Assessing Assessment S. Series

Intuition or Evidence?

by Caroline Gipps, etc., Margaret Brown, Bet McCallum, and Shelley McAlister

Published 1 September 1995

Based on a three-year investigation into teacher assessment of seven-year-old children, this book seeks to address the following questions: what happened to primary teachers' assessment practice when faced with the demands of National Assessment?; when did primary teachers manage to carry out the hundreds of assessments required of them?; has formalized assessment and testing raised standards in primary schools as predicted by the government? The "intuition" or "evidence" of the title is a theme which runs through the book. Prior to National Assessment, teachers' judgements about pupils were largely intuitive. National Assessment has brought about changes in some teachers' practice resulting in assessments now being based more firmly on evidence. Other teachers, however, still prefer to assess intuitively. The changes in government policy and the demands for testing and publication to raise standards also seem to be based on intuition rather than evidence. However, by the end of the study, the authors' evidence shows that a number of head teachers felt that standards of teaching had improved, but not in the simplistic way envisaged by the government.
This book is intended for head teachers and teachers involved in assessment in primary schools, as well as for academics and policy-makers.