Assessment, learning and
standards in vocational education
Combating the rise of instrumentalism and
compliance
Kathryn Ecclestone, Professor of Education and Social
Inclusion, University of Birmingham
Outline
• the effects of ‘policy amnesia’
– the aims of outcome-based assessment
– 30 years of repeated reforms
• recent research on content, teaching and
assessment in vocational education
– standardisation
– attitudes to teaching, learning and
assessment
– knowledge and curriculum content
– professional expertise
• challenging instrumentalism and compliance
Policy amnesia
• the aims of outcome-based assessment 19861991
– democratising assessment processes and
outcomes
– widening scope of learning outcomes
– promoting validity as the first principle
of standards – parity of esteem
– separating theory and ‘content’ from
skills/competence
• 30 years of repeated reforms
– TEC and BEC, BTEC Nationals, CPVE, BTEC
1st, NVQs, GNVQs, AVCEs, Diplomas, the
Wolf review, separating vocational
education, work-based and academic
qualifications?
Policy amnesia
(2)
• turf wars
– the creation of the QCA in 1997
– control of independent awarding bodies
• competing vested interests: a camel designed
by committee (and “pastured on a water
meadow” – chief exec AQA, 2000)
• dominance of employer representatives
– overloaded, prescriptive specifications
– decline of professional expertise – awarding bodies,
teachers
– incoherent curriculum
– skills, more skills and yet more skills
• a highly politicised curriculum
– formal yet empty consultation and representation
Recent research
• some high quality, in-depth studies
– academic, awarding bodies, LSDA, NRDC
• exploring effects of political regulation,
control and lack of clear direction over
30 years
– standardisation
– attitudes to teaching, learning and
assessment
– knowledge and curriculum content
– professional expertise
Standardisation
• standards and parity of esteem
– image of normal curves of grade
distribution to match those of general
education
– summative assessment homogenous with
‘moderatable’ evidence for QA
– the end of genuine applied learning?
– endless ‘guidance’ (compliance
requirements)
– teaching to the assessment requirements,
coaching to the criteria
• the effects of the QCF
Attitudes to teaching, learning and
curriculum content
• endemic instrumentalism
– the instruments (methods and processes) become ends in
themselves
– institutional ‘achievement cultures’
• teachers assume extrinsic motivation
• assessment for learning, assessment of learning assessment is learning and teaching!
– content and input are ever-smaller tasks, class time is
assignment working
– coaching and ‘support’, ‘learning management’ to raise
rates of achievement
• turning content into skills (personal, social, attitudinal,
learning, studying)
– the demise of subject-specialist knowledge (theory,
concepts etc) and the rise of ‘learning to learn’ and
‘employability’
– content is an instrument/vehicle for ‘skills’
The exception of AVCE Science
• confident, well-qualified teachers
• educational values and beliefs
– refusal to coach to grades
– creative use of specifications
• a coherent syllabus
• strong subject ‘culture’
• high expectations of students’
motivation
I’m a lot more comfortable with saying, “You’re actually getting a
grade that is much more appropriate to what you’ve done,
rather than one which we could have forced you to get, by
making you do exactly what we know needs to be done”, which
obviously we know happens more and more in education
because it’s all results driven…
There’s no point in jumping through hoops for the sake of
jumping through hoops and there’s no point in getting grades
for the sake of getting grades. I know that’s not the answer,
because the answer is – no, we should be getting them to get
grades. But that’s never as I’ve seen it and it never will be
Professional expertise
• training in the same compliant, instrumental
formats
– socialising teachers into forms of
assessment to use with students
• skills, skills and more skills
– decline of content and chances to develop
constructive critical engagement
– policy-determined learning and focus
• questions about subject expertise of
vocational teachers, particularly in schools
but also in FE
Challenging instrumentalism and
compliance?
• compare our system with other countries
– international framework
• bring together research and expertise
– awarding bodies, academics, others
• show effects of 30 years of instrumental compliance
• challenge assumptions of reliability and rigour
• explore how knowledge and content at different levels
are defined, and clarify who are legitimate
stakeholders
• explore how teachers translate specifications into
teaching and assessment
• promote better professional development
– problem-based, expert-led, content-driven
References
• 2010 Transforming Formative Assessment in
Lifelong Learning, Open University Press
• 2007 Commitment, compliance and comfort zones:
assessment and learning careers in vocational
education, Assessment in Education, 14, 3, 315-333
• 2003 (co-authored with John Pryor) Learning
Careers or Assessment Careers?: the impact of
assessment systems on learning, British
Educational Research Journal, 29, 4, 471-489
• 2002 Learning Autonomy in Post-16 Education: the
politics and practice of formative assessment
(London, Routledge)
• Torrance et al (2005) The impact of assessment
systems in the Learning and Skills Sector, Learning
and Skills Development Agency