TEACHER LEARNING ACADEMY STAGE 1 EXAMPLE FOR INGOT ASSESSORS
The Teacher Learning Academy (TLA) is operated by the General Teaching Council for England to provide professional recognition of teachers' continuing professional development.
TLA AND INGOT ASSESSOR PRACTICE
The INGOT assessor model provides a particularly good set of progressive opportunities for an assessor to provide the evidence needed to achieve recognition on the 4 TLA stages of the TLA framework. Here is an example presentation that would be suitable for TLA Stage 1. The focus of the example is the development of the teacher's skills associated with assessing ICT through the Ingot Award scheme. The emphasis should be on what the teacher learns and how this will in turn affect learners in future. Name:Ian E-mail address: ian@zaphod.sch.uk School:INGOT Gold Academy Name of coach/mentor: James Smith/Mark White
PREPARING AND PLANNING YOUR LEARNING JOURNEY
How is your learning related to your school and you role within it?
I am preparing to be an assessor of the Bronze INGOT, an Entry level QCA accredited vocationally related qualification. I am a general class teacher in a primary school and the training and practice will ensure I have appropriate ICT skills as well as the professional skills and knowledge to assess these skills in others and to better support colleagues who are not IT specialists.
What is the relevance of your current knowledge and practice?
I am more confident with functional skills in literacy and numeracy than with ICT and this is generally true for colleagues across the school. While I use computers I have not had any formal training and so I lack some confidence that what I am teaching is founded on best practice.
What is the relevance of the focus, directly or indirectly to pupils' learning?
I know pupils are motivated by rewards and so a recognised ICT qualification should make a considerable difference. The assessment for learning model of the INGOTs will support more personalised learning with self and peer assessment. The entry level qualifications will support the functional skills needed in Key Stage 3 and provide accelerated routes to self-sufficiency in the use of ICT for learners across the phase boundary.
What ethical considerations and potential issues related to diversity and equality of opportunity can you identify?
The digital divide and social inclusion are key issues in contemporary society. The INGOT qualifications can be achieved with entirely free digital resources and are equally accessible to anyone with an internet connection. The courses support understanding of digital ethics but I need to provide balanced views as there are some controversial areas In school, gender is a potential issue as there is a tendency for boys to dominate the provision. I need to be careful to include learning contexts that have cultural relevance across the class.
DIALOGUE WITH MENTOR/COACH
In this project I have two mentors. Mark White, my account manager at the Awarding Body and James Smith Principal Assessor at the INGOT Academy of which my school is a member. I submitted my plans to both and they added some helpful comments resulting in what I have finally presented.
Provide a plan with emphasis on what you will learn as well as what the pupils will learn. Objectives
- To achieve Bronze Assessor Status
- To enable all Year 5 pupils to achieve My First INGOT Entry level 1 qualification to motivate them to further progression
- To enable myself and the pupils to learn about the use of direct criteria matching in the assessment for learning process.
- All pupils in Year 5 achieve a recognised entry level qualification.
General sources of support. INGOT assessors handbook, INGOT web site, mentors, other assessors through INGOT web site forums and e-mail list.
General sources of challenge for planning and implementation. Coping with unknown factors.
Targets and means of achievement Read assessor guide for Bronze INGOT in assessor handbook downloaded from the INGOT web site.
Resources required Access to INGOT web site.
Deadline Before formal training takes place
Success criteria Guide read, basic understanding, clarification from mentors if necessary to review progress. Completed INGOT assessor training course
Resources Course fee, supply cover, travel expenses (£400)
Deadline 31st January 2010 Success Criteria Bronze assessor status achieved Progress review Discussion with James Smith prior to planning into lessons. Identification of opportunities in existing SOW to assess against INGOT criteria.
Resources required Time 3 hours preparation time.
Deadline 7th February 2010
Success criteria Opportunities identified with minimal need for re-writing or adding to SOW in the first instance.
Progress review Discuss any areas of difficulty with mentors. All learners have self/peer-assessed against the criteria with outcomes verified by me as assessor.
Deadline 1st April 2010
Success criteria Learners understand the assessment criteria, all marks recorded in INGOT on-line mark book.
Progress review Brief contact with mentors, exchange of views and any subsequent action for improvement Final verification of assessment completed with certificates awarded.
Deadline 1st June 2010
Success criteria All learners have a recognised entry level qualification verified by mentor and account manager Mark White.
Progress review Full evaluation of targets and outcomes reporting to James Smith with summary of recommendations for improvement. Learner questionnaire complete. Outcomes copied to Mark White to inform national assessor programme. Presentation to staff on INSET day with presentation available to others from the school web site. Feedback from JS ad MW before finalising the presentation.
SUMMARY OF LEARNING JOURNEY
The INGOT handbook provided a good overview of the BRONZE INGOT expanding the criteria in more detail so that I understood how to interpret them at appropriate levels. This improved my understanding of the level of competence expected. The links to the National Occupational Standards in the resources section of the INGOT web site made me realise that a lot of what is expected in the world of work in ICT is achievable in a primary school. This together with e-mail and telephone and face to face discussions with my mentors prepared me well for the training day.
The training day covered much more ground than I needed initially but enabled me to see how progression from the lowest level certificates supports coherent curriculum planning that is compatible with the national curriculum without major upheaval. I learnt how to manage pupils, enter marks in the on-line mark book and award certificates. There is a strong ethical strand running through the INGOTs such that there is never a specific need for learners to buy software and resources are freely available at home and at school. A key aim of the programme is to enable learners to become self-sufficient in using resources freely available from the internet to support their learning. This promotes inclusion and enables learners to appreciate legal issues associated with intellectual property. I learnt about copyright and the importance of open systems to digital freedom in an increasingly digital world and this enables me to pass on some of these ideas to learners as well as colleagues and being better informed in my on use of digital resources.
On reviewing the SOW for numeracy, literacy and art I found many opportunities to assess against the My First INGOT criteria. It wasn't necessary to write a separate new scheme for this accreditation but I did have to make some time to explain the assessment criteria and methods to the learners. I was surprised at how the additional motivation of certification gave them more focus and concentration and all were keen to get their certificates and badges. As a result of discussions with my mentor JS, I was able to use the optional coloured certificates to extend the motivation to most aspects of the curriculum. By using learning contexts already planned with equality of opportunity in mind, I avoided polarisation and feedback from the girls through the pupil questionnaire was equally as favourable as with the boys.
The learners needed some help with self-assessment initially as, after review, I decided to make large wall posters of the criteria for constant reference simplifying the language. This worked well and the children are now ready to use self and peer assessment in most lessons.
In practice, assessment occurred on a more natural and regular basis than planned because the learners really got into the spirit of setting themselves targets once they understood what was expected.
FINAL EVALUATION
What I have learnt? I have improved my own basic skills in ICT and my understanding of the ethics of digital information. I am much more confident in tackling ICT and I have a better insight into the use of rewards as a motivator to learners. The pupils' questionnaire showed they found getting “grown up” certificates very motivating and satisfying and they are keen to start on the next level. I have given a presentation to colleagues and a summary of the key learning issues has been posted on the school web site. The next step for me is to become an assessor trainer so that I can confer assessor status to colleagues.
