Ctlls Unit 2 Planning and Enabling Learning Essay

Initial assessment is the starting point of a learning journey. The information gathered provides a base on which to plan your learner’s progress. Initial assessment is very important so you find out the learners individual needs in order for you to support them appropriately.

Assessment plays a significant role in the learning experience of students. It determines their progression through their programmes and enables them to demonstrate that they have achieved the intended learning outcomes. It is assessment that provides the main basis for public recognition of achievement, through the awarding of qualifications and/or credit.

A child will be assessed by an educational psychologist if there are concerns about their intellectual, communication and behavioural development. Assessments can be arranged by the SENCO or independently. The aim of the assessments is to find out why the child is not progressing and what support is needed in order for them to progress. Specific learning difficulties are often identified in this way such as Dyslexia, AHAD, Dyspraxia. Support and targets for the child are then set to help them achieve. The outcome of the assessments may involve the child referred to other professionals e.g. occupational therapist, optometrist, speech and language therapist, psychiatrist. The psychologist will advise the school on how to promote development for example, keeping verbal instructions simple. Keep stories and group activities short to match attention span.

Assessment is carried out through formative (checks throughout the course), ipsative (to test against previous marks), and/ or summative (at end of course) activities to help the learner see their development whilst allowing the Assessor to give valuable feedback when appropriate. It’s purpose is to measure the learners understanding of the subject against the anticipated outcomes set by the criteria.

B. Inclusive learning, e.g. the use of different delivery methods, resources and adapting session plans.

This essay will focus on discussing the statement above, critically analysing the concepts of curriculum design, inclusive practice and effective practice. Curriculum design will look at the formal and informal elements of the curriculum and the learners’ own expectations of what their learning experience will do for them. Inclusive practice will show how I endeavour to ensure my teaching is personalised to individual learners, my own definition and experience of inclusive practice is, in turn, linked to my own cultural context of learning. Effective practice will include how a wide range of individuals, each with different expectations in terms

I believe I have effectively achieved this as my unit has been scaffolded to provide all students high-equality learning experiences free from discrimination, personalised learning that aims to fulfil diverse learning needs and an environment for students to be active in their own learning. Inclusive strategies such as group work, whole class discussion and whole glass work have been adapted within this unit to “enable a learner with diverse learning needs to participate in learning experiences on the same basis as a learner without divers learning needs” (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority [QCAA], 2015). In addition, as the Melbourne Declaration identifies essential skills for twenty-first century learners –“ in literacy and numeracy- as thinking, creativity, teamwork and communication” (ACARA, 2015), this unit allows students to develop essential skills in literacy and numeracy to think deeply and logically, design and create experiments, plan independently, work collaboratively, communicate ideas, make sense of their world through understanding how things came to be the way they are and provide all students with a pathway

Instructional planning is very important for effective teaching as well designed plans have a correlation with successful teaching. Instructional planning involves planning a lesson to engage students and teach them material and skills. It is important to take the time to plan the lesson to put together what you want students to learn from the lesson and what material will be taught and how. The lesson should have a purpose and should also help students develop certain skills. Teachers can also plan what materials and resources they will be using to teach the lesson. According to our textbook some skills that may be emphasized include informed social criticism, personal development, development of a global perspective, reflection or transmission of cultural heritage. Instructional planning also allows teachers to align their lessons with state and national standards. Instructional planning also helps outline the

After each lesson, the students were assessed on what they learned and their understanding of the lesson. The assessment also gave me an idea of if I needed to go back and review more on the lesson or if I could move on to the next lesson. This unit included the following assessments:

Assessment for Learning is defined as “the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.” (Assessment Reform Group, 1999). A key starting point for this piece of work was ‘Science Inside the Black Box’ (Black and Harrison, 2004, p1) which was written to ”offer advice to teachers on how to interact more effectively with students, on a day-to-day basis, promoting their learning”. They explain that ”formative assessment has both generic features, i.e. features which will apply to learning across all stages and all school subjects, and features which are specific, for example to primary teachers and to individual subjects” (p2).

The Initial / Diagnostic Assessment is used to identify the learners’ strengths and gaps and it can refer to specific or broad skills relevant to the course or Individual Learning Plan. This Diagnostic Assessment assesses the existing course knowledge and what is still needed to learn in the course. This may be part of workplace training needs analysis.

When certain basic needs are met, motivation for learning may arise in the form of a need for self-actualisation. It is clear that feedback is relevant to several of these needs. At level b, safety relates to both physical and psychological security; the latter requires positive feedback from teacher and fellow students for the learner to experience a safe learning environment. On level c we find the ‘belonging needs’ which can be met through friendship, affection, affiliation, all of which require constant feedback from and interaction with the others to be fully experienced. The highest need in the hierarchy, self-fulfilment, may be met by internal cognitive growth, to which the teacher can contribute much, as well as by rich and varied experiences (Curzon, 2006).

It is a kind of assessment that helps teachers determine new students’ prior knowledge, skills, and needs. Using results from this kind of assessment enables teachers to determine where and how to begin instruction as well as the targeted skills those students need to master. In the Middle East, schools call that assessment ‘’ a placement test’’ determining if a new student is to be accepted in the school or not.

Formative assessment can be broadly defined as a form of assessment that focuses on the process of learning for improvement of students’ performance. However, until recently, the definition of formative assessment is still vague and there is no consensus as to what the term ‘formative assessment’ means. Very often, formative assessment may be understood to have similar idea to diagnostics assessment. However, some authors consider these two assessments as two separate practices (Nitko and Brookharts, 2011) with different purposes. While diagnostic assessment is designed before instruction and merely for the sake of planning instruction, formative assessment seeks understanding of the status of the learning with the purpose of identifying next

Validity and reliability are cornerstones to this type of classroom. It is critical for teachers to ensure student assessments used in the classroom possess these qualities. Valid assessments require accurate feedback and exactness of the teacher’s inferences about a student’s ability. Reliable assessments must be both repeatable and dependable. On the assessment continuum there are three types of assessment that can be delivered to students. Each of these categories of assessments serves a different purpose. Diagnostic assessments are given before learning occurs. This type of assessment is used to identify where the students are at in learning right now, as well as any misconceptions they may have. Diagnostic assessments are critical to gathering student information to help teachers plan content to be taught, as well as to differentiate their instruction. Examples of diagnostic assessments would be prior knowledge and skill checks and learning preference surveys. Formative assessments are used while learning is taking place. The aim of this type of assessment is to improve student learning, not just measure it. These assessments can be both formal and informal, and may include quizzes, oral questioning, teacher observations, and think-alouds. Although these assessments are used to evaluate students learning and progress, they should not be factored into a student’s grade. Formative assessments should be used by teachers to guide instruction to