What is progression in Science and Technology?
This clear definition of progression is explicit in that as practitioners, we need to understand and assess the progress of our learners in more than just their knowledge, understanding and skills. The principles of Curriculum for Wales require us to consider the development of all aspects of the learner. As our learners develop depth, breadth and sophistication of their knowledge and understanding, skills and capacities and attributes and dispositions they will make links across their learning and apply this in new and challenging contexts. This is key to enabling them to work towards realising the four purposes, as they progress through their school or settings and into different pathways beyond school.
'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.'
Supporting learner progression: assessment guidance
Curriculum for Wales
Supporting learners to make progress is a fundamental driver of Curriculum for Wales. Progression is reflected in the principles of progression, the statements of what matters, and the descriptions of learning for each of these statements. The overarching purpose of assessment within the curriculum is to support every learner to make progress. Understanding how learners progress is critical to learning and teaching and should inform the design of curriculum and assessment arrangements as well as classroom/setting planning and practice.
‘The statements of what matters, principles of progression and the descriptions of learning articulate the essence of what should underpin learning and provide the same high expectations for all learners.’
Curriculum for Wales guidance
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 principles of progression provide a higher level of understanding for practitioners on how learners progress. 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
Problem-solving and design tend to be iterative; the development of skills-related resilience and self-efficacy become important to enable learning through a ‘trial and improve’ approach. Through this learners develop their application of skills, as well as resilience as they understand the benefit of failure in this Area to discover new ways of doing things. Over time there is an increased independence in learning, including interdependence in peer group learning. Learners should develop an awareness of their increasing sophistication of understanding and an ability to regulate their own thinking.
Knowledge
Increasing breadth and depth of knowledge
Progression in the Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience (Area) is demonstrated by learners exploring and experiencing increasingly complex ideas and concepts that sit within the statements of what matters. Knowledge moves through exploration from a personal understanding of the world to an abstract view that enables learners to conceptualise and justify their understandings. Progression of learning is not linear but cyclical with learners revisiting existing knowledge, linking this with their new learning, and adjusting schema in light of new discovery.
Understanding
Deepening understanding of the ideas and disciplines within Areas
Progression in this Area includes the development of a deep understanding of the learning expressed within all the statements of what matters within the Area and the complex relationships and connections which exist between them. Investigative skills and domain specific knowledge which are developed within the context of one statement of what matters can be applied in others. Iterative approaches to problem-solving from computer science and design and technology can also be beneficial to all sciences. Early stage learning will be typified by a holistic approach to asking questions and exploring the world around the learner, with increasing specialisation at later stages.
Skills
Refinement and growing sophistication in the use and application of skills
Investigation, exploration, analysis, problem-solving, and design are key skills required as learners work along the continuum of learning in this Area. As a learner makes progress, there is increasing sophistication in the way in which they apply prior learning in this Area, explore and investigate problems and the resulting formulation of creative solutions. There is a refinement and increasing accuracy in what learners are able to do and produce both in the physical and digital environments.
Application
Making connections and transferring learning into new contexts
As learners progress across the continuum they will increasingly be able to make links between current learning and other experiences and knowledge developed within and beyond this Area. This will include making links with knowledge and experiences from outside the school environment. Problems within science and technology involve ethical or moral dilemmas and it is an increased understanding in the way in which these dilemmas are or even should be approached which will signify progression. Learners will develop the capacity to apply their learning in science and technology to inform their thinking and action beyond the classroom.
Response and Reflection
You may find it useful to now examine each of the principles of progression and their associated rationale for Science and Technology 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 and Science and Technology
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.
This may be useful to inform discussion at school / department / cluster level.
*personal to abstract progression within the knowledge principle should be considered as: personal to global or concrete to abstract (science) / abstract to concrete (design technology)
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.
The statements of what matters are a mandatory element of Curriculum for Wales and therefore need to be examined to identify threads which can be used to construct a continuum of learning from 3 - 16.
In the statement of what matters opposite, we have highlighted aspects that we consider relevant to the thread of environments / ecosystems.
This is a good place to start selecting threads of learning but by design, statements of what matters are not an exhaustive source and planning may draw on schools' visions, settings and a variety of other influences to provide threads of learning as the process matures.
