First Principle Thinking

All schools are complex ‘ecosystems’, with many variables contributing to student outcomes. Similarly, students are equally complex as participants in the learning process and as individuals in their own right. When discussing any aspect of learning and teaching, the school and the student together offer a constant challenge to curriculum planners and assessment policy-makers. The school is an umbrella entity or a totality, while the student is unique and an ’individual’. The challenge is having a school that operates in a manner that is cohesive in its planning, delivery, and communication of learning with limited resources, and yet, where possible, responds to the individual student's needs. These are constantly in tension with limited resources including time, money and staff. Accordingly, all school behaviours are a compromise in one form or another. The challenge is to find the most agreeable compromise.

And then, each school has a unique framework within which these two ambitions are pursued, or, in other words, a unique educational culture. This publication is conscious of the many different contexts in which schools operate. With this in mind, it offers suggestions that might not work in a specific school context, but the general principle is evident and might lead to a practice that is similar in aims and fits into your school’s culture and practice.

This publication looks specifically at Assessment. However, it naturally extends into Feedback and, similarly, Reporting. These will be supported in more detail in the future.