Sunday, November 6, 2011

Assessing and reporting: the bigger picture.


Pedagogy is created when teachers stand in a relationship of concern for their students. Dahlberg (1997) comments: Pedagogy is only generated if you stand in healthy relationship with your co-discussers or in confrontation with the present.

The period of assessing and reporting is as much about creating pedagogy as it is about communicating student achievement. The process involves the use of material as an opportunity to reflect rigorously, methodically and democratically in relationship with others.

It is a time to:

o reflect on educational practice as teacher researchers;

o acknowledge and value students’ thinking;

o present the evidence of how teaching has added to the knowledge and skills of students;

o pause as the teacher, to slow down, and think about how you plan and facilitate learning;

o guide students in meta-cognition; using student work to launch further thinking about their own work;

o build community as reporting gets the attention of parents and provides a shared point of reference for dialogue and involves parents in the ‘school part’ of the learning process;

o involve reciprocal trust by practising confidentiality as we communicate to the student and parents;

It is also a time for teachers to be appreciated and for teachers to appreciate the human dignity of their work as both ministry and profession. 

“Widen the space of your tent, extend the curtains of your home, do not hold back! Lengthen your ropes, make your tent-pegs firm.” Isaiah 54:2