Download - Pedagogy, curriculum and assessment
What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?
1. What are, for your school, your desired outcomes of educa5on (DOEs)?
Consider: • the knowledge, abili4es, a5tudes and values which you want young people to have acquired by the 4me they leave school.
What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?
2. What kinds of learning, in your school,
with your students, will deliver your DOEs?
Consider: • What do students need to learn in order for you to have achieved your DOEs?
• Different kinds of learning processes are needed to deliver different kinds of outcome.
What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?
3. What kinds of teaching will lead to the kind of learning that is needed?
Consider: • Teaching is a way of engaging different kinds of learning processes in learners’ minds. It depends on s4mula4ng and engaging the kinds of learning that will deliver the outcomes you said you valued.
What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?
4. What kind of leadership is required to create
the kinds of teaching and learning which are desired, and so ensure that students leave your school with your DOEs?
Consider: • Only when you have some clarity about the first three
ques4ons can you begin to priori4se the leadership strategies that will cul4vate the necessary kinds of pedagogy.
A culture of and for learning
A school signals its values through different aspects of its culture. There are the visible, public espousals of these values through brochures, websites, speeches, newsle:ers and other publica;ons.
(Lucas and Claxton, 2013)
A culture of and for learning
Most importantly, values are conveyed moment-‐by-‐moment by teachers in classrooms – through their running commentary; the kinds of ac;vi;es they create; the way they lay out the furniture or configure group work; the kind of language they use and the example they set.
(Lucas and Claxton, 2013)
Curriculum is pedagogy
The failure to realise that curriculum is pedagogy has been one of the great tragedies of the last quarter-‐century in England’s educa;on system…. curriculum development is an inherently crea;ve process. It is the process by which teachers take the desired outcomes from the intended curriculum and convert them into engaging ac;vi;es in classrooms. -‐ Dylan Wiliam, Principled Curriculum Design
Curriculum is pedagogy
• We need to create ‘real’ understanding (powerful knowledge)
• Depth before breadth – focus on excellence • The Trivium: Grammar, Dialec4c and Rhetoric
• Extended enquiries (independence)
• PorRolios of excellence
• Interleaving rather than blocking content
• Embedded forma4ve assessment
• Habits of Mind
What is your ‘signature pedagogy’?
Signature pedagogies make a difference. They form habits of the mind, habits of the hand and habits of the heart…. they prefigure the culture of professional work and provide the early socialisa;on into the prac;ces and values of a field. Whether in a lecture hall or a lab, in a design studio or a clinical seNng, the way we teach will shape how professionals behave…
(Shulman, 2005)
The backward design of a curriculum
• Define what a learner/historian/mathema4cian/ar4st /etc should know and be able to do by y11/13, and then work backwards to devise a programme of study from y7 to achieve that.
This will include: • ‘Big ideas’ / threshold concepts • Powerful knowledge (‘knowing that…’) • Key skills (‘knowing how to…’)
Programme of study
Obviously in secondary schools, the content of GCSE will have a strong influence on the selec<on of ‘big ideas’. But schools should be careful not to assume that GCSE syllabuses embody all the big ideas that will be important, either for further study, or for life aCer school…Focusing only on what is important for examina<on success may help the school succeed, but is likely to be disastrous for current secondary school students. -‐ Dylan Wiliam, Principled Assessment Design
Threshold concepts / big ideas Learning should be an adventure, not a journey.
-‐ Mar4n Robinson A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpre<ng, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject maQer, subject landscape, or even world view.
Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Prac<sing within the Disciplines”,
Threshold concepts are: • Integra5ve: Once learned, they are likely to bring together different
parts of the subject which you hadn’t previously seen as connected. • Transforma5ve: Once understood, they change the way you see the
subject and yourself. • Irreversible: They are difficult to unlearn – once you’ve passed through
it’s difficult to see how it was possible not to have understood before. • Recons5tu5ve: They may shi` your sense of self over 4me. This is
ini4ally more likely to be no4ced by others, usually teachers. • Troublesome: They are likely to present you with a degree of difficulty
and may some4mes seem incoherent or counter-‐intui4ve. • Discursive: The student’s ability to use the language associated with that
subject changes as they change. It’s the change from using scien4fic keywords in everyday language to being able to fluently communicate in the academic language of science.
