Role of Assessment

1. Role of Assessment Abigail Ferrari

2. The LLUK states that teachers in the lifelong learning sector value: • “learners, their progress and development, their learning goals and aspirations and the experience they bring to their learning.” (Domain A: Professional values and practice)

3. Assessment • A useful tool to help raise the bar of achievement • Learners’ needs can be identified (skills gap) • Learners can map their own progression (including grading criteria on assignment sheets) • Areas for improvement

4. Forms of Assessment • Formative • Summative • Remote • Direct • Initial

5. Initial Assessment • Initial Diagnostics before interview • BKSB (basic and key skill builder) - assessments which identify their current level and specific skill gaps • Teachers are aware beforehand and can plan effectively to meet needs of learners • Group profile

6. Initial Assessment - Group profile

7. Summative Assessment for Learners in Media • Vocational course – learners need to demonstrate work-based skills • Recency - A product at the end of each unit demonstrates the ability to apply skills in real life • Not reliable • Students love it! • Strong validity & authenticity

8. Jerome Bruner Spiralling • “A curriculum as it develops should revisit basic ideas repeatedly, building upon them until the student has grasped the full formal apparatus that goes with them” Bruner(1996, The Culture of Education. p.13) • Pre-production, production and post-production stages of units in BTEC Media. • Continually re-visiting ideas and examples. For e.g. corporate video

9. Motives for learning, Bruner contd. • 'Ideally’ an interest in the material to be learned is the best stimulus to learning • “motives for learning must be kept from going passive... they must be based as much as possible upon the arousal of interest in what there is to be learned, and they must be kept broad and diverse in expression” (ibid. p.80)

10. Assessment through Presentation However… …a finished product does not always provide the information needed to assess students on basic literacy and ICT skills Or Organisation and communication skills

11. Therefore, PowerPoint presentations can be very effective as an assessment tool… • Helps to assess if the student has understood the unit/task • They have to demonstrate research & communication skills • Authenticity - PowerPoints are designed in lesson • Not all students are comfortable with it but prepares for work and improves comm. skills • Instant feedback • Allow for improvement – present again or evaluate

12. Lev Vygotsky Zone of Proximal Development The difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help.

13. Zone of Proximal Development • A child follows an adult's example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without help. (PowerPoint presentation) • The distance between the level of the learner and their development under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers. (Final Unit Product i.e. Corporate Video) • Vygotskyand other educational professionals believed education's role was to give learners experiences that were within their zones of proximal development, thereby encouraging and advancing their individual learning. • This is also possible through assessment and FEEDBACK

14. Feedback • It is important for learners to know where and what to improve • 7 day feedback rule • Feedback sheet – see example • Allows proximal development to take place • Without feedback learners could raise their own bar of achievement

15. Not all Plain Sailing • Student issues are becoming increasingly common – affective domain in Bloom’s taxonomy • Support networks are vital to help learners achieve and become independent • Inclusion is a very important part of an FE classroom • “The responsibility should be on the educational institution to empathise with and respond to the individual, and to address the needs of the individual learner.” Tomlinson

16. Academic issues • Welfare issues • Identified by Pastoral Tutor through 1:1s • LSAs – in place to take notes, explain work and tailor delivery for specific needs. • Support available to department = LSAs, Pastoral Tutor, Counsellors, Student Advisory Services

17. Case Study A Level 2 Media student who had been home-schooled. No formal qualifications and absolutely no ICT skills. In addition, the learner has major PTSD and anxiety issues.1:1 tuition was set up between student and pastoral tutor on a daily basis – every morning and every lunchtime.In-class support was set up with an LSA in case learner needed to take breaks.Learner was paired with another learner who had a laptop need, and therefore extremely competent on a PC.Additional ICT lessons on Word, PowerPoint and Internet Explorer.Learner could soon use the internet for research, load documents and create presentations.

18. Case Study B Media student registered with dyspraxia and cannot take notes by hand. Therefore it is made sure that in every lesson he has priority access to a computer. During an assessment stage he had to conduct interviews and a focus group. Rather than write the answers by hand as the other students did, he was given a camera and tripod so he could play back the footage and type up the responses. During production assessment, he is given software based roles such as editor or cameraman etc. rather than pre-production stages of storyboarding and tasks that need to be carried out by hand. This way he can still be assessed as part of the group in his own role and get the chance to demonstrate his skills. He now also has a laptop.

19. Tracking • Not only is feedback from assessment crucial to learners, so is making it accessible for them to track their own progress and learning. • VLEs and Blackboards are all useful for this. • Particularly useful for second years who need to track their previous grades for university applications. • A chart is on the wall to help convert grades into UCAS points so they can map their entry criteria, and their progression.

20. Sample of eTracker

21. In Summary… Assessment helps measure the standard of knowledge learnt Helps to raise the bar of achievement Assessment is a form of communication – both for learner and teacher Teachers need to know about their pupils’ progress and difficulties so that they can adapt their lessons to meet their needs.

22. Thank you for listening Any questions?

23. Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Bloom's taxonomy [On-line: UK] retrieved 28 Feb 2012 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm Read more: Bloom's taxonomy http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm#ixzz1p2RTDz8B Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives Berk, L & Winsler, A. (1995). "Vygotsky: His life and works" and "Vygotsky's approach to development". In Scaffolding children's learning: Vygotsky and early childhood learning. Natl. Assoc for Educ. Of Young Children. BKSB. Basic and Key Skill Builder.http://www.bksb.co.uk/Home.aspx Black, P & Wiliam, D. (2001). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. London:British Educational Research Association Bruner, J (1996). The Culture of Education. London: Harvard University Press Clark, D. R. (2004).Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Retrieved Feb 28, 2012 from. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html Epping Forest College. (2009) Tutorial Policy. http://learn.efc.ac.uk/file.php/1536/Academic_Policies_2010-2011/Tutorial_Policy_.pdf Keeley-Browne, L (2007). Training to Teach in the Learning & Skills Sector: From Threshold Award to QTLS. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. LLUK. (2006). New overarching professional standards for teachers, tutors and trainers in the lifelong learning sector. London: Lifelong Learning UK McApline, M. (2002). Principles of Assessment. CAA Centre: University of Luton Powell, S & Tummons, J. (2011). Inclusive Practice in the Lifelong Learning Sector.Tavistock: Learning Matters.   Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes. London: Harvard University Press.