On knowledge in English
The case for recognising the importance of absolute rather than relative knowledge
With NAPLAN approaching, I have been thinking a lot about how we measure student progress. Schools who achieve growth beyond the expected are celebrated, which conflicts with the test’s stated aims of measuring year on year progress. We sometimes also see this lack of clarity about the aims of assessment in parent queries when reports are received, with concerns about students who fall ‘below the average’ or who consistently perform at a ‘sound’ level, year on year, rather than progressing to ‘competent.’
What’s not well measured is their absolute learning. Of course, with every year of schooling, students know more and can do more. This is captured well in primary reporting, where comments are based on what students can do, but in high school the reporting rhetoric can centre on academically virtuous behaviours, which can lead students to self-identify with their ranks and grades in comparison to others. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, students should be encouraged to aim for improvement and modify their behaviours accordingly. But for most, their rank position will remain unchanged throughout their schooling, so perhaps it is worth reconsidering how we measure individual progress.
The approach I take in English to ask, “How can I improve this student’s absolute learning?” with the hope that whatever knowledge I can impart will be reflected in final examinations when my students are ranked against other schools. I might not be able to shift their rank within the cohort, but the more expert literary, cultural and historical knowledge students demonstrate, the more likely they are to compare well to other students in standardised examinations. It’s also one of the only factors I have some control over! I’m gambling that a strong foundation of knowledge, not just formalist analysis, will support a conceptual understanding that reflects deep engagement with literary ways of thinking.
So what are the categories of knowledge and ways of literary thinking that I think are valuable and play well in examinations?
Literary concepts like appropriation, self-reflexivity, play with generic conventions and form. This could be endlessly expanded upon and for Literary Worlds in Extension 1, I have created a toolkit shared here that reflects a broad range of literary concepts and formal devices that interact to show how authors play with our understanding of how texts work to achieve their purpose.
Notions of conventional or desired audience responses: from didacticism and mimesis which mediate the world, providing a model of how to live, to the act of playing postmodern detective and entering into literary games where meaning is personalised and co-created with the author. Students can frame discourse in these ways and play this ‘game’ with markers.
Detailed historical context with bonus points for how this interacts with composers’ formal choices. For example, linking the antimasque in The Tempest with the disorder caused by the disruption of the Great Chain of Being could be combined to show dense and deep knowledge of the way that literature interacts with the world.
And finally, metalanguage and vocabulary that communicates so much with so very few words. A phrase like the ambiguity of deictic markers in The Hollow Men can provide a technical and conceptual preface to TS Eliot’s highly abstract and elliptical search for spiritual meaning. Difficult concepts need highly precise vocabulary, all of which is teachable. And if we only provide conceptually-laden words, guess what turns up in student expression?
I am finding that a focus on knowledge is also improving conceptual expression, as students have the depth of understanding and language needed to express complex ideas. Skills are required for the expression of these ideas, but the discussion about skills is moot if students have nothing conceptual to say. I’ve been asking myself to reflect on whether my students know more than they did yesterday - in other words, are they making progress? Perhaps consideration of how we could reflect this absolute gain in secondary school reporting is needed. After all, most students are making progress and should be recognised.