Big ideas in English
• The rela4onship between context and meaning • The rela4onship between form, structure and meaning
• The rela4onship between language and meaning • The rela4onship between grammar and meaning • The rela4onship between the writer and the reader in construc4ng meaning: the role of interpreta4on.
Threshold concepts from a SoL on Poetry
• What it means to be poe4c: the no4on of cra`ing poe4c language.
• The nature and importance of figura4ve language and metaphor.
• The kinds and importance of poe4c form. • The impact of structure on meaning; structural devices such as metre, rhythm, rhyme that are used to achieve this.
• The role of the reader in construc4ng meaning: 'informed personal response'.
• Ambiguity of interpreta5on
Don’t forget
• Consider transi4on (map the gap) • Inspire and interest students • Build in tes4ng, assessment and challenge • Build in real understanding (not teaching by numbers) • High expecta4ons -‐ you get what you seele for.
Learning is what happens when students are forced to think hard!
Assessment without levels “What we want is a model of ability based on each child being capable of anything and us looking progressively, through assessment, at what ideas a child has understood.”
Tim Oates, Cambridge Assessment
“A culture shiC regarding the nature, range and purposes of assessment needs to take place, in recogni<on of the new opportuni<es provided both by the new curriculum and the removal of levels.”
NCTL Report September 2014 “Assessment should be the servant, not the master, of the learning.”
Dylan Wiliam
Why change from levels?
• Can become a “label” that creates a fixed mindset
• Don’t deepen understanding – too general
• Accuracy of levels (especially sub levels) is unreliable
• They do not always progress smoothly to GCSE
• Successful schools and nations don’t use them
• Wording is often both confusing and limiting
• They no longer exist
What do we NEED from a new assessment system?
• Forma4ve and summa4ve
• Fits with new KS3 Na4onal Curriculum
• To measure progress accurately
• To benchmark against KS2 and KS4
• To allow meaningful & understandable
parental repor4ng
What do we WANT from a new assessment system?
• Smooth transi4on through key stages • To allow a “growth mindset” focused on effort and progress
• To provide real stretch and challenge at all levels • To develop our ‘habits’
Progress so far?
• Spoken to our primary feeder schools
• Lots of research in current thinking • Curriculum working group
• Lots of mee4ngs with curriculum leaders and departments
• Presented to governors
• Consulta4on with parents
• Consulta4on with students
New proposal
A dual system on : 1. Effort towards Tallis Habits reported 3 4mes a year 2. Progress in subject specific competencies reported
twice a year
Addresses the feedback points 1 and 2 from the previous slide
Habits of Mind
• Effort towards the Habits ‘ideal’ is reported using words • Students will self-‐assess their Habits • Parents will also assess their Habits • Differences between teacher, student and parent discussed
What have we chosen to do? • Aeainment for each year is judged using four thresholds – Emerging, Developing, Securing and Excelling (scaffolding towards excellence)
• Expecta4ons change in each year
• Progress is judged at 3 levels –below, good and outstanding
• More importance given to effort towards each of our Habits
How do we define our ‘Thresholds’?
• Define what a learner/historian/mathema4cian/ar4st /etc should know and be able to do by the end of:
• Year 7 • Year 8 • Year 9 How would this look for: • Learners who are excelling? • Learners who are secure? • Those who are developing their learning, but are not yet
secure? • Emerging learners who are working towards expecta4ons for
their year group?
And how do we scaffold progress in between?
Tracking progress and reporting to parents
In tracking progress and repor4ng to parents, we will look at performance rela4ve to baseline threshold: • Working below baseline threshold – Below expected progress.
• Working within their baseline threshold – Good progress.
• Working above their baseline threshold or at the top of or beyond the Excelling threshold – Outstanding progress.
Assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the “hidden curriculum” as it is an
important driver of students’ study habits. Unless we rethink our approach to assessment, it will be very
difficult to produce a meaningful change in educa<on. -‐-‐Eric Mazur