Assessment: an integral part of teaching and learning
The assessment of children’s learning is an essential and on-going part of the teaching and learning process in SESE: in some form it will be a part of every lesson in history, geography and science. Teachers are constantly making judgements about their pupils’ learning as they plan how to introduce and develop topics, concepts and skills, consolidate earlier lessons, assess the progress of individual pupils, identify difficulties, and praise and encourage learners.
Assessment enhances the teacher’s awareness of each individual’s learning, provides accurate information about the child’s understanding and skills, and creates a picture of the child’s holistic development throughout the broad range of curricular areas. It provides the basis for decisions about the pupil’s further learning needs, assists in planning better educational experiences and is a natural element of a progressive child-centred curriculum.
Roles of assessment: why assess in SESE?
Assessment enhances teaching and learning in a number of ways. Primarily, assessment in SESE, as in other areas of the curriculum, should assist in planning and supporting future learning for the child. Assessment should indicate the positive achievements of each pupil as he/she is engaged in the study of historical, geographical and scientific topics and should indicate possible areas of development in the child’s learning. Used in this way, assessment plays a constructive, formative role in the child’s education. Information gained about the child’s learning will be used primarily by the teacher but it will also involve the pupil in self-evaluation and in the setting of personal learning targets.
Assessment will also indicate areas of learning difficulty encountered by the child. The learning difficulties identified in SESE may include weaknesses in the child’s understanding, gaps in his/her knowledge or a lack of certain skills. As assessment fulfils this diagnostic role, it should help the teacher to identify approaches or learning experiences which would help to improve the child’s learning. At times learning difficulties may be identified in one aspect of the child’s historical, geographical or scientific development, but on other occasions a weakness encountered in one area of SESE will reveal information about the child’s learning in the other SESE curricula. Many teaching and learning experiences in history, geography and science draw on and use a wide range of skills and concepts, so SESE may also provide valuable opportunities to gain evidence of a child’s progress in areas such as mathematics, language and social development.
Assessment should provide an indication of the child’s overall achievement in a systematic way at regular intervals. Assessment may be used to fulfil this summative role when teachers seek to establish the outcomes of learning following the completion of a unit of work or when they report to audiences beyond the child, for example when they communicate with parents or other teachers about the child’s progress.
Assessment can also help the teacher to evaluate the suitability of the SESE programme selected by the teacher and school for a particular age group and can assist the teacher in assessing the effectiveness of the educational resources, methodologies and approaches deployed. Used in this evaluative role, assessment can help to identify how the learning experience could be improved for the child.
Assessment and the nature of history: what should be assessed?
If assessment is to fulfil these roles successfully it must be valid, i.e. it must seek to measure and report the child’s progress and achievements in all aspects of the history curriculum. The history curriculum is constructed on the premise that history can make a unique and valuable contribution to the education of the child if it involves the simultaneous acquisition of knowledge about aspects of the past, the development of historical skills and the cultivation of important attitudes. The assessment of children’s progress in history must reflect this approach to the subject in order to ensure the validity of the assessment and to avoid distortion of the curriculum by assessment techniques. Therefore, assessment techniques used in history must seek to assess progress in children’s knowledge of the past, their ability to use historical skills and their development of attitudes.
Strands and strand units
The strands and strand units of the history curriculum outline the knowledge areas of the curriculum and suggest ways in which historical skills may be developed as these units of work are completed. The objectives and italicised exemplars indicate the range of knowledge which may be expected at each level, and the section Planning a unit of work in the accompanying teacher guidelines illustrates how these may form the basis of teaching and learning activities. The knowledge base of these units should form one aspect of assessment.
The arrangement of the strands and strand units gives considerable flexibility to schools and teachers in the selection of appropriate topics for the history programme while at the same time giving guidance on the balance to be achieved in the curriculum. The curriculum makes it clear that in infant classes and in first and second classes much of the work suggested might be delivered through integrated themes and topics, and assessment should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate this pedagogical approach.
Assessment techniques will also have to take cognisance of the wide range of units from which the content of the programme may be selected in the middle and senior classes and the criteria which should inform the planning of a broad and balanced history curriculum (outlined on pp. 36–38 and 56–58 of the curriculum).
