Meaningful Assessment at the Margins

There is a global learning crisis in which students are being taught too much by rote and those from underprivileged backgrounds are not getting their educational needs met. Asyia Kazmi explains how the Assessment for Learning approach is helping teachers work with disadvantaged children across the world and in the UK.

My interview for the senior position in a tough London inner-city challenging school was going swimmingly until the head teacher asked about the barriers students face. I didn’t understand the question so the head teacher repeated it, which is never a good sign in an interview. My confusion remained – What barriers? What are barriers? The head teacher then helpfully expanded: poverty, English as an additional language, single parent families, etc.

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      string(5813) "�focus on global education   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 8:2Listening to Jeffrey Sachs giving this year’s Reithlectures on BBC Radio 4 recently, I was struck by hiscomment that one of the reasons that climate changehad been largely ignored for so long by world leaders wasthat they didn’t know what to do about it.Although this may well be the case, such reasonsfor inaction are becoming less excusable in the lightof increasing numbers of initiatives and ideas offeringpractical ways of addressing the several pressing issuesfacing humankind currently, including climate change,poverty and globalisation. Whether or not we choose toact on these ideas, however, is another matter. Encouragingand enabling people to think about, understand, weighup and act on various issues of major concern to us andour world is, in my view, the purpose of global education.In this sense then, it is surely central to the purpose ofgeneral education.What is global education?There are a number of terms used in education which in myopinion mean broadly the same thing: global education,global citizenship, education for sustainability, the globaldimension, a global perspective, and developmenteducation. The plethora of terms may not be very helpfulfor those trying to get to grips with the complex subjectmatter – and I am involved in this confusion since, whilstI would usually talk about global citizenship, I am nowdescribing the same stuff as global education. However,I would suggest that there are two basic elements thatare common to all these terms, namely, social justice  andreducing our impact on the planet.Themesof globaleducationMary Young introducesthe main themes of globaleducation and suggests waysfor teachers to tackle themHospital in Kenya�Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 8:2www.teachthinking.com   focus on global educationThere is certainly resonance between A Curriculum forGlobal Citizenship (1997) and a number of other currenteducation documents. Comparing the DfES SustainableSchools document (2006), the DfES/ DfID’s Developinga global dimension in the school curriculum (2005) andthe ‘Aims and Purposes’ of the National Curriculum inThe National Curriculum Handbook (both primary andsecondary) (1999), it is possible to see many overlaps.Each mentions sustainability, social justice, challengingprejudice, participation, respect for others and forhuman rights, and the need for waste reduction. Otherkey documents relevant to education such as the RaceRelations (Amended) Act (2000) and Every Child Matters(2004), address specific areas of this list.So, the significance of global education is that it can bethe prism through which thinking and teaching can beviewed, and which puts issues of justice and sustainabilityat the centre of education. It gives sense and relevanceto everything we do as it is all rooted in understandingourselves and our place in, and impact on, the world.The importance of global educationThe following are some of the reasons why it is importantto bring global education into education:l The issues that global education are concerned withare of central relevance to our lives. Resolving issues ofunfairness, lack of respect for diversity and conflict, forexample, are just as important in the classroom or localcommunity as they are in major world situations. If wewant to engage with society and feel positive aboutthe future, it is important for us – adults and pupils alike– to know that we each have choices and the potentialto make a difference. Such a difference can either be forthe better: the stance that townspeople in Modbury,Devon have taken on banning plastic carrier bags fromall shops in the town (The Guardian, 12 May 2007, p.11),for example, or for the worse: the Virginia Tech shootingsin the USA.l We are interconnected with others in the world and itis important that we and our pupils know that everydecision we make has an impact on others, even if wedon’t know what it is; for example, buying (or not buying)goods made in sweatshops; using (or not using) our car;challenging (or not challenging) prejudice when wecome across it.l Although the issues that global education is concernedwith are so complex, the knowledge, skills and attitudesneeded to begin to understand them can be addressedin school from an early age.l Many people are out to confuse us, from companiesselling us services and products we don’t actually need,to supermarkets telling us they have ‘green’ policies, tomultinational corporations who have greater wealththan a number of whole countries. If we want to try andmake sense of it all and understand why things are asthey are, it is important for us and for those we teachto be able to navigate through the hundreds of ideas,products, offers and initiatives coming at us on a dailybasis, to spot the honest ones and to make decisions wefeel are right for us and for the planet.l Global education can challenge misinformation, prejudice,and ignorance – all of which are unsustainable.The central challenges of global educationIn my experience of many years’ training of teachers inLondon and the south-east of England in global education,the central issues teachers habitually raise fall into threemain categories:l difficulties concerning a lack of the teacher’s ownknowledge and understanding of global issuesl uncertainty as to how to raise global issues inclassroomsl lack of confidence as to how to deal with the difficultiesthat might arise as a result of raising global issuesLooking more specifically at the"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Themes of global education

