From the Literature and Activities Explored in Module 3

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From the literature and activities explored in Module 3: . outline and justify a series of key principles which may be used to guide the development of a school’s assessment and reporting policy in religious education . in light of these principles which you have outlined and justified, evaluate your own school’s policy in assessment and reporting in religious education . suggest at least two ways in which your school might address the challenges which have been identified through the evaluation of its assessment and reporting policy in religious education

In the current educational climate with an increased focus on outcomes, the place of assessment as intimately connected to teaching and learning has been cemented. This has been somewhat problematic in the area of Religious Education with a lack of real understanding about what can be assessed and how best it can be done. This ambiguity has lead to a variety of assessment and reporting practices at Holy Spirit which require defining, refining and documentation so that our staff, students and parents are clear about what we are trying to achieve and how best that can happen in the context of a rapidly changing cultural and social environment.

The development of a policy in Religious Education for Assessment and Reporting must be built on solid, educationally sound principles. The first issue to be addressed is the definition of assessment. The term ‘assessment’ is a derivative of the Latin word, assēssus meaning seated beside (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition, assess) which in itself gives an insight into how assessment should occur. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, responsible for curriculum development and implementation in Victoria, defines assessment as “the ongoing process of gathering,

1 842066O Mary Jones analysing and reflecting on evidence to make informed and consistent judgements to improve future student learning (2011,”Prep to Year 10 Assessment Advice”).

There are three broad purposes of assessment that are commonly described by authors and educational systems (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol, 2006, Fancourt, 2005,

Hyde and Rymarz, 2009, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development,

2011, Office of Teaching and Learning, 2005, Blaylock, 2005). Assessment as learning is concerned with students monitoring and reflecting on their own learning, asking themselves questions such as “What is the purpose of learning these concepts and skills?” or “What do

I know about this topic?” (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol, 2006, p.41) This form of assessment is about metacognition. Assessment for learning is about using assessment

“to enable pupils to know more, understand better, and respond more deeply” (Fancourt,

2011, p.116) and is used by teachers throughout the learning and teaching process. Coming to Know, Worship and Love adds that this form of assessment is about teachers making judgements about student learning to enhance teaching practice (2008, p.16). And lastly, assessment of learning which is used to make judgements about whether students have achieved outcomes using a set of criteria (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol, 2006, p.65) and this is most often used for reporting.

Assessment is a complex activity with a variety of stake holders and should be underpinned by some key principles. The first key principle is that assessment in Religious Education should have a strong educational rationale (Hyde and Rymarz, 2009, p.101). As outlined in

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The General Catechetical Directory, Religious Education should “appear as a scholastic discipline with the same systematic demands and the same rigour as other disciplines” (73).

The systemic requirements in Victoria are for outcomes based assessment in line with the current curriculum document, The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (2004). Hyde and Rymarz note that assessment in Religious Education should be focussed on the cognitive aspects of the discipline, rather than the affective or spiritual (2009, p.105). This effectively means that best practice assessment processes used for each of the other scholastic disciplines can be applied to Religious Education. It can be genuinely challenging to devise tasks in Religious Education that reflect the breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding but is worthy of teachers’ best efforts (Blaylock, 2005, p.50).

The second key principle for assessment in Religious Education is the notion of ‘authentic assessment’. This is a term used often in current educational discourse and refers to assessment that “directly examines student performance on worthy intellectual tasks”

(Wiggins, 1990, p.1). Authentic assessment should be embedded within each unit taught, and addressed at the planning stage. Wiggins notes that authentic assessment is time consuming and labour-intensive and can only be designed if we know what it is we want our students to be good at (1989, p.705). Authentic assessment tasks are characterised by; a clear, real-world purpose, rely on students having clarity with regard to standards and criteria, are contextual, complex and intellectual, identify strengths and allow students to demonstrate what they can do with what they know (Wiggins, 1989, p.711). This is in line with Blaylock’s ideal that “Religious Education needs assessment tasks which provide

3 842066O Mary Jones pupils with opportunities to speculate, to express their discernment in new contexts, to bring that which is religiously distant or ancient into or close to their own lives and contexts” (2005, p.55).