The guidance given for Science and Technology also provides a list of specific considerations which can be used to support the planning of progression along a thread of learning. This content, procedural and epistemic learning clearly defines important knowledge and skills related to the disciplines within Science and Technology. Planning for progression will also need to account for this.
🌐 Specific considerations for Science and Technology
Opposite are the relevant aspects that support the thread of Ecosystems and it can be clearly seen how they support the planning of progress.
Having decided on a thread of learning it is then suggested that the descriptions of learning are examined as they will provide guidance on how learners should progress within each statement of What Matters. They are designed to sustain learning over a period of years and gives practitioners scope to use them to select content that provides breadth and depth of learning.
In the example opposite we have selected the description of learning that enables us to create progression in our thread of ecosystems from 3 - 16. As can be seen here, occasionally there will be descriptions of learning not given at points along the continuum. We suggest that decisions are made as to whether gaps are ignored or filled based on needs such as examination specifications etc.
The principles of progression can also be seen as the learners become increasingly sophisticated. In this thread of learning, they progress from being able to recognise to explain their understanding of ecosystems (as highlighted).
By planning in this way, we can ensure that learners move from novices to experts along the continuum, developing their knowledge and skills at appropriate stages. This further implies the necessity for cluster working to ensure equity of opportunity and remove the possibility of gaps appearing as learners transition.
Having identified the thread and the desired progression within it, schools can then decide upon experiences to support the learning at the different stages along the continuum. The choices made here should be planned with the principles of progression in mind so that learning is stage appropriate, building upon previous and preparing for future learning. Working as a cluster provides balance in that there is consistency with what is being taught across the cluster but flexibility remains in how it is delivered.
Above you can see suggestions of learning that could take place at each stage of progression for our ecosystems thread.
The animation to the left illustrates how the curriculum can be built with progression at its centre. Equally, it can also illustrate the negative impact that missing a stage has on future learning.
It highlights the importance of cluster working to ensure that all learners have the same opportunities to make progress.
Cluster working in this way allows the sharing of good practice and a distribution of planning responsibilities if necessary.
Response and Reflection
In the table below we have suggested some possible thread headings which are derived from the statements of what matters for Science and Technology. You should note that this is by no means an exhaustive list and we have selected those which are extremely familiar to the subject specialisms within our Area. You will want to expand on these as you plan for your own school settings, taking into account your vision and selected learning previously identified. We are also working within our AoLE for this purpose , but you will need to consider statements of what matters and their associated descriptions of learning from other Areas if appropriate.
Below are 6 documents, one for each statement of what matters in Science and Technology, that can be used to start planning what progression may look like from 3 - 16 in your cluster as per the ecosystems example above. We have given you the following information in each document:
The relevant statement of what matters and it’s associated rationale.
Suggested thread headings from the above suggestions. Please feel free to use your own thread but at this stage it may be less complicated to use one of the more obvious ones.
The descriptions of learning and the progression steps relevant to the statement of what matters. We highlighted those we found relevant but that is up to you.
We have also added the streamlined table of the principles of progression for your reference. This should be referred to as you discuss the exemplification with respect to skills, content and knowledge that could be provisioned along the continuum.
A final table that provides a space for you to plan.
Please feel free to change and adapt the resources to the needs of your setting and if you think that they may be of relevance to the wider community, we would love to hear about them.
Exemplification examples coming soon.
Advantages to this approach:
Working as a cluster (learner-centred approach)
Sharing good ideas
Improved teacher awareness of pupil progression in the subject/AoLE from 3-16
Prevents schools in the cluster becoming silos
Ensures balance between consistency of what is being taught and flexibility of how it is taught – advantageous to the learner
Supports meaningful transition activities
Allows for meaningful links within/between Areas.
Next steps:
Reflect on your understanding of progression and how it is articulated in your curriculum
Identify threads of learning and consider progression along those threads
Consider how you can work with colleagues in your school and in your cluster, and where possible other similar schools, to develop a shared understanding of progression throughout the curriculum
Think about how this shared understanding might be captured and shared with others.
For further support in developing your curriculum please contact us via any of the following email addresses: