengths and weaknesses”

This link provides some exemplification of how we can capture the learning that has taken place in a particular pupil without waiting for the one-shot end of unit assessment. Ideas around visual (digital cameras), oral (recording quality of presentations and participation in discussions) and innovative methods of written assessment are outlined and some there are some helpful suggestions to try to evolve current classroom-based assessments away from the current model in terms of assessing pupils progress in working independently (without explicit scaffolding or structuring), making choices (eg. through open ended tasks), contributing to group work, etc

There is also some information about national key stage testing, but, as yet there is only a single paragraph of information. (Sorry!) I’m sure this will develop as the pilots start to bear fruit. More from the QCA assessment pages soon.

Single Level Testing

Upon getting to grips with curriculum change, one of the first questions that immediately follows is “What about assessment?”. With the pervading culture of reporting headline external assessment results many teachers are torn between a perceived need to keep a tight ship with regard to performance in exams and unshackling teachers and reinvigorating pupils.

Whilst I strongly believe that the two are not mutually exclusive and happily nail my colours to the mast in favour of creative approaches that encompass all learners being a sensible route to success in external assessments, I do have some sympathies with the culture of fear that league tables and nationally reported results can lead to in some schools. Once again, the subject of assessment is one of the topics in education that warrants a blog all of its own and I would welcome all comments on the matter. I would say however, that school leaders should aim to adopt practices in monitoring and assessing internally through a range of activities that do everything possible to remove the stifling implications of one-shot external assessment-focused departments. Creativity is at the heart of successful schools and successful people – be them pupils or teachers!

An evolution, at KS3 at least, is underway though. Single level testing is currently being piloted in 10 LAs across the country. The outcomes and discussion around the pilot will be presented on the NAA website. They have set up an area especially for SLT which, at the moment, is a little barren although, if you store it in your own IE bookmarks, Del.icio.us, etc I am sure it will become an increasingly useful source of information over the coming months. (Click either image to go there)

Support for History

Just a quick entry. Hidden away on the QCA website I came across this link that may be of interest to heads of history departments:

http://www.qca.org.uk/history/innovating/key3/index.htm

The material is NOT from the new curriculum site but does contain elements outlining some cross curricular approaches, assessment, progression, etc. If you dig around the QCA site (delete the stuff after ..’.org.uk/’ above and add your own subject seems to work for most subjects!) there may be useful materials for your own subject. If there are any subject specific materials you need and can’t find, please get in touch via the email tab above or alternatively add a comment to this post. (Instructions, if you need them, appear further down the blog!)

Personalisation

The following recommendations were made by a highly successful school working in a deprived area, where personalisation and brain-based learning have transformed the school:

• Education is done with not to, students
• Students have choices of how to learn, when they learn (through flexible timetabling), where they learn and with whom.
• Pupils become independent and lifelong learners
• Pupils are not dependent on others to dictate what should be learned, how it is learned, etc and so require less spoon feeding.
• Learning how to learn is a foundation stone
• Individual pace is facilitated by project and enquiry-based pedagogy

Other initiatives the school have successfully initiated:

• Suspended timetable where needed
• Personal challenge weeks
• Focus on consistent relationships with all pupils
• Pupils receive a one-to-one interview with a ‘learning guide’ once per half term.
• Pupils receive training on group work and peer/ self assessment
• Students are taught coaching and mentoring schools to assist each other.
• The school closes every Wednesday afternoon for staff collaboration, preparation and evaluation
• The school are moving towards a system in which pupils determine the assessment criteria and how they are fed back.
• Pupils are responsible for the running and organisation of parents evenings, etc

There may be something in these lists that would have a positive impact in your own school. If so, there is no better time to raise the question and start planning the change!

Personalised Learning – The Four Deeps

Personalising learning has gone from contentious double-speak first spewed forth by central government in 2004 to something that is at the heart of curriculum development.

” John White, emeritus professor of philosophy of education at the Institute of Education, one of the most consistently original and free-spirited thinkers in British education, has called into question one of the mantras at the heart of government policy: personalised learning. What does it mean?

According to White, it is a sloppily defined term that means so many things at the same time as to mean nothing at all. It made its entrance in Blair’s speech to the Labour party conference last year: “Personalised learning for every child in new specialist schools and city academies” (those in the remaining bog-standards will have to satisfy themselves with their learning experience remaining impersonal). At this point, it was merely a seductive slogan in search of meaning.”

The Guardian, Oct 3rd 2006

Although its definition has taken time to evolve, the concept of personalising learning is now a familiar concept to curriculum managers and indeed many of the other staff in schools.

There are a massive range of papers, resources and studies that cover the agenda – enough to populate a blog in and of themselves, however this document written by David Hargreaves and published by SSAT and iNet, uses a model based around “the four deeps’ – Deep Learning, Deep Experience, Deep Support, Deep Leadership which I have found to be particularly useful in the past. There are a range of supporting pamphlets that I will post in due course.

QCA Curriculum Aims

These images expand on the headline characteristics that we are aiming to nurture and develop in our learners.

Delivering the Even Bigger Picture

This is a very simple but effective diagram showing how the ongoing work of a single department, in terms of curriculum change, is part of a far bigger agenda. I would encourage senior leaders to ensure that middle managers never lose sight of what we are trying to achieve – successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens who are able to operate, succeed and contribute to 21st century society.

Community Cohesion – Updated 25th February

Hot off the presses, ‘Guidance on the Duty to Promote Community Cohesion’ has been released to assist schools to reflect on their role and contribution to community cohesion. This may be of limited use to anyone operating outside of the senior leadership team but I think it is important to keep in mind that as we develop curriculums that are suited to 21st century students we are not just designing activities around a certain number of lessons held between 9am and 4pm, 5 days a week. With the extended schools agenda, schools now have an obligation and opportunity to act as an integral part of the wider local community. As a school develops its curriculum provision via its subjects it is important to keep in mind elements of personalisation that embrace a common sense of identity whilst supporting individual and group diversity. This publication will help schools to reflect on enrichment and life outside school by nurturing close relationships with local communities, and other schools at local, regional and indeed national level.

**UPDATE 25th February 2008**

The following report, related to this publication and the wider implications it represents, appeared on BBC News website just now. C lick here:

"How Well are we Achieving our Aims?" – SSAT (1)

Once the wheels start turning on your curriculum change it will be important to gather feedback in a range of contexts and via a number of pre-determined way-stages. Collecting information from stakeholders – yes even the pupils! – is a crucial step along the way.

This first document, produced by SSAT, will be of use during the early stages to gather information about where the strong opinions lie in your school regarding possible changes to the way the school curriculum operates. As usual, grab the DOC version if you want to make changes specific to your school situation.

Gathering Opinions (PDF)

Gathering Opinions (DOC)

The second document will be of use a little further up the thinking tree and asks important questions about transition, progression, timings, flexibility and choice. Both documents come highly recommended!

Curriculum Checksheet (PDF)

Curriculum Checksheet (DOC)

"How do we Organise Learning?" – SSAT (2)

SSAT have produced a list of questions that could be used with stakeholders from a range of backgrounds to consider what it is you are trying to achieve in your particular school. As with previous posts the questions come in a pretty PDF and a more pragmatic DOC format.

Questions to develop thinking around curriculum change (PDF)

Questions to develop thinking around curriculum change (DOC)