East Renfrewshire Council: Education Department

Transcription

1 East Renfrewshire Council: Education Department An Integrated Approach to Planning Learning, Teaching and Assessment

2 The principles of Curriculum for Excellence apply to assessment in a way that achieves coherence across experiences and outcomes, learning and teaching and assessment practice. Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching. It helps to provide a picture of a child s or young person's progress and achievements and to identify next steps in learning. Assessment approaches need to promote learner engagement and ensure appropriate support so that all learners can achieve their aspirational goals and maximise their potential. Building the Curriculum 5 The aim of this document is to provide practitioners with an opportunity to reflect upon effective practice when planning an integrated approach to learning, teaching and assessment. This guidance should help to ensure that assessment practices follow and support the curriculum, whilst building capacity in practitioners to make confident professional judgements underpinned by professional dialogue.

3 Contents Supporting Assessment in Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Key Documents 3 Assessment - The Three Key Messages 4 Curriculum for Excellence has a Clear Aim 5 Breadth, Challenge and Application of Learning 6 Bloom s Revised Taxonomy 8 Experiences & Outcomes and Principles & Practice Documents 9 Learning Intentions and Success Criteria 10 Quality Learning Experiences 11 Illustration of the Design Principles 12 Trusting Practitioners Judgements 14 Range of Appropriate Evidence 15 The National Assessment Resource (NAR) Flowchart 16 NAR Guidance Notes 18 Assessment Planning Template 22 Improving Learning, Teaching and Assessment 25 PowerPoint Presentation 26

4 Supporting Assessment in Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) - Key Documents CfE Folder: Experiences and Outcomes Principles and Practice Papers Building the Curriculum (BtC) Series: BtC3 - A Framework for Learning and Teaching BtC4 - Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work BtC5 - A Framework for Assessment BtC5 - A Framework for Assessment: Reporting BtC5 - A Framework for Assessment: Understanding, Applying and Sharing Standards BtC5 - A Framework for Assessment: Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting BtC5 - A Framework for Assessment: Quality Assurance and Moderation East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) Policy Documentation: Assessment, Moderation, Profiling and Reporting ng.pdf Education Scotland Documentation: Taking a Closer Look at the National Assessment Resource, A Professional Learning Resource Assessing Progress and Achievement Professional Learning Resources ogressandachievement/professionallearningresource/index.asp National Assessment Resource: 3

5 Assessment The Three Key Messages 1. Assessment is integral to learning and teaching and should: involve all stakeholders, most importantly the learner be ongoing, periodic, at times of transition 2. Assessment builds capacity in practitioners to make professional judgements underpinned by professional dialogue. Assessment: requires a variety of approaches generating a body of quality evidence and moderation are integral to each other 3. Assessment should be holistic and informative: it has many purposes, the most important of which is to support the learner and the learner journey it goes beyond knowledge and understanding alone to include skills, attributes and capabilities Having a body of quality evidence will help practitioners to confidently make sound judgements about where a learner is in their learning journey and ensure continuity and progression across and within levels. 4

6 Curriculum for Excellence has a Clear Aim Curriculum for Excellence has the clear aim of building on current practice to: raise achievement levels maximise potential raise standards benchmark standards Backward Design In traditional curriculum planning, a list of the content that will be taught is selected, planned and assessed. However, in the backward design, the practitioner starts with the assessment first and uses this information to plan rich activities. This process is like using a "road map" - the destination is chosen first and then the road map is used to plan the trip to the desired destination. This approach will ensure that that the assessment does not get away from the task of raising attainment. Instead, the assessment is integral to the learning and teaching and should serve to advance the learning. So basically once you have the assessment firmly in place the pedagogy becomes really clear because your pedagogy has to support that that sort of quality assessment task... that was a bit of a shift from what s usually done, usually the assessment is that thing that you attach on the end of the unit whereas as opposed to sort of being the driver which it has now become. Wyatt-Smith and Bridges (2008) 5

