GREAT LEARNING

We define assessment as the process of making a judgement about student learning.  The judgement may be made by the student, their peers or by the teacher.  This process of gathering information in order to make a determination about a student’s learning is an important aspect of Great Learning.

 

All stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, leaders) need to be aware of the learner’s individual position and we believe that the best tools used to gather this information are criterion based. This means that students, teachers and parents should have a clear understanding of where the child is currently situated in terms of learning and what the next steps are.  At Danube, we aim to ensure that all students have a clear understanding of their learning position and the assessment process.  We expect all our students to be active participants in the assessment process. For example, when students jointly establish  the assessment model we believe that this helps students develop an informed self-image, a growth mindset and intrinsic motivation.

 

An example of when procedures are not conducive to Great Learning would be assessment that is not criterion based. In such cases, expectations are left to individual interpretation and students can therefore be confused about what is expected of them. This leads to grading based on unknown teacher perceptions and is therefore not supportive of Great Learning.