"Across the world curricula are changing in recognition of the widespread view that, in addition to subject knowledge, young people need to develop certain key dispositions or capabilities in order to thrive today.
Such dispositions broadly fall into two categories; those which might be described as concerned with the development of character (ethical understanding, for example) and those which focus on a wider set of skills (such as creativity, critical thinking or collaboration).
Assessment, pedagogy and curriculum are integrally connected. What you teach depends on what is assessed. How you assess depends on what is being taught and how it is being taught.
Across the world politicians, employers, researchers, parents and all those who work in schools are waking up to the fact that today’s assessment practices are no longer fit for purpose. Currently the knowledge that is typically assessed is from a narrow range of subjects, rarely explored in depth and almost never inter-disciplinary [...] Complex, higher order skills are rarely assessed in ways that recognise the subtleties involved. Many dispositions or capabilities known to be important in life are not assessed at all."
From Bill Lucas, A field guide to assessing creativity in schools.
DEFINING KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & DISPOSITIONS
A NOTE ON KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & DISPOSITIONS FOR RA WORKING GROUPS, BILL LUCAS 2021
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GLOBAL TRENDS
EVIDENCING SKILLS & DISPOSITIONS
The following examples demonstrate global current thinking around how to conceptualise and visualise the assessment of these very dispositions or competencies, either in their general sense, or around particular skills at a more granular level.
Dispositions are clusters of skills which have been practised so well that they have become habitual; you are routinely disposed to deploy them. And skills are the mechanism by which knowledge is applied and dispositions are lived out.
Take a look at our horizon scan of the current frameworks and models for assessing dispositions and skills.
KEY RESEARCH