The Value of Assessment

With Amanda Bell (UK) and Jayesh Narasimhulu (IND)

Do you operate in the dynamic tension between the need for examinations and the desire for meaningful assessment? Is it possible to operate an exclusively Waldorf Qualification System? Do mainstream exams offer scope for Waldorf teaching?  

Intrigued? Then this module is for you! 

Assessment is part of our work as teachers of adolescents. Internal and informal assessments happen all the time: we need to be aware of how our students are learning in order to work out what they will need from us. 

Most of us are also using formal methods of assessment which have their own, externally imposed criteria. In these sessions we will begin by looking generally at why and how we assess students and the effects it can have on them and on our teaching. We will discuss the disparity between what we would like to bring to our students and what is required by formal assessments. From here, we will look at how much, where and why we compromise and where formal assessment can be a positive force in our work.

Amanda Bell has been a Waldorf teacher for 25 years. She was a Class teacher for 16 years before moving into the Upper School to teach History, Art and Philosophy. She and two colleagues founded The St Michael Steiner School in West London, where she still works, in 2001. Amanda has been co-director of the London Waldorf Seminar since 2010 and was a regular tutor on The Modern Teacher: Education as Art in the UK.

Jayesh Narasimhulu, currently working at Abhaya School in Hyderabad, is a Waldorf math and science teacher and has also taught and conducted many lessons outside school classrooms. Transdisciplinary lessons in learning spaces beyond the school campuses have been his forte, to instil an enthusiastic learning/work ethic in varied environments, on land and in the sea. He has also been involved in organising and teaching many teacher education programs for upper primary and high school teachers and has taught combined high school classes in Australian/ Indian schools.