A third key principle is that assessment should be concerned with improving student performance (Office of Teaching and Learning, 2005, p.6). Assessment tasks and strategies should be integrated into the learning and teaching process so that teachers can find out what their students know and what they are able to do with that knowledge. Teachers can ask themselves some key questions that can help direct assessment decisions; What kinds of challenges would be of most educational value to students? What kinds of challenges will give us useful information about the abilities of our students? How will the results of a test help us to identify student strengths and challenges? ( Wiggins, 1989, p.705). Coming to Know, Worship and Love notes that multiple forms of assessment should be used and should “advance learning” (2008, p.16). Criteria, standards and outcomes should be transparent so that teachers, students and parents know what it is the task demands and

Blaylock (cited in Fancourt, 2005, p.117) notes that in Religious Education, criteria and standards should be “open to learners themselves throughout the process, and open to the learner’s interpretation.”

Holy Spirit Community School currently has no Assessment and Reporting Policy but there are several accepted practices in place. Reporting on students in Religious Education

4 842066O Mary Jones follows the same format as other domains, students receiving a grade at, below or above standard (see www.vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/ for assessment standards and advice for all domains excepting Religious Education) . A very few students receive the ‘above standard’ grade and no-one has ever received ‘below standard’ for Religious Education.

Staff are very reluctant to give below standard, most likely because staff themselves are not sure what this actually means. Some levels of the school are working hard to develop rich assessment tasks that allow students to show the breadth and depth of their knowledge, skills and understandings but this is proving to be an area of great challenge for many staff.

It seems many staff are confused about what can be assessed in Religious Education. Some teachers still hold to the idea that Religious Education equates with Faith Development and therefore cannot be assessed. The standards as outlined in Coming to Know, Worship and

Love are problematic in themselves, as they are general and limited, particularly given the fact they cover two years of Religious Education for all levels except Prep (2008, p. 19-27).

It can be very difficult to link the standards accurately with inquiry units developed at a school level.

Work samples in Religious Education are included in student portfolios for all students at

Holy Spirit Community School. These samples contain an assessment rubric or similar, and annotated comments by the teacher. Some teachers are also beginning to have students self-assess their own portfolio pieces. These are two positive aspects of the assessment and reporting practices and help the parent community to see the validity of Religious

Education as a subject. The quality of the tasks vary from level to level but this is a ‘work

5 842066O Mary Jones in progress’ at this stage. Interestingly, no Religious Education samples are placed in student files that are handed on to the next teacher and kept as records. This indicates that at some level, Religious Education is not seen as equal in importance to other disciplines.

This view would likely be shared by the parent community who would rarely question anything written in the Religious Education report.

Hyde and Rymarz have defined a cognitive outcome as “a brief statement that sets out the knowledge and skills that students are intended to achieve by the end of a specified period”

(2009, p.74). They also note that affective outcomes are more difficult to define but that they can be achieved through well thought-out and implemented cognitive outcomes and that spiritual outcomes are concerned with faith responses (2009, p 77 & 79). Staff write

‘outcomes’ for Religious Education each term for inclusion in their Class Assessment

Books. These outcomes vary in quality and relevance and some work needs to be done on writing outcomes that are specific, clear and linked to the unit of work implemented. Staff use a three point scale, beginning, consolidating or established to mark off these outcomes and this information is in theory, used for reporting purposes. Reality is that many

Religious Education reports all read similarly, with vague narratives about what may have been achieved and little specific detail relating to how the outcomes have been met.

Some quality professional development needs to occur at Holy Spirit to ensure that when a

Religious Education Assessment and Reporting Policy is written, it is rigorous, clear and able to be implemented with common understandings amongst all staff. The first step is

6 842066O Mary Jones some professional reading with appropriate response protocols to enable interpretation and facilitate discussion. Religious education in Catholic primary schools: Contemporary issues and perspectives for RE teachers, written by Hyde and Rymarz (2009) contains two chapters which include discussion points that may be particularly useful for Planned

Learning Teams, “From Objectives to Outcomes” and “Assessment and Evaluation in

Religious Education”. Similarly, the text Rethinking Classroom Assessment With Purpose in Mind provides accessible and clear reading and discussion material related to assessment as, of, and for learning including some concise tables summarising each of these assessment types (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol, 2006). To begin writing any sort of policy would seem foolish until there is shared understanding amongst all staff regarding current educational thinking about assessment, reporting and their place in

Religious Education.

The staff at Holy Spirit need to develop their own set of guiding principles for assessment and reporting in Religious Education. This process could be enhanced by looking at some existing work done in this field. “Assessment for Learning: 10 Principles” would be an excellent starting point for staff to read, reflect, discuss and be challenged by (Assessment

Reform Group, 2002). The Office of Teaching and Learning also has many resources available on its website to tune teachers into thinking about what is important for authentic assessment and reporting practices (see ‘References’ for links). If we truly believe that

Religious Education is a scholastic discipline, then all reading on assessment can have something to contribute to the field of Religious Education. Once extensive professional

7 842066O Mary Jones reading and dialogue has occurred, then a set of Assessment Principles for Religious

Education at Holy Spirit can be drawn up. If this step is done well, these principles can then also be applied to other domains of learning.

