Meaningful Assessment

When the curriculum is defined and sequenced with care and attention paid to the types of knowledge in our subject, assessment design can be far more precise.

Fragile and inert knowledge

Fragile knowledge refers to when students do not understand, remember or consistently use what they have been taught.
- This results in an inability to successfully apply this knowledge independently and in different contexts.
Inert knowledge refers to students remembering information when tested, but not being able to apply it outside of those limited test conditions.
Meaningful assessment design can help avoid fragile and inert knowledge.

Effective assessment

Effective assessment:
- Identifies the specific knowledge students have learnt and can apply.
- Pinpoints misconceptions.
- Is incremental.

Fine tuning

Assessment needs to be finely tuned to identify:
- How far each aspect of the curriculum has been mastered.
- Where misconceptions must be addressed before moving to the next stage.

Identifying misconceptions

Multiple-choice quizzes (MCQs) have become increasingly popular in schools.
A well-structured MCQ can be extremely powerful, both in terms of identifying what students know and in addressing misconceptions.
Daisy Christodoulou suggests avoiding using answers that are obviously incorrect and instead designing questions with answers that are plausible but still unambiguously wrong.

1Introduction

1.1Introduction

1.1.1Shaping the Curriculum

2Curriculum Rationale

2.1Curriculum Rationale

2.1.1The Role of Subject Leaders

2.1.2Curriculum Rationale

3Curriculum Knowledge

3.1Curriculum Knowledge

3.1.1Core Knowledge

3.1.2Hinterland Knowledge

3.1.3Substantive Knowledge

3.1.4Disciplinary Knowledge

3.1.5Declarative & Procedural Knowledge

4Curriculum Sequencing

4.1Curriculum Sequencing

4.1.1Cognitive Load Theory

4.1.2Threshold Concepts

5Assessment

5.1Assessment

5.1.1Meaningful Assessment

6Instruments of the Curriculum

6.1Instruments of the Curriculum

6.1.1Instruments of the Curriculum

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