Rethinking Assessment and Big Education share findings from research pilot
Over the last two years Rethinking Assessment has been pilot testing the concept of learner profiles through four small scale studies with schools and colleges in Hertfordshire, Doncaster, Greater Manchester, and London. We are really excited to share the findings from this initial work through a new series of blogs
This first blog looks at the project that we undertook with Big Education as part of the Next Big 10 Programme. You can find out more about the programme here.
Our publication Exploring the Design and Implementation of Learner Profiles in England provides an overview of this research project and shares key learnings, findings and case studies from the participating schools.
Our most important finding from this work has been to show that Learner Profiles have the potential to promote new ways of working in schools, enabling a more holistic approach to education and recognising student achievement.
The Learner Profile is not merely a new piece of reporting ‘technology’ but supports – and perhaps requires – a change in mindset, and a desire to present children and young people’s achievement in a comprehensive strength-based way, committing to the idea that learners are more than just their grades.
Important learnings from this work, as we think about larger scale design and implementation of learner profiles, included:
- All participating schools devised ways to embed the creation and maintenance of Learner Profiles into existing school curriculum/regular timetable allocations, and this was central to their success.
- All teachers were able to build or adapt a Learner Profile template for their learners, using a system that worked in their schools, including Google Sites and Slides, Google Docs/Microsoft Word and Seesaw.
- Learner profiles in primary and secondary schools were most popular as a way to reinvent parent/carer reporting, both in terms of information sharing procedures with parents, but also around learner presentations as a key part of the reporting process.
- Secondary phase learner profiles were used to support wider coaching models in schools, together with a way to support learner reflection on CEIAG (Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance) in order to encourage and inspire next steps into education, training or employment.
- It is not a ‘quick fix’ and the most successful pilots have used the opportunity to rethink areas of their curriculum, or update their parent reporting processes.
- Being clear about how a Learner Profile could extend and amplify current school priorities is necessary for school or MAT (Multi Academy Trust) wide implementation, where staff, governing bodies, trustees, parents/carers and pupils are all in agreement.
We would like to thank Salesforce, Big Change and the Comino Foundation who have supported this work over the last two years.
Check out the report to learn more, and if you’d like to explore Learner Profiles in your own setting you can sign up to the Learner Profile Starter Kit to access free templates and guidance here, by scrolling to the bottom of the page and registering for free.
