European Association of History Educators

Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission organised  on 5 October 2009 a Seminar on the Assessment of Key Competences in the framework of the Lifelong Learning: School Education Policies and Programme with specialist cluster groups on Key Competences, Teachers and Trainers, Maths, Science and Technology, and Learning Outcomes. The seminar was opened by Ms Hélène Clark, Director of the programme and chaired by Mr Adam Pokorny, Head of Unit. A variety of imputes discussed why addressing assessment is vital for the process of implementing the EU key competences for school education: communication in the mother tongue; communication in foreign languages; mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology; digital competence; learning to learn; social and civic competences; sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and cultural awareness and expression. Plus the underpinning transversal competencies critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, initiative, risk assessment, decision-taking and management of one's own feelings. Experts seem to a large extend agree that such assessment should be based on required learning outcomes.

Teodora Parveva, of Eurydice gave a wide overview of examination practices in Europe with her talk "National Testing of Pupils in Europe". However the presentation also  made the audience how difficult it is to compare systems in Europe. Many in the audience recognised the national systems they stemmed from, but felt that the research results  often simplified the structures. Prof Dylan Wiliam from the Institute of Education in London offered a thought provoking contribution with his talk What Kinds of Assessment Support Learning?, where he linked the newest ideas of academic thinking  on the topic with very interesting examples from school practice. Dr Mary Hoey, the Scottish HMI for Science, finally presented the assessment approaches for the new Scottish Curriculum for Excellence in her talk Assessment Reform in Scotland . The contributions resulted in lively participation of the audience.

As EUROCLIO representative I noticed that many of the inputs directly addressed the position of the teacher as they key person in the educational process. I therefore especially targeted on the (lack) of investments of educational authorities in life long learning creating opportunities for teachers.
In his concluding remarks  Mr Adam Pokorny pointed out that now the players in the process should focus on serious implementation of the key competencies and that assessment procedures should play a vital role in this process. He also announced that for the first time the EU countries Director Generals of Ministries of Education would meet under the Swedish Presidency to discuss challenges related to General School education. More useful information on Curriculum for Excellence on http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/assessmentandachievement/index.asp Eurydice study 'Testing Pupils in Europe' on http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/index_en.php  Prof. Dylan Wiliam's work on assessment: http://www.dylanwiliam.net/  European Commission's website on school policy and Comenius programme: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc64_en.htm Knowledge System for Lifelong Learning: http://www.kslll.net/ and the Cedefop publications on Learning Outcomes: http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/etv/Upload/Information_resources/Bookshop/494/4079_en.pdf
http://cedefop.europa.eu/etv/Upload/Information_resources/Bookshop/525/3054_en.pdf
http://cedefop.europa.eu/etv/Upload/Information_resources/Bookshop/553/4054_en.pdf