Briefing Paper for Teacher Mentors
Of Citizenship Education
Title: The Assessment of Pupils in
Citizenship
By: Peter Brett
St Martin’s College, Lancaster
Produced by citizED
(a project of the Teacher Training Agency)
AUTUMN 2004
More information about the series of Briefing
Papers for Teacher Mentors can be found at
www.citized.info
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
Mentor Briefing Paper 4
The Assessment of Pupils in Citizenship
Introduction
This paper includes :

A brief outline of the context in which Citizenship is being assessed in secondary
schools

Ten reasons why beginning teachers of Citizenship find it a particular challenge to
provide evidence of meeting the QTT Standards in relation to assessment

An overview of how Citizenship and assessment are approached within the collegebased component of a training course

An exploration of Citizenship and assessment in a school-based context
and thinking through strategies to improve both practice and training in this
area (this is the most substantial section)
Context
Some excellent Citizenship practice has begun to emerge since the introduction of
Citizenship into secondary schools in September 2002. The second annual NFER report,
drawing upon evidence from a long-term longitudinal study concluded that around 25% of
schools are progressing well (Kerr et al, 2004). Schools involved with Citizenship I.T.E.
courses are likely to be disproportionately represented within this group of advanced
schools. Overall, however – and perhaps unsurprisingly - a gap has emerged between
policy ideals and the realities of implementing Citizenship in practice in many schools.
As the NFER report puts it : “Provision is uneven, patchy and evolving and there is
considerable work to do in the majority of schools to develop effective education in this
new area of the curriculum”.
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OFSTED evidence has supported this verdict. It reported, for example, in 2003 that in
over half of 25 sample schools it surveyed the management of the introduction of
citizenship had been unsatisfactory. For ‘light touch’ many schools had read ‘soft touch’
and given the new statutory subject area little status. A further overview report in
February 2004 confirmed these findings and added that :
“Some of the weakest lessons were in tutor time, with pupils’ experience limited by the
lack of commitment of some teachers and the inadequate time available. Lack of
commitment was also shown where citizenship was taught by a large team of teachers,
sometimes the whole staff….”
The 2002-2003 Annual Report of HMI noted that :
“At Key Stages 3 and 4, teaching in citizenship is good or better in only about half of
schools inspected, a much smaller proportion than for all other subjects”.
The second NfER survey reported that half of the students in their large sample did not
realise that they had been studying citizenship.
These findings have inevitably had a knock-on effect in relation to the assessment of
pupils’ Citizenship learning (and consequently upon the ability of Citizenship trainees to
meet the QTS Standards in relation to assessment). OFSTED concluded bluntly in their
2003 report that, ‘Assessment is currently a weak aspect of citizenship and few schools
have progressed very far with it’. The different forms of curriculum provision that can be
made for Citizenship include :
 Teaching within and through other subjects (explicit cross-curricular provision)
 Whole school and suspended timetable events
 Learning through pupils’ participation in the life of the school and wider community
(e.g. Work experience)
 Tutorial group activity in form time [e.g. Class councils feeding into Year or School
Councils]
 Teaching as part of a timetabled PSHE/RE course by a specialist team
 Discrete provision taught by a specialist in separate curriculum time
Each of these approaches has advantages, disadvantages and implications. There is no
one ‘blueprint’ for how to build in and implement the Citizenship requirements.
Nevertheless, however the approaches outlined above are combined, effective means of
co-ordinating, assessing and evaluating progress need to be built into all provision.
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
There is a range of advice available from central government sources such as the DfES
(through the CPD Handbook), OFSTED and the QCA on how this might be achieved.
Schools, however, are generally struggling to implement coherent policies in relation to
assessment despite the guidance frameworks. Practical ideas for resolving Citizenship
assessment difficulties regularly feature at the top of Citizenship co-ordinators’ list of
priorities when requesting Citizenship CPD. In 2004 some of the difficulties were
additionally foregrounded for many schools by the statutory obligation to reach an end of
key stage judgement in relation to pupils’ achievements in Citizenship by the end of key
stage 3.
It is not the intention of this unit to repeat general advice and guidance on assessing
Citizenship which is available elsewhere [in addition to the official sources also see
Jerome L et al. (2003a), The Citizenship Co-ordinator’s Handbook – Chapter 7 and
Jerome L (2003b)., Planning Assessment for Citizenship education as well as his briefing
paper for trainees available through this website]. Rather, whilst recognising the very real
difficulties that some schools are having in creating workable assessment models, this
unit focuses upon the perspectives and needs of beginning Citizenship teachers.
Standard 3.3.7 is quite sobering from the perspective of Citizenship trainees and most
mentors. Trainees will need to demonstrate, to be awarded QTS, that they can “record
pupils’ progress and achievements systematically to provide evidence of the range of
pupils’ work, progress and attainment over time, to inform planning, to help pupils review
their own progress and to provide a basis for reporting”. This Unit explores why the
‘Qualifying to Teach’ Standards (DfES, 2002) relating to assessment are particularly
challenging for Citizenship trainees but, more positively, suggests a range of training
strategies which you can undertake as a mentor to help move trainees forward in this
area.
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
Ten reasons why beginning teachers of Citizenship find it a particular
challenge to provide evidence of meeting the QTT Standards in relation
to assessment
1. The contested nature of the subject
Trainees, mentors and course tutors need to have a shared understanding of the nature
of Citizenship. The partnership vision will also vary depending upon the discrete or joint
nature of the different courses. A fundamental prerequisite of assessment is to identify
very clearly what is being assessed. Yet there are many different ways in which
citizenship education can be interpreted and approached. At one level it could be argued
that a diversity of approaches is a good thing. Diverse curriculum emphases were actively
encouraged by the statutory order for Citizenship within the National Curriculum. Thus
beginning Citizenship teachers in England spend two-thirds of their time in schools all
with, often legitimate, differences in their ‘take’ upon Citizenship and where the subject is
