Step 4. Methodology

You need to start thinking about the assessment methodologies. Educater has three fundamentally different Assessment methodologies on offer, plus the opportunity to customise these or even build your own. It is important to choose the methodology which matches the approach in your school and suits your context.

Methodology of assessment accounts for far more than the software we use. It is the provision in the classroom, the information collected, the way progress is calculated, and it is how all the elements fit together for your school. In identifying and articulating our own methodology, we would also be considering what learning itself means to us: is it simply increasing the list of facts known or does it contain the depth of application of that learning?

The elements contained in the methodology can be summarised into clear sections:

Day-To-Day Activities In The Classroom: Do teachers mark against small steps of learning in the classroom, administer formal tests or do they make broad observations across the curriculum?

Data Collection Points: At intervals in time, are codes generated or are judgements made by teachers?

Depth Of Learning: Is depth or application of learning measured or recorded?

Interpreting Data: What do the codes or judgements tell us about where the children are compared to where they are expected to be.

Measuring Progress: How do we measure and track the difference between judgements at different points in time?

At Educater, we know there are many different solutions all used effectively in different schools for different reasons. We have developed a simple Quick Start Choice, giving you a basic methodology to get you started. For more advanced development of the system, you can customise the basic grids.