Welby Ings talk

Based on his book Disobedient Teaching, Welby Ings shares his view of assessment and what it means to be creative.

Including being featured on TEDx, Welby Ings has presented a number of times around his experiences as a teacher.

What I took away from the talk:

-It's important to question the status quo

-Assessment is a man-made construct that can be branding, and fails to be holistic

-Essential lifelong skills such as problem solving, innovation and collaboration can fail to be recognised in our current system.

Questioning the status quo

This was the trigger for Ings being labelled as a disobedient teacher. He was able to recognise that certain people have been victims of their educational system. This might be through their true abilities not being recognised and therefore their learning styles, not being catered for.

Every school has it's own culture and approaches. The development of the 'teaching as inquiry' or 'spiral of inquiry' process encourages the status quo to be questioned in a safe manner. Nevertheless, the true effectiveness of this process might be down to the responsiveness of senior leaders and key decision makers within the school. I've seen this process carried out as an administrative tick with no value, and also as a rigorous process that has been deepened by collaboration and has led to positive change.

Assessment as a man-made construct

Ings explained during our talk that the idea of quantitive assessment has only been in existence over the last few centuries. The assessment of a PHD is done by carrying out an interview in which the candidate explains and discusses their research. This might be considered as quite a holistic process, which the decision is not assigned a number or letter.

Within assessment we can think about the method of assessing, the assigned number or letter, and the focus on certain qualities.

-Method of Assessment

My experience growing up was that, in the English system, emphasis was place on exams. Courses were very prescriptive and I felt it was what you learn, not how you learn. I did not revise as I felt that it was a memory test and therefore meaningless. I would get absorbed in coursework and could work for hours on a portfolio that exercised my thought process and skills. My final grade failed to see me involved in classroom discussions, my ability to work with others and my creativity. It took what I could do with my memory and gave me 2 hours at the end of the year to show it. I prefer the NCEA system as it provides an opportunity for students to select a course that shows their strengths and takes a snapshot over an entire year. The complexity progression is based around solo taxonomy and considers depth of thought in the assessment process.

Despite this being a truer reflection on the learner, they are still assigned a box in which a specific aspect of their abilities is considered. This is also a linear process, which indicates that the candidate is functioning on a good/bad spectrum.

-Numbers and letters

I understand that we assess our students for a number of reasons. We require data to inform our practice, for moderation to compare against a wider standard and to see the direction of the educational institute. This naturally creates a need for quantitive data. The problems that can occur are that teachers focus on the assessment. I believe that this is the wrong way round. An environment should be created where that the skills, abilities and depth of thinking can grow and that a judgement is made from that student's experience, as it does for the PHD.

We might also not realise the impact of these numbers and letters. Students can really dwell on a grade and start to become that grade. I feel that this state of mind can inhibit a growth mindset

-Focus on certain qualities

At our school, we have two types of reporting: academic and progress. A student was quite surprised the other day, when after they said they didn't value progress reports, I told them that I valued them more than the academic counterpart. Our progress report focuses on: Learning (on track), Thinking (quality and depth), Relating to others, Managing self. These are some of the qualities necessary to be a life-long learner. I explained that when you leave school, grades might be required to take next steps in education, however it's the student's personal qualities that often get them the job, allow them to develop relationships and have a healthy perspective on life.

Lifelong skills in our current system

I recognise that there are skills that have been included into our current assessment system, such as divergent thinking in Technology and interpersonal skills within Health. I feel that our school culture takes these concepts further. We have 10 habits which we strive to embed into all aspects of learning and hone in on during our hub time. These habits connect to the NZC key competencies and they have become common language amongst the students and teachers. The assessment of these exists within the reflection of students and can be understood further through discussion and observation of their hub coaches.

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