addressed in different ways through different subject contexts. But it has been noted that
: “These competing definitions and models of citizenship and citizenship education are
important precisely because they point towards the potential for an incoherent vision and
varied practice of citizenship education to develop in English schools.” (Kerr et. al,, 2003).
This incoherence may well translate into uneven and inconsistent understandings by
training partnerships of assessment practices in citizenship. Straight away, therefore, we
run into potential problems for trainees in terms of the focus of their lesson planning and,
for example, Standard 3.1.2 – “using teaching and learning objectives to plan lessons and
sequences of lessons, showing how they will assess pupil learning”. H.E.I.s involved in
I.T.E. are themselves refining their definitions of Citizenship providing further scope for
trainees receiving mixed messages..
2. The low priority and status of the subject in some schools
Citizenship is (quite rightly) seen as ‘more than a subject’ – it also relates to
whole school ethos and policies and extra-curricular activities. It is important to plan the
process of moving Citizenship forwards within a whole school context. However, a lack of
understanding about the place of Citizenship in the curriculum at the top of schools and
colleges can lead to it being assigned low priority. From the perspective of a trainee
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Citizenship teacher, if there is not something identifiable – by pupils as well as teachers –
as Citizenship within the school curriculum - for example, if it dissolves implicitly into
tutorial time, it is going to be pretty hard to assess pupils’ knowledge, skills and
understanding.
3. A shortage of subject specialists to serve as experienced
mentors for beginning teachers of Citizenship
The baseline research undertaken across 318 schools in England in the academic year
2001-2002 indicated that the majority of teachers (71%) had not received any training in
relation to citizenship education. In order to develop a better understanding of citizenship
education, teachers favoured greater training opportunities, particularly concerning
subject knowledge (89%) and teaching and learning approaches (65%) (Kerr et al. 2003)
4. Different readings of the Citizenship National Curriculum
OFSTED evidence (June 2003) indicated that in relation to the Citizenship National
Curriculum there were major differences in the ways in which school-based mentors and
their colleagues were interpreting its statutory demands. In a significant introductory
section to the Citizenship Programme of Study, it is noted that “teaching should ensure
that knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens are acquired and
applied when developing skills of enquiry and communication and participation and
responsible action”. OFSTED noted that there were early problems associated with whole
school Citizenship audits of the ‘enquiry and communication’ and ‘participation and
responsible action’ strands of the National Curriculum – “Some schools used the audit to
show that they were teaching these skills throughout the school curriculum, when in fact
they were not set in the context of ‘knowledge and understanding about becoming
informed citizens’. In their 2003 survey inspectors sensed “a degree of complacency” – –
mainly because the full implications of citizenship as a national curriculum subject were
not understood : “In all schools, the debate about what National Curriculum Citizenship
involves, and its contribution to their pupils’ education, needs to continue, and for some
this will be a long term project”. As Citizenship educators we need to think through the
rationale behind an integrated vision of subject knowledge which contextualises the
fostering of skills. To do otherwise risks a reductionist view of Citizenship whereby young
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people are rehearsed in the disaggregated “skills” of Citizenship, as expressed in the
second and third strands of the National Curriculum Citizenship Programme of Study
relating to the skills of ‘enquiry and communication’ and ‘participation and responsible
action’ but do so without a clear map of the political landscape within which these skills
are to be exercised (See Brett and West, 2003).
5. A lack of models as to how progression in Citizenship might be assessed and
evidence that existing practice is ‘weak’
Again, the baseline research across schools in England in the academic year 2001-2002
indicated the distance that would need to be travelled. Over 80% of teachers surveyed
said that they did not assess students in Citizenship education. Indeed, few schools
reported that they had definite policies for recognising student achievement (11% at key
stage 3 and 8% at key stage 4).
In the absence of developed models of progression for Citizenship QTT Standard 3.2.1
comes under the spotlight – enabling beginning teachers to “make appropriate use of a
range of monitoring and assessment strategies to evaluate pupils’ progress towards
planned learning objectives”. If tutors and school-based mentors like you have an illdefined understanding of what it means to “get better at Citizenship” then they are poorly
equipped to analyse beginning teachers’ planning of teaching and learning. All parties
grapple with the scaffolding of pupils’ learning without a clear idea of the destination.
6. Cross-curricular approaches to assessment can be problematic
Assessing subjects via cross-curricular routes is always complicated – coordination of how Citizenship is taught through, for example History, Geography R.E. or
English is complex and time-consuming. There is often a lack of clarity in relation to who
is responsible for assessing pupils’ citizenship work across the curriculum and few
developed models and mechanisms for doing this effectively.
Are there shared understandings across the History, Geography, R.E., PSHCE
departments as to the nature of the Citizenship National Curriculum ? Certainly, it is rare
that History, Geography or R.E. teachers see themselves explicitly as teachers of
Citizenship. How often is a Citizenship co-ordinator freed up to monitor the quality of
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Citizenship work undertaken across different school departments ? Too often the crosscurricular approach begins and ends with the Citizenship audit with little subsequent
exploration of the implications of ticking a particular box, when the audit should constitute
the beginning of a journey. The implications for trainees here, if their school placement is
in a school which relies mainly upon a cross-curricular model of delivery is in relation to
QTT Standard 3.2.6 – “recording pupils’ progress and achievements systematically to
provide evidence of their range of work, progress and attainment over time”. Within this
context it is difficult for trainees to observe practise, for example, whereby pupils are
provided with clear feedback on their Citizenship strengths and areas for improvement.
Pupils’ experience of Citizenship may be fragmentary and episodic. Trainees may also
struggle in this cross-curricular context with the subject knowledge demands and
curriculum requirements of the ‘host’ subject.
7. The relationship between Citizenship and P.S.H.E. has proved
