Design Technology - Progress Towards the APU Survey in 1988

Abstract

The Assessment of Performance Unit was set up in 1974 to promote the development of methods of assessing and monitoring the achievement of children at school and to identify the incidence of under-achievement. From the outset it was decided not to take subjects one by one but to look rather at 'lines of development'. There were several advantages in this, not least that we might cover the curriculum with about six surveying projects rather than needing more than double that number. Another advantage was that the assessments would tell how far the procedural strategies which pupils learned in one subject could be used in contexts different from the one in which the learning took place. For example it would be possible to look at a language as a tool for learning whatever the subject. So the surveys look at mathematical and scientific investigatory skills not only in their own subjects but also in other subjects and also in everyday life. The language surveys look at the use of English right across a broad spectrum of linguistic ativity: we are as interested in technical writing as in the writing of stories.