Tag Archives: health and wellbeing

Talk with us…about exemplification

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In our 10th December discussion day, exemplification of learning and teaching within the broad general education and senior phase was discussed as being helpful to practitioners.

One of Education Scotland’s approaches to this within the sciences is through STEM Central, our web based resource which provides rich, stimulating and challenge contexts for learning, exemplifying how to make connections between sciences, technologies and mathematics in strong Scottish contexts. The contexts published to date include energy-saving house, electric transport, water, renewables, bioengineering, games and sound, with our latest context “Rescue Vehicles” going live very soon.

Within each context is a selection of teaching ideas, activities, videos and interactives, designed to help practitioners plan learning and teaching, identifying and using quality STEM resources from partners and the web. Learning journeys also exemplify how to incorporate responsibilities for all, and develop capabilities, attributes and higher-order thinking skills.

Practitioners working with colleagues have found it helpful to use the learning journeys as the basis for talking together to understand standards. STEM Central has also been used to support primary / secondary cluster work to plan for progression through the broad general education. In this context, as well as using the STEM Central resources directly, staff have found that they can use the STEM Central approaches as the basis for their own planning.

Learning and teaching in the Senior Phase is also exemplified through our published advice and guidance.  Over the last six months this has included advice, guidance and exemplification of themes for learning such as Food Security, Energy Security and Health, as well as exemplfication of learning and teaching to support skills development.

Recently published Professional Focus Papers highlight important features of learning which are enhanced or different from previous arrangements at SCQF 4 and 5.

How are you using exemplfication as the basis for professional dialogue, planning for learning and teaching or directly in your classroom?

Talk with us…about assessment

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The Sciences 3-18 Curriculum Area Impact Project report has much to consider around the issue of assessment. Within the report are many examples of good practice in which quality assessment is a feature, and which exemplifying the range of assessment approaches and appropriate evidence across all sectors.

Good Practice Examples 10, 11, 17, 29, 30, 31

The report summarises the national picture as follows:

“Although progress is being made towards developing a range of approaches to assessment, there is much scope for improvement in this area across all sectors. The focus in most primary schools has been on developing programmes and assessment approaches for literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. At this stage, most staff are not yet assessing, recording or tracking children’s progress in the sciences in a systematic way. Primary and secondary schools are not yet at the stage where they can provide sufficient evidence of learners’ achievement in the sciences in the broad general education phase. In secondary schools, assessment is still largely of a summative nature and does not reflect progress across the range of experiences and outcomes. In primary and secondary sectors, there is some way to go to ensure that assessment is truly part of learning and teaching and informs learning and next steps.”

How are you developing your understanding of approaches to assessment in your local context? How are you using professional dialogue and moderation to share understanding of what achievement of a level looks like? How are your assessment approaches designed to assess breath, challenge and application?

Education Scotland, in conjunction with SQA, has recently published Making Good Assessment Decisions 3-18  as part of the Education Scotland Sharing Standards and Expectations resource. Further support resources to exemplify these resources are in development.

 

Talk with us…about the sciences 3-18 in Scotland

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The Sciences 3-18 Curriculum Impact Project report, published in September 2012, identifies good practice and highlights important areas for discussion and further development. This report is the first in a series designed to gauge the impact of a changing curriculum on learners’ experiences and achievements.

This blog is one of the ways in which we are supporting on-going dialogue and development. Through this blog, we want to hear from children and young people, parents, practitioners and the wider sciences community about the key messages within the report, and how this can be taken forward.

Visit the Education Scotland website to access The Sciences 3-18 Curriculum Impact Project report, the Summary for Children and Young People and the Summary of Key Strengths and Aspects for Development.