Narrative Assessments

Learning Stories - a really useful assessment tool

The Ministry of Education’s new resource “Narrative Assessment” is an excellent assessment and support for learners working within level 1 of the New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Stories are one example of these narrative assessments. They provide rich information and support the development of meaningful, focused teaching and learning programmes for students. They capture progress and highlight the relationships between social, environmental, and educational contexts. These stories help determine next steps for learning and are accessible to all team members – and most importantly to students themselves, as these learning stories for Nick and Molly demonstrate.

IEAG would like to congratulate the Ministry of Education for supporting the development of this excellent resource for schools. Narrative Assessment is a positive, credit-based approach that focuses on students' capabilities and strengths, and as such it makes a valuable contribution to our understanding about inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. Interested readers can access more information from the Ministry of Education's website.