14 Feb 2008

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      string(5886) "the importance of recognising and respecting difference. It supported the principle that every teacher is a teacher of SEND. However, it also sought to address the lack of confidence experienced by many in the teaching profession regarding the identification and support of learners with SpLD, which may lead to a learner’s needs being either unidentified because of preconceptions of what constitutes an SpLD or unaddressed pending a specialist assessment, or to the attitude that learners with SpLD are the sole responsibility of the school SENCo. The training addressed such issues by focussing not on labels but, rather, on support based on observable behaviours and learner profiling, and, further, on utilising a range of whole-class techniques to establish a neurodiversity-friendly classroom. Devised to follow the recommended ‘train the trainer’ model, it was intended to be cascaded to all staff in the school at a ‘core skills’ level.The training was divided into three sections:Part 1. Seeing the whole picture promoted the importance of holistic learner profiling, taking into account the range of strengths and challenges that might be present in a learner with an SpLD. Part 2. Understanding neurodiversity discussed the concept of neurodiversity and its origins in the work of Judy Singer. In this section of the training, a new Combined SpLD / Neurodiversity Checklist was presented, which had been devised to take into account the overlapping nature of SpLDs. The checklist aimed to provide a framework through which to observe and understand learner behaviours and encouraged teachers to look beyond individual labels and preconceptions of what it might mean to be dyslexic, dyspraxic, and so on. Part 3. 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The webinars have since been viewed in excess of 4,500 times.Assessing the impact of the ‘Teaching for Neurodiversity’ TrainingA research team from the Education Faculty at Manchester Metropolitan University designed and carried out and an evaluation the impact of the Teaching for Neurodiversity project over the year of the project, producing their Final Report in March 2017 (Griffiths et al. 2017).MethodologyTo evaluate the impact of the training, the evaluation team developed three surveys.  Survey 1 was to assess delegates’ knowledge, skills and understanding about neurodiversity and SpLDs at the start of the training day, the second to assess their knowledge skills and understanding at the end of the day and the third to be completed after three months by colleagues who had received the cascaded training.From the impact data in Survey 3, three primary schools, three secondary schools and two colleges were to be selected as showing high impact, to be researched in more depth as series of case studies, through interviews with those who had the training cascaded, plus two other members of the teaching staff.Summary of the Project Evaluation FindingsData from Surveys 1 and 2 found statistically significant gains in delegates’ knowledge and understanding of SpLDs and neurodiversity, their understanding of support strategies for the diversity of learners in the classroom and their knowledge of multisensory approaches to learning and of metacognitive techniques. 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Dyslexia