The flexibility offered by the curriculum and the requirements that children study elements from local, national and international contexts and from the early, middle and modern periods of history make comprehensive planning, effective summative assessment and recordkeeping essential within the school.
Working as an historian
An equally important aspect of assessment in history will be concerned with the development and application of historical skills achieved by pupils. At each level in the curriculum the section Working as an historian outlines the historical skills and concepts which should be developed as children study the topics described in the strand units of content. The objectives and the exemplars listed under each heading in these sections are intended to indicate the degree of skill which should be expected at each level, and, as in the case of knowledge objectives, the section Planning a unit of work in the teacher guidelines illustrates how the development of these skills may form an integral part of the teaching and learning process.
The assessment of skills is a complex activity for a number of reasons. Firstly, skills, by their very nature, are concerned with process, activity and application and are therefore less readily assessed by techniques which rely on a final written or other product. The level at which a primary school child applies historical skills is demonstrated best in the context of activity and discussion of people, events and objects from the past. The child will use historical skills when working individually, but frequently they are observed more readily in group work or class discussions. Thus, if assessment is to be a valid indicator of the child’s historical understanding, it must seek to record and acknowledge the ability which the child demonstrates through a range of activities in varied learning situations.
Secondly, the development of historical skills is not linear or hierarchical. The curriculum presents historical skills in a series of four graduated statements in order to assist teachers in providing for the development of skills in a systematic way, but the acquisition of these skills is rarely achieved in a neat, progressive manner. Children’s historical understanding does not progress smoothly from level to level in a consistent way, and it is affected by a range of factors.
In particular, children’s ability to apply historical skills is developed in the context of the people, events and evidence from the past which they encounter: while children may be able to use certain skills when discussing an event with which they are familiar, they may be unable to apply these skills to the same extent in a less familiar context. Moreover, many children will apply the different historical skills at varying levels: a child may demonstrate a subtle understanding of cause and effect when discussing the motives of a character in the past yet be unable to place the events in question in their chronological context.
The assessment of children’s historical skills is concerned therefore with describing a complex and organic process which cannot be monitored in a precise way because of the nature of the child’s historical thinking and because the substance of history—its events, personalities, sources, questions, inferences and interpretations—are variable, complex and interconnected. Assessment must involve the use of tools which can accommodate the subtleties of this learning process and assess children’s learning in the context of the elements of the past with which they are familiar.
Values, attitudes and responsibilities
Assessment in history will also be concerned with values and attitudes which are developed in the child as he/she is engaged in the study of historical topics. The curriculum stresses the role which history may play in cultivating open, questioning attitudes to the beliefs, values and motivations of others, a tolerance towards various ethnic, cultural, religious and social groups, a sense of responsibility for the preservation of heritage, and a sense of local, national, European and global identity.
These attitudes are fostered by a balanced curriculum of historical topics from local, national and international contexts in which the child is encouraged to apply the skills of the historian in an open, critical way. As in the case of skills, a child’s development of these attitudes can only be gauged in the context of authentic discussions and learning situations. Assessment of the child’s attitudes in history must therefore rely strongly on the teacher’s observations and his/her judgement of the child’s approach to historical topics and activities.
Assessment tools: how to assess
In the light of the various roles which assessment in history must fulfil and the need to assess children’s knowledge of the past and their development of skills and attitudes, a range of assessment tools and approaches will be necessary. These will range from the less structured and more informal means of assessment to more structured and formal approaches. Generally, the assessment techniques used should arisenaturally out of teaching and learning, and their effectiveness will be dependent on crucial teacher skills of observation, listening, interacting with pupils and scrutinising the outcomes of learning tasks used in history.
The following are among the assessment tools which schools will find most useful in history:
teacher observation
teacher-designed tasks and tests
work samples, portfolios and projects
curriculum profiles.
It should be understood that it may not be practicable or desirable to use all these tools in every learning situation or within a particular time span.
Teacher observation
Observations and professional judgements made by the teacher in the classroom provide some of the most immediate and accurate information about pupils’ learning, and they will be used constantly by the teacher in history lessons. Much can be gleaned from observing and noting children’s responses in a variety of situations, including:
- the responses pupils make to the teacher’s questions and suggestions
- the participation of pupils in whole-class discussions of historical characters, of their motives and actions, and of events in the past
- the interaction of pupils with each other in discussions and in group work
- the reaction of pupils to learning materials and learning tasks designed by the teacher
- the ways in which pupils react to and use historical evidence.
