EP assessment in practice

Question 1

what is the point in assessment

Answer 1

• important for accountability
• important to inform teaching & provision
• ability to compare child’s ability to others in the same group

Question 2

why is assessment in education important

Answer 2

• ‘the most influential factor in whether a poor child grows up to be a poor adult, repeating the cycle from generation to generation, is educational attainment’ - department for work and pensions (2014)
• pupil premium system
• also want to know the value added dimension that our educational providers are making
• also extremely important the progress of children is monitored to ensure that effective interventions are targeted to those who need support
• closing the attainment gap - looking to ‘level up’ opportunity as certain groups of children have greater disadvantages than others
• direct link between poverty & school performance

Question 3

differences at GCSE & a level

Answer 3

• the gap between gypsy/Roma, travellers of Irish heritage, Black Caribbean and other Black backgrounds can be 10.9 months in terms of English and Maths GCSEs (Hutchinson et al., 2020)
• diffs in overall attainment between diff ethnic groups in the achievement of 3 A grades at A level: 25.7% Chinese, 11% Asian and White
• diffs in attainment of girls vs boys in some subjects (boys may be over-represented at the extremes of the distribution)
• whilst curriculum based assessments may take measures of performance based on objectives derived from the curriculum used in the classroom, they may also be seen as reductionist & as ignoring the affective & social domain

Question 4

BPS (2022) on education & working class families

Answer 4

• worse educational outcomes than their peers, more pronounced with progression
• use of free school meals at any point within a 6yr span are estimated to lag behind their peers by equivalent of 5 months of learning
• end of primary school this increases to 9 months
• by GCSE level increases to at least 18 months
• at A Level it is on average over 3 full grades lower than their peers

Question 5

SES & education

Answer 5

• pupils eligible for FSM make less educational progress between ages of 11 & 16 than children not eligible (ONS, 2020)
• % of pupils with FSM had been increasing prior to covid, with increases from 13.6% in jan 2018 to 15.4% in jan 2019, to 17.3% in jan 2020
• increase during first period of pandemic jan 2020-21 rose to 20.8%
• increase to jan 2022 in line with those increases seen prior to pandemic
• rates of FSM eligibility in 2022 highest among pupils in traveller of irish heritage ethnic group (63.3%) & gypsy/roma ethnic group (51.9%)
• rates lowest among pupils of indian (7.5%) & chinese ethnic groups (7.8%)

picture is complex & there are individualities as well as intersections of need

Question 6

standardised assessments

Answer 6

• psychometric assessments
• curriculum-based assessments
• dynamic assessments

Question 7

psychometric assessments

standardised assessments

Answer 7

• psychological measurement, scores on a test are compared to a comparison group, so the strength of abilities can be judged relative to other students (norm-referenced)
• not the most reliable
• IQ and g

Question 8

what did cline et al. (2023) say about psychometric assessments?

Answer 8

use of psychometric assessment to categorise & label children & to inform decisions about provision continues to be debated, both in relation to historical & current practice

Question 9

what did beaver (2011) say about psychometric assessments?

Answer 9

• when considering learning it is important to also reflect on the level of capability
• this is distinct from inherent ability as assumed to be measured by psychometric approaches
• compare to feuerstein’s instrumental enrichment model

Question 10

feuerstein’s instrumental enrichment model

beaver (2011)

Answer 10

• provides a constructive approach to intervention & rejects the static concept of ability assumed in traditional psychometric assessment
• based on three broad preconditions for learning
• 1: input - process of gathering & assimilation of info
• 2: elaboration - interpreting & understanding info
• 3: output - reaching & communicating conclusions

Question 11

curriculum-based assessments

standardised assessments

Answer 11

• concerned with comparing a student’s performance with criterion linked to the local curriculum
• progress may be gathered systematically over time & in a variety of settings using materials employed for instruction (comparing performance in terms of pre-established goals)
• may be gathered through consultation & evaluation results may not be readily generalised
• core subjects: maths, english, science
• Piaget - diff capacities at diff stages of dev, formal operation stage & abstract thinking at 11
• suggests there is a standard population but world is diverse

Question 12

dynamic assessments

standardised assessments

Answer 12

• less about standardisation & measurement as the assessor is involved in assessment process
• add to the info that school already has
• helps the child during the test - what techniques help e.g. explain further or help reduce anxiety
• how to actually teach the child

Question 13

what did beaver (2011) say about dynamic assessments?

Answer 13

dynamic assessment is consideration of the dynamics of the learning paradigm & the teaching approaches, or mediation, through which the individual child can be most effectively supported in their learning situation

Question 14

what did kelly et al. (2017) say about standardised assessments?

Answer 14

• buck (1998) declared that ‘value continues to be placed on standardised measures of cognitive ability’ when deciding on drafting statements and ‘determining provision’
• experimental & strict psychometric methods are completely inadequate for elucidating the complex problem areas that confront them in the social context of human interactions
• kozulin (1998) examines in detail the psychological tools that can be learned, encouraged & employed to facilitate learning, & this emphasis upon mediation is central to the notion of dynamic assessment

Question 15

place of measurment

standardised assessments

Answer 15

• look at normal distribution
• example of a curriculum based approach, having observed criterion
• not measuring the ‘psyche’ but performance of a skill

Question 16

binet

Answer 16

• published first ability test
• intelligence felt to be measured by a range of tasks that were felt to be representative of typical children’s abilities at a certain age & although felt to be partly malleable, tasks overall were felt to be measured with consistency
• early test questions included whether the child could shake hands with the examiner or whether they could construct a sentence from words such as Paris, river and fortune
• although original test devised by Binet was intended to identify children who needed additional academic assistance (with the outcome that some children would be returned to mainstream schools) it soon became a test to identify the ‘feeble minded’

Question 17

british ability scales 3

Answer 17

• example of a psychometric test
• 3 cluster scores can be produced which demonstrates the relative strengths of a child’s verbal abilities, non-verbal abilities & spatial abilities
• overall cog ability can be calculated by combining these scores & is known as the general conceptual ability (GCA)
• percentile figure indicates where a child’s score stands in relation to a hypothetical group of 100 pupils of same age
• percentile score between 16-84 is considered average & what is expected as ‘the norm’

Question 18

how psychometrics may be judged by a scientific standard

Answer 18

• reliability
• validity
• standardisation
• freedom from bias

Question 19

assumptions made about intelligence & intelligence tests

Answer 19

• intelligence is static
• precisely measured
• possible to design a testing instrument capable of peeling back layers of economic & socioeconomic shrouding to reveal a true essence of intelligence
• essential intelligence can be expressed with a single number or with several numbers
• purpose of this test is to allow society to identify & promote the best & brightest among us

Question 20

explanatory & predictive power of intelligence tests - problematic constructions over time

Answer 20

• 1947: 16% disagreed with the statement that intelligence tests are better than ordinary examinations for finding out about the brains a person was born with, in 1973 this was 27%
• 1947: 22% disagreed with the statement that the concept of intelligence will find the right person for the job, in 1973 this was 41%
• 1947: 41% disagreed with the statement that is a child’s intelligence is measured between the ages of 8 & 10, we can get an idea of how intelligent they are when grown-up, in 1973 this was 52%

shipston & burt (1973), flugel (1947)

Question 21

theoretical scepticism around measurements of intelligence

Answer 21

how can a single construct such as IQ predict progress in literacy & numeracy?

alloway & alloway (2015)

Question 21

practical scepticism around measurements of intelligence

Answer 21

how can norm-based measures of intelligence help teachers to plan & adapt teaching?

freeman & miller (2001)

Question 21

moral scepticism around measurements of intelligence

Answer 21

could the measurement of intelligence be inequitable in its treatment of children who have had access to limited learning opportunities during early childhood?

scarr (1984)

Question 22

ideological scepticism around measurements of intelligence

Answer 22

have some of the interpretations following intelligence testing been used in racist ways?

mackintosh (2007)

Question 23

pedagogical scepticism around measurements of intelligence

Answer 23

would a concept of a child having a fixed level of ability discourage teachers from trying to develop untapped potential

adey et al. (2007)

Question 24

vygotsky

Answer 24

• human dev is a social mediated process in which children acquire their cultural values, beliefs, problem solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society
• community plays a central role in making meaning
• infants born with basic abilities for intellectual dev called ‘elementary mental functions’
• social interaction which promotes cooperative or collaborative dialogue promotes cog dev
• those working with a more knowledgeable other may show greater understanding & improvement than those working alone

Question 25

what did cline et al. (2023) say about vygotsky’s theory

Answer 25

• how the culture where a person is brought up in influences the course of their development
• culture as a way to describe the customs of a particular people at a particular time - learned traditions including their habitual ways of thinking, feeling & behaving
• speech had role of containing & transmitting culture
• culture has key formative role in development (transmitted through social interaction & speech)
• language development may be helpful in trying to understand how these early developments lay foundation for effective communication in schools

Question 26

dynamic assessment & link to scaffolding

Answer 26

• teaching from a skilled other can create buds of development
• wood et al. (1976)
• diff types of scaffolds - some may do better with visual cues, others do better with verbal cues

Question 27

freernan & miller (2001) on assessment paradigms

Answer 27

• normative, dynamic assessment, curriculum/criterion referenced
• 125 teachers in west midlands
• criterion referenced assessment info was rated as the most useful for understanding children’s needs & abilities & for planning teaching responses
• felt they new little about dynamic assessment but were interested

Question 28

making decisions about assessment

Answer 28

• what is the rationale - is it to advocate for child & their education?#
• what is the most appropriate procedure which will facilitate the voice of the CYP?
• what theories & ev underpin the practice?
• how will the assessment take account of the child in diff contexts over time, & build upon multi-agency & staged intervention?
• how will the assessment build upon the child’s strengths?
• how will the assessment be used to develop the learning and community context?

Question 29

is intelligence ‘a thing’ and how fixed is it?

Answer 29

• how might constructions around ability be perceived to change over time and culture?
• what role might motivation, engagement & experience play in relation to performance? (Dweck, 1999)
• what are some important social & political factors that should be considered when assessing children’s achievements more generally?

concept of growth mindset & motivation

Question 30

assessment over time and in a range of contexts

Answer 30

• formative assessment that informs learning
• contextualised and collaborative
• child at the centre
• practice is ethical - to do good and to do no harm
• reflective
• take into account demographics
• talk with staff, child, parents
• create an ind story as to why they are behaving that way
• 4 principles: honest, fair, do good, no harm