Category Archives: Assessment

Assessment, Education News

Route maps through assessment for National 4 & 5

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Minister for Learning, Dr Alasdair Allan recently put in place a package of support for secondary schools to help deliver the new National Qualifications. This support included new route maps through Assessment and these are now being published on the Education Scotland website.

Click here for more information: route maps through assessment

Developed by Education Scotland, in partnership with the SQA, these provide sequenced list of main messages and links for National 4 and National 5.  These guides will provide reassurance of the key documents and the sequence they should be used in. This can help teachers to reflect on their approaches this year, ensure they’ve done all they need to do and prepare for next year.  They are step by step  guides and will help practitioners ensure they have referred to the key guidelines and advice for learning, teaching and assessment in the new qualifications. The route maps are being developed for all subjects for the new National Qualifications.  They will also be developed for the new Higher courses and these will be available from the start of the new session.

Assessment, CfE, Dundee, Partnerships

New report on Assessing Creativity across many subjects available on Creativity Portal

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Led by the University of Dundee and funded by Creative Scotland, this project gathered the views of three groups of professionals working within the expressive arts with the aim of identifying effective and innovative models of assessment of creativity. These models were documented and used to develop case studies in the format of a teaching resource for application across the whole curriculum. The resource was piloted and evaluated by the research and development team in collaboration with teachers and initial teacher education (ITE) providers.

Click here to find the downloadable file:

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=assessing+creativity

The project develops the links between arts organisations, schools and ITE providers through data collection; shared analysis and evaluation; and through the development, application and dissemination of findings. In this way stronger partnerships have been established as recommended in Teaching  Scotland’s  Future  (Donaldson  2010)
Assessment, CfE, Education News

New to the National Assessment Resource (NAR)

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https://www.narscotland.org.uk/?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0

Education Scotland has recently published a number of new assessment and moderation exemplars, produced by practitioners, on the National Assessment Resource.  They relate to the following themes:

•           Consistent assessment practice across larger groups, within a school or learning community

•           Moderation across authorities

•           Gaelic

•           Additional Support Needs

•           Early Years

•           Innovative moderation practice

•           E-portfolios

•           P7 profiles linked to faith development in Roman Catholic schools.

The exemplars are available on NAR with easy access using the Quick Links section on the home page.

Assessment, Glow, Midlothian, Shetland

Glow TV events

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Sharing with Shetland – Higher Order Thinking Skills, 24 June, 15.45

http://bit.ly/142PY3w (Repeated on 27 June at 15.45.

Sign up at http://bit.ly/137Sd4t)
Children’s Services (Quality Improvement) are delighted to announce a series of Glow meet sessions to share practice around Shetland schools. Join Pat Brown, Headteacher at Mossbank/Olnafirth, who will share ideas about using philosophy in the primary-school classroom as a valuable approach to Higher Order Thinking Skills.

Assessment Community – Assessing Progress and Achievement, 25 June, 8.20 http://bit.ly/142Q6jv
Join the Education Scotland Assessment Team for a series of Glow Meets taking place in the Assessment Community. This early bird session looks at Assessing Progress and Achievement and will be presented by Anne from the team.

The M Factor Final, 24 June, 19.30

http://bit.ly/14kXGUU

Join the finalists in this year’s M Factor music extravaganza live from Dalkeith High School in Midlothian.

For full details of these and other events, please log in to Glow and view the current schedule:
https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/GlowTV/tvpages/Schedule.aspx
(Glow log-in and password required).

Assessment, College CLNs, CPD, Education News, Technologies

Festival of Dangerous Ideas – free events

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Tuesday  18th June
Wild Ideas – Celebrating Failure and Success (1000-1500)
West Highland College UHI, Carmichael Way, Fort William

In the first part of the day, the West Highland Way Walkers who will just have completed their 5 day walk, led by young people from West Highland College  will exhibit the dangerous ideas that grew during their journey in the  wild. In the second half of the day, Outward Bound will lead a session that will explore how they have used the research on Mindsets to develop their work with young people

View Programme and Book Online

Wednesday 19th am and pm

Modern Assessment Tools to Match Modern Literacy Practices in These Dangerous Times

College Development Network, Argyll Court, Stirling (1030-1230)

In order for pedagogy to stay aligned with this seismic shift in communication, how could the ubiquitous practice of digital photography be used as an assessment tool?

View Programme and Book Online

Dangerous Assessment Conference (1300-1600)
College Development Network, Argyll Court, Stirling
Alastair Pollitt from UCLES will put forward the argument that we stop marking exam papers.

View Programme and Book Online

Thursday 20 June 2013
Learning Through Gaming (1000-1600)
Dundee College, Gardyne Campus

As part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, participants at the event are encouraged be as ‘dangerous’ as possible in considering how gaming can influence pedagogy and encourage greater engagement with learning.

Speakers include Chris van der Kuyl of brightsolid, Derek Robertson of Education Scotland and David Renton of Reid Kerr College.

View Programme and Book Online

Assessment, Research

Assessing Creativity – OECD working paper

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The OECD has published an interesting working paper on research to establish the viability of creating an assessment framework for tracking the development of young people’s creativity in schools:
The Centre for Real-World Learning (CRL) at the University of Winchester was commissioned to undertake this research by Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) in partnership with the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI).
The paper includes:
  • Why assessing creativity in schools matters
  • The pros and cons of assessing creativity
  • Guiding principles used for the research
  • The development, testing and refinement of a prototype tool
  • Conclusions and next steps
It is interesting to compare the five creative dispositions identified for the study, with the five creative attributes we are looking at in Scotland. This research model explores the following five core dispositions of the creative mind:
  • Inquisitive
  • Persistent
  • Imaginative
  • Collaborative
  • Disciplined
The Education Scotland Creativity Review has identified the following five core creative attributes:
  • Inquisitive;
  • Open-minded;
  • Imaginative;
  • Able to identify and solve problems;
  • Confident in their right and ability to influence change
Assessment, CPD, Events, Research

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas

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13 – 21 June 2013 at various venues across Scotland


The Festival of Dangerous Ideas aims to re-establish the importance of dangerous ideas as agents of change in education – to shift the axis of what is possible!

You might be interested in the following events:

Dangerous Assessment

This conference will address the following questions:

  • how do we assess a diverse range of evidence?
  • how do we assess creative thinking?
  • do we trust our own professional judgements?

http://events.collegedevelopmentnetwork.ac.uk/events/show/4685

Thinking Dangerously in teacher education: Walking, drawing and extending sites for learning

The University of the West of Scotland will share initial findings from its Creative Scotland funded research project which responds to the Donaldson Report, ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’.
http://events.collegedevelopmentnetwork.ac.uk/events/show/4671

Click here for full details of The Festival of Dangerous Ideas Programme

Assessment, Careers and Pathways, Glow, Literacy, Science, Social Studies

Glow TV events coming up

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The Vikings! at the National Museum of Scotland
4 March 2013, 2.00 pm
http://bit.ly/glowvikings

What were the Vikings really like? Fierce warriors in horned helmets or peaceful farmers and traders? Join experts at the National Museum of Scotland to explore some amazing real and replica Viking objects, which might help you to decide what they were like.

Assessment Community – Using Glow to Support Assessment
6 March, 2013, 8:20 am
http://bit.ly/usingglowforassessment

This is one of a series of Glow Meets taking place in the Assessment Community and will be hosted by Jem Anderson from the team. NB: This same event will also run on Thursday 7 March at 3.45 pm.

Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony
7 March 1.30 pm

http://bit.ly/13pKgth

Celebrate World Book Day with the 1000-strong audience in the Caird Hall by watching the 2012 Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony live in Glow.

There will be readings, music, illustration, Oscar-worthy drama performances, song, readings, interviews, all of the shortlisted authors and illustrators and of course, the announcement of the wining books as chosen by over 32,000 children across Scotland.

Women and Science in Scotland: Careers that Science can Offer
8 March, 11.30 am

http://bit.ly/YZ6flh

On International Women’s Day on 8 March Glow TV will be going to the European Parliament in Edinburgh for a special event.

The event will feature a panel of speakers, all of whom studied science and have gone on to a range of different careers, talking about their experiences and what led them to study a science subject.

Daily What Newsround
8 March 2013, 11.00 am

http://bit.ly/YI45sr

Join us for another fun round up of the news with quizzes, missing words and a unique take on the week’s events. Melissa and Andrea with a special guest make the top stories accessible and enjoyable for young people. You might win one of our new “I made the News Today” Daily What badges for your contribution

For full details of these and other events, please log in to Glow and view the current schedule

(Glow login and password required)

Assessment, Education News, Resources

Taking a closer look at the National Assessment Resource: A professional learning resource

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Education Scotland’s assessment team has published a professional learning resource for practitioners.  It provides an opportunity to reflect on effective practice in learning, teaching and assessment, drawing on the work published on the National Assessment Resource (NAR).  It also provides a structured look at the NAR flow chart as a tool for planning effective learning, teaching, moderation and assessment.

The resource can be ‘dipped into’ by individual practitioners keen to reflect and improve on their assessment practice as well as pairs, groups of practitioners, associated school groups (ASGs) or clusters working collegiately to reflect on and improve practice.

The resource can be downloaded here: TACLAN_onlinepdf

Assessment, Education News

New support materials for S3 profiling

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From June 2013 all young people in S3 will produce a profile which reflects their progress and achievements.

Further support for schools for the implementation of the profiling process, with a focus on S3, is now available in the National Assessment Resource (NAR) in the form of exemplar case studies, learner profiles and ‘snapshots’ of learner comments.

Use the S3 Profiles quick link on the National Assessment Resource homepage to access the materials. https://www.narscotland.org.uk (Requires Glow or SQA Connect login).