to be problematic and affected assessment practices
The dominant model for the organisation of the citizenship curriculum has been through
existing (non-statutory) personal, social and health education (PSHE) programmes.
Whilst there is scope for complementary approaches and useful synergy, some schools
and teachers have treated PSHE and Citizenship as being synonymous. OFSTED
underlined that schools need to recognise what is new and distinctive about citizenship
and what distinguishes it from PSHE. A further consequence of this link is that
traditionally oral work has been favoured in PSHE and comparatively little written work
undertaken. Oral work and debate is at the core of Citizenship, too, but it also needs to
show that it has rigour in other ways. Inspectors found in the June 2003 report that
“Standards of pupils’ work in citizenship were too often unsatisfactory and written work
was generally weaker than it should be”. The timetable link with PSHE has also led in
practice to a relegation of the ‘political literacy’ strand of citizenship – which is arguably
the foundation element of effective citizenship education.
8. Assessment practices in Citizenship need to be different but are sometimes
under-developed in both theory and practice
The kinds of assessment mechanisms that are important to Citizenship (e.g.
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self-assessment; peer assessment; portfolios of evidence; oral work and
debate; community projects; a focus on the ‘soft’ skills of negotiation, team
work and participation) often have under-developed pedagogic roots in theory
and research evidence. Skills (such as reasoning, collaborating, communicating,
presenting, debating etc..) and dispositions (such as empathising, tolerating, reflecting
and being open-minded) require very different forms of assessment compared to those
used to test retention of factual knowledge. In many of these areas, practice is in the
process of development in schools rather than secure and established. (And far from
being ‘soft’ skills, of course, these are skills that young people find it hard to both practise
and master). There is an overlap here with the values agenda. The ‘values and
dispositions’ element of the Crick vision of Citizenship was dropped from the National
Curriculum. This has left an ambiguity in terms of where the ‘Social and Moral
Responsibility’ strand of Citizenship ends and an overlap with PSHE begins. Citizenship
specialists, in particular, need to become expert, as QTT Standard 3.2.2. puts it, in
“involving pupils in reflecting on, evaluating and improving their own performance”.
‘Assessment for Learning’ strategies can potentially be to the fore in Citizenship lessons
but this approach has only been partially taken up as yet by schools. The Assessment
Reform Group (2002) define ‘assessment for learning’ as : “The process of seeking and
interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners
are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there” (See Black et al.,
2003). Citizenship should be viewed as an integral element of the KS3 strategy, but at
present this is rarely the case in the majority of schools. Pupils’ work in Citizenship
contributes to raising standards under all four headings of the strategy but particularly the
headings ‘Engaging and Motivating Pupils’ and ‘Transforming Teaching and Learning’.
9. Evidence of pupil achievement is likely to be varied
Citizenship is a different kind of subject area and needs different kind of
thinking about how it is assessed – official guidance (rightly) underlines the idea that it
should be creative, varied and emphasise pupil involvement; “flexible, imaginative and
exploratory rather than rigid, mechanistic and closed”.
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There are few case studies of developed classroom practice to call upon (although some
are available on the National Curriculum in action website) but
a recognition that evidence of achievement might include videos, presentations, drama,
displays, photographs and diaries as well as more traditional methods.
10. Experience at key stage 4 may be piecemeal and low on GCSE content
OFSTED have indicated that, if anything, practice is even weaker at KS4 than it is at KS3
– possibly this is a consequence of the lack of statutory assessment at the end of KS4 to
act as a ‘stick’. Central guidance has noted that at key stage 4, when pupils are studying
optional GCSE or GNVQ courses, “discrete provision of Citizenship will be necessary to
meet the requirements of the programmes of study”. For example, “a separately planned
[Citizenship] course based on real issues, themes or concepts connected with political
and legal systems may be necessary to promote the knowledge and understanding of the
work of parliament, the government and the courts, required in the programmes of study”
(QCA, 2000). There is a recognition that 14-16 year old students will realise their
Citizenship entitlement in different ways. Few schools are yet undertaking the GCSE in
Citizenship Studies – less than 10% in 2004. Some schools enter pupils for GCSE
Humanities, which contains a decent component of Citizenship content but this may be
thin in relation to the ‘participation’ strand of Citizenship. Yet other schools enter pupils for
the GCSE short course in R.E. and (probably erroneously) look to ‘cover’ Citizenship
issues within this. Certainly all beginning teachers need to develop an understanding of
teaching to external examinations such as GCSE and indeed AS/A Level and yet may
struggle to demonstrate competences in this area within Citizenship. Training
partnerships need to look creatively to experience in related subject areas – in courses
where Citizenship is the ‘minor’ subject, of course, this is less of a problem as experience
is probably easier to gain in the ‘lead’ subject.
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How Citizenship and Assessment are approached within the collegebased component of a training course
There are a large number of ways in which all college-based training courses will seek to
develop beginning teachers’ knowledge skills and understanding in relation to Citizenship
and assessment. As a mentor it is important that you are aware of the content and
chronology of the trainees’ college-based training in relation to assessment so that you
can follow-up and develop issues appropriately. It is also important in the area of
assessing Citizenship to be honest that there is a ‘gap’ between theory and practice and
to acknowledge the existence of the obstacles outlined above. To a degree, practice
often lags behind policy in all areas of education and assessment may represent a ‘work
in progress’ within your school. A gap can appear where national policy is attempting to
bring a significant shift in teacher attitudes and classroom practice in a relatively short
space of time. This is certainly the case in relation to Citizenship education in England.
All I.T.E. Citizenship courses will look to develop, through a variety of approaches in
college-based training sessions, a deep and integrated vision of Citizenship as a subject
and, linked to this, a developed understanding of how it might be assessed. This will
inevitably involve most of the following :

