When is a tick box not a tick box?

It is often said that assessment of children and the learning they undertake should not be a tick box exercise. Then some people look at Taith360 and suggest that it has taken assessment and turned it into another tick box, but this is simply not the case, and here is why…

Tick boxes are binary

A tick box is either ticked or it isn’t. It’s a yes/no situation. But learning doesn’t work like that. A pupil seldom goes from a state of having no knowledge at all about a skill to suddenly having complete mastery of that skill. There are stages involved in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Indeed, the principles of progression outlined in the Curriculum for Wales clearly outline the path that children will take to acquire these skills and knowledge.

And it’s not always a straight path. Sometimes children need to take a step backwards to move forwards. So, for all these reasons, this is why it is important to understand that assessment is not a tick box exercise.

Taith360 – a non-binary system

When Taith360 was designed, understanding that learning is a journey undertaken by pupils was at the heart of its creation. To that end, teachers have been given the opportunity to monitor and track that journey from the initial stages, when pupils are only emerging in their abilities within the skill, right through to that skill being embedded and applied in all aspects of their learning.

There was also learning to be had from Taith360’s predecessor, Incerts. As Incerts was a data driven tool, it was intentionally tricky to take pupils backwards. But now that the Curriculum for Wales has removed the focus on data and numbers, we have made it very easy to amend pupil tracking to accurately reflect pupil abilities, even if that does mean moving them backwards when necessary.

Heading in the right direction

So, we couldn’t agree more. The last thing that is needed when assessing pupils is a tick box framework. Fortunately, Taith360 isn’t a tick box framework. Instead, it is a system that enables teachers to accurately monitor the journey their pupils are taking, and engage with that journey in a way that will ensure that each pupil is always heading in the right direction.