develop a common approach for TEPs that was relevant in all contexts. Therefore,
the design of the SAILS TEP aimed to:
- Accommodate the diverse range of teachers participating in the programmes,
based on teacher subject specialism, prior experience with IBSE and with
assessment; - Take account of the time available for in-service teachers to participate in
continuing professional development programmes; - Take account of the structure of the programmes that was suitable in each
country, e.g. summer school/winter school versus a series of workshops over
time versus one-day programmes; - Align with the nature of typical pre-service initial teacher education programmes
in each country; - Suit the various cultural and educational practices of each participating country.
The SAILS TEPs in Inquiry-Based Science Education and Assessment (IBSEA)
was developed over three sequential stages (0,1,2) of design and implementation. - The focus of the initial STAGE 0 TEP was on introducing teachers to IBSE,
helping teachers implement inquiry-based activities in the classroom and
addressing key issues such as classroom management strategies,
problem-solving, carrying out investigations, etc. As teachers in each country
had different prior experiences of inquiry and assessment, each partner country
was given the scope within STAGE 0 TEPs to develop and implement work-
shops that best met the professional- development needs of their cohort of
teachers. Discussions between educators following the implementation of
STAGE 0 TEPs across ten countries identified four common features—namely,
some teachers were introduced to IBSE for thefirst time; teachers were given
the opportunity to experience active hands-on inquiry activities; teachers were
engaging in reflective and plenary discussions with each other and teachers were
introduced to the assessment of inquiry skills. - The objective of STAGE 1 TEP was to include the assessment of inquiry skills
as a core aspect of the TEP and to provide teachers with the opportunity to
deepen and extend their understanding of the range of assessment approaches
that can be used in classroom practice. Through discussion at project team
meetings, it was clear that there were differences in teacher’s understanding of
the role of assessment in IBSE and in particular the distinction between for-
mative and summative assessment. The project team agreed to adopt Harlen and
Deakin Crick’s (Harlen and Deakin Crick 2002 , p. 1) interpretation of assess-
ment“...term that covers any activity in which evidence of learning is collected
in a planned and systematic way, and is used to make a judgment about
learning”. It was then discussed and agreed that any assessment activity could
be used to inform learning in an ongoing manner, i.e. formatively (Black and
Wiliam 1998 ), or it could be used as a diagnostic of learning or in a summative
manner, e.g. to evaluate student learning at the end of a topic.
832 O.E. Finlayson and E. McLoughlin