Journal article

What number concepts and skills do children have when they start school? How has their understanding changed after a year? How aware are teachers of what the children know? What number concepts and skills are taught in the first year? These questions are important. If we underestimate what children can do their achievement will be less than it might have been.

When children start primary school they acquire a range of learning strategies which help them to tackle school tasks. Strategies such .as checking instructions, and referring to books, charts or other classroom aids, help children to work systematically in school. Children who are good readers and achieve well on other school subjects are usually particularly competent in using these independent learning strategies.

No matter what we might like, home and school are held apart by lots of things. For example, by the fact that school is, in most cases, not just across the road. Or by the fact that school takes place at the same time as work. Or by the tone of the notes that a child brings home. Or by the fact that mother hasn't got a dress without mends. Or by the stand-offish-ness of a particular principal. Or by the 'foreign-ness' of a teacher of a different race. Or by the fact that the parent did not like school. Or by the professional authority of the teacher.

Teachers and pupils see school work quite differently. Quality counts for teachers, but most children just want to finish. We can help by uncovering skills which are already enjoyed without the drive to finish.

Teachers and pupils see school work quite differently. Quality counts for teachers, but most children just want to finish. We can help by uncovering skills which are already enjoyed without the drive to finish.

Assessment in education serves several purposes. It can provide diagnoses of learning and teaching deficiencies. It can establish the level of achievement of a student or a group of students with reference to defined standards or with reference to the achievements of other students. It can indicate the areas in which learning and teaching are in need of improvement. It can provide the basis of an overall judgment of the quality of learning and teaching.

The teacher who completes the daily attendance sheet, the school secretary who collates and enters the 'data' into registers or computers, the programmer who's ensured that the computer will collect and sift attendance and enrolment figures, the attendance counsellor, truant officer, or principal who acts (or fails to act) on the print-out's information, the administrators and planners who review, revise, and plan school programs using system-wide aggregate attendance data, all have two things in common. First, each is a representative of society's vested interests in education.

This article describes a project which we hope gives some clear pointers to all teachers, and infant teachers in particular, about how
1. to gain and sustain the attention of pupils;
2. to pre-empt or forestall breakdowns in classroom order;
3. to redress breakdowns in order and attention once they have occurred.