Most teachers and indeed parents can tell you about children and young people who have wonderful talents but who fail to do well in exams. We all know youngsters, for example, who, when you talk to them appear brilliant, yet when it comes to writing down their views and observations on paper, they fall to pieces.
Other kids can take apart a complicated machine and put it back together perfectly, yet ask them to write an essay on what they've done and they're all at sea. These people are bright and capable with lots to contribute, but because they fall down in exams, they're often regarded as society's failures. But maybe the failure is less theirs and more the fault of written terminal exams? Until recently our exam system examined only linguistic and logical/ mathematical intelligences. However, it's now widely recognised by educators that we all enjoy a variety of intelligences - musical, visual-spatial and inter- and intra-personal, for example.
How to take account of these intelligences and develop forms of assessment which are intelligence-fair is an issue that Dr Aine Hyland, professor of education at UCC, has taken on board in recent years. As a result of the work undertaken by her department's Multiple Intelligences Curriculum and Assessment Project, Hyland has compiled and edited a series of essays entitled Innovations in Assessment in Irish Education written by a range of educators working in the field. It's clear from this collection of essays that there's an enormous amount of valuable, interesting and innovative work going on. An essay, for example, by primary teacher Regina Murphy examines the proposed approach to assessment in the revised primary curriculum, which is to be introduced in 1999.
Meanwhile, Pat Naughton, a research fellow on the UCC project, looks at issues of learning and assessment at the transition between primary and secondlevel school. He argues that effective assessment at this stage can only take place in conjunction with curriculum change and innovation in teaching methodology. A number of essays provide an overview of innovative approaches to assessment at national level for second level education, while Eilis Humphreys, a former member of the Transition Year Support Team, sees Transition Year as an opportunity for creative assessment.
Essayists also argue for the inclusion of practical exams in science and assessments for PE. Although most of the essays deal with assessment at first and second level, third level is also features. Marie Flynn, a research fellow at UCC, argues that educators' views on the nature of intelligence dictate how they teach and assess. No advances can be made on assessment unless these views are radically changed.
Innovations in Assessment in Irish Education, edited by Aine Hyland is available from the Education Department, UCC, at £5 including postage.
