Assessment Resource Banks and the new curriculum

At the beginning of July I attended Scicon, a conference for teachers of science. One of the keynote speakers was Amanda Berry, a teacher-educator from Monash University in Victoria, Australia. Her presentation was about teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), specifically in science, but I think her ideas are relevant to other curriculum areas as well. Amanda talked about teachers’ PCK often being tacit. She believes that when teachers explicitly understand what they are doing and why, the value of their professional practice and knowledge is recognised. This struck a chord with me because the teachers’ notes that accompany each ARB resource are about assisting teachers (and students) to be explicit about what needs to be attended to next and why. We have been receiving very positive feedback from both teachers and those who work with teachers about how well the ARBs are doing this.