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Section 3
ASSESSMENT, RECORDING AND REPORTING
Assessment, recording and reporting pupils' personal and social development
are important and sensitive matters which need careful handling
if it they are to be constructive and beneficial.
Assessment
In the National Guidelines: Assessment 5-14 and in the associated
staff development pack, guidance is given on how schools and individual
teachers might plan and put into practice their assessment policies
for each curriculum area. It is as important in personal and social
development as in other subject areas to include assessment as
an integral part of the learning and teaching process.
It is again emphasised that when assessing pupils' personal and social
development, progression should not be regarded as linear; personal rates
of development are not and cannot be standardised. With this in mind,
assessment and reporting should take account of and reflect the pupil's
current strengths and development needs.
Teachers have to ensure that assessment of personal and social development
is concerned with knowledge and understanding and the ability pupils demonstrate
in using the skills which are being learned and practised. Within the
contexts of self-awareness, self-esteem, inter-personal relationships,
independence and inter-dependence, there will be many opportunities to
assess the extent to which pupils:
know and understand the nature of personal and social skills and
how to develop them;
use the various skills which they are learning.
There are, however, areas of an individual's personal and social development
which should not be the subject of formal assessment. For example, the worth
of any pupil should never be in question, nor should there be final or simple
judgements made about values and decisions which pupils appear to favour.
Opinions can be expressed, processes learned and practised, information
gathered, debate can ensue, but final decisions on personal matters are
the responsibility of the individual concerned.
When considering this, there must be an appreciation that values are
not formulated in a vacuum. The values which are being promoted and actively
encouraged in home and school, as well as those of society, cannot be
ignored.
Helping pupils to consider this can be done in a number of ways, for
example:
every pupil to engage in self-assessment in the context of specific
questions which the teacher and pupils have identified as appropriate
for the aspect of personal and social development being dealt with;
responses to be collated to ascertain the group norm;
both of the above to be compared with the recognised socially accepted
responses.
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