Looking at how and why Citizenship has come into being as a National Curriculum
subject

Exploring differing notions and critiques of Citizenship education

Analysing the nature of the National Curriculum programme of study and unpackaging
the three strands of knowledge, skills and participation.
(This clearly entails looking at the relationship between Citizenship subject knowledge
and assessment)

Developing and practising lesson planning and incorporating ‘assessment for learning’
principles into this planning

Being introduced to the principles of inclusion and pitching work at an appropriate
level of challenge
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
Sharing generic principles relating to the purposes of assessment and marking
practices

Exploring how best to assess ‘active citizenship’ and community involvement

Undertaking a critical review of guidance materials on good practice in relation to
assessment in Citizenship (e.g. the DfES, QCA, ACT, selected cross-curricular
models etc..)
[See M.Lewis (2003) Review of PGCE Citizenship Courses Documentation 2002-2003,
citizED website]
How individual courses pursue these objectives, of course varies. Within all, one aim is to
‘model’ practice. Beyond these core activities, it is likely that practice diverges in terms of
the organisation and focus of different training sessions and the ways in which the
understanding of beginning teachers is developed via assignments. (Most courses will
also incorporate the aim of deepening trainees’ thinking about assessment issues into
one or more of their college assignments – this might include action research, the uses of
baseline data on pupils’ levels of attainment or curriculum development activities that
expect trainees to embed the principles of ‘assessment for learning’).
Addressing Citizenship and Assessment in a school-based context and
thinking through strategies to improve both practice and training in
this area
Overview – What is being assessed ? How might achievements be reported on ?
Planning for Citizenship in England (at least in theory) starts with your school’s
interpretation of The School Curriculum and the National Curriculum : Values, Aims and
Purposes (QCA, 1999). This overview document, hidden away at the front of the National
Curriculum handbook develops a wider sense of the purposes of education and also
stresses that education is a route to equality of opportunity, a healthy and just society, a
productive economy and sustainable development. Encouraging trainees to reflect upon
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this rationale encourages them to see that the ethos of the school is critical to the
successful implementation of Citizenship.
A useful starting point before you get into the detail of assessing Citizenship is to
look at how you conceptualise Citizenship within your school ?
A key way of conceptualising approaches to Citizenship education has been to think in
terms of :

