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Home > Reflective Teaching in Primary Schools > 5. Deepening understanding > 18. Professionalism > Reflective Activities > To investigate processes of political activity and decision-making with regard to the assessment reform agenda


  1. 1. Becoming a reflective professional
       1. Identity
       2. Learning
  2.    3. Reflection
  3.    4. Principles
  4.    Observing [supplementary chapter]
  5.    Enquiry [supplementary chapter]
  6.    Mentoring [supplementary chapter]
  7.    Techniques of enquiry
       [supplementary chapter]

  8. 2. Creating conditions for learning
  9.    5. Contexts
  10.    6. Relationships
  11.    7. Engagement
  12.    8. Spaces

  13. 3. Teaching for learning
  14.    9. Curriculum
  15.    10. Planning
  16.    11. Pedagogy
  17.    12. Communication
  18.    13. Assessment

  19. 4. Reflecting on consequences
  20.    14. Outcomes
  21.    15. Social justice
  22.    Judgement
       [supplementary chapter]

  23. 5. Deepening understanding
  24.    16. Teacher expertise
  25.    17. Professional learning
  26.    18. Professionalism
  27.    Starting out [supplementary
       chapter]
  28.    Improvement [supplementary
       chapter]

To investigate processes of political activity and decision-making with regard to the assessment reform agenda

Aim

To investigate processes of political activity and decision-making with regard to the assessment reform agenda.

Evidence and reflection

Working with a small group of colleagues, explore contemporary debates on primary assessment, by connecting to blogs, websites, lobbying organisations and political debates online. A good place to start could be the More Than A Score campaign: morethanascore.org.uk or responses of teaching unions or the British Educational Research Association (BERA).

Newspapers can provide useful sources of easily retrievable information, particularly in terms of policymakers’ responses to reform campaigns. Some, such as The Times, publish an index and this is particularly helpful. The BBC’s and the Guardian’s websites are also particularly good. Comments or threads on Twitter or within Facebook groups may also provide a useful source of information about public opinion, or that of teachers and policymakers.

You may also find events or debates available online which you can either attend or watch retrospectively. These will give you an opportunity to hear directly from those directly seeking to effect change.

Having gathered a variety of evidence about primary assessment, an attempt should be made to classify this evidence so that the competing positions are identified. From this point, it may be possible to gather policy statements directly from the participants, by email, social media, discussion, interview or library search.

Finally, the decision-point can be studied. Were the public arguments influential? To what extent were decisions influenced by public debate e.g. social media? What interests seem to have prevailed when decisions were taken?

Extension

Having studied an example of political influence on decision-making, it is worth taking stock of what has been learned. Did you feel that the political debate reflected appropriate educational concerns? Could educationalists have made more constructive contributions? In what format could their voices be more powerful?


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