7 Breadth, Challenge and Application of Learning New approach for assessment - What is different? There is now an increased focus on: breadth challenge application of learning (Higher Order Thinking Skills - HOTS) Progress is defined in terms of how much and how well young people are learning. What is breadth? This refers to the number and range of experiences and outcomes (Es & Os) encountered by learners. Examples of where an increase in breadth can show that a learner is progressing include: growing confidence and competence in the skills for learning, life and work in familiar and routine contexts broadening range of texts (in its widest sense), performances and/ or presentations improving range of competence in skills and concept development broadening use of more advanced language, formulae and equations broadening amount of detail in the descriptions and explanations they provide What is challenge? Challenge refers to the attributes, capabilities and skills, including higher-order thinking skills, which are embedded in learning (many Es & Os include analysing, evaluating and creating). Examples of where an increase in challenge can show that a learner is progressing include: learning in a more complex context(s) using and /or presenting increasingly complex texts in terms of length, structure, vocabulary, ideas and/or concepts responding to and producing increasingly complex pieces of work, information and concepts responding accurately and confidently to more complex and unfamiliar contexts individuals become more adept at evaluating their own and other s learning demonstrating increasing responsibility and independence in learning 6

8 What is application? For learning to meet the long-term needs of children and young people, it needs to have suitable breadth and challenge and be capable of wide application. Examples of progress in application of learning include: using skills and knowledge in different and sometimes unfamiliar situations, in creative and innovative ways finding, selecting, sorting, classifying and linking information from a variety of sources using information for a variety of different purposes creating texts to persuade, argue and explore ideas recording and present thinking in different ways presenting, analysing and interpreting evidence to draw conclusions evaluating learning and identifying possible next steps 7

9 BLOOM S REVISED TAXONOMY Creating Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. Evaluating Justifying a decision or course of action Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging Analysing Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding Applying Using information in another familiar situation Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Understanding Explaining ideas or concepts Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining Remembering Recalling information Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding 8

10 Experiences and Outcomes and Principles and Practice Documents The starting point in developing assessment should be the Experiences and Outcomes and the Principles and Practice documents. These documents should aid planning for an integrated approach to learning, teaching, and assessment. The Principles and Practice documents outline the broad features of assessment for the curriculum areas as well as the responsibility of all areas of the curriculum. Curriculum for Excellence places an emphasis on sharing standards and expectations and these are already defined within the experiences and outcomes. Starting with the experiences and outcomes ensures development of the four capacities: successful learners confident individuals responsible citizens effective contributors It also determines learning and teaching approaches and the development of: skills knowledge and understanding reasoning including problem solving in its broadest sense and possibly the production of products 9

11 Learning Intentions and Success Criteria Learning Intentions Learning intentions should be developed by teasing out the language from the experience(s) and outcome(s) to show what the learners should know, understand or be able to do by the end of a learning experience. The learning intention(s) should: be written using child friendly language i.e. in language that learners can understand and use focus on what is to be learned as opposed to the task, activity or context allow, where possible, for application across unfamiliar contexts Success Criteria Success criteria are suggested ways to achieve the learning intention. They should be clear, relevant and measurable definitions of success. Success criteria should be closely linked to the learning intentions and provide the basis for the evidence of learning to be gathered. Success criteria should help learners to understand what they are trying to achieve and demonstrate how to recognise when success has been achieved. Learners should be involved in constructing and agreeing success criteria to: enable them to judge how much and how well they have learned improve the chances of the criteria being referred to and actively used through the learning 10

12 Quality Learning Experiences Rich learning experiences should take account of the experiences and outcomes and the relevant design principles. The planned experiences should engage learners and allow them to develop and demonstrate: knowledge and understanding reasoning including problem solving in the broadest sense skills attributes and capabilities 11

13 Illustration of the Design Principles Relevance Do the learners understand the purposes of their activities? If so, they are more likely to engage positively, see the value of what they are learning and its relevance to their own lives and the lives of others, past, present and future. Coherence Taken as a whole, do the learning activities combine to form a coherent experience? There should be clear links between the different aspects of children and young people's learning, including opportunities for extended activities which draw different strands of learning together. Breadth Refers to the number and range of Es and Os encountered by learners Examples of where an increase in breadth can show that a learner is progressing include: growing confidence and competence in the skills for learning, life and work in familiar and routine contexts broadening range of texts (in its widest sense), performances and / or presentations improving range of competence in skills and concept development broadening use of more advanced language, formulae and equations broadening amount of detail in the descriptions and explanations they provide Depth Are there opportunities for learners to develop their full capacity for different types of thinking and learning? As learners progress, they should develop and apply increasing intellectual rigour, drawing different strands of learning together, exploring and achieving more advanced levels of understanding. 12

