It is whole-school exam week. All the blood sweat and tears I have put into each pupil I have taught this year are about to be reduced to a Level – determined by their performance in one 50-minute exam slot.
Exam grades are not my ultimate motivation for teaching, however it cannot be denied that an exam grade is the single tangible thing that a pupil will take away as a measure of how they performed in your subject this year, and every pupil, no matter how they attest to the contrary, wants to feel that they have achieved something.
This has led me to reflect in depth about the nature and purpose of assessment. The most obvious form of assessment used within our department is summative: every half-term pupils sit a test based on work covered and are assigned a level.
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