Teacher Assessment Activities Design and Technology for Key Stage 3

This series of books was commissioned by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), which has statutory responsibility for running the school National Curriculum and the associated assessment regime - in England and Wales. An expert group was assembled to undertake the work for National Curriculum Key Stages 1 - 3. Drawing from her assessment research experience, Bain was invited to be part of the group and to author the volume for Key Stage 3 (11-14 year olds). The project began with school-based case-study research, assembling a range of models of practice both in terms of teaching/learning activities in Design & Technology and in terms of the assessment opportunities that they offered. These were analysed in terms of the National Curriculum framework for assessment. One of the key challenges lay in the fact that the diverse nature of practice had to be capable of assessment through a common framework of criteria (the National Curriculum Attainment Target for Design and Technology). It was important to analyse and illustrate parallel forms of practice across this breadth of application. Data from the case studies initiated this analysis. However it was necessary to seed alternative forms of practice so as to acquire the evidence of learners' performance that had not emerged naturally from teachers' practices. The book therefore - whilst rooted in classroom realities - reflects explorations of new and unusual models of practice