Assessment is for Learning
Glossary
This glossary explains terms used in AifL - Assessment is for Learning. It is not intended to be exhaustive in educational terms, nor does it include an explanation of every word used in the case study extracts. Instead, it seeks to clarify meanings in order to remove potential barriers to understanding and help the reader to appreciate the messages intended more fully.
Keyword search
| CAME (Cognitive Acceleration in Mathematics in Education) | A teaching strategy that involves students working together in groups and developing ideas while working on curriculum tasks. These ideas are then shared in whole-class discussion. |
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| Catch question | A question carefully structured to discover whether or not true understanding has taken place. |
| Circle time | A whole school approach to enhancing self-esteem and positive behaviour and relationships, developed by Jenny Mosley. Participants sit in a circle and take equal responsibility for solving problems and discussing issues raised within the group. Individuals talk about their own concerns as well as offering help for the concerns raised by others. The teacher’s role is facilitative, in that authority is devolved to participants, and strategic, in encouraging behaviours such as co-operation and honesty. |
| Close reading | In English language lessons, an exercise to promote pupils' abilities to analyse and evaluate a text, concentrating for instance, on the writer's craft and point of view. The term is also used for a type of reading test to discover pupils' level of understanding. This type of test activity, or practice for it, is sometimes called 'interpretation' or 'comprehension'. |
| Coaching | Individual or small-group tutorials with a particular focus. These often follow a self-assessment exercise which has revealed a misunderstanding or an area of concern. |
| Comments-only marking | An assessment that makes no reference to grades or marks achieved. Comments advise on how to bridge the gap between present performance and desired goal. The emphasis is on strengths as well as on ways of making the present or future work even better. |
| Community Schools Partnership | Collaborative arrangements among local schools in an area. Typically in groups consisting of a secondary school and its associated primary schools, the aim is to ensure continuity and progression in curriculum and learning/teaching, and to support pupils effectively in transferring from primary to secondary school. |
| Comparability (of assessment) | The extent to which assessments are reliable, valid and dependable. |
| Competencies | Generic knowledge and skills required to carry out tasks to required standards, or to deal effectively with new challenges, lifelong learning needs, etc. Knowledge competence can be measured by questioning or testing, whereas skills-based competence is usually observed. |
| Concept cartoon | A technique often used when introducing a new topic or theme in primary science work, in which characters in a drawing offer varying views on an issue. The drawing is the stimulus for pupils' initial discussion or hypothesis before they carry out relevant investigations, for example whether warm or cold water will dissolve more or less salt, or which one will dissolve it faster or more slowly. |
| Consequential validity (of assessment) | This is about the educational and social implications of the way assessment results are interpreted and used. Even a well-constructed test is not valid for all purposes, and its results can be used inappropriately. |
| Construct validity (of assessment) | The extent to which any assessment matches the particular 'construct', or underlying skills and abilities, that it is intended to match. For example, there are different ways of interpreting reading test information depending on what is meant by 'reading' in that assessment. |
| Content validity (of assessment) | This is about coverage of a scheme of work. For example, does an end-of-topic science assessment cover a good sample of the knowledge, skills and concepts in the relevant scheme of work? |
| Context question | In language lessons, an activity where the class is asked to look closely at an extract from a longer piece of writing. The focus is on the writer's craft, how the extract links to the whole, and how ideas are developed through skilful use of language. |
| CPD (Continuing Professional Development) | CPD is concerned with supporting learning throughout a person's career. |
| Criterion-referenced assessment | Assessment that measures pupils' knowledge and understanding against specific standards, as opposed to the performance of other pupils. With this form of summative assessment, it is possible for all pupils to earn the highest grade, if all meet the established criteria. It can be used formatively to inform next steps. |
| Critical friend | Someone who asks questions about practice or developments in supportive yet challenging ways. This could be characterised as a kind of partnership in investigation of practice that supports the reflective process through dialogue following, for example, observation of lessons or reading feedback comments to pupils. |
| Cross-cutting skills | Generic skills such as communication and problem solving, which are relevant in different curriculum areas. |
| Cross-referencing | Comparing a range of evidence before arriving at a judgement. As part of the local moderation process, teachers, in discussion, come to an agreement on learners' achievements by comparing each other's decisions and justifying a professional judgement. |
| CUBE strategy | An acronym for: Circle the words that tell you what to do; Underline the key words; Box any sources you have to refer to; Explain in your own words what you have to do. The strategy was devised to help pupils to understand the questions in Standard Grade Geography and so construct better answers. It appeared in a unit of work produced by Glasgow Corporation (now Glasgow City Council) Geography Group. |
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