"Carry On My Hayward Fun!"

Submitted to Professor Hayward's Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment - public consultation Submitted on 2022-12-03 21:28:16

Curriculum for Excellence - Four Capacities 1 Should information be gathered across all four capacities? No

2 Please consider each of the capacities in turn. What kinds of information should be gathered on learners’ progress and achievements in each capacity? Please add your response in the text box: I answered 'No'. Basically because building a curriculum grounded on capacities is too vague and promotes inequality and inequity. I base this answer on what I took away from a lecture by Professor Priestley (Robert Owen Lecture) and a presentation by Lucy Crehan (author of Clevelands) where both explored capacity based curricula and, in my opinion, found them wanting.

Hence, I feel this second question demonstrates a form of expectancy that Q1 will be answered in the affirmative with little thought. I also find the work of Professor Walter Humes compelling. He finds us as being excessively boastful (CF...what?) and has commented on the adjectival madness associated with the four capacities. Rotate the adjectives and the sense of what each capacity means changes not a jot. This being said: ‘successful learner’ Learning can be 'measured' via assessment. I would love assessment to be online where appropriate and at least designed by subject experts. Pupils should be able to achieve a 'Pass Award' in school with final, graded, external exams for those who wish or need it. ‘confident individual’ Are you going to have a self reporting excel spreadsheet for every pupil? Since the adjective trumps the noun here, confidence may be associated with attendance, achievement and engagement. This being said, engagement is often meaningless. ‘effective contributor’ Dangerous territory as it favour non-deprived pupils in engaging environments with plenty of resources. Attendance, Duke of Edinburgh, extra curricular - all markers of advantage and privilege? ‘responsible citizen’ "Wee Shug never got a referral or detention - he's a responsible citizen!" Danger lies in this direction as the subjectivity involved would be so influential. All of the above being said, I could be wrong. Maybe there is a simple way to do the 'other three' capacities but maybe the better question should be 'Are these capacities suitable? Have they stood the test of time?" Interestingly, after nearly a decade of CFE, most secondary pupils view CFE schools as being about Exams, Uniform and Attendance. (Priestley - above lecture) What a legacy.

Out of school and college achievements and awards 3 What, if any, information on learners’ achievements obtained outside school and college should be gathered? Please explain your response. Please add your response in the text box: Why do schools, the State and the Bureaucracy require this? Is there no aspect of life they won't claim credit for? Let kids be kids. Let them enjoy their out of school activities without logging it and getting a certificate for it. Let them understand that they can achieve out of school for the intrinsic joy of learning and experiencing and that this is valid without needing the approval of their school. Give over the morning to academia and the afternoon to fun, socialisation, community work and sport.

Skills and Competences 4 Should information be gathered on learners’ skills and competencies as part of their senior phase? No 5 If you have views on how this might best be done please provide them here. Please add your response in the text box: Similar to achievement outside of school, the subjectivity of this means there is a danger that the gathering process will be onerous. In secondary, let subjects develop these as extended grade related criteria. Stop worrying and stressing about the unmeasurable.

Considering how we gather evidence on achievements, awards and qualifications - Exams and other forms of assessment 6 Please share your thoughts on what a ‘better balanced’ assessment system would look like. As well as considering the balance between external examination and internal assessment you may also wish to comment on the frequency of examinations. Please add your response in the text box: Teachers are dead on their feet. The moderation process during COVID was horrific, bureaucratic and depressing. I went through two massive exercises in two years and in the end the variation in performance before and after was less than 2%. If any internal assessment is to be introduced and burdened onto hard pressed staff, it must be piloted, trialled in different contexts, timed, resourced and have explicit requirements of each of these attached. I suspect this would reduce most courses by 40 hours. So - are we here for learning or assessment? Be careful. Some subjects can generate pass awards via online tests. These must be used, auto marked and recorded ASAP to remove workload. All of this being said, after 35 years teaching in every possible environment, the 'gaming' that goes on with internal assessment is nauseating. This is magnified in the 'better' schools and makes me very concerned about internal assessment. So my ideal in my cognate area would be: Online auto marked assessments that auto generated passes for a pass award in the subject. This would be reliable, not need moderation and remove pressure of workload from staff. This would be a good thing. Externally marked and graded exams that are optional for those moving on to further study. or career prospects. No assignments - horrific, gamed, copied and pasted regularly.

