Barriers to Learning …

On reading about Barriers to Learning, I first looked at the following website of HMIE Inspectorate where they define Assessment as being….

‘Formative assessment describes all those processes by which teachers and learners use information about student’s achievement to improve their achievements. So it’s about using information to adapt your teaching, to adapt the work of your pupils to put the learning back on track … to make sure the learning is proceeding in the right direction and to support that learning. So it’s what happens when you don’t just lecture students and rattle through the material and then ask them if they understood OK.’  Dylan Wiliam, Nov 2006 

Broadly speaking there are two kinds of assessment used in education – summative and formative. They differ mainly in terms of their purpose, how the evidence gathered will be used and by whom.

THis is there link

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/journeytoexcellence/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/rsassessment.asp

where I encountered the terminology Formative Assessement and Summative Assessment and they provided a tablature example of these concepts….

Formative Assessment 

Mainly about improvement 

Key questions

How well are you doing?

What progress has he made?

What does she need to do now?

• Tends to be forward looking: part of the learning process, ongoing and continuous, used as an aid to future progress. 
• Mainly used to diagnose needs, to provide feedback to help learners learn and to help teachers improve teaching.
• Casts teacher in the role of facilitator.
• Favours the use of classroom assessment planned as part of the lesson.
• Tends to take more time, is relative to individual pupils, is less easily generalised and more subjective.

Summative Assessment 

Mainly about accountability

Key questions

How good are you?

Is she at level E yet?

Can he do his 6 times table?

• Tends to be backward looking: to come at the end of a learning process, often separate from it and indicate present or past achievement.
• Mainly used to provide information to others about how much learners have learned for certification and accountability.
• Casts teacher in the role of judge.
• Favours the use of formal standardised tests, usually devised and sometimes scored by someone other than the teacher.
• These are short, cheap and easy to score, but usually lack validity, especially when used for accountability purposes.

I do look at the above factors when I think of the barriers to assessment as initial factors of not being able to read, count, etc , are essential for our practice, however, strategies can be found and another way around musicianship learning can be found in such a way that is beneficial to the student.

On reading this entire website based site I was fascinated by the approaches, research and findings that ‘The Black Box’ Report revealed in relation to barriers and how to overcome them…as in musicianship and within my project we have huge difficulties that include ethnicity, language barriers, cultural barriers, religious barriers, etc….the list is endless and we have to find ways to get around them or integrate some of the cultural, religious, ethnicity aspects into our teaching even although we are a Traditional Scottish Music Project….

I have highlighted my key points to which I find there is a valid and poignant message for me…..

Black and Wiliam’s research came up with three main findings.

1. Where assessment for learning is implemented effectively, it raises standards of achievement across the board, but particularly for low achievers. It reduced the spread of attainment while raising the bar for everyone. Where pupils are given better quality support and feedback, and are encouraged and empowered to take more responsibility, they learn more effectively. 
2. There are common barriers that inhibit the development of assessment for learning in schools, namely:
   • the over-reliance on testing that encourages teachers to promote rote and superficial learning
   • the negative impact on pupils when the giving of marks, grades and levels is over-emphasised and where pupils are compared with one another; and
   • the focus on the managerial role of assessments at the expense of learning.
3. There were many excellent of examples of good practice that schools could use to develop their own assessment procedures.

and the examples of how the above could be gotten around….

Assessment for Learning. 

• Finding out where pupils are in their learning through discussion and questioning. 
• Teachers agreeing clear objectives with pupils and providing feedback that helps them to achieve these goals. 
• Sharing criteria for success and expectations with pupils through sharing learning intentions and success criteria with pupils.
• Making peer and self-assessment key components of learning.
• Enabling young people to take greater ownership of their learning.

This entire site makes me think about how to modify my assessment practice and the barriers that I face with my students. It is insightful, not only in spotting the barriers, but about how to deal with them successfully and provides invaluable steps in which to modify, although small changes, then to greater change little tiny details such as waiting a little longer before selecting a candidate to answer a question, the hands up rule, traffic light system …I will be implementing these into my practice and making reference to this in relation to enhancing teaching ethics but also to control the medium of digital technology using assessment methods … and indicators to barriers …

In general and overall, we do not tend to have many barriers as the children are there for fun, pleasure and to be sociable whilst within  a music education environment…however, there is a need to be mindful that barriers, triggers and responses are there to be monitored, assessed and evaluated and there is no reason why practical etiquette and good classroom ethics cannot be applied in our centres….