1.1
In short Community Learning courses, assessment is more informal and forms part of the teaching and learning strategies used throughout the course. Initial assessment is used and the RARPA (Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievement) process to chart the learners' journey against the course objectives.
For my course, 'Page Turners' I developed a course-specific initial assessment which is directly linked to my subject-area and will help me plan the sessions. I felt that the Basic Skills initial assessments for numeracy, literacy and IT levels were too generic for the course.
My course objectives are set out in the RARPA document and learners have to rate themselves on a scale of 0-10. This form of initial self-assessment encourages the learner to look at their subject-specific skill set and is a simple diagnostic tool to help set individual learning goals. The reliability of this method however can be questioned as it is dependent on how confident or not the learner is. For example, a confident person may rate themselves as 9 at 'reading with expression to their child'. The tutor may disagree with this self assessment rating which may present difficulties for the tutor in feed-back.
Information shared at the enrolment process can also help the tutor build up a picture of the learner. For example, on Family Learning courses, the age of the learners' children can help me tailor the programme so that it is current and relevant to the learner.
Through the information gained at enrolment, the initial assessment, RARPA document and teaching and learning activities, I can plan the course and differentiate in meeting individual learning goals.
