Teaching, assessment and the performativity agenda

Why are the outcomes of public examinations so uninformative for

learners, teachers and policy?

Measuring pedagogy

Transmissionist teaching practices tend to be teacher driven with learners being told how things are with the intention that they assimilate given knowledge. In mathematics the student activity that results is often restricted to practising rules and procedures.

Assessment- Current assessment leads to transmissionist

teaching practices in pursuit of grades- Grades are maximised for students or for

institutions? (the performativity agenda)- The grade (at GCSE or GCE A level) a student

attains, for instance, tells them little about what the students know and can do at the next stage (A level, or university respectively)

Assessment- Current qualifications provide inadequate

preparation for progression to the next phase;- HE staff are not always well informed of what

they might expect as a result of assessment requirements of qualifications in terms of both content and how it is taught.

Assessment technologies exist (and in some cases are being used) so that we might expect:•Formative assessment information on each individual’s profile of performance and potential competences (e.g. identifying which criteria the individual learner showed some success with) rather than just a summative grade, so that future educational decisions by both teachers and learners might be better informed;

• Information for policy, for stakeholders, and for teachers and learners about which criteria are typically met by students at a given level, descriptions of the common errors students at various levels typically make, in which areas of the syllabus etc (eg algebra scrutiny of EMP project); …leading to….

• Improved assessment year-on-year as assessment designers are informed at a very detailed level how their assessment items are tackled by learners.

The ‘performativity’ (Ball) agenda should not be underestimated.

GCSE

Only got a grade

A

accountancy

psychology

physics

AS trad mathsradiotherapy

accountancy

Plan B

AS Use of Maths“dropped

down”

David’s story: 1st interview

8

accountancy

psychology

physics

AS trad maths

AS Use of Maths

AS

accountancy

psychology

physics

trad maths

A2

physics

HE

Developing confidence

David’s story: 2nd interview

9

accountancy

psychology

physics

AS trad maths

AS Use of Maths

AS

accountancyHE

Only got a grade

B

accountancy

psychology

physics

A2

David’s story: 3rd interview

10

David’s story: 3rd interview

“I came to re-enrol, you have to re-enrol, I was tempted to do Further Maths, re-enrol and do Further

maths, maths, accountancy, and like I came to the day thinking I’m going to do Further maths and

maths…..”

“… and then I went to see my psychology teacher and my psychology teacher thought it was probably

best if I stuck on with psychology and just do accounting because I got such a high grade in

accounting. And when I thought about it logically I thought it’s probably going to be the same… I enjoy it just as much and I thought maybe I should just stick

with something that I’ve got really good grades in already than put all my eggs in one basket and then

fail.”

11

College principal:

“….what we do is, we really do want to give every child a chance, but what we do very closely, is monitor how they’re progressing, so we don’t out them on a course where they’re going to fail. We put them on a course where they’re going to succeed.”

12

David’s story

Systems and Structures

• Assessment needs to be reconceptualised so as to better support teachers &teaching and learners & learning through transitions.

• How can the performativity stranglehold on institutions be relaxed so that this can be achieved?