Teaching for Neurodiversity

10 Sep 2018

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      string(5727) "My name is Jude Daniel Smith, and I’m a 15-year-old climate activist from Sheffield, England. Early last year, I set up Youth Strike for Climate Sheffield with some friends – since then, I have come to volunteer with UKSCN, and, most recently, with Teach the Future. Teach the Future is the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN) and Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) joint campaign to repurpose the education system around the climate emergency and ecological crisis.As students studying across the UK, it is our experience that the majority of teaching and learning throughout the entirety of our education is misaligned from the systemic changes urgently required to make our society sustainable. Our education system routinely fails to educate, prepare and equip us, and our fellow students, for the climate emergency we are inheriting.I joined Teach the Future as, being in Y10, I have gone through the education system without once being empowered to, nor taught how to, take action regarding climate change. As any youth activist would tell you, the climate emergency is the most crucial and time-urgent issue humanity has ever faced. Consequently, you’d believe that a multitude of comprehensive steps would have already been taken to enable young people to swiftly and efficiently mitigate the catastrophe at hand – despite this, those in power have continuously failed our generation, yet still expect us to amend the mistakes of humanity’s past. Education is one of the few pillars of contemporary society which keeps its seemingly crumbling roof stable, so why is its potential – that being the fact it so easily could be the birthplace of classes upon classes of pupils armed with the knowledge they need to help fix the world around them – so nonchalantly ignored? This sense of urgency which I wish I did not have to constantly harbour is why I have such a passion for youth activism. I joined secondary school and, within days, began to realise and rationalise the utter scale of the shortcomings of global governments on an array of different issues. I would plead with my teachers to answer my questions about the world, about what could be done, but could never get a straight reply – I realise now that that is due to a simple fact. Educational facilities are not equipped to teach about the subject of climate change, yet people expect them to be the enablers.   In a survey collated by SOS-UK (*SOS-UK 2020) around multiple schools and colleges across the country, it was found that 75% of teachers would say they do not feel knowledgeable enough to teach students about climate change, and at the same time, only 4% of students would say they know a lot about climate change. These statistics are a disturbing representation of the root cause of both the climate emergency and anxiety stemming from it. Teach the Future aims to convert anxiety into agency through direct reform to all aspects of our education system; rather than just curriculum modification, we need a complete overhaul of our education system, detailed in our asks. In England, we have three: 1. A Government-Commissioned Review We need a review into how the whole of the English formal education system is preparing students for the climate emergency and ecological crisis. 2. Teacher Training and Qualifications We need inclusion of the climate emergency and ecological crisis in teacher training and a new professional teaching qualification. 3. English Climate Emergency Education Act We need the implementation of the ECEEA (English Climate Emergency Education Act) to ensure strives towards net-zero carbon schools, more investment into youth services and governmental support for climate activism. In Scotland, we have four: 1. A Government-Commissioned Review We need a review into how the whole of the Scottish formal education system is preparing students for the climate emergency and ecological crisis. 2. Teacher Training and Qualifications We need inclusion of the climate emergency and ecological crisis in teacher training and a new professional teaching qualification. 3. Increased Priority For SustainabilityIn School Inspections and Publicly Influencing Educational Rankings We need Education Scotland to ensure that the Chief Inspector of Education puts significant new emphasis on learning for sustainability in all HGIOS assessments from January 2021 and that it is included in the HGIOC assessment process for further education colleges.  4. A Scottish Climate and Biodiversity Emergency Education Act We need the implementation of the SCEEEA (Scottish Climate and Biodiversity Emergency Education Act) to ensure movement towards net-zero carbon school; more investment into youth services and governmental support for climate activism. The documents detailing our asks can be found on our website – www. teachthefuture.uk As a young person, I can fully realise the ability of formal education, and that is why I speak out. I can imagine what it could be. 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Climate Change

