1
Good examples of how assessment policy and/or
practice supports inclusion in Cyprus

• Joint Actions Project
• Peder Lykke, Denmark
• 30th March 1st April, 2008
• Merope Kapsali

2
Role of head teacher

• Head teacher as leader
• Empowered teachers
• Positive and helpful learning climate
• Learner-centered instructional approaches and
  assessment methods
• Teacher-learner interaction
• Teacher-parent co-operation

3
Role of teachers

• Flexibility and variety in methods of assessment
• Avoidance of exclusive reliance on quantitative
  information
• Teachers allocated out-of-class time for
  providing individualised support
• Teacher-parent consultations and pro-active
  partnering with parents
• Participation of pupils themselves

4
Role of special ed teachers

• Supportive of learning process within the
  classroom
• Partnering and co-teaching with class teacher

5
Role of educational psychologists

• Adoption of preventative rather than
  interventionist approach
• Support the school in facilitating and promoting
  learning and development in all pupils and in all
  areas
• Adoption of contextual/environmentalist/social
  adaptation model of assessment and intervention
  rather than strict medico-psychometric model

6
Role of educational psychologists

• Use of a wide variety of methods of
  psycho-educational assessment
• Involved in on-going, continuous process of
  assessment alongside teachers, parents and pupils
  themselves
• Supporting teachers in assuming an active,
  leading role in the assessment of individual
  needs, in drawing up IEPs and in monitoring the
  progress of each child in their class

7
Assessment policy (general)

• 1994 curriculum on assessment
• Principle 3.2
• Assessment does not aim at the distinction of
  some children and the rejection of others but to
  provide help to all children for the full
  realization of their potential. This position
  underlines the importance of assessment for the
  development of each child according to his/her
  individual abilities.

8

• Ongoing, systematic procedure
• Integral part of teaching and learning process
• A collective and cooperative process
• Is curriculum-based
• Concerns all areas of education and development
  as set out in the curriculum knowledge,
  social-emotional, psychomotor etc.
• Employs diversity of methods and approaches
  (tests, observations, interviews, pupil's self
  assessments)

9

• Emphasis given on assessment information being
  used mainly for individualizing instruction in
  mixed ability classes.

10
Current policies

• Education at pre-primary and primary level is
  free, compulsory, inclusive, multi-cultural
• Mixed ability, learner-centered instructional
  approaches are encouraged
• Assessment methods that are designed to monitor
  the progress of each pupil towards his/her goals
  are endorsed
• Individual pupil assessment information not used
  for non-teaching and learning purposes in primary
  education in Cyprus

11
supportive policies

• The Mechanism for the Identification and Support
  of Children with Learning and Emotional
  Difficulties (2004)
• Empowers class teachers and school units to
  assume responsibility for the learning and
  development of all their students within a
  multi-cultural, inclusive setting.
• Ongoing process of assessment institutionalized
• Partnership between parents and teachers
  institutionalized