Teacher observation provides a continuing assessment of children’s achievements in knowledge, skill and attitudinal aspects of history and can therefore play important formative and diagnostic roles and facilitate feedback to the learner. The child’s success in developing and applying historical skills—such as the recognition of cause and effect, the handling of evidence, and the empathy he/she displays for others— is best observed in action, and so informal teacher observation may often be the only way in which an accurate estimation of the child’s progress may be made.
Many observations will occur spontaneously as children engage in learning activities, express an interest in an historical topic or piece of evidence. However some observations may be planned or structured: for example, a teacher may decide to observe the work of particular pupils with learning difficulties or the discussion within a particular group in the classroom.
Some of the learning behaviours of children may be noted informally by teachers so as to help in organising the future educational experiences suitable for individual learners. At times teachers may find that making a simple written note of their observations can make the planning of further work for an individual, group or whole class more focused and systematic.
Teacher-designed tasks and tests
Throughout the units of the history curriculum, teachers will identify opportunities for pupils to engage in a range of tasks. These will have a number of purposes: some will be designed to reinforce aspects of lessons, some will be designed to engage the child in asking questions and thinking about historical events or people, others will promote a range of historical skills. As well as contributing to the learning process, the reaction of pupils to these tasks will indicate their progress in history.
A wide variety of tasks should be used, including:
- telling and retelling of events and stories
- oral, written and pictorial accounts and descriptions of sites visited or people interviewed
- construction of timelines, varying from simple ‘episodes in a story’ lines to more complex lines of historical periods
- work cards or activity sheets which guide and stimulate children in the examination of evidence or in researching a topic
- trail booklets which help the child to examine the evidence of the past in the environment or in an exhibition
- maps of historical sites
- role-playing or dramatising a conversation or event
- speculating on the feelings, emotions and motives of a character so as to create a spoken or written account (e.g. what Strongbow told his friend about Diarmaid Mac Murchú following their first meeting, the letter a nineteenth-century emigrant wrote to her mother in Ireland)
- drawing or completion of drawings
- model-making
- compilation of a book on a particular historical topic or the presentation of project work using information and communication technologies
- projects completed on historical themes
- interactive, multimedia computer programs which enable children to explore historical topics and complete a range of tasks, puzzles or problems. These programs adjust to the child’s level of knowledge or skill, give the child immediate feedback on his/her progress and, in some cases, may record information for the teacher about the progress of a number of pupils. Although useful, these programs may be of limited use in assessing historical skills
- results of the child’s independent historical research
- teacher-designed revision test on a unit or units of work.
Using a range of these learning activities means that assessment is intimately linked to the teaching and learning process and that the child’s progress is assessed in the context of the historical material with which he/she is familiar. Tasks may help to assess both the children’s knowledge of historical topics and their ability to apply historical skills, and the information they supply can be used for formative, diagnostic and summative purposes.
The use of a range of tasks encourages all children to demonstrate the fullest extent of their historical understanding. The inclusion of tasks in media other than writing will enable the teacher to assess more accurately the level of historical understanding of pupils with less welldeveloped literacy skills. For example, some pupils may have absorbed considerable knowledge of the social conditions and technology of a period which is best demonstrated in the detail of model-making; others may have developed a keen sense of empathy which might only be expressed in role play.
Work samples, portfolios and projects
The compilation of a range of samples of a child’s work to form a history portfolio provides a systematic means whereby his/her progress can be documented and assessed over a term, a year or a longer period. Depending on the school’s assessment policy and the need to make the handling, scrutiny and storage of the portfolios manageable, they may contain examples of work in progress or ‘best samples’ of finished pieces together with teachers’ comments.
Just as teacher tasks need to be varied so as to allow all children to express their development in a range of media, the portfolios should be sufficiently flexible to record achievement in a range of areas. Written accounts or drawn items are readily included, but completed work cards and booklets, teacher-prepared tests, computer disks (or other methods of electronic storage), photographs of models and perhaps audio tapes of retellings or dramatisations might also be enclosed. Older children can be responsible for the maintenance of their own portfolios, so gaining a pride in their own achievements, and this can be enhanced further by encouraging pupils to select their own ‘best samples’ for inclusion.
