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
| Dependability (of assessment) | A systematic review of the evidence of reliability and validity of assessment by teachers used for summative purposes (Harlen, 2004). Dependability of an assessment is the optimum relationship between its validity and its reliability. Since reliability and validity are not independent of each other - and increasing one tends to decrease the other - it is useful in some contexts to refer to dependability as a combination of the two. The approach to assessment of learning by teachers giving the most dependable result would protect construct validity, while optimising reliability. |
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| Development plan | An annual plan in which a school reaffirms its aims and objectives, reports on its audit, and outlines future action for the coming year. All Scottish state schools are now required by the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 to evaluate the quality of their provision and to make an annual development plan to improve it. Almost all schools had been engaged in development planning for several years before the promulgation of this Act, following national guidance from HM Inspectorate of Education, published in 'How Good is our School?' |
| Diagnostic assessment | Aims to reveal an underlying problem in learning or to find out about a learner's ways of learning, in order to help them achieve learning aims. There are many forms of published 'diagnostic tests', but, in the ordinary course of teaching, a teacher's interaction and discussion with a pupil is often the most effective basis for this process. |
| Differentiation (of learning) | Takes account of a range of factors that might affect individuals' learning. Depending on levels of confidence, previous experience, knowledge, and skill, pupils in a class might be set different tasks; they might receive different levels of support; or the teacher might have different expectations of their work. |
| Dyslexia | Occurring at any level of intellectual ability, this causes difficulties in reading, writing and spelling. It can also cause difficulties with short-term memory, in mathematical ability, and in the ability to concentrate. According to the Dyslexia Institute, it is generally caused by differences in the processing of language-based information. Because the origins are biological it may be seen to run in families, but environmental factors may also be significant. The 1993 Education Act defined dyslexia as a Special Education Need, and it is one of several Specific Learning Difficulties. Its effects can be overcome by specialist teaching. |
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