Considering how evidence should best be presented - Recognising Achievement at the end of the Broad General Education (BGE) 7 Please share your thoughts (advantages/disadvantages) on the idea of introducing an achievement, award or qualification at the end of the BGE. Please add your response in the text box: Lucy Crehan's exploration of capacity based curricula would make me slightly worried at the moment about that. The built in inequity of 'broad statement' education means that I would only thing a BGE award a good thing if there were tighter learning objectives that gave the clarity required for accurate assessment. I think if it were introduced right now, green belt kids would do these tests in S1 and deprived area pupils might not reach it until S4. We must do better.

Recognising Achievement in the Senior Phase 8 Please share your thoughts (advantages/disadvantages) on the idea of introducing a type of leaving certificate at the end of the Senior Phase. Please add your response in the text box: "We have also received suggestions that there should be a leaving certificate available as part of the Senior Phase." From who? Teachers? We don't have the capacity to do this at the moment and I don't suspect we will have anytime soon. Non academic pupils can be certificated by their teacher using pre moderated assessments and online assessments. Save time, build a bank of tariff points and when triggers are met - award. Technology and Assessment - The Potential of Technology 9 How should Scotland’s qualifications and assessment system make best use of digital technologies? Please add your response in the text box: 1. Have ICT that works, is supported and has on site technicians to maintain and repair within minutes. 2. Online assessments, pre-moderated reduce workload. I'm all for them for some type of pass award. 3. If it becomes another layer of NABS or SCOTVEC modules, heavy on paperwork and teacher time - get in the sea. An approach that benefits all Learners' - Equity 10 How can we make sure that proposals for a future qualification system will uphold the rights of all learners to demonstrate their achievements? Please add your response in the text box: 1. By getting teacher involved in the creation of a coherent curricular experience that gradually builds on previous learning. Every learning outcome and key area should be analysed from P1 to S6 to check they fit into a narrative that leads to better achievement. In my current subject, N5 cannot be taught without mastery of chunks of N4. Horrific curricular design and wasteful of learning time.

2. All courses must be timed, resourced and costed. This must go to the level of suggested teaching time and the financial cost (updated annually) of equipment and resources published. Have we missed anything? 11 Is there anything else in relation to the reform of qualifications and assessment which is not covered in this consultation which you would like to raise? Please add your response in the text box: Every initiative must be costed, timed and associated with the removal of other material to allow it to fit in. The days of CFE Jenga must end. About you 12 What is your name? Name: Paul Cochrane 13 What is your email address? Email: What? Are you asking me out on a date? 14 Are you responding as an individual or an organisation? Individual 15 What is your organisation? Organisation: pretty poor but I once put on a duvet inside out? 16 The Scottish Government would like your permission to publish your consultation response. Please indicate your publishing preference: Publish response with name and a Hollywood style portrait 17 We will share your response internally with other Scottish Government policy teams who may be addressing the issues you discuss. They may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so. Are you content for Scottish Government to contact you again in relation to this consultation exercise? Yes, I'll be ready for them. 18 I confirm that I have read the privacy policy and consent to the data I provide being used as set out in the policy. I consent - you know nobody reads that bit though - don't you? Evaluation 19 Please help us improve our consultations by answering the questions below. (Responses to the evaluation will not be published.) Matrix 1 - How satisfied were you with this consultation?: Very dissatisfied Please enter comments here.: No allocated time for teachers. I am doing this over 2 hours on a Saturday night in a rushed manner and with little time to research more. As ever, the Scottish Education approach of doing things 'half-assed' thrives. How we can extract reliable data and conclusions from this escapes me. But...something will be imposed, teachers will complain it wont work and 5 years down the line they'll be proved right. Go on - prove me wrong! :-) Matrix 1 - How would you rate your satisfaction with using this platform (Citizen Space) to respond to this consultation?: Very satisfied - beyond Jagger Please enter comments here.: Good resource.