14 Challenge and Enjoyment Challenge refers to the attributes, capabilities and skills, including higher-order thinking skills, which are embedded in learning (many Es & Os include analysing, evaluating and creating). Examples of where an increase in challenge can show that a learner is progressing include: learning in a more complex context(s) using and / or presenting increasingly complex texts in terms of length, structure, vocabulary, ideas and / or concepts responding to and producing increasingly complex pieces of work, information and concepts responding accurately and confidently to more complex and unfamiliar contexts individuals become more adept at evaluating their own and other s learning demonstrating increasing responsibility and independence in learning Personalisation and Choice Do learning experiences meet individual needs and support particular aptitudes, interests and talents? Progression Does the evidence build upon previous knowledge and achievements? 13

15 Trusting Practitioners Judgements In order to make sound professional judgements practitioners will need to: gather a wide range of evidence of progress and achievement (increase validity) share standards through dialogue and discussion (increase reliability) reflect on the implications for learning and teaching, reporting and planning for improvement (consider impact on learners and learning) Assessment requires a variety of approaches to assess the different types of achievement across the curriculum. Practitioners should consider the assessment approaches to be used to assess the learning / learners and what evidence should be generated. The range should allow learners to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do. A range of evidence should make judgements about progress and next steps more valid. For learning to meet the long-term needs of learners, it should have suitable breadth, challenge and be capable of wide application. Evidence will come from day-to-day learning as well as from specific assessment tasks, activities, tests and examinations. The evidence will be different depending upon the kind of learning being assessed, the learning activity and learners preferences about how to demonstrate how much and how well they have learned. 14

16 Range of Appropriate Evidence Sources of evidence produced from using the SAY, WRITE, MAKE, DO approaches may include: observations of learners carrying out tasks and activities, including practical investigations, performances, oral presentations and discussions records (oral, written, audio-visual) created by learners which may include self and / or peer assessment or may be assessed by the practitioner information obtained through questioning in high quality interactions and dialogue written responses a product or artefact, for example a piece of artwork, report, project Is there relevant emphasis on a range of approaches that reflect the breadth, challenge and application of learning? It is not essential to assess all 4 areas. back to the learning intentions and success criteria. The evidence should link Say An account of what learners said in response to a particular experience; the criteria used to evaluate the evidence; oral statements about features of performance and how a judgement about strengths and development needs was arrived at; Write What learners wrote in response to questions or experiences; the criteria used to evaluate the evidence; written statements about features of performance and how a judgement about strengths and development needs was arrived at; Make What learners made as part of a particular experience; the criteria used to evaluate the product or artefact; statements about its features and how a judgement about strengths and development needs was arrived at; Do A video of what learners did as part of a particular experience; the criteria used to demonstrate the observations or other senses were made; statements about its features and how a judgement about strengths and development needs was arrived at. 15

17 The National Assessment Resource (NAR) Flowchart The NAR model, illustrated overleaf, will eventually become a process or way of working. The Assessment Planning Template (see page 22) can be used to develop exemplification material for the ERC Local Assessment Recourse (LAR). The process can also be used by individual practitioners to plan learning, teaching and assessment so the same level of detail will not be required. In due course, this planning approach should become normal everyday practice and will become part of the mindset of integrating learning, teaching and assessment. 16

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19 NAR Guidance Notes Practitioners may find it useful to use the chart opposite in planning challenging and engaging experiences for learners. Working collaboratively with colleagues will help. In planning for learning, practitioners should consider the following: age and stage of the learners prior learning of the learners the desired outcomes for you and the learners It may be that the best way of planning experiences for learners will be by starting to consider what it is that you are setting out to do the context for the learning and plan from this as the starting point. Learning is not linear and although the chart sets it out in steps, practitioners should adjust it to develop the approach which best engages learners. This flow chart uses the following steps for planning: Step 1 Choosing the Experiences and Outcomes and considering the Principles and Practice documents. The Learner Planning together for learning, teaching and assessment Experiences and Outcomes Principles and Practice Starting the planning at this point will help to focus on your learning, teaching, assessment and moderation approaches and allow you to consider a wider focus for the experience you provide. Remember the Principles and Practices documents will outline the broad features of assessment for your curriculum area and for the responsibility of all areas of the curriculum. 18

