Monday, September 10, 2012

September sums and sentences - cpit embedding literacy / numeracy month

Attended then first in a series of presentations for CPIT embedding literacy and numeracy on Thursday. The series runs across the month of September with about two or three lunch time of ealy evning sessions offering various glimpses of CPIT teaching practice through tutors work with mainly foundation and trades learners. I will report on sessions I manage to get to over the course of the month.

Lynette Winter presents the first session on how to make better use of the Assessment tool reports, using numeracy as examples. The Assessment tool results  should be a formative assessment tool although the Ministry of Education / Tertiary Education Commission also uses the results  to quantify outcomes by comparing before and after programme participation/completion literacy/numeracy progression levels.

The progression levels are now more simple to understand. Providing information on what learners know or are able to complete at different progression levels and these assist with better interpretation of learner reports. The profiles on Numeracy capability profiles web sites assist with judgement of levels so that tutors are able to ensure there is a better match between the specialist skills learners need to attain and how much scafolding is required

 Using the appropriate tools and information, it is important for tutors to understand how to use the data by reading the data as it is presented in the assessment tool reports and also reading between and beyond the data for each class group and each individual student.

For instance, what does being at a certain step in the progression tell us about the learner 's ability?
The compare group profile to the demands of the course and assess learning needs of the group.
Tutors then need to widen and deepen understanding by not just teaching to meet us outcomes but ensure students have enough understanding to apply these to other contexts.

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