Keynet: Assessment Guide: Assessment for those with specific learning needs

7.1
It is generally accepted that there are a number of students/trainers and job seekers with 'specific learning needs', for example, those from ethnic minorities or whose first language is not that of the country of residence. Also, there are those individuals with learning difficulties who require special educational and training provision if they are to be able to reveal their undoubted skills and make the best use of them. Very often, an over-emphasis upon formal assessment programmes inhibits the efforts of both groups. However, significant developments have taken place within the partner countries that suggest that these groups of individuals are gradually being given the key skills education and training appropriate to their needs.

For example, a recent comparative study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) into transition outcomes highlighted the achievement of the Swedish upper secondary school system in providing a diverse and flexible curriculum, able to meet the needs and interests of a wide range of young people. The report states 'it is a highly inclusive system that pays particular attention to the needs of weaker students backed up by an effective locally managed follow up system which ensures that those that drop out of upper secondary school are quickly re-inserted into education with a strongly individualised approach to ensuring that they can complete a full upper secondary education.' (Thematic Review of the Transition From Initial Education to Working Life: DEEELSA(99)11) Similar work on re-integrating 'drop-outs' into mainstream education and training is currently underway in Greece. In Wales, work is in progress on the development of assessment strategies that can be used with this group of the population, irrespective of the age of the individual.

7.2
Two of the Key Skills focus upon two activities - Communication and Working With Others - which are most often the cause of source of educational and training problems among newly arrived immigrants to a country and ethnic minority groups. These two skills are also among the most important as identified by employers in all the partner countries. Accordingly, any programme designed to empower students, trainers and job seekers must pay particular attention to meeting these needs. This is particularly important in the following examples:

where the individual's mother tongue is not that of the host country, e.g. citizens from the Indian Sub-continent or Somalia recently arrived in the UK, refugees from former Yugoslavia in Sweden, and transient workers and their families in Germany. Key Skills training programmes must take special notice of the need to move from bilingual education into communication itself. During the Project's life examples were seen of effective programmes based upon the use of contextualised learning packages (in which the trainee moved from the mother tongue into English or Greek) and distinctive learning programmes (in which assessment was used as a motivator, i.e. part of a game).

where an aspect of a specific culture may inhibit the ability to work with others, where speaking to 'strangers' is frowned upon, or where individualism is more accepted than social patterns of behaviour. Once more, the careful linkage of training and assessment can overcome this issue without under-mining the individual's cultural beliefs and patterns.

7.3
Consideration of those students, trainees and job seekers with learning difficulties forces us, in turn, to consider the issue of 'key skills' as opposed to 'basic skills'.

The 'key skills' that have been discussed in the earlier parts of this Guide are the skills of Communication, Application of Number, IT, Problem Solving, Working With Others and Improving Own Learning and Performance. They are defined as transferable skills that can be used across occupational groups, thereby saving time and effort for new learning.

Those with learning difficulties are more concerned with 'basic skills'. These cover numeracy and literacy and are defined as 'the ability to read and write in the mother tongue, and to use mathematics at a level to function at work and society in general'. Numeracy covers the ability to interpret, calculate and communicate with numbers; literacy covers the ability to speak, listen and respond, read and comprehend, write to communicate.

7.4
Example 12 illustrates an approach to assessment for those with learning difficulties. It can be used with young students/trainees(16-23) and with adults. The programme is based upon the importance of each trainee having the opportunity of 'work experience' even if they are currently unemployed. The assessment strategy is based upon:

a series of independent short tests; and
a portfolio of evidence of achievement.

EXAMPLE 12: A PROGRAMME DESIGNED FOR TRAINEES
AND THE UNEMPLOYED WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

Target Group
Young people and adults with a wide range of learning needs for whom existing assessment strategies and qualifications are either unrealistic, or inappropriate, or are at risk of losing connections with training opportunities and employment. The resulting qualification is at Entry Level in the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) of Wales and England.

Aims
To help the individual student, trainee or the unemployed within the target group to prepare for entry into work and the world of work by following programmes of learning and assessment designed for their needs.
To focus programmes upon the acquisition of basic and, ultimately, key skills at Entry Level NVQ.
To provide a realistic and meaningful context for each individual's learning and assessment programmes, e.g. an emphasis upon flexibility of delivery, the use of appropriate assessment arrangements, opportunities to gain work and work-related experience.

Strategy
No formal qualifications required.
Pre-training is an important aspect of the programme, and is closely linked to a programme of accrediting prior learning or achievement through 'individual action planning'. This involves trainees and trainers in discussion, mapping and linking prior learning and skills against Entry Level NVQ through one-to-one discussion, i.e. a 'talking through' process. This results in the development of a coherent programme.
Attention is focused upon the basic skills and a range of other practical skills relevant to entry into the world of work, i.e. numeracy, literacy, basic IT, independent living, personal and social skills, work skills, learning skills. In most instances, these skills are used as the vehicles for delivering the basic skills.

The assessment
Assessment must be positive, flexible, appropriate, simple and practical. It consists of two components: ·
an external, independent written test designed to assess the underpinning knowledge and understanding of each activity (see Annex 8).
a portfolio of evidence that shows 'actual' achievement in the basic skills within the required contexts.

Portfolio Building
Evidence of achievement in the basic/key skills are built up and included in a portfolio. The evidence needs to be appropriate to the task, skill area and be sensitive to the ability and needs of the learner/trainer to allow her/him to demonstrate positive achievement. It may be derived from a variety of sources, such as activities which naturally follow learning in the classroom or workplace; activities which are set up specifically for assessment; end-products generated as a normal consequence of the work or learning activity; simulations, competence tests, mini-projects; verbal or written responses to questions; reports of prior achievement; witness statements.

Individual Action Plan
This Action Plan is even more important than that referred to in earlier Examples, because -
the training is work place-based or a 'simulation' and more susceptible to variation in practice/interpretation than in the more formal school/college situation.
it provides the context for each individual trainee's programme of work and training.
it also acts as a first point of reference when considering individual progress.

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