Time to Reimagine Assessment

Editorial for CTL 8.2/3. Creativity should be at the heart of assessment as well as education.

It seems that Ofsted, the government’s official educational inspection and regulatory body, is starting to pay attention to the fact that the government’s obsession with exam results has created the disastrous outcomes predicted by teachers, researchers and educational experts, and they are creating a new inspection framework that will include a new ‘quality of education’ score that can then be monitored.¹ According to a source for the Sunday Times, ‘Schools where teachers just think about how you get exam results and not what is best for the children to learn will be marked down. The chief inspector wants to shift a culture that is betraying a generation.’ This is a positive move, but the inherent subjectivity of qualitative assessments was what they were rallying against in the first place, so it is unlikely for real change to occur any time soon.

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      string(1918) "alongside self-regulation, the studyraises a timely debate about the use of more valuable thinking strategies. Perhaps creativity andcritical thinking skills (in relation to real world events and undertaken through discussion withothers) can play a significant part in the prevention of potential academic decline.Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents. ■ This small-scale pilot research project indicates that children within Key stage 2 and 3 havemuch to gain through the consumption of ageappropriate real world activities/news items.Questions:1. Although recent research confirms there is widespread belief amongst educators thatcritical thinking is a desirable educational outcome, how might real world news be bestintegrated in to the curriculum at Key stage 2 and 3?2. In what way can children be co-constructors/creators of this real world learning from thestarting point of their own curiosity in the world?3. How might children be supported to be critical thinkers and problem solvers and enabledthrough group working?4. How can parents and teachers work closer together to support children understand thecomplexities of news items?5. In what ways can children be empowered to be creative and usefully make connectionsbetween domains of knowledge that encourage critical thought? 6. How might thetransition from primary to the secondary school environment be better supported throughtargeted development at the intersection of resilience/creativity/critical thinking and reallife events?WEB LINKCan Exposure To The News Improve Learning?http://ads.dennisnet.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/subs/2017/WEK/JUN/Research-report.pdf"
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Leadership

Can Exposure To The News Improve Learning?

23 Jun 2017

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      string(3351) "Development through Coaching’ model. Within this model, teachers plan three professional development activities during each term. They chose the specific focus and time but these activities are always around the research or exploration of learning linked to school priorities. Each of these activities will be supported with a follow-up coaching session with a member of the leadership team. The activities may be a short observation, peer observation, review of video of own teaching, review of video of pupils learning, pupil conferencing or team teaching – quite simply whatever is the best method to give us the information we need to continue developing practice for better pupil outcomes. Through putting children’s learning at the centre of this model, it has also become obvious that the children themselves have a vital role to play in school improvement. Developing Pupil VoiceFollowing inspiration from Professor Graham Handscomb’s work around ‘Pupil Researchers and Pupil Power’, we have come to an understanding that pupil involvement and leadership in the design of the curriculum and the learning experience is vital in ensuring the effectiveness of any improvement. For too long children have been victims of a ‘done to’ model rather than being fully engaged with the process. Through discussions with children within Philosophy for Children, we can gain vital insights into their ideas around attitudes to learning, choice in learning, what we should be learning and how we should be learning. Training children as young researchers to lead enquiries offers a school very powerful contributions to its problem solving work. Their work at St. Luke’s around strategies for improving writing came up with the same and even additional possible solutions twice as fast as the teacher team!Where next?Through working within a spiral of enquiry, we are seeking to develop our school as an organisation rich with interpretation. We are becoming more adept at observing without initial judgement which allows us to see things more clearly and objectively. We can challenge entrenched habits and explore disruptive thinking. We understand that capacity for change is generated by relationships. The more we can foster open relationships between all the staff and the children and allow them to see their joint responsibility, value and voice in improving the school, the better we will be at identifying and making the right improvements. We are aiming to live in a state of disequilibrium and curiosity grounded on strong values. We know that education for both teachers and children is becoming more about ways of new thinking; involving creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making; about new ways of working, including communication and collaboration and about new tools for working. It is only through being a school which is fit to engage confidently with this change that we can continue to provide an education relevant to our children and society.Jonathan Cooper is headteacher of an ‘Outstanding’ inner city primary school and a national leader of education. He leads Brighton and Hove Research and Development Forum and worked closely with the Institute of Education, London, in a project on developing pupils as researchers."
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Leadership

Leading a school research community

20 Jun 2017

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