The QCDA leave the answer to the question about how to assess PLTS open, yet at the same time schools are being inspected by Ofsted and told that they are not doing it successfully. In its report, 'Planning for Change; the impact of the new key stage 3 curriculum,' Ofsted cite that, "Personal, learning and thinking skills, with notable exceptions, were usually left to subject departments to arrange, without reference to a whole-school audit of their coverage or consideration of students’ needs." It is clear that Ofsted consider a whole-school audit essential. When a school introduces a system, they will need to ensure that they are able to audit all the possible variables inherent in PLTS assessment as well as judge whether their students are progressing successfully. They will need to ensure that all students understand how to progress as well as knowing where they will have the opportunity to progress and in which skill.
Of all the schools Ofsted inspected, only six schools had attempted to assess students' progress in PLTS, however, Ofsted go on to say, "The six schools that had tried to find ways of assessing students’ progress in these skills had yet to be successful." It seems that schools who are attempting to assess PLTS struggle to get it right, maybe by hoping that they will be able to get by if they just make a small addition to their current assessment arrangements. This is not the right approach. However it is essential to assess students' progress, simply but also effectively.
At the chalk face itself teachers can make a difference, the report states that, "A notable feature of the best practice was the increased time teachers gave for students to reflect on their learning and to assess their own progress and that of their peers." This is the recommended way forward. Any system introduced should allow students, their peers and teachers to reflect on the student's progress in detail. However in order to ensure that all are able to reflect carefully and fairly about what, when, how and where progress is occurring there needs to be an assessment system that links all these areas together. Bearing in mind that this system needs to be able to reflect on a students' progress throughout their learning in the formal and informal curriculum there needs to be agreement as to what that progress looks like throughout the school.
The report goes on to state that, "Five of the schools had considered how they would assess students’ progress in developing these skills. The preferred method was for teachers to record, in the students’ daily planner or in a separate skills ‘passport’, when students demonstrated particular skills. However, the effectiveness of such arrangements was limited. For example, the skill of ‘effective participation’ was recognised and recorded more often than ‘self-management’, not because the former was necessarily used more than the latter but because it was more obvious. The recording showed only where the skills were used, but not whether students had made progress in them." This statement shows the enormity of the task facing schools. A piecemeal approach cannot work.
Schools need to approach the assessment of Personal Learning and Thinking Skills with care. They need to be able to audit the progress of individual and groups of students. They need to know which students need support in their skills acquisition or improvement. Schools need to assess skills effectively. Rather than bringing in cumbersome, unwieldy or just paper based exercises that don't connect the students' true experiences of their improving use of Personal Learning and Thinking Skills, schools must ensure that their assessment recording and reporting of PLTS is simple, effective and informative for all those involved.
Learning conversations between a teacher, the student and their peer can be the backbone to this assessment. Logging the results online, through a simple method of assessment, that is clear to all involved, must be the way forward. An online system would easily connect up all the PLTS assessments for each student and then give a full picture of individual progress. An online solution would enable schools to audit the progress made in PLTS by individuals, groups, and the whole school quickly and informatively, enabling curriculum heads to know how effectively teaching and learning of skills in their school, learning area, department or class is progressing.
An online system, like the one offered by Yesassess, which can do all of this would therefore seem to be the most effective solution.
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