Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 Apr 2000

Vol. 518 No. 5

Written Answers. - Drumcondra English Profiles.

Richard Bruton

Question:

206 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will give details of the Drumcondra Education Profile which is being proposed for primary pupils; the way it was developed; and the terms of the contract with those who developed this innovative approach to ensure they get appropriate recognition. [12169/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

The Drumcondra English Profiles are related to the revised English curriculum and are structured around the areas of oral language, reading and writing. For each class level from junior infants to sixth class, and for each of the above three areas of language, a set of indicators of achievement has been designed, resulting in 24 indicator sets for the school.

The indicators of achievement are statements that describe pupil achievement and are based on important content objectives in the revised English curriculum. Each set of indicators is ordered in terms of their relative difficulty. On the basis of the teachers' formal and informal observations, tests and records of pupil performance, pupils are rated against the indicators at the highest indicator at which s/he has demonstrated achievement over the course of the year.

In devising the profiles, indicators of achievement in the three areas of language were identified for each class level by a panel of three teachers who were experienced in the teaching of English, and had expertise in the areas of curriculum development and assessment. Subsequently, a representative sample of teachers – 15 at each class level – were asked to arrange the indicators in each set in order of difficulty. The agreement of teachers was assessed statistically, and the resulting set of indicators was deemed to be representative of the curriculum in terms of the content of the indicators, and the order in which they appeared.

The people who developed the profiles were employees of the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra, and the terms of their contracts and recognition for their work is a matter for that centre.