Learning objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
• Understand alignment of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting
• Demonstrate an understanding of how to interpret curriculum materials to support planning
• Identify a range of pedagogies to support learning within the planned curriculum
• Consider and select from a range of appropriate assessment strategies that are fit for purpose
• Recognise that reporting mechanisms provide different information for particular purposes and audiences
Introduction
Throughout your teaching career you will hear, and use, the terms ‘curriculum’, ‘pedagogy’, ‘assessment’ and ‘reporting’ often. Each of these terms has been interpreted in different ways and, throughout the history of formal education, one or the other has been often at the forefront of educational thinking and practice. We consider that these four areas are inextricably interwoven and changes in policy or practice in one area influence each of the others.
In this chapter you will be introduced to some of the literature, research and practice that will help you understand curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting. We will discuss the interrelationship and alignment of these four areas, and you will be able to reflect on how changes in each of these areas at a national, system or school level will impact on your day-to-day work as a teacher.
Teachers’ work involves understanding the students and how they learn, and differentiating learning experiences to meet the needs, abilities and interests of all learners. This involves basing designs for learning on knowledge of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting. Processes of designing and implementing programs for effective learning include selecting and organising content, employing appropriate pedagogies, and including means of providing feedback to students on their learning. These processes occur within different contexts as discussed in Chapter 3, across education settings, schools and classrooms.
OPENING VIGNETTE
Jake is in the first year of his degree studying to be a secondary school teacher of dance and mathematics. His university organises a one-week in-school orientation in the first semester of his course to help frame his work of studying to be a teacher in an authentic real- world context. On his return from this orientation week, Jake was concerned about a discussion he had heard in the staffroom. One of the teachers was complaining about the set text, saying it was too restrictive and out of date.