Notice, recognise, and respond
This resource supports teachers to make reliable and robust decisions about ākonga learning.
About this resource
This resource unpacks the things teachers should consider when they collect and use evidence to understand ākonga progress and achievement. Teachers will talk about ākonga work (notice), understand reliable assessment information to recognise, and then decide how to respond to lift progress.
Noticing, recognising and responding is guided and informed by a process in which teachers seek to learn (with and from colleagues, and from research and evidence) about what they can do differently in-the-moment and over time to support ākonga progress. The latter part of this resource explains moderation and ākonga participation.
Notice, recognise, and respond
No single source of information can accurately or adequately summarise ākonga achievement or progress in relation to the progressions set out in the National Curriculum and addressed within your local curriculum.
Using a range of sources and approaches enables you to compile a comprehensive picture of areas of progress, areas for attention, and the unique learning pathway of each ākonga. It also allows ākonga to be an active participant throughout the assessment process, building their assessment capability.
Evidence may be gathered in the following ways:
- observing the processes used by ākonga to complete a learning task
- conversing with ākonga to find out what they know, understand, and can do
- using assessment tools to identify what ākonga can do in relation to progress outcomes. When using any tool, ensure you are providing suitable accommodations for ākonga with disabilities or specific learning needs.
Using a range of evidence accumulated over time gradually increases the reliability, validity, and consistency of judgments about progress and achievement.
The National Education and Learning Priorities positions ākonga at the centre so that all learners can enjoy barrier-free access to an education environment that is responsive to their strengths as well as their needs. The process of noticing and recognising ākonga progress and achievement means that teachers are aware of, and work to counter, how low expectations and bias may impact their judgments and their subsequent decisions about next steps for teaching, learning, and assessment.
The Curriculum Progress Tools are designed to support teacher judgements on learner progress and achievement in relation to The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Using the Learning Progression Frameworks (LPF), the tool breaks mathematics, reading, and writing into different aspects and prompts you to notice where ākonga best-fit in relation to the big ideas of each progression. The Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT) captures teacher judgments on the aspects and recommends an overall curriculum judgment for ākonga that you can confirm or review.
Using tools and resources
When using an assessment tool to make or reinforce a teacher's judgment, it is important to:
- understand the purpose of the assessment
- know the curriculum content well enough to clearly understand what is being assessed and that it is being assessed appropriately
- consider the difficulty of the assessment so that it fairly matches the level of the student
- know how to select an assessment tool, administer it, and interpret the outcomes
- support students to understand what is being assessed and why
- know how to respond to assessment outcomes in a way that benefits student learning.
Increasing the dependability of teacher decisions
The performance of ākonga will vary from day to day for various reasons, including:
- the nature of the assessment task
- the conditions in which the assessment is undertaken
- the purpose of the assessment
- ākonga preparation
- ākonga engagement and motivation
- the health and wellbeing of the ākonga.
When you experience some degree of inconsistency with assessment information, inquire into this further. If the inconsistency cannot be explained by normal variation in students’ performance, then there may be a need to collect further information in order to reach robust understandings.
Moderation
Moderation can improve the dependability of the evidence that informs and supports your decisions about progress and achievement. See the section on moderation for advice on how to do this.
Ākonga participation
All ākonga should actively participate in assessment processes and in determining their progress and achievement. They may be encouraged to comment on or even question what teachers think if they believe evidence of their learning supports a different view.
Participation builds assessment capability by helping ākonga clarify what they know, understand, and can do, and what they need to learn next. They can become more and more actively involved as their assessment capability grows and develops.
Ākonga inclusion in the judgment-making process can also build their confidence to talk about achievement and progress with their parents and whānau.
Involving ākonga – an example
It’s usual practice for this class of year 5-6 students to read their e-asTTle individual learning pathway (ILP) reports, look at improvement, and decide on their own next learning steps.
A group was surprised by their results during a mid-year web-based assessment. They remarked to the teacher that they couldn’t be right. When asked why, they explained they expected to have moved more because their latest PROBE results showed they had improved by at least a year. I know I’ve worked hard, so this just can’t be right.
This conversation led to a discussion between the students and the teacher about how to closely examine the data. The group realised that although their PROBE ages had increased, the students could still be at the same curriculum level (although they said this was hardly fair!). When looking at the ‘to be achieved’ box on the ILP report, one student remarked, It doesn't matter what level I got – what matters is that I work on this, and then my level will improve.
The students determined their next learning steps from their e-asTTle ILP and the PROBE results, supported by the teacher. They used both sets of information to identify that they had done a good job improving their inference skills, and their next area for improvement was evaluation skills.
Questions for discussion
- How might I involve students in the process of understanding progress and achievement?
- How much information might we need?
- How dependable are our judgments?
- What do we need to do to increase the dependability of our judgments?
- How do we manage the moderation of our judgments?