“Research, approaches and current thinking on the assessment of thinking skills with pupils with SEN in Poland”

Educational System in Poland (*Country Report)

Educational System in Poland (pupils with SEN) Pre-school (mainstream kindergarten with integrated groups, integrated or special kindergarten) Primary School (mainstream schools with integrated classes, integrated schools or special schools) Parents have the right to choose a school for their child with SEN since 1993 PESC (Psychological and Educational Services Centre) – guidance, counselling, statements – difficulties in diagnosing

A. Self-assessment for students with SEN B. Assessment of thinking skills for students with SEN C. Development of thinking skills for students with SEN

A. Self-assessment for students with SEN – behaviour (*Country Report) In schools pupils have opportunity to self-assessment and/or peer assessment if it comes to behaviour. This assessment is usually done during discussion with all pupils in the classroom. Children's behaviour is assessed on the basis of the following scale: - excellent, - very good, - good, - acceptable, - unacceptable and wrongdoing at the end of school term/year. Teachers, especially the guidance teachers collect information on pupils’ behaviour throughout whole school year. At the end of the term/year the guidance teacher gives pupil a grade according to the criteria described in School Assessment System (SAS). The criteria of assessment of pupils’ behaviour have to be known by all pupils and their parents.

B. Assessment of thinking skills for students with SEN (*Country Report) Assessment process at every school comprises of: Setting educational requirements for pupils and informing all pupils and parents about them – pupils should know what is expected from them for good grade or just satisfactory grade On-going, formative and summative assessment recorded according to the school rules described in the document called School Assessment System (SAS), - this document states the assessment methods, how many terms are in the school year which determines frequency of the end of the term assessment, the way of reporting etc. End of the school year assessment that has to be done with the same in the whole country school marks.

Assessment of Learning (tests, grading, marking, questioning, observation) rather than Assessment for Learning   In forms I-III of primary schools pupils are subject to descriptive assessment.   Starting with form IV, annual or term assessment is based on a six-grade scale including the following marks: excellent (6), very good (5), good (4), satisfactory (3), acceptable (2), unsatisfactory (1). In the case of pupils with moderate and severe handicaps the descriptive assessment is used at all levels of education.

C. Development of thinking skills for students with SEN Individual learning approach towards pupil (visual, kinesthetic and auditory) – difficulties in mainstream schools (too many pupils in one class) Learning thinking skills such as:  Understanding (taking informations from different resources and putting them together with that, what is already known)  Making decisions  Building up new ideas, categories  Solving problems,  Cause and effect, etc.