Teaching Approaches to Promote Consistent ... - Learning Wales

Targets are a factor, in the tendency in Year 6, to focus teaching on the requirementsof the National Curriculum Tests. This appears to be something that both teachersand pupils understand and regard as a fact of life. It is likely to have contributed tothe increase in pupils achieving level 4 since the introduction of national testing.Whether it leads to sustainable learning is another matter, which should be a priorityfor further research. Similarly, the practice observed in some schools of whole classteaching with follow-up tasks carried out individually and in silence may wellcontribute to some pupils achieving level 4. But clearly with such a small sample noevidence is conclusive. Whether it is conducive to pupils’ retaining what they havelearnt, let alone progressing to higher levels, requires further investigation. The mostimportant issue here was the way some schools tried to use assessment to makespecific judgements about what pupils needed to do next and used this to setappropriate targets. This is based on the assessment for learning ideas whereassessment is a clear part of the planning process.Suggestion 7All teachers need continued assistance in making sense of a range of assessmentsfor individual pupils and understanding how these assessments can be used toindicate ways forward for these pupils.Suggestion 8There needs to be a detailed, longitudinal study on the long term effects of thevarious assessment strategies being used. At present the focus seems to be on shortterm gain. The long term potential gains need to be investigated.7.4 The effect of specific teaching practicesInevitably the strategies used from school to school varied and it has not beenpossible, within the remits of this research, to identify specific strategies “whichwork” in order to move pupils from level 3 to level 4 as teachers in other schoolscould be using the same strategies year-on-year with not always the same profile ofoutcomes. It was quite clear however that, compared to other year groups, there weredifferent strategies being used in Year 6. These tended to be:92