Record Keeping in the Learning Sector - Essay Example

Record Keeping in the Learning Sector The learning sector imperative to act in responsible manner forces the educator / teacher function to record all actions taken with regard to students or pupils. Only by maintaining thorough records of all learners will the right decisions be made with regard to their development. Record keeping is thus an essential support mechanism of other teacher's activities. The Need for Keeping Records in the Learning Sector Record keeping may sound like ultimate mindless activity, but unfortunately, keeping and checking records is a critical. Frank Bettger, found that keeping detailed records was a key to his success as a salesman. He points out that "without records, we have no way of knowing what we are doing."(18). Record-keeping has always been an important part of the teacher's work; it would be easy, in concern about recording each child's progress in the National Curriculum, to forget the need for long-term records and for records which give their own input to work and the corresponding output from the children. There are many reasons for keeping records besides those of recording progress in the National Curriculum. An important reason for record-keeping is continuity. If teachers should happen to have a long illness or leave their present school in mid-year, all that they have learned about their children will be lost, and appropriate records are needed so that someone else can take up where they left off. Records may help the teachers to match work to individual children and help them to overcome learning problems. Something a child does once may not appear to be significant, but if it happens several times, it may give them important clues to the nature of a difficulty. They may not notice this if they do not keep appropriate records. It would be difficult to keep this kind of record for every child all the time, but they can do it for a small number who have problems. Important items from a child's background noted over a period may help the teacher to understand his or her difficulties and put them in a better position to help. For example, a child who has changed schools number of times may be insecure and need in filling gaps in learning. A child who has a handicapped sibling may find it difficult to cope with the extra attention that the sibling needs from his or her parents. Background information of this kind is sensitive and the teacher or head may need to ask the parent concerned if he or she minds having it recorded so that teachers are aware of any difficulties. School records or records to be passed on need to contain only what might be described as considered records. Teacher's own day to day notes may contain comments about individual children and the success or otherwise of particular pieces of work, recorded for their benefit alone. These notes will form the basis of their final records. Teacher will also need records of each individual child. It is helpful to keep these records in a loose leaf file with a page for each child. They can then add material and put this into a longer term record when each page is full. Their file should include a check list for each child of the Attainment Statements from the National Curriculum arranged so that they can tick off items as they are achieved. Historically one of the standard methods of keeping records was for the class teacher to maintain a weekly record book and to contribute to a cumulative record and termly or yearly report for the parents. This was quite a feasible approach for a teacher who used a class-based teaching approach. What this technique also created, however, was belief that because the teacher had planned and taught the material the children had, by implication, learnt it. With the onset of the comprehensive principle and the development of mixed ability classes, a wider range of ability in the children being taught exposed serious limitations in the approach. It is an essential aspect of record-keeping that staff and other professionals involved in their maintenance should have a clearly defined knowledge of the rationale behind the composition and use of the records. This has not always been the case. In a research sample of teachers in a project by the Schools Council (Clift et al. 224 ) a number of typical reasons for keeping records were expressed by teachers which included expected results such as: to chart pupil progress and achievement; to communicate information to other teachers; to ensure continuity of education throughout the school; to ensure continuity of education on transfer to other schools; to guide a replacement or supply teacher; for diagnostic purposes; to provide information on success or failure of teaching methods and/or materials; as a statement of what has happened - to inform interested parties (parents, educational psychologists); to give head-teachers a general picture of achievement in the school. Responses as wide as these obviously reflect a wide sample of experience, some good, some not so good, with just as wide a range of techniques of record-keeping. The Type of Records would Maintain Recording is a time-consuming process and it is therefore important to find forms of recording which can be completed easily. Records can be classified as follows: notes of observations and check lists; Teacher make this kind of observation more systematic by observing a few children very closely each week and recording these observations in greater detail. Collection of specific information about each child's work and behavior; a teacher may make observations against a check list of specific goals. These might be the Statements of Attainment or they might be such things as the development of independence in study or the ability to work with others. Collection of errors made by an individual; errors in reading, writing and number work provides the teacher with important clues to a child's thinking. These become increasingly evident if lists are kept over a period. A collection of samples of a child's work over a period; the collection of samples of each child's work term by term is a good way of giving a picture of his or her progress. The child can learn from being involved in the selection of work for the record folder and this will provide both child and parents with interesting evidence of progress. Lists of work covered or attempted; this is another record which children can keep them. It may also be useful to make a duplicated sheet of work done by the class over term or year and then add a note of individual variations. These lists can then go into the children's individual record folders. Records of achievement; these are essentially records which take into account a pupil's progress across the whole educational programme of the school, both in the classroom and outside, and possibly activities outside school as well. Profiles are usually drawn up as a structured base from which to select statements for the record of achievement, although it is possible for profiles to be completed in their own right, and also for records of achievement to be drawn up freely from the pupil's experience as she it at the time, rather than as a result of a prescriptive profiling document. The record of achievement is intended to be a description of the pupil and is skills based document. It gives the parent a detailed account of what the child could do in relation to the work she or he had been following throughout the year. Records of achievement are based on evidence. Part of the subject-specific profiles, which made up the formative progress, consisted of skills and levels of attainment. The keeping of records of achievement, containing examples of achievements and negotiated between teacher and pupils in regular review meetings, enables pupils to feel a sense of ownership in the process. Pupils with special educational needs are likely to have stronger needs than other pupils for an emphasis on profiles of achievement which encourage self-assessment and which record all that pupils have achieved and experienced in both the National Curriculum and the curriculum as a whole. Records of achievement are based upon the idea of positive reinforcement, the celebration of successes, and the encouragement of pupil autonomy. They provide opportunities for teachers and learners to link and reflect upon agreed goals, attainments achieved and further developmental needs. The more pupils can take responsibility for keeping their own records of progress the better; it gives pupils real responsibility for monitoring and planning their own learning. Where pupils are involved in the keeping of their own records of progress and achievement as part of a planned progress, this serves to acknowledge, and help the development of the child's autonomy. Records of achievement also aid the transition from school to further education, training or the workplace, since they function as a transitional object providing a tangible demonstration of the fact that one has achieved something worthwhile and help to make sense of where one has come from; because of pupil ownership of the process, pupils are part of the valuing, and so the record of achievement also helps the pupil to avoid the need to rubbish the ending in order to be able to leave. Four purposes in Records of Achievement: A Statement of Policy-recognition of achievement, motivation and personal development, curriculum and organization, a document of record. To meet the first three of these purposes, school would need to set up internal arrangements for the compilation of records throughout a pupil's period of secondary education. Such arrangements were expected to be more than bureaucratic book-keeping, being integrated into teaching and learning in such a way that pupils would be closely involved in the recording processes. The procedures of record-keeping and reporting were thus closely linked under the banner of records of achievement. Conclusion Record keeping within the compulsory school sector it is a statutory requirement for teachers to keep accurate records of assessment decisions. Records are working documents that completed or generated during a work activity. They include completed forms, automated printouts and reports and any other documents that contain information. Records are one of the most important parts of a quality system because they provide evidence that specified standards have been applied. Records should be as clear as possible and files in a logical way so that they can be easily retrieved and easily referred to and understood, even a number of years later when there may have been many changes in school or learning sector. All documents should be completed fully and in a clear and concise way and, ideally, should then be checked by a senior person to ensure that they have been completed properly and no mistakes have been made. Works Cited Bettger, Frank. "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling." Simon and Schuster, 1992. Clift, Philip, et al. "Record Keeping in Primary Schools." Schools Council Research Studies. London: Macmillan Education, 1981. Read More