Kathryn Eccleston Masterclass
Assessment, learning and standards in vocational education
Repeated reforms to the content and assessment specifications of general vocational
qualifications over the past 30 years or so, have led to growing lists of outcomes and criteria
that must be addressed by teachers and students, and to both the dilution of vocational
knowledge and its extension into ‘skills’.
A recent study funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the Learning and Skills Development
Agency and the National Research Centre for Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy,
explored how teachers and students use formative and summative assessment in general
vocational education programmes in schools and colleges. The research shows very high
levels of instrumental compliance, a broadening of what ‘vocational’ knowledge and skills
are, and teaching dominated by the demands of assessment criteria and the demands of
standardisation required by awarding bodies.
This seminar explored findings from the project and their implications for how to develop
better assessment practices in contexts where teachers and students are under pressure to
meet targets, and for the roles of awarding bodies, the regulatory body and providers of
training for assessment.
Biography
Before moving into higher education in 1992, Kathryn worked for 20 years as a practitioner,
first in youth employment schemes and then in further and adult education. She became a
researcher in the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education, then the Further
Education Development Agency and moved into higher education in 1992. She spent five
years leading a large further education college/university consortium for teacher training in
post-compulsory education before doing her PhD on the policy and practice of assessment
in advanced vocational education, at the University of Newcastle.
Between 2002-2004, she was associate director for further and adult education in the
ESRC-funded Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Other recent projects include
a three-year project on Improving Formative Assessment in vocational education and adult
literacy and numeracy programmes and an ESRC-funded seminar series on ‘Transitions
through the Lifecourse’. She is currently directing an ESRC-funded seminar series on
emotional well-being and social justice.
Since 2003, she has been a member of the Assessment Reform Group, and is on editorial
boards for Studies in the Education of Adults, the Journal of Further and Higher Education
and Assessment in Education. She is also a judge in the annual ‘Debating Matters’ competition for
sixth form and further education students.
Research Interests
Her research explores the interplay between policy, practice and attitudes to learning and
assessment in post-compulsory education. Over the past four years, this interest has
focused on the rise of a ‘therapeutic ethos’ in curriculum content, teaching and assessment
across the education and welfare system.
Her most recent book, co-authored with Dennis Hayes, is ‘The Dangerous Rise of
Therapeutic Education’, a controversial critique of the ways in which concerns about
emotional well-being are changing ideas about social justice, inclusion and the goals of
education .
Specialist skill areas
 The policy and practice of assessment
 The impact of different assessment regimes on pedagogy, attitudes to learning, types of
autonomy and motivation.
 The politics of education
 Researching education policy: methods, approaches and ethics
 Interventions in students’ emotional well-being
Current projects
Ecclestone, K and Bailey, J (2009) Emotional well-being and interventions in further
education colleges: implications for teachers’ roles, Report for the Centre for Excellence in
Teacher Training, Oxford Brookes University
Ecclestone, K., Hayes, D., Pupavac, V. And Clack, B. (2008) ESRC-funded seminar series
‘Changing the subject?: inter-disciplinary perspectives on emotional well-being and social
justice’, Universities of Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham and Oxford Brookes
Other professional appointments
Honorary Fellow, City and Guilds of London Institute
Visiting Professor, University of Northumbria, Oxford Brookes University
Teaching and administration responsibilities
Kathryn is Co-Director of Studies (Research Degrees).
Publications (Selection)
Ecclestone, K., Biesta, G. and Hughes, M. (eds) (2009) Transitions and
Learning through the Lifecourse (London, Routledge)
Ecclestone, K and Hayes, D. (2009) Changing the subject: educational implications of
emotional well-being, Oxford Review of Education, 35, 3, 371-389
Ecclestone, K and Hayes, D. (2008) The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education (London,
Routledge)
Ecclestone, K. (2009) Therapy Culture Re-visited, Paper for Battle of Ideas 'Therapy Culture
Re-visted' Keynote Session, October 31st 2009, Royal College of Art, London
Davies, J. and Ecclestone K. (2008) ‘Straitjacket’ or ‘springboard’ for sustainable learning?:
the implications of formative assessment practices in vocational learning cultures, The
Curriculum Journal, 19, 2, 71-86
Eccestone, K. (2007) Commitment, compliance and comfort zones: the effects of formative
assessment on ‘learning careers’ in vocational education, Assessment in Education. 14, 3,
315-333
Ecclestone, K. (2007) Resisting images of the ‘diminished self’: the implications of emotional
well-being and emotional engagement in educational policy, Journal of Education Policy, 22,
4, 455-470