Teach The Future: The View Of A 15 Year Old

11 Sep 2020

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      string(385) "... well as development priorities… but change is never easy for some people’.A teaching and learning support group had also been developed to provide voluntary support every Monday‘by staff for staff’. Foci had included differentiation and whiteboard use. The principal did not attend thesesessions, but was reported to support ..."
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      string(535) "The English education system is experiencing an era of unprecedented change, at least as significant as the move to Local Management of Schools after 1988. Nowhere are these changes more keenly felt than amongst the leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
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      string(5806) "learning charter, developed with the student council,which had a summary of requirements on:94 © National College for School Leadership— lesson planning: detailing expectations of lesson preparation and activities such as differentiation, varietyof tasks, literacy— lesson delivery: learning objectives (on what we will learn, rather than what we will do), interactiveteaching, starters and a plenary— AfL: questioning techniques; marking (to reflect effort, attainment and progress against targets)— behaviour: registering of absence, clear seating plans and mutual respect— environment: having bright, tidy classrooms that display the student learning charter, the rewards policyand standards of behaviour policyA second phase focused on a consistency programme in which HoDs went on learning walks with the SLT.An assistant head reported that the SLT had ‘tried to change the perception of observations, to feedbackpositives as well as development priorities… but change is never easy for some people’.A teaching and learning support group had also been developed to provide voluntary support every Monday‘by staff for staff’. Foci had included differentiation and whiteboard use. The principal did not attend thesesessions, but was reported to support the initiative. The school had several initiative-based funding streamsincluding an excellence cluster, behaviour improvement partnership and a full-service extended school. Theschool still runs a lot of these services.SummaryAccording to the survey data, headteachers spend half of their time in their office and the majority ofrespondents felt they spent the ‘right amount’ of time on leadership generally. Heads and other schoolleaders were most likely to say that they spent too much time on administration. Heads and other seniorleaders considered that ‘too little time’ was spent on the leadership of teaching and learning specifically,although about 40 per cent stated it was ‘about right’.Heads commented particularly on the pressure of increasing accountability. Time for strategic planning, bothindividually and with senior teams, was difficult for many headteachers to fit in adequately.One-half of heads, especially secondary heads, reported having appointed an SBM or bursar for a year ormore. Primary school heads were more likely to report that there were no current plans to do so.It was still considered a ‘balancing act’ as to how much time to spend working with and supporting otherschools and partnerships as well as keeping the focus on maintaining success in one’s own institution.The chapter also explored the actions leaders were taking to improve teaching and learning. The mostpopular strategies included the monitoring of teaching and learning, offering training to develop teachingand learning, developing middle leaders’ skills, lesson observations and the development of partnershipswith other schools.95 © National College for School LeadershipAs discussed in chapter 2, there is a growing understanding of leadership practice and the learning anddevelopment opportunities needed to help prepare teachers for headship. This chapter explores three mainissues related to the support and development of leaders. First, it considers the existing and expectedsources of external support used by headteachers. Second, it explores the leadership and professionaldevelopment opportunities currently used by school leaders and chairs of governors. Third, it reviews theskills and capabilities that school leaders and governors report they need in order to develop in the nearfuture.A striking change is expected by headteachers in the external sources of support they access. Currently, thelocal authority and the school improvement partner (the latter is no longer statutory) are reported to be thetwo most significant sources of external support. It is among these two sources, however, that headteachersexpect to see in greatest decline over the next 18 months. While this decline is broadly similar to theincrease in support that is expected to derive from elsewhere, many respondents predict they will be usingproviders that few schools currently use or consider important. This suggests not only greater diversity insupport but also uncertainty as schools are moving away from the known and the well used.These trends in support expected by headteachers were broadly consistent with the actions they reportedto be undertaking or planning to undertake at a whole-school level. On teaching schools, for instance, twoper cent of heads of schools in the survey sample reported that their school was already in the processof becoming a teaching school, while nine per cent were planning to submit an application to become ateaching school. A further 10 per cent were already participating formally in a teaching school alliance (TSA),with about one-fifth (18 per cent) planning to do so in the future. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that thefirst 100 teaching schools had only been designated a term before the survey was undertaken, 70 per centof headteachers had no current plans to participate formally in a TSA and 61 per cent had no plans to workinformally with a teaching school.On continuing professional development (CPD) activity specific to their leadership role, 90 per cent ofheadteachers had undertaken some form of CPD within the last three years. Of these, the highest percentage(86 per cent) participated in activities provided by their local authority. Headteachers reported that the threemost effective or beneficial CPD activities were local authority"
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Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017