What is progression?
Progression in learning is a process of developing and improving in skills, knowledge and understanding over time. This focuses on understanding what it means to make progress in a given area or discipline as learners increase the depth, breadth and sophistication of their knowledge and understanding, skills and capacities, and attributes and dispositions.
‘This is a big cultural shift from the way things have been done before. We know that assessment must build on progression: being clear on what needs to be learnt, why and how learners progress, determines how that should be assessed.’
Jeremy Miles
Minister for Education and Welsh Language
There are 27 statements of what matters in all and these represent the sum of what learners need to know and understand when they leave compulsory education. They are the fundamentals of each Area and all learning must link back to them. The five principles of progression provide a higher level of understanding for practitioners on how learners progress and underpin progression across all Areas. However, in the Mathematics and Numeracy Area the model of progression is based on the development of five interdependent proficiencies. The descriptions of learning articulate how learners should progress within each statement of what matters. They are arranged in five progression steps which form the continuum of learning.
The Principles of Progression
The principles of progression provide a mandatory requirement of what progression must look like for learners.
They are designed to be used by practitioners to:
understand what progression means and should look like in each Area
develop the curriculum and learning experiences to enable learners to progress in the ways described
develop assessment approaches which seek to understand whether this progress is being made.
Looking at these statements more closely it may be beneficial to simplify the language and reflect on their meaning. The right hand column is one interpretation of the principles. Sharing this understanding and engaging in professional dialogue across the school and between schools will help to secure a common understanding and common language around progression. This simplification of the language may help us engage with and find greater clarity in these principles of progression.
Each principle of progression is supported with a rationale, which further explains what progression means in this Area. These cover the whole continuum across 3-16. Here is where we can find what progression means to the Area as a whole. You will see that there is key vocabulary and quotations in the guidance which you may want to further consider when developing an understanding of progression. You may find it useful to discuss these at school / cluster level to further develop a shared understanding of progression in this AoLE.
Being effective
Increasing effectiveness as a learner
As learners progress, they become increasingly effective at learning in a social and work-related context. As they become increasingly effective they are able to seek appropriate support and independently identify sources of that support. They ask more sophisticated questions and find and evaluate answers from a range of sources. This includes increasingly successful approaches to self-evaluation, identification of their next steps in learning and more effective means of self-regulation.
Knowledge
Increasing breadth and depth of knowledge
Learners need to acquire both breadth and depth of knowledge. As learners progress, they develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of concepts that underpin different statements of what matters. They see the relationships between these and use them to further shape, make sense of and apply knowledge. This consolidates their understanding of concepts.
Understanding
Deepening understanding of the ideas and disciplines within Areas
Holistic approaches are particularly important in early learning as learners engage with the world around them. Learners should become increasingly aware of ways in which ideas and approaches can be coherently grouped and organised. As they progress they need to experience and understand disciplinary learning in each of the Areas and see these in the context of the four purposes and the statements of what matters.
Skills
Refinement and growing sophistication in the use and application of skills
Learners need to develop a range of skills including: physical, communication, cognitive and Area specific skills. In the early stages of learning, this range of skills includes focus on developing gross and fine motor; communicative and social skills. They also develop the skills of evaluating and organising information in applying what they have learned. As learners progress, they demonstrate more refined application of existing skills, and will experience opportunities to develop new, more specific and more sophisticated skills.
Over time, learners become able to effectively organise a growing number of increasingly sophisticated ideas, to apply understanding in various contexts and to communicate their thoughts effectively, using a range of methods, resources or equipment appropriate to their purpose and audience.
Application
Making connections and transferring learning into new contexts
Learners should make connections with increasing independence; across learning within an Area, between Areas, and with their experiences outside of school. Over time these connections will be increasingly sophisticated, explained and justified by learners. They should be able to apply and use previously acquired knowledge and skills in different, unfamiliar and challenging contexts.
Response and Reflection
You may find it useful to now examine each of the principles of progression and their associated rationale in more depth as a school team / department / cluster. We have provided the necessary texts opposite along with a table that you can populate with the specific elements of progression found.
Principles of Progression
Table to collate progression elements identified
This is an example of a completed version of the activity.
You may find other aspects pertinent to your learners and settings.
What is a shared understanding of progression?
Developing a shared understanding of progression means that practitioners, collectively within their school or setting, across their cluster, and with other schools beyond their cluster together explore, discuss and understand:
Their joint expectations for how learners should progress and how knowledge, skills and experiences should contribute to this in schools’ and settings’ curricula.
How to ensure coherent progression for learners throughout their learning journey and in particular at points of transition.
How their expectations for progression compare to those of other schools and settings, to ensure coherence and equity across the education system and a sufficient pace and challenge in their approach to progression in their curriculum and assessment arrangements.
How should schools and settings develop a shared understanding of progression?
Schools will benefit if they design learning which supports an increasingly sophisticated understanding and application of the statements of what matters. Progression must be embedded in learning and teaching and should form the basis of thinking in schools when designing and planning the school curriculum. The following is an approach which you may find useful as a starting point in planning for progression and it could be adapted to suit your own school setting.
In order to do this, schools and clusters will have to consider the statements of what matters as AoLEs.
The workshops below provide an opportunity to do so:
