This article reports on a collaborative study involving ESL teachers in an Australian English Language Centre as they work through some of their concerns about reliability and validity in their assessment practices. The focus of this article is on how teachers work with the Curriculum Standards Framework (CSF) as an assessment tool. The discussion…

Over the last several years, state boards of education have become increasingly engaged in the development of content and performance standards and the assessments that will accompany them. This guidebook provides information on the move toward standards-based education. Part 1 provides a brief historical overview that places the standards…

Learning to Teach Mathematics in the Secondary School covers a wide range of issues in the teaching of mathematics and gives supporting activities to students to enable them to translate theory into practice. Topics covered include: (1) mathematics in the National Curriculum; (2) different teaching approaches; (3) using ICT; (4) mathematics…

This article examines the implications of the shift, in England and Wales, from the previous National Curriculum assessment model based on the assessment of performance in relation to statements of attainment, to a model based on level descriptions founded on the recommendations of R. Dearing (1994). Both models reflect a common sense view that…

Discussed are the Caribbean experiences with school-based assessment in science, considering the general education background against which the strategy was adopted, some school conditions that appeared to be critical to its implementation, and its apparent impact on the teaching and learning of science. (Author)

Explains the work of a primary-research group focusing on the practical aspects of the use of scale in science. Reports on three studies that look at the impact of the representation of scale in different areas related to the Standard Assessment Tasks (SAT). (DDR)

Discusses some crucial issues raised by the proposed national teacher-education curriculum in Great Britain. Considers what knowledge and understanding of science and science education teachers of primary and secondary science need upon entry to, and exit from, a teacher education program. (DDR)

Analyzes assessment policy and practice from a critical/poststructuralist perspective, focusing on two main aspects of everyday classroom discourse--speech acts and metaphor. The analysis reveals the existence of diverse discourses (antagonistic, behaviorist, and psychometric) densely congregated in (British) infant classrooms and complex in their…

In this article, the author discusses how England refines its accountability reforms. When the Conservative government crafted the Education Reform Act of 1988, which mandates a national curriculum for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as national-curriculum tests at ages 7, 11, and 14, schools in England were permitted to secede from…

In recent years the OECD has undertaken the evaluation of early childhood education and care (ECEC) on behalf of ministers of education in a number of countries in order to support quality improvement in this field. This article is based on a workshop for the national coordinators of early childhood policy in Sweden, 2003, which dealt with…

This book aims to provide the reader with background knowledge and understanding of major contemporary issues facing mathematics teachers in Great Britain. Much of the book is devoted to discussing issues related to curriculum construction and change. The chapters are: (1) "The Aims of Teaching Mathematics" (A. Orton); (2)…

In a climate of increasing concern with educational accountability and quality, it has been important to reappraise the issues of assessment and evaluation in relation to early childhood care and education. This document is comprised of three papers describing approaches to assessment and evaluation used in Te Whariki, a national curriculum…

Assessment and testing associated with implementation of the national curriculum developed by the British Department of Education and Science (London) are reviewed. Topics addressed include: profile components in the assessment framework, assessment and testing methods, bias in assessments, assurance of confidence in national assessment,…

Recent developments for student assessment and national curriculum in England are presented in this paper. The first part offers an overview of the national curriculum, as established by the government-appointed Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT), which identified corresponding levels with statements of attainment. National curriculum…

Our means of assessment might pose a problem. History teachers regularly set specific targets, with implicit or explicit reference to National Curriculum Levels, which are designed to move our pupils on and make them better historians. How, though, are we to prevent them from achieving their targets in a rather mechanistic way, ticking the boxes…