Contexts of Assessment in a Primary Classroom

Abstract

Abstract This paper consists of an examination of data relating to the National Curriculum attainment target of ‘writing’. The contexts in which assessments are made in an infant classroom are examined in terms of Bernstein's theory of the framing of educational knowledge. The paper shows that assessments for the subject are made within contexts which are circumscribed by the strong framing which prevails in the classroom under study. It concludes that this and some other areas of the curriculum are particularly problematic in that assessment of the skills and processes involved in them may be subject to a ‘hidden agenda’ whereby children's engagement with a particular knowledge content becomes an unacknowledged element of the assessment process. The paper also concludes that due to the diversity of frame strength inherent in different pedagogies, comparability of context of assessment between classes and schools cannot be achieved.