Another possibility worth pursuing for staff at Holy Spirit is to delve into current educational thinking around Habits of Mind or Learning Dispositions. If ‘learning to learn’ is the ultimate life skill for the 21st century (Burgogne cited in Carr and Claxton, 2002, p.9), then our teaching, learning and assessment must encompass this skill. Carr and Claxton

(2002), Hyde (2010), and Costa and Kallick (2008) all write about the value of learning dispositions or habits of mind for today’s students. Both of these aspects of learning are about more than just knowledge but about developing students’ ability and inclinations to think, process, problem solve and construct new knowledge and understandings. Hyde has gone further and suggested five dispositions specific to Religious Education and the article merits the attention of the staff as a stimulus for discussion. Assessing these dispositions or habits is potentially challenging but authors have developed ideas for how this may be achieved including a ‘Learning Disposition Grid’ and ‘Learning Disposition Portfolio’

(Carr and Claxton, 2002, p.17), a ‘Learning Story’ (Hyde, 2011) or multiple approaches as outlined in Costa and Kallick (2008).

Contemporary Learning for the 21st century present teachers with many challenges, not least of which is assessment and reporting. Without a clear set of guiding principles, policy development in Religious Education will be hampered and its clarity compromised.

Teachers need to upskill to meet these new challenges by means of professional reading and dialogue and should be willing to become innovators who dare to change out-dated ideas and practices in assessment and reporting for Religious Education. If staff believe that “true education aims at the formation of the human person” (Declaration on Christian

Education cited in Coming to Know, Worship and Love, 2008, p.1), then they are bound to seek out the best teaching and learning practices for our students that will equip them for the as yet, unimagined challenges that will be theirs in the future.

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References

9 842066O Mary Jones assess. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved October 09, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assess

Blaylock, L. (2005). Issues in Achievement and Assessment in Religious Education in England: Which Way Should We Turn? British Journal of Religious Education, 23:1, 45-58. Retrieved on 9 September, 2011 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141620000230106

Carr, M and Claxton, G. (2002). Tracking the Development of Learning Dispositions. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 9:1, 9-37. Retrieved on 2 October, 2011 from http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy1.acu.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/09695940220119148

Catholic Education Office, Melbourne. (2008). Coming to know, worship and love: A religious education curriculum framework for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Melbourne: Catholic Education Office.

Costa, A.L & Kallick, B (eds), (2008). Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16 Characteristics for Success. Alexandria, USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2011). Prep to Year 10 Assessment Advice. Retrieved on 10 October, 2011 from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/assessment/preptoyear10/assessadvice/default.htm# definition

Fancourt, N. (2005). Challenges for Self-Assessment in Religious Education. British Journal of Religious Education, 27:2, 115-125. Retrieved on 9 September, 2011 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141620042000336611

Hyde, B. (2010). A dispositional framework in religious education: Learning dispositions and early years’ religious education in Catholic schools. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 31 (3), 261-269.

Hyde, B. (2011). Learning Stories and Dispositional Frameworks: Addressing the Challenges of Contemporary RE in Early Years Classrooms. A paper presented at the 7th National Symposium on Religious Education and Ministry, July 6-8, 2011, North Sydney.

Hyde, B., & Rymarz, R. (2009). Religious education in Catholic primary schools: Contemporary issues and perspectives for RE teachers. Terrigal, NSW: David Barlow Publishing.

Office of Learning and Teaching, DE & T. Synopsis of Key Research Papers on Assessment. Retrieved on 3 October, 2011 from http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/Synopsis_assessment.pdf

Office of Learning and Teaching, DE & T. (2005) Current Perspectives on Assessment. Retrieved on 3 October, 2011 from http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/assessment_current_per.pdf

Sacred Congregation for the Clergy. (1971) General Catechetical Directory. London: Catholic Truth Society.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2005). The VELS. Retrieved on 11 October, 2011 from www.vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

Western and Northern Canadian Protocol.(2006) Rethinking Classroom Assessment With Purpose in Mind. Retrieved on 14 September, 2011 from http://blackboard.acu.edu.au/webct/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Wiggins, G.P. (1990). “The Case for Authentic Assessment.” In Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation. Retrieved on 18 September, 2011 from http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=2&n=2