Reviewing the contents of the portfolio with the pupil can encourage the child in self-assessment of his/her own work and in the setting of personal learning targets. It also provides an excellent basis for the reporting of pupils’ achievements to teachers, parents and others, and it allows remaining weaknesses to be identified. In addition, the systematic analysis of history portfolios can allow the teacher to evaluate the content, methodologies and approaches which he/she has used over a term or year.
The use of portfolio assessment is especially suited to the assessment of history (and other areas in SESE) for a number of reasons: these include the diverse nature of the history curriculum, the need for the child to explore thoroughly the history of the locality and the need to form a balanced assessment of children’s progress in the development of skills and attitudes as well as knowledge. Therefore, portfolio assessment will be a major component in the range of assessment tools used in history.
Curriculum profiles
Curriculum profiles provide a means of recording systematically children’s progress and achievements as they are observed by the teacher. The profile consists of indicators of achievement, i.e. short phrases which describe the range of knowledge, skills and attitudes which might be expected of the child at different stages in his/her development. At times groups or sets of these indicators may be formed to provide a more general description of the child’s progress at a number of particular levels or stages. Teachers seek to match their observations of pupils to the indicators in the profiles as work is undertaken or completed on a unit and at other regular intervals. By marking or highlighting indicators as they are achieved by the child, the profile can also serve recording and reporting functions.
The section Working as an historian in the history curriculum would provide an important basis for the development of at least some of the indicators to be included in a history profile; other indicators would refer to the knowledge base of the units to be chosen by the school. The development of suitable history profiles would facilitate greatly the reliable and valid assessment of the history curriculum.
Curriculum profiles provide a means of organising, systematising and recording teachers’ observations which provide some of the most reliable data about pupils’ progress in all aspects of history. The profile can also create an efficient system of record-keeping and reporting within the school. If updated at regular intervals throughout the year it will provide an excellent summative record for reporting to parents and others.
A balanced approach to assessment in SESE
The primary aim of all assessment is to enhance the learning experiences of the child, and it will be important that the assessment techniques utilised in history and other areas of SESE should not detract unduly from teaching time. The school’s policy for history should guide teachers in using assessment tools in a manageable and reliable way which is closely integrated with teaching and learning. The development and use of common approaches to recording teacher observations and the outcomes of learning experiences, and the compilation of portfolios and curriculum profiles, will facilitate a balanced and practical approach to assessment in the school.
Recording and communicating
Teacher observations, teacher-designed tasks and tests and work samples, portfolio and projects, together with curriculum profiles and pupil profile cards, constitute a comprehensive system of assessing and recording each child’s progress and achievements in the history programme. The pooling and discussion of this information among the teaching staff can enable teachers to share expertise and develop a common understanding of pupils’ progress and assessment in SESE (a process referred to as moderation). Such co-operation can help to ensure continuity and reliability in the use of the assessment tools.
The range of assessment tools in SESE should provide essential information about the child’s learning for pupils, teachers, schools, parents and other professionals and so facilitate future decisions about the child’s learning. Teacher-parent discussions will provide opportunities for parental feedback and will enhance the overall assessment of the child.
Pupil profile card
The recording and communication of this information about the child’s progress will be facilitated by the use of a pupil profile card. The pupil profile card, which may be developed for use in all primary schools, should contain a summative assessment of the child’s progress in all curricular areas and of other aspects of his/her development.
The teacher’s professional judgement of the child’s development in history, based on the outcomes of teaching, learning and assessment throughout the year, will form one aspect of the profile card. The section of the profile card for SESE should be sufficiently flexible to allow for the highly integrated nature of the area in the infant, first and second classes. As it should provide a basis for the planning of the child’s future learning in another class or school, it should include, or be accompanied by, information regarding the selection of historical topics which the child has explored.
The possibilities and advantages offered by information technology in facilitating the recording, storage and transfer of pupil profile records should be explored and if possible used in the compilation of any widely used pupil profiling system.