Assessing Religious Education Without ‘Levels’ – Dave Francis

Ten Gurus? So What?

What is going on with assessment? As one assistant head teacher in a secondary school puts it: “The situation feels akin to starting a journey with a backseat driver who insists that I use their SatNav and leave all other navigation aids behind. Then, half way through the journey, they demand the SatNav back and tell me to navigate on my own. The rest of the journey is spent trying to drive and navigate, while all the time being petrified that the backseat driver will tell me I’m going in the wrong direction” (The Teacher, NUT Magazine, Jan/Feb 2015).

A primary school special educational needs coordinator adds: “Progress and attainment do need to be measured but the introduction of the new national curriculum with a lack of clear guidance on assessing pupils is bonkers” (ibid.).

That lack of guidance means schools have been going their own way – and some have gone into overdrive, replacing the levels with horribly laborious systems of assessment that mean recording evidence of every bit of every student’s progression around six times a year.

The government thinks that children have got to KNOW something – but it has not established how knowledge and skills can be properly assessed, and hopes that something will emerge from allowing schools the freedom to try things out.

The guru of the knowledge-based curriculum, ED Hirsch, says that knowledge is key to closing the gap between the high and low achievers in educational terms.

He may have a point. Just as ignorance is not an adequate political strategy for a people, nor is it an adequate educational strategy.

But haven’t we always said that it is about skills AND content, not one or the other? In order for us to grow we need some knowledge, and, I would say, some wisdom otherwise, how will we recognise any kind of truth? Sometimes it really is a matter of life and death. As Billy Bragg says about the ‘brave men and women in uniform’, ‘they want to know what they’re fighting for’.[1]

Let’s take a school example.

A 13 year old Muslim girl responding to materials presented in a project on tolerance, sensitivity and respect, said,

‘We were in a Sikhism lesson and Mrs S told us some things which I didn’t know. First of all I never knew there were ten gurus and Sikhism’s holy book is the Guru Granth Sahib. I really enjoyed this lesson because my mate is a Sikh, and I talk to her and know a lot more things about her religion. I think people should get along with each other – we are born and will all die one day, so let’s make the most of it.’^[2]

So what learning has been demonstrated? For example, in what that girl said about the Guru Granth Sahib – how important was what she learnt ABOUT Sikhism and how important what she learnt FROM it? What she actually learnt from Sikhism isn’t clear. She may or may not have learnt something from her study of Sikhism, but she has picked something up from somewhere: that ‘people should get along with each other’ and that, because ‘we are born and will all die one day’, we should ‘make the most of it.’ All quite helpful I am sure, but here, as often is the case, the new knowledge was relevant because of the personal interest – her friend was a Sikh. What about those children who don’t have Sikh friends? They may just have learnt that Sikhs have got some very odd beliefs and practices. They’ve got 10 gurus, so what?

If we are to make assessment more effective in the future we will need to involve pupils much more individually in their own plan of learning – or they will become ‘emotional truants’ and simply not turn up ready to think. This is where a question-led curriculum can be helpful. Instead of asking pupils to ‘write out the learning objectives’, many RE teachers now start with a key question and encourage pupils to say why this might or might not be a good question. Perhaps they can arrive at a better question. How might they go about solving it? These teachers then inspire pupils through their own interest in, enthusiasm for, and desire for learning/wisdom. Now the learning can begin.

What to do? Towards a framework for assessing progress in RE

We know that new arrangements have removed the need for ‘level statements’ of attainment for national curriculum subjects. Over time, therefore, it is likely that many RE syllabuses will move away from level or ‘can-do’ statements towards assessment schemes that incorporate ideas of ‘mastery’ or ‘command’ of key elements of the subject.

RE:ONLINE has produced some tentative ideas towards how such assessment ‘benchmarks’ may be set. These combine ideas of what minimum aspects of ‘knowledge’ are needed alongside indications of the depth of understanding needed to make progress in RE. Also included are statements that are linked to pupils’ own investigations into the big questions of religion and belief.

It is very much hoped that teachers will make suggestions for improvement in the clarity of the statements and offer brief examples of how pupils might fulfil them. This can be done via the RE:ONLINE café topic, ‘New Learning Outcomes for RE’.

See what you think: http://reonline.org.uk/assessing/how/learning-outcomes/

In addition, the Culham St Gabriel’s (CSTG) Trust has set up a fund to sponsor new thinking and trialling of ideas for assessment and progression in RE: http://www.cstg.org.uk/2015/01/2015-themed-grant-call-assessment-and-progression-in-re/

In the meantime, schools and academies should continue to make use of the assessment guidance provided by the body responsible for their RE syllabus. For community and voluntary controlled schools this will be the local authority SACRE and its agreed syllabus conference. This may also be the case for free schools and academies, though they have freedom to construct their own syllabuses. Schools and academies with a religious designation often have their own syllabus, sometimes linked with the one agreed by the local authority, though advice on this will be provided by the relevant religious foundation.

For further guidance on how to make the assessment process manageable and effective, see: http://reonline.org.uk/assessing/why/

In any event, a school or academy’s approach to assessment in religious education should be linked to the key aims of the subject. Although the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (REC)’s 2013 non-statutory National Curriculum Framework for RE (NCFRE) omits reference to two attainment targets, most current syllabuses still make assessments in terms of what pupils learn ABOUT religion and belief (attainment target 1) and what they learn FROM religion and belief (attainment target 2). And it continues to be important that pupils know how they are doing in relation to these aspects of the subject so that (a) they see the value of RE to their own development as individuals living in a complex society, helping them to make the most of their lives and cope with life’s difficulties and (b) they get a sense of empowerment in being able to investigate and grasp something of the influence of religions and beliefs on the people and world around them.

That is why it is a vital part of the rationale for assessment in RE that pupils are given feedback on how well they are acquiring and applying the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to reach such targets.

Dave Francis is the Lead Consultant for RE:ONLINE. His email address is dfmayfly@icloud.com

[1] Billy Bragg, 2003, The Price of Oil, Peace Not War CD, New Internationalist.

[2] Quoted in Blaylock, L., ‘Pushing the tolerant frontier: what more can be done to fulfil RE’s aims of tolerance sensitivity and respect’, in REsource 28:2, Spring 2006, PCfRE, p.15.