Purple Mash and Ofsted's High Quality Computing Curriculum: Day 4

On 16th May, Ofsted published their research review into the computing curriculum, to ‘identify factors that can contribute to a high-quality school computing curriculum, assessment, pedagogy, and systems. We’ve taken a close look at the report and identified how Purple Mash meets each of those factors, and throughout this week we're posting a series of blog posts outlining exactly how it does this. Each daily blog will cover 2-3 of the factors in depth, looking at what the report says and highlighting where the Purple Mash Computing Scheme of Work supports them.

On the final day of our 4 part series, we examine pedagogy and assessment.

Pedagogy

The report states:

‘high-quality computing education may have the following features:

• Teachers consider pupils’ expertise and prior knowledge when selecting teaching approaches, with novices requiring more explicit instruction.
• The choice of teaching activities is strongly linked to the intended subject content and helps achieve curriculum goals.
• Teachers use worked examples appropriately to help pupils solve problems.
• Textbooks are used as a resource to support teaching in computing.’ (Ofsted, 2022)

‘self-directed modes of learning. [footnote 114] However, some researchers have highlighted that these approaches do not benefit novices and that explicit instructional guidance is important for pupils who lack sufficiently high prior knowledge’ (Ofsted, 2022)

‘unguided approaches are not appropriate for novices’ (Ofsted, 2022)

The Purple Mash scheme includes a variety of task designs providing scaffolding for children’s learning. The 2Code self-directed activities are integrated within the flow of structured lessons providing direct teaching, helping to spilt tasks into sub-goals and understand how these fit within a solution. Challenge activities provide opportunities to put discrete skills into a larger project integrating learnt knowledge component parts.

‘Unplugged activities can be useful in introducing computing concepts to pupils at the early stages of their computing education.’ (Ofsted, 2022)

Unplugged activities and modelling away from computers are included as an integrated part of the scheme where appropriate to help children understand concepts and reduce cognitive load. Unplugged approaches support the semantic wave model of introducing new concepts: introducing new concepts and vocabulary then using everyday language and contexts to explain these in an accessible way for children, supporting integrating the new technical language into tasks. These models are then referred to in future to help pupils integrate a firm understanding and expose misconceptions if they slip in.

Assessment

The report states:

'high-quality computing education may have the following features:

• Assessment focuses on the knowledge and skills identified in the curriculum and not generic competencies.
• Formative assessment is used to identify misconceptions early.’ (Ofsted, 2022)

Purple Mash provides a number of different resources to support teachers in making assessments that fit in with their whole school model:

• Each unit has sample emerging, expected and exceeding statements that describe what a child’s work would demonstrate to be at one of these stages in their learning for that unit. These include specific lesson outcomes and evidencing examples.
• Assessment is integrated into the Purple Mash system via setting 2Dos with curriculum area tags, teachers can then mark the work and assