Curriculum Focus - Panaga School

ISSUE
Panaga School’s
Half-Termly
2.2 Educational Supplement
March
2010
Curriculum Focus
p2
What’s learning like in the Dutch
Stream at Panaga School
Especially during IPC (International
Primary Curriculum) children have the
opportunity to gather information about
different countries, not only from
books, but more importantly from their
peers. As a teacher working at Panaga
School, I can witness first hand how
different curricula operate and get the
best out of them for my Dutch students.
It is great to see how the children
interact in a different cultural setting.
Miss Maaike Bernauer (DP 7/8 Class teacher)
“It is fun being with kids from different
nationalities because you can learn new
words. You can also make many new
friends. I have friends who are from
Scotland and the United States. I like
being in Brunei because it is warm here
and still I have my friends from Holland
too.”
Rogier Van Dongen (DP5S)
My children really like learning with
the IPC themes in P1. They like sharing
their learning with children from the
International Stream. They especially
like all the extra events, e.g., kite flying
visiting gardens and going to the
markets.
Monitoring and Evaluation System (Cito) for Primary Pupils in the Dutch Stream
The testing and assessment company Cito has developed a monitoring
and evaluation system for Dutch primary pupils (aged 4-12). The
system enables teachers to monitor their pupils’ development in a
number of meaningful ways, in relation to both personal and peer
development, at given moments and over time.
The complete system consists of a series of interrelated packages covering
virtually all primary school subjects and including a wide range of
assessment media and tools:
* paper-and-pencil and computer-based tests
* a comprehensive set of coherent tests covering reading comprehension,
spelling, technical reading, listening and writing skills, vocabulary, maths,
social studies and information processing
* a registration system based on a measuring technique that makes scores
comparable on the same fixed scale over a period of time
* tools and procedures for identifying specific learning problems and
remediation guidance
Concrete answers to everyday questions by Dutch teachers at Panaga
School
The monitoring and evaluation system provides us with answers to our
concrete, everyday questions such as: how much progress are the pupils
making Is it sufficient Is progress stalled or deteriorating and if so, what
can I do about it Is what I do adequately geared to the level of the pupils
Which pupils need extra help and attention Do I have to adjust or change
my teaching methodology Are there any parts of the existing educational
program in need of improvement
The system in action
The system offers assistance at every stage of the monitoring and evaluation
process, providing a range of tools and guides for identification, analysis,
and the development of action plans.
*Identification: recording pupils' achievements, processing and quantifying
the results. Activities at this stage include test composition, test-giving, the
marking of tests and the registration and preliminary interpretation of results.
* Analysis: pupils' results are studied in more detail. An analysis is made of
the mistakes made by the pupils. The monitoring and evaluation system
offers teachers a set of tools to carry out this analysis. The data from the
analysis stage are then used to draw up an educational action plan.
* Action: using information gained in stages one and two of the process
(identification and analysis). The system provides tools for creating,
implementing and evaluating an action plan. Such an action plan can
suggest remedial measures and will provide both directions and exercise
material.
Registration
The tests which have a monitoring and evaluation system are processed
and registered in a computer program. This program is particularly useful in
the identification and analysis stages of the system. The program can
produce pupil reports, group surveys, answer surveys, analysis formulae
and error analyses.
Computer-adaptive tests
The latest version of the monitoring and evaluation system (which Panaga
School implemented in January this year) offers a number of digital tests,
which may also be computer-adaptive tests. Adaptive tests are
computerised tests that automatically adapt to a pupil's level of ability.
Adaptive testing has several advantages. For pupils, it means that testing
time is shorter and the test is related to individual levels of ability. For the
teacher it means a reduced workload as all data can be analysed and
registered by Cito.
Besides the children’s Cito results, we also have curriculum assessment
results. Altogether it gives a clear picture of the development of our Dutch
children. We track the children via our Cito LOVS system. Curriculum
assessment results, Cito results etc. are part of that system. The
Netherlands Inspector of Education and Stichting Nederlands Onderwijs
Buitenland (SNOB) look yearly at the Cito results of the children at Panaga
School and the Cito results of Dutch children at other Shell schools. (For
more information about Cito tests, see: www.cito.com)
The article below highlights the recent Cito tests for Primary 8 called The Cito eindtoets.
(Cito tests abroad)
Susanne Brassart (mother of twins Amelie and Ines
in DP1A and French second language teacher)
The Netherlands Inspectorate of Education’s upcoming visit to Panaga School
Dutch schools outside Holland are all supported by the Dutch
government. The supervision of Dutch education provided
abroad is performed on behalf of the Education Minister by
the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education. Over the last ten
years, the Inspectorate’s activities have focused specifically
on systematically assessing the quality of the education
provided. The Netherlands Inspectorate of Education will visit
the Panaga School on Monday the 10 th and Tuesday the 11 th
of May. The Dutch stream will be inspected on the following
points: 1. Learning outcomes (what are children learning and
at what level); 2. Teaching-learning process (the structure of
the education, methods used, teaching time) 3. Quality
Insurance (regular testing to determine learning outcomes
and being accountable for the quality of the education
provided). The last visit of the Netherlands Inspectorate of
Education to Panaga School was in 2006.