Assessment and recognition of skills
In Curriculum for Excellence, a wider range of learning than before, including the whole range of skills for learning, life and work, needs to be assessed. Effective assessment helps to provide an emerging picture of progress and achievement for all learners as they develop the knowledge, skills and attributes that underpin the four capacities. It also helps young people to understand how their skills are developing, why they are important, and how they can be used across the curriculum and in their lives in and outside the classroom or establishment.
Planning for assessment
The process of assessment involves staff and young people gathering, reflecting on, and evaluating evidence of learning, so they can judge which skills learners are developing and how well they are learning. Curriculum, learning and teaching and assessment are interdependent, so assessment of skills should be part of, rather than separate from, assessment in different areas of the curriculum. Assessment should be an integral part of day-to-day learning and teaching, carefully planned at the same time as programmes and experiences, so that it reflects the learning, provides an emerging picture of progress and achievement in skills for all learners, and enables both staff and learners to play a full part in gathering and evaluating evidence and planning next steps in learning.
Evidence of learning
Assessment of skills will need to be sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of all learners, regardless of where and how their learning takes place. For example, evidence of literacy and thinking skills might be gathered and evaluated as part of developing and presenting solutions to problems or investigations in maths or business; evidence of skills in numeracy and working with others might be gathered and evaluated as part of a group task to monitor local weather patterns in social subjects; evidence of literacy and leadership skills might be gathered and evaluated as part of an outdoor expedition or volunteering task; evidence of health and wellbeing and planning skills might be gathered and evaluated as part of a volunteering task.
Reflecting on the evidence
Well-designed assessment should also help young people to understand why their skills are important, how they are developing and how they can be used across the curriculum and in their lives in and outside the classroom or establishment. By participating in the assessment process and contributing and evaluating their own evidence, young people will develop a better understanding of their skills and attributes and develop a shared appreciation of what is expected of them and how they can improve. For all skills, including skills in health and wellbeing, young people's own evaluations of their learning through self-assessment will make an important contribution to recognising and reporting their achievements, providing them with opportunities to extend their learning, to draw on their learning in a range of contexts and to show what they can do in ways which interest and motivate them.
Sharing expectations and standards
Staff and other partners in learning communities will need to talk and work together to evaluate evidence of progress and achievement and to understand and share expectations and standards around skills development. They need to collaborate to use information from assessment intelligently, each contributing their own perspective on progress and achievement. Working together will help ensure that information about the amount and quality of each young person's learning is both accurate and consistent, and is used as part of improvement planning to promote better learning.
Recording and reporting
Throughout the pre-school and school years, young people's skills development across learning will need to be recognised and captured in records and reports for parents and others. Learning portfolios are a means of keeping evidence of progress and achievement in skills to support learning profiles and reports especially at points of transition. At the end of S3, establishments will recognise young people's achievements through an S3 profile, which will summarise development and progress in skills and could include National Qualifications in literacy and numeracy. The profiling process will also provide a sound basis for making choices and planning future learning pathways.
Certificates and qualifications
From time to time in the course of their skills development, young people will be able to seek recognition or accreditation for their skills in the form of certificates and qualifications. For younger pupils, these may be provided locally by the school or community as a celebration of their achievements, for example, for personal contributions to the school community. They may also seek accreditation of skills through young people's organisations or national awarding bodies, for example in music, ballet, sport or outdoor activities and challenges.
As young people reach S3 and move into the senior phase, local arrangements for recognising achievement will continue to play an important role, but young people will also be able to seek accreditation for their skills through a range of National Qualifications and awards. From S3, National Literacy and National Numeracy qualifications will assess the level learners have reached in literacy and numeracy across a range of contexts relevant to their learning, to everyday life and to work. They will show learners' achievements in these skills at levels 3, 4 and 5 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework ( SCQF). These qualifications will also be available for adult learners.
From 2014 onwards, National Qualifications at all levels will reflect the values, purposes and principles of Curriculum for Excellence including the development of skills, and will have an important role in accrediting the skills that young people and adult learners have acquired through their learning in the senior phase of school and in college. National Qualifications and awards are referenced to the SCQF, which helps employers, learners and the public to understand the full range of Scottish qualifications. It shows how qualifications relate to each other and how they can contribute to improving skills and knowledge.
Guidance and support for assessment
Guidance on assessment, and resources to support assessment for learning (AfL), are available in the published Experiences and Outcomes documentation for each area of the curriculum and on the Learning and Teaching Scotland ( LTS) curriculum and assessment websites. Building the Curriculum: Framework for Assessment is currently in development, and will be published in due course. Support will also be available through a national on-line assessment resource, which is being developed by LTS and the Scottish Qualifications Authority ( SQA) in partnership. This resource will be available in autumn 2010.
Banff and Buchan College
Partnership working with primary and secondary schools to improve employability skills
The college is a key element in the transition between school and the world of work, in particular the energy industries, for the young people in the north-east of Scotland. This programme provides a range of learning opportunities for the young people in the region by raising awareness of the local labour market, of college provision and improving employability.
The strategy is based on a set of key features. First, the college works with primary schools to establish the needs of schools and to introduce pupils to further education and the labour market. A wide range of short practically-based learning experiences are offered to primary schools which can be built into school projects or specific courses appropriate to age and stage.
Secondly, the college works extensively with secondary schools to strengthen partnerships and offer a range of practical and employability programmes, appropriate to age and stage. This approach is helpful to pupils in S2 to make effective subject choices. The college builds this with pupils in S3 and S4 by delivering work related learning programmes, Skills for Work programmes, college experience and vocational taster courses. The college offers S5 and S6 pupils further practical options, based on Higher National provision, to support their school studies. The Higher + programme allows pupils to take elements of Higher National programmes while attending the secondary school.
Skills focus: employability skills.
Potential links to the Experiences and Outcomes:
- I make full use of and value the opportunities I am given to improve and manage my learning and, in turn, I can help to encourage learning and confidence in others.
HWB 0-11a / HWB 1-11a / HWB 2-11a / HWB - I have experienced the different jobs involved in running a business enterprise and understand the role each one plays in its success.
SOC 1-22a - By experiencing the setting up and running of a business, I can collaborate in making choices relating to the different roles and responsibilities and have evaluated its success.
SOC 2-22a - I can use the terms profit and loss in buying and selling activities and can make simple calculations for this.
MNU 2-09c - When participating in a collaborative enterprise activity, I can develop administrative and entrepreneurial skills which contribute to the success of the activity.
TCH 3-07a