Teaching, assessment and the performativity agenda Why are the outcomes of public examinations so uninformative for learners, teachers and policy?

Measuring pedagogy Transmissionist teaching practices tend to be teacher driven with learners being told how things are with the intention that they assimilate given knowledge. In mathematics the student activity that results is often restricted to practising rules and procedures.

Assessment -Current assessment leads to transmissionist teaching practices in pursuit of grades -Grades are maximised for students or for institutions? (the performativity agenda) -The grade (at GCSE or GCE A level) a student attains, for instance, tells them little about what the students know and can do at the next stage (A level, or university respectively)

Assessment -Current qualifications provide inadequate preparation for progression to the next phase; -HE staff are not always well informed of what they might expect as a result of assessment requirements of qualifications in terms of both content and how it is taught.

Assessment technologies exist (and in some cases are being used) so that we might expect: Formative assessment information on each individual’s profile of performance and potential competences (e.g. identifying which criteria the individual learner showed some success with) rather than just a summative grade, so that future educational decisions by both teachers and learners might be better informed;

Information for policy, for stakeholders, and for teachers and learners about which criteria are typically met by students at a given level, descriptions of the common errors students at various levels typically make, in which areas of the syllabus etc (eg algebra scrutiny of EMP project); …leading to…. Improved assessment year-on-year as assessment designers are informed at a very detailed level how their assessment items are tackled by learners.

The ‘performativity’ (Ball) agenda should not be underestimated.

GCSE Only got a grade A accountancy psychology physics AS trad maths radiotherapy accountancy Plan B AS Use of Maths “dropped down” David’s story: 1 st interview 8

accountancy psychology physics AS trad maths AS Use of Maths AS accountancy psychology physics trad maths A2 physics HE Developing confidence David’s story: 2 nd interview 9

accountancy psychology physics AS trad maths AS Use of Maths AS accountancy HE Only got a grade B accountancy psychology physics A2 David’s story: 3 rd interview 10

David’s story: 3 rd interview “I came to re-enrol, you have to re-enrol, I was tempted to do Further Maths, re-enrol and do Further maths, maths, accountancy, and like I came to the day thinking I’m going to do Further maths and maths…..” “… and then I went to see my psychology teacher and my psychology teacher thought it was probably best if I stuck on with psychology and just do accounting because I got such a high grade in accounting. And when I thought about it logically I thought it’s probably going to be the same… I enjoy it just as much and I thought maybe I should just stick with something that I’ve got really good grades in already than put all my eggs in one basket and then fail.” 11

College principal: “….what we do is, we really do want to give every child a chance, but what we do very closely, is monitor how they’re progressing, so we don’t out them on a course where they’re going to fail. We put them on a course where they’re going to succeed.” 12 David’s story Systems and Structures

Assessment needs to be reconceptualised so as to better support teachers &teaching and learners & learning through transitions. How can the performativity stranglehold on institutions be relaxed so that this can be achieved?