20 Step 2 Developing the learning intentions. Learning Intentions Standards and expectations for planned learning By considering the experience you wish to offer the learner, you will be able to develop learning intentions that link closely with the chosen Experiences and Outcomes (Es and Os). Step 3 Developing the success criteria. Success Criteria Clear, relevant and measurable definitions of success. Learners involved in creating them. In pupil language. As you plan consider your success criteria. You should ensure that they are closely linked to your learning intentions and the evidence of learning which you will be able to collect. Involving the learners in agreeing the success criteria will enable you and the learners to judge how much and how well they have learned. Step 4 Planning arrange of quality learning experiences. Learning Experiences Rich activities planned to take account of the Es and Os and the design principles. As you plan a variety of experiences you will consider what activities will engage learners and allow them to develop and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, skills attributes and capabilities. 19

21 Step 5 Using a range of assessment approaches / range of evidence. Evidence A range of appropriate evidence Assessment Approaches Assess: Progress. Assess: Breadth, challenge, application Planning a variety of assessment approaches and using them as appropriate will enable you to focus more closely on the progress of each learner. Having a variety of evidence will make the judgements about progress and next steps more valid. Step 6 Evaluating the learning. Evaluate Learning Collaborative approaches to evaluate the evidence of learning Evaluating the learning involves you in both considering the progress of each learner and considering the impact of the learning on the whole class/group. Consistent judgements are made when staff have been collaboratively planning at all of the steps in the process. 20

22 Step 7 Providing feedback and next steps Feedback and Next Steps Giving good quality feedback which is based on the agreed learning intentions and success criteria helps to motivate learners to improve on their work and have a better understanding of their learning. Step 8 Reporting on Progress Reporting on Progress Reporting to learners, parents and others Considering the way in which you engage learners, parents and others in a shared understanding of the learning experience will help you to consider planning and developing innovative approaches to reporting progress. 21

23 This planning template should be used in conjunction with the NAR Guidance Notes for each step. Step 1 Please complete the grid below LOCAL AUTHORITY EAST RENFREWSHIRE COUNCIL School / Establishment Curriculum Area Specific Subject (if applicable) Level Stage(s) Step 2 Selecting your Experiences and Outcomes (Es and Os) Choose 2 to 3 Es and Os which link together in a meaningful way. Step 3 Setting the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria Learning Intentions How will you involve the learners in developing the learning intentions? How will you involve colleagues in developing the learning intentions? How will you ensure that the learning intentions link with the Es and Os? Success Criteria How will you involve the learners in developing the success criteria? How will you involve colleagues in developing the success criteria? How will you ensure that the success criteria link with the Es and Os? 22

24 Step 4 Quality Learning Experience What range of quality experiences will you provide? Remember Breadth, Challenge and Application. Step 5 Assessment Approaches / Range of Evidence Which assessment approaches will you use to assess the learning / learners and what evidence will they generate? What range of evidence will you gather? Try to group the evidence you will gather using the headings below. These will allow you to consider, discuss and implement a variety of assessment approaches. Say Write Make Do Step 6 Evaluating the Learning How will you and your colleagues use the range of the evidence to arrive at judgements about the learners achievements? That is, arrive at a shared understanding of the quality of the learners work by discussing the specific evidence of what they SAY, WRITE, MAKE and DO. How will you use the range of evidence to arrive at judgements about the learning experience? Step 7 Feedback and Next Steps How will you provide feedback to the learners? How will you involve the learners in planning and developing the next steps? 23

25 Step 8 Reporting on Progress Write a brief account of the variety of ways that you will engage learners, parents and others in a shared understanding of this learning experience. This can include innovative ways that you will report progress. Step 9 Group Evaluation of the Outcome(s) Group members meet to review the planning, the process and the outcome(s). The group should consider the key questions: How successful was the implementation of the learning, teaching and assessment process against the learning intentions and success criteria and their relationship to the experiences and outcomes? How successful was the assessment exemplar in terms of the range of the evidence to arrive at judgements of achievement? Discuss the rigour of the specific evidence of the learners work produced through SAY, WRITE, MAKE and DO. 24

26 Improving Learning, Teaching and Assessment In order to establish a partnership approach to learning, teaching and assessment, consider what would be the desired impact on learners and practitioners and the whole school. Do learners: understand their learning? have opportunities to support each other s learning? Do practitioners: understand children s learning? support each other? Do schools: make full use of opportunities for distributive leadership? support each other? embrace partnership working? Assessment is not just the responsibility of practitioners. Responsibility has shifted and crucially involves the learner and includes parents, Community Learning and Development (CLD) and the wider community. The role of assessment in supporting change and improvement depends on the engagement of all concerned. 25

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