Tag: #purposedassess

A TeachMeet Hub at the Learning Science Research Institute, University of Nottingham

TeachmeetPublished on5 Comments on A TeachMeet Hub at the Learning Science Research Institute, University of Nottingham

I am delighted to say that after a meeting with Charles Crook, the Director of the Learning Science Research Institute (LSRI) from October 2011, there is the open invitation to use their facilities for community events.

The LSRI at the university of Nottingham has meeting rooms laden with monitoring equipment to capture, stream and archive events.

The National College for School Leadership has supported TeachMeet events for a number of years and I am pleased that the university might make such a generous offer to continue to help the community. The main space at the LSRI can hold between 20-30 people however there is the potential for other university spaces to be made available too.

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Diagonals by blinkingidiot
Attribution-NoDerivs License

I am seeking some reaction from you all about a few different elements, so please take a look and let me know what you think.

TeachMeet Hub

  • The space offered by the LSRI could be used by the TeachMeet community, in fact that is what instigated the meeting, on a semi permanent basis to host events.
  • It would be good to develop regular events in the space provided, once a month say.
  • The frequency of events would mean we could be more open to specific topics being covered or explored in more depth.
  • Whole schools could use the event space to conduct there own TeachMeet style event.
  • A range of colleagues from the university and LSRI could contribute relevant research to specific groups.
  • Local links made with the university.
  • Small TeachMeets up to 30 people.
  • Captured, broadcast and archived using the professional facilities available.
  • No cost to use the space.

Purpos/ed Assess

  • On the back of the current Purpos/ed campaign about assessment I am keen to hold a small event in the space offered by LSRI.
  • The informal meeting would extend the debate and discussion that has continued around the agenda of assessment in schools.
  • We would explore the challenges we face, practical solutions and what we perceive to be future directions.
  • Again it would be up to about 30 people.
  • Early September.
Please let me know your thoughts on the potential of these ideas, your own suggestions for making the most of this generous invitation, whether you could attend a Purpos/ed event or how you might like to be involved in moving this forward.

 

How Do We Change A Cultural Fascination With Grades?

AssessmentPublished onUpdated on31 Comments on How Do We Change A Cultural Fascination With Grades?

Assessment graph1

Over on Google+ I have conducted a short survey to further explore the challenges that educators face when attempting to implement assessment for learning strategies in schools. By which I mean a focus on the process of learning, improving student’s metacognition, sustained opportunities for reflection and a general effort to assess “for” learning not “of” learning.

With over 100 responses this short straw poll indicates that it is not the lack of time or issues around timetabling that make this process a challenge, but a cultural focus on levels and grades. 58% of those who responded felt that it was this single factor that was influenced assessment implementation within schools.

I was surprised that this proved so conclusive (even within such a small sample) – I was expecting the other more practical factors to play a part for educators such as timetabling, a lack of training or indeed a curriculum that does not flex to accommodate changes brought about by assessment for learning.

In fact the second highest response again is a reference to summative assessment – taken together nearly 75% of responses point the finger at the ongoing fascination with summative assessment, grades and levels.

But how do we alter such an entrenched view? When we think of our own schools, is there a lack of appetite for anything other than grades and levels?

I think that one thing that would begin to change this perception of what is important in the classroom would be a concerted effort to better understand assessment in total. This is especially important for parents and pupils so that they do not skew the value they place on end of year assessments or reports. Also the message that the school puts out about what is important and how this plays out day to day.

This is not so clear cut the older children get and the further they get into education – you could argue that as a student gets older the focus on their grades and levels becomes more intense. It becomes less about how they have learned something or what the journey was like, and more about the net result – the grade.

What do you think? There is no overnight fix, but what steps could teachers and schools take to shift the focus away from simply a grade or level? If this is such a clearly perceived barrier, how do we change it?

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Survey: What is the biggest challenge to implementing assessment for learning?

I Don’t Have Time For Formative Assessment

Assessment, CurriculumPublished onUpdated on10 Comments on I Don’t Have Time For Formative Assessment

assessment challenges

Although a fairly narrow view on the barriers to implementing assessment for learning, the cross section of views shared on the Google Document have been excellent as a starting point for discussion.

The above Wordle is a helpful representation of those contributions. I have removed the following words from the visual: assessment, formative, teachers, learning and students in an effort to focus on the other language more readily used to describe the issues.

“Time” appears as a perceived barrier to quality formative assessment or assessment for learning – but is it really such an issue? Is curriculum time often shunted and pinched too readily? Do we not protect our curriculum time, and so time for reflection, fiercely enough from the other pressures in school?