Education ABOUT Citizenship

Education THROUGH Citizenship

Education FOR Citizenship
The former is easiest to teach and to assess – it is largely content-led and knowledgebased. It lends itself to didactic teaching and learning approaches with teacher-led,
whole-class teaching as the dominant medium. It is also a negation of what active and
engaging teaching and Citizenship should be about – with little opportunity for, or
encouragement of, student interaction, involvement and initiative. Education THROUGH
Citizenship involves students learning by doing, through active, participative experiences
in the school or local community. In the United States this is known as ‘Service Learning’.
The danger here is that the emphasis is upon the service as opposed to the learning and
that voluntary work or projects are undertaken in a way which disaggregates ‘skills’ and
there is a knowledge vacuum. Education FOR Citizenship encompasses the other two
approaches and involves equipping students with a set of tools which will enable them to
participate actively and responsibly within their communities in adult life.
It fuses what might be characterised as ‘Citizenship of the heart’ and ‘Citizenship of the
mind’. In other words, it is the inter-relatedness of skills and knowledge which is the key.
It is this approach that most Citizenship I.T.E. courses will be looking to develop.
Another way of thinking about this is to envision pupils’ experience of Citizenship across
the three ‘C’s of ‘Culture’, ‘Community’ and ‘Curriculum’. At one school in the North West
of England, involved in Citizenship I.T.E., the school’s profile looks like this :
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Case Study : Royton and Crompton School, Oldham
At Royton and Crompton School, an 11-16 mixed comprehensive in Oldham,
there is a strong commitment to an over-arching approach to Citizenship which
relates to the whole school culture, community involvement and the curriculum.
The schools serves a predominantly white catchment area where the British
National Party is relatively strong. In the wake of the Oldham Riots of 2001, the
school is committed to both celebrating and understanding cultural diversity.
Culture : Citizenship is supported from the top at Royton and Crompton School.
Two Assistant Headteachers (responsible for teaching and learning and
curriculum development), supported by the Headteacher, have been actively
involved for over two years in taking Citizenship forwards.
The Head sees links between the school’s Citizenship ethos and recent
improvements in the school's academic results at GCSE level. All around the
school, strategically placed display boards (funded through key stage 3 strategy
money) communicate and share a range of positive messages. These include
displays of pupils’ work, equal opportunities posters; photographs from an African
Dance Week and drum workshop; a recent visit from the ‘Kick Racism out of
Football’ campaign and various reward boards. Year forums take responsibility
for the ownership and content of some of these boards. Citizenship is seen as a
central component of the school’s positive behaviour policy – pupils gain
Citizenship points and merits which qualify them for entry in a monthly draw for
prizes. There are ‘Citizen of the month’ awards across key stages 3 and 4 won
respectively recently by a Year 9 pupil who handed in a full wallet he found on
the street and a team of Year 10 girls who volunteered to mentor Year 7 pupils
struggling with Maths.
Community : There is a strong sense of the school as a community – with
successes celebrated and displayed and pupils involved in planning
improvements to the outside play and social areas. A ‘green group’ has been
highlighting through photography the graffiti and rubbish around the school
neighbourhood and then engaging in a clean-up campaign. Pupils who were
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involved will be leading follow-up assemblies. The school is seeking to be
outward-facing through charity fundraising events such as a shoebox appeal for
under-privileged children in Eastern Europe. Year 10 pupils are involved in minienterprise projects where they work in teams, set up stalls and raise money for
causes of their choice – this is to be linked in future with their GCSE Citizenship
Studies short course coursework.
Curriculum : Citizenship has status as a subject within the curriculum. The
PSHE co-ordinator and Head of R.E. has taken forward Citizenship
enthusiastically as an element of PHSCE at key stage 3 and linked with R.E. at
key stage 4. The school appointed a Citizenship/Social Science NQT who has
recently been promoted to Citizenship co-ordinator in her second year of
teaching. She plans to introduce the GCSE Citizenship Studies short course for
all students at key stage 3 and to re-visit the KS3 audit undertaken two years
ago. Looking ahead, to further fine-tune the Citizenship focus in the curriculum,
the school will be creating smaller specialist teams for PHSCE and has
timetabled slots for Personal and Social Development meetings in the school
calendar. They aim to clarify and develop the contribution of other subject
departments – such as R.E. and Geography – to students’ experience of
Citizenship.
Celebrating Cultural Diversity : The school has incorporated into its key stage
3 PHSCE and R.E. schemes of work a locally developed teaching pack for
Citizenship developed by Oldham LEA’s Ethnic Minorities Support Service –
Culture and Diversity : An Oldham Focus. This is a superb resource containing a
range of high quality teaching and learning activities. The theme in Year 7 is
‘Diverse Oldham: Diverse Britain’ and students focus primarily upon issues of
identity. In Year 8 pupils explore the issue of ‘Migration and Settlement’ at both
global and local levels. The Year 9 focus is especially strong with a superb
Northland/Southland simulation, the creation of a ‘Respect for All’ school charter
and an in-depth focus upon the Oldham Riots of May 2001 and the future of
Oldham.
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Training activities :
-
Using the model above, ask the trainee to profile pupils’ Citizenship
experiences in your school. In a follow-up school-based training session
discuss how the range of pupils’ Citizenship experiences and learning might
best be celebrated and captured in an end of year report. You could also use
this session to introduce the trainee to the school’s existing Citizenship
reporting systems. (Standards 3.3.7. and 3.3.8).
-
Focus in one of your school-based training sessions on the advantages and
disadvantages of Citizenship portfolios of achievement. Jerome (2003b)
provides some advice on developing more rigorous thinking about the
principles of portfolio pedagogy and how portfolios require careful planning
and management in relation to how each piece of evidence will be collected
(See Klenowski, 2002). We know how difficult even experienced teachers
sometimes find it to pull together coherent and well organised evidence of
their achievements in relation to demonstrating Threshhold competences –
it should be no surprise that young people are going to need pathways and
clear structures and guidance in this area. What elements need to be in place
in secondary schools for Citizenship portfolios to work effectively ?
-
Ask the trainee to look at the assessment guidance on reporting produced by
the QCA (2003 and website updates). What issues does this guidance raise
for your current practice ?
Assessing Citizenship across the curriculum
Relatively early in the Citizenship trainees’ time at your school it is good to set up
some opportunities to observe and learn from assessment practices in other
subjects (as well as give some thought to potentially thorny cross-curricular
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assessment issues). Aspects of assessment practices in other subject areas
provide ideas and models for building progression into Citizenship schemes of
work. For example, Tim Lomas (1993) has characterised progression in History :
“Pupils’ thinking and understanding is often sporadic. There is no smooth
movement through a linear series of stages. Pupils seem to progress and
regress and gradual progress seems to be made through a process of
reinforcement. Ideas need to be applied to varieties of content. Pupils’ minds in
history act like a mosaic which is gradually infilled”.
Citizenship teachers may find this helpful as a parallel methodological metaphor.
History level descriptors also provide useful guidance in terms of assessing
Pupils’ skills of explanation and analysis.
Other helpful guidance on assessing pupils understanding of ‘values and commitments’
(making sense of right and wrong) and ‘identity and experience’ (making sense of who we
are) is provided in Attainment Target 2 of the national expectations for RE. This sets out
in level descriptions a helpful sense of hierarchy and development in childrens’ thinking
about contemporary events and issues. Similarly Levels 4-8 of Attainment Target 1 of the
English National Curriculum related to ‘speaking and listening’ provide a possible
framework for building progression into Citizenship debates and oral work.
Some schools and departments that are making most progress in incorporating
Citizenship explicitly within a cross-curricular framework have asked three or four subject
areas to make one clear and developed contribution to pupils’ Citizenship assessment
portfolio. Here is one example of such an approach :
Case Study : Citizenship through History
At Trinity High School, Manchester – a multi-cultural, Church of England
11-18 comprehensive – Year 9 pupils undertake an 8-10 week unit of work
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in their History classes on ‘Protest’, incorporating the Luddites, Peterloo,
the Chartists and Suffragettes. This starts with a visit to the Peoples’
History Museum in Manchester where students are actively involved in a
‘living history’ performance with actors ‘in role’ as the black Manchester
Chartist, William Cuffay and the local suffragette, Hannah Mitchell.
Citizenship activities building upon the students’ historical learning include :

Looking at the Six Points of the Chartists ‘Peoples’ Charter’ and using this as
a starting point to explore the role of Parliament today. The students also
explore the merits of the case for Votes at 16 and create a contemporary
Peoples’ Charter which they share with audiences outside the classroom.
Links are made to Y8 elections for representatives on Manchester’s Youth
Council.

Considering the role of the law in protecting childrens’ and workers’ rights in
the early nineteenth century and today (in an observed lesson, the teacher
used the famous early Nineteenth Century images of children working in
dangerous factory conditions and asked the students what kinds of issues
would be pursued by Health and Safety officials today !)

Discussing the purpose and effectiveness of Trades Unions in the early
Twenty First century – pupils look at the role of symbols and iconography and
create their own Union badges;

Evaluating the methods used by pressure groups to try to change things. The
violent tactics of the Luddites and some of the Chartists and Suffragettes are
compared to the peaceful methods adopted by Martin Luther King in the
following unit of pupils’ work in History.
Training activities :
-
In a school-based training session, focus upon how Citizenship learning is
occurring within different subject areas of the school. What is it, for example,
that is developing an R.E. lesson on cultural diversity or a Geography lesson
on sustainability into a Citizenship experience for the pupils ? How is pupils’
Citizenship learning in these cross-curricular contexts assessed ?
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
-
The trainee might act as a visiting ‘expert’ for ‘hot-seating’ in a colleague’s
class. This not only develops trainees’ subject knowledge and utilises the
trainee as an additional resource but also gets them to think about the criteria
by which pupils’ questioning skills might be assessed !
-
Encourage your trainee to create a simple pro-forma, to be completed mainly
by pupils, which captures some of their cross-curricular Citizenship learning
undertaken over a sequence of lessons. Ideally this might incorporate a
Citizenship key question; a baseline and post activity self-evaluation section
which asks pupils to reflect upon Citizenship knowledge, skills and
participation; an agreed target for development; space for formative teacher
comment and a summative judgement against the end of key stage 3
Citizenship level description.
-
Work with your trainee to develop a ‘levels of response’ markscheme for a
particular Citizenship activity. There is, of course, no formal eight-level scale
for Citizenship, rather teachers have been encouraged to think in terms of
pupils working towards, at or beyond the end of KS3 Citizenship level
description. This advice is rather general, however, when it comes to
assessing individual pieces of work or thinking about pupils’ progression and
offering guidance as the what the next developmental steps in their
Citizenship skills of explanation, advocacy, understanding and working with
others or participation might be.
Supporting and structuring ‘active’ citizenship project work and developing selfand peer asessment
Two of the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status for beginning teachers require them to
demonstrate that they “promote active and independent learning that enables pupils to
think for themselves, and to plan and manage their own learning” [3.3.3] and involve
pupils in “reflecting on, evaluating and improving their own performance” [3.2.2]. These
Standards sit very comfortably with the philosophy underpinning approaches to active
citizenship and participation. The ways in which learning experiences are provided in
Citizenship are fundamental to its success. It is important, amongst other things, that
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
pupils are able to take responsibility for their own learning; work in groups of different
sizes and compositions; explore and discuss issues through debates, simulation activities
or role play; and have space to reflect upon their experiences in both the formal and
informal curriculum.
We know that effective teachers :

“Motivate pupils to learn independently”

“Equip pupils with independent learning skills to enable them to
become lifelong learners”

“Consistently provide a range of opportunities for pupils to direct
their own learning”

“Encourage pupils to use a variety of problem-solving techniques”

“Provide individualised formative feedback to get pupils thinking and
encourage breakthroughs in their understanding”

“Regularly employ individual work and small group activities as ways
of reinforcing pupil learning through practice and reflection”
[ Research into Teacher Effectiveness Hay McBer Report, June 2000]
Training activities :
-
Look at the list of positive features outlined above. Ask the trainee (with
appropriate support from you) to plan one Citizenship lesson which
incorporates most of these elements. When the pupils’ work has been
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
assessed, ask the trainee to assess what the pupils’ have learned and identify
how future lessons might enable the pupils’ to demonstrate progress in their
research and project work. (Standard 3.3.7. states that trainees need to be
able to demonstrate that they can : “record pupils’ progress and
achievements systematically to provide evidence of the range of pupils’ work,
progress and attainment over time, to inform planning….”)
-
Encourage the trainee to think a bit more systematically about the uses of
informal assessment. Get them to explicitly plan how they will check the
understanding of named pupils as the pupils work. What kinds of questions
are good to ask ? How might they record these informal findings ?
Specifically, Citizenship projects undertaken across a sequence of lessons – certainly at
the level of GCSE Citizenship Studies but probably in practice at KS3 - require a clear
citizenship focus, evidence of planning and research and an evaluation which reflects
upon strengths, ways in which the project might have been improved and includes a
recognition of the views, experiences and contributions of others. Success in this area
requires pupils and their teachers to adopt a very structured approach. These are
facilitative skills which can be relatively novel and challenging even for some experienced
teachers. This point emerges very strongly from the work of the ‘Assessment for
Learning’ project which focused specifically upon questioning skills and self and peer
assessment (Black et al., 2003).
Some Citizenship P.G.C.E. students have reported that they have found the ‘Get Global’
materials (ActionAid, 2003) particularly useful in deepening their thinking about
assessment issues. These materials deploy a six step skills approach to active citizenship
: Get asking questions !; Get an issue !; Get more information !; Get planning !; Get active
!; Get thinking about it ! Philosophy for Children (P4C) approaches also suggest many
fruitful methods of assessing enquiry and communication skills, irrespective of content
which are directly transferable to Citizenship contexts (see www.sapere.net). P4C
strategies help to develop pupils’ powers of logic, advocacy, discussion and debate. It is
a powerful tool to help young people deal rationally with difference and conflict.
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
Training Activities:
-
Ask your trainee to devise a KS4 activity (with assessment criteria) for young
people to learn how to detect bias in the way information (including statistics)
is presented to the general public (e.g. by government; the media;
campaigning groups; or private companies). What do the outcomes of the
activity tell you about the pupils’ research and analytical skills ? Ask the
trainee to amend plans for subsequent lessons in the light of the assessment
evidence (This can be done on a smaller scale at first by focusing on a few
pupils as ‘guides’ to the range of achievement in the class).
-
Focus with the trainee in your school-based training sessions on questions
such as: What constitutes good citizenship project work ? What skills
underpin effective planning, research and self-evaluation ?
You could use this grid as a prompt to encourage your Citizenship trainee to experiment
with different methods of self- and peer-assessment :
In Citizenship to what extent do you…
Share learning objectives with pupils ?
Build time into lessons for pupils to
reflect on their learning ?
Plan opportunities for self-assessment ?
Plan opportunities for peer-assessment ?
Discuss targets with students
Cater for differing pupil learning styles in
your self-assessment activities (E.g.
using language and words; patterns and
logic; visualising pictures; kinaesthetic
approaches to thinking things through;
emotional/diagrammatic; thinking
centred; and sensory).
Experiment with different forms of self-
Never
Sometimes
Always
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
assessment (e.g. Confidence ‘traffic
lights’; smiley /non-smiley faces; number
spectrum; statement banks; guided
comments)
Check that pupils understand learning
objectives
Encourage pupils to explain the process
of learning (e.g. in plenaries)
Know that pupils understand the criteria
for standards of achievement
Enable pupils to re-draft/improve their
work after it has been marked
Adapted from www.aaia.org.uk and DfES CPD Handbook (Ch.12)
Encouraging a variety of assessment practices and activities
Citizenship teachers should use a range of assessment strategies in order to evaluate
pupils’ progress across the different forms of knowledge, skills and participation. You
might encourage your trainee to dip into the following menu of options :
Factual and Conceptual Knowledge

Multiple choice questionnaires

Matching words to their definitions

Identifying key ideas/ information from a passage or text

Explaining the background to a newspaper headline or story

Writing arguments for and against in relation to a controversial issue
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE

Analysing some statistics

Discussing problems surrounding proposals to introduce a new law
Enquiry and Communication

Demonstrating skills of communication through a piece of persuasive writing

Creating a powerpoint presentation advocating a change of some kind

Creating a display or leading an assembly to raise awareness of a particular issue
within the school

Researching a topic (individually or in small groups) using a range of sources, and
presenting on it, orally or in writing

Writing a letter to a public figure (e.g. Councillor; Chief Constable; Editor of the local
newspaper) to persuade them about a topical issue
Participation and Responsible Action

Contributing successfully to groupwork, showing an awareness of the range of roles
necessary for the effective functioning of a group and the ability to reflect on how the
group functioned as a unity

Identifying the need for social action and developing strategies that could bring about
change

Demonstrating understanding of how to influence opinion on an issue, whether this is
public opinion or those of local or national policy makers

Knowing how to question visiting ‘experts’ for information about a topical issue (e.g.
asking the local police about issues relating to crime and its prevention or
environmental experts about issues relating to sustainability and Local Agenda 21)

Encouraging pupils to develop their own sets of success criteria for tasks (for
example, by asking ‘How will we know that you have achieved that ?)
Involving Colleagues as Allies
Because your Citizenship trainee is likely to be gaining teaching experience in several
areas of the school it is important that the professional mentor/co-ordinating school-based
tutor has a secure overview of your trainees’ progress.
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
He/she is in a good position to help identify colleagues who may be able to offer
specialised assistance to your trainee in relation to some of the QTS assessment
standards. For example, your trainee should be able to use assessment to identify and
support pupils who have particular needs, including those :
-
With emotional and behavioural difficulties
-
who under-achieve
-
with specific learning needs and disabilities
-
with other identified special educational needs
-
who are high attainers
-
who are not yet fluent in English
It would make sense to create opportunities as part of your school-based training
programme for the trainee to meet and talk, for example, with the school’s SENCO (For
further useful guidance in the area of Citizenship and SEN pupils see the trainee briefing
paper produced for the CitizED by Lee Jerome – ‘Citizenship Education and Pupils with
Learning Difficulties’). It is also useful for the trainee to meet with the Gifted and Talented
Co-ordinator, KS3 Foundation Strategy and Behaviour strategy co-ordinators and a
school-based English as an Additional Language expert. Moreover, as outlined above,
colleagues in other subject areas will be an invaluable source of expertise in terms of
sharing assessment practices within their own disciplines and sharing good practice of
relevance to Citizenship.
Checklist of possible assessment expectations for Citizenship
trainees by the end of their I.T.E. programme
By the end of their second school placement trainees should have:
Gained some experience and understanding of Citizenship in Primary
schools and pupils broad levels of attainment at the end of KS2
Discussed school marking policy with their school-based tutor/mentor
Carried out some collaborative KS3 marking with their mentor/other
appropriate colleagues
Set homework in line with school policies
Incorporated self- and peer-assessment strategies into their teaching
(Standard 3.3.3)
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
Marked classwork and homework regularly in line with school policies
providing constructive feedback and clear targets for improvement
(Standard 3.3.2)
Kept an up-to-date and detailed markbook, recording attendance,
assessed marks etc…. (Standard 3.3.7)
Contributed to the end of KS3 summative judgement in relation to pupils’
Citizenship achievements in relation to the end of KS3 level descriptor
(Standard 3.3.4)
Gained experience of GCSE assessment and marking, including
coursework and moderation wherever possible (this may be in related
areas such as History, Geography, R.E. or Media Studies if the schools
are not undertaking the GCSE short course in Citizenship Studies)
Had experience of formal testing/assessment (e.g. End of unit/Year tests)
Had experience of post-16 syllabi and requirements in an appropriate
area of Humanities/Social Sciences
Undertaken some assessed Citizenship work deploying ICT
Assessed pupils’ involvement in a community project and/or some form
of out-of-school learning
With help where necessary, used assessment to identify and support
pupils who have particular needs or who are failing to achieve their
potential (Standards 3.3.1 and 3.3.6)
Tracked the progress of at least three individual pupils and used
assessment findings to inform and adapt planning (in line with the college
assignment relating to assessment) (Standard 3.3.1)
Become aware of how school and classroom data on pupil attainment by
gender and ethnic group can be used to inform planning and enable all to
make good progress (Standard 3.3.5)
Demonstrated the use of a wide variety of ‘active’ assessment strategies
Contributed to formal school reports through contributing draft reports on
selected pupils (Standard 3.3.8)
Attended and taken part in parents’ evenings
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
Conclusion
A sense of realism is important. If citizenship education is to move forward it is important
not scare away potential allies with the scale of the assessment enterprise. It is worth
underlining that the recommendation from the QCA is that formal assessment of
Citizenship should be selective and not exhaustive and that a limited and ‘manageable’
number of work samples should be used. They want assessment to be positive, not a
millstone around the necks of curriculum planners. It is a matter of achieving a balance
between providing some rigour in assessment processes and providing assessment for
learning in citizenship education which is light touch and motivating for pupils.
The key is that the process of assessing citizenship needs ultimately to be owned by the
pupils – undertaken with them and not done to them. Aiming to achieve the Crick vision of
changing the political culture is a noble end; young people having a sense of the
possibility of change and an understanding of their role in bringing about change.
However, we need to be realistic about where we are ‘at’ on Citizenship and assessment.
A statement from the ‘Assessment for Learning’ group, seems to apply very directly to
citizenship :
“Teachers will not take up attractive sounding ideas, albeit based on extensive research,
if these are presented as general principles which leave entirely to them the task of
translating them into everyday practice – their classroom lives are too busy and too fragile
for this to be possible for all but an outstanding few. What they need is a variety of living
examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom
they can both derive conviction and confidence that they can do better, and see concrete
examples of what doing better means in practice” (Black and Wiliam, 1998).
Your role as a Citizenship mentor in relation to assisting trainees tackle assessment
issues is not to attempt to model perfection. This would be setting you up for a fall.
Rather, you can engage in honest professional dialogue and try to use the opportunity of
hosting a Citizenship trainee to pilot new approaches and continue to move assessment
practices forward in your school.
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
References
Black, P and Wiliam, D (1998)
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through
Classroom Assessment
Black P et al (2003) Assessment for Learning : Putting it into practice
Brett, P and West E (2003)
‘What subject knowledge is needed to teach citizenship
education and how can it be promoted ?’ ITTCitized June 2003 newsletter
Claire H (ed.) (2004) Teaching Citizenship in Primary Schools
Davies I (2003) ‘What subject knowledge is needed to teach citizenship education and
how can it be promoted ?’ ITTCitized newsletter
DfES (1999) The School Curriculum and the National Curriculum : Values, Aims
and Purposes (QCA)
DfES (2004)
Citizenship CPD Handbook Ch.12
Hay McBer (2000) Research into Teacher Effectiveness
Jerome L et al. (2003a), The Citizenship Co-ordinator’s Handbook – Chapter 7
Jerome,L(2003b) Assessment in Citizenship Education
http://www.citized.info/pdf/commarticles/Lee_Jerome_Assessment_workshop.pdf
Kerr, D (1999) Re-examining Citizenship Education (NFER)
Kerr, D et al (2003) “Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study: First Year Findings –
Establishing a Baseline for Developing Citizenship Education” (Paper presented to the
British Educational Research Association conference, September 2003)
Kerr et al. (2004)
Making Citizenship Education Real
(http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/citlong.asp)
Mentor Briefing Paper – The Assessment of Pupils in CE
Klenowski Val (2002) Developing Portfolios for Learning and Assessment: Processes and
Principles
Lewis M (2003) Review of PGCE Citizenship Courses Documentation 2002-2003,
http://www.citized.info/pdf/commarticles/Review_of_PGCE_Citizenship.pdf
OFSTED (2003) National Curriculum Citizenship : Planning and Implementation 2002/03
OFSTED (2004)
Subject reports 2002/03 : Citizenship in secondary schools HMI
February
Price J et. al.(2003) Get Global ! : A skills-based approach to active citizenship
QCA (1998) Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy
(QCA
Publications)
QCA (2000) Citizenship at key stages 3 and 4 : Initial Guidance for Schools
QCA (2003) Citizenship at key stages 1-4: Guidance on assessment, recording and
reporting
QCA (2003) Examples of materials for teachers assessing citizenship Cf Citizenship
section of QCA website