Learning, teaching and assessment
Curriculum for Wales embodies the premise that a highly effective curriculum recognises that curriculum, pedagogy and assessment cannot exist independently of each other. It follows therefore that school curriculum design must be considered with pedagogy and assessment as integral to it.
Learning encompasses understanding, skills and knowledge developed through wide-ranging and diverse learning experiences. These can be transferred to different contexts as learning deepens. Teachers must have a shared understanding of how learners learn in order to ensure that they become active learners. This is a process of internalising information and mixing it with what we experience to change what we know and build on what we do. In constructing a curriculum schools need high-quality teachers with a sound understanding of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of teaching as well as the ‘what’.
Effective assessment practice is crucial to the learning process, enabling every learner to make progress. The purpose of assessment in Curriculum for Wales is to support progression towards the four purposes. Schools will therefore need to ensure that practitioners develop a shared understanding of what progression looks like, across the school, in order to inform planning for learning. Schools should give themselves permission to stop any assessment practices that do not contribute to this. With appropriate support and challenge, learners will not only make progress, but will also learn to recognise their individual achievements and identify their next steps in learning independently. Curriculum for Wales places the focus of assessment in schools on formative assessment, taking place while the learning is happening, and considering the whole child – their knowledge, skills, experiences, attitudes, values and wellbeing.
Schools have the autonomy to design a curriculum appropriate for their context and their learners’ individual needs whilst including the learners in the process. Learning experiences should ensure that there is scope for breadth and depth of learning allowing learners to progress at their own pace and providing effective support.
"Sometimes we can’t quite put our finger on something important because we’ve got all of our fingers wrapped around a bunch of other things that are not important."
Craig D. Lounsbrough
"Schools need to make placing the student at the centre of learning an organisational priority. They should encourage the active engagement of learners, and develop in them an understanding of their own activity as learners."
OECD
Key Principles
Schools will need to think about the inter-related nature of learning, teaching and assessment when designing their curriculum and planning for its delivery. They will need to collaborate to consider how their design will meet learners’ individual needs over time as they make progress towards the four purposes.
Practitioners should have the autonomy to use a wide range of effective and appropriate pedagogy, including those that support the social and emotional aspects of learning.
The teaching approaches selected should encourage learners to take increasing responsibility for their own learning, understanding where they are, where they need to go and how to get there.
Schools should work together to develop and implement assessment arrangements in relation to their curriculum.
Schools should include the views of their learners when creating the curriculum and in planning their learning experiences.
Assessment should not:
be used to make one-off judgements at a set age or point in time
be used for the purposes of external accountability
lead to matrices for assessing the four purposes or What Matters
be limited to ‘data’ – learning itself is the evidence.
Key considerations:
What is our understanding of the interconnected relationship between learning, teaching and assessment?
How does our curriculum ensure that there is depth and breadth in learning?
How do we plan opportunities for learning based on our learners’ individual strengths, needs and aspirations? How well do we consider their social and emotional needs?
What are our professional learning needs in relation to learning, teaching and assessment? Are we allowing for teacher agency in our curriculum? How well do we embrace action research?
How and when are we assessing learners and what is the impact of our assessment practices on learning and progression towards the four purposes?
How do we ensure that all learners know what they are learning and why? How well do they understand their own progress, where they need to go next and what they need to do to get there?
How do we know that our learners are developing confidence and independence in relation to the four purposes? To what extent are they able to transfer their skills across the curriculum and relate them to their own experiences?
How do we manage teacher workload in our learning, teaching and assessment practice?
How do we support effective and regular communication with parents and carers to support learner progress?
Is there a sound whole school understanding about the connection between purpose and practice in pedagogy and assessment?
How well do we collaborate with other schools to develop learning, teaching and assessment?
Professional learning opportunities:
🌐 Regional Professional learning
👩🏫 Innovation schools case studies
👩🏫 @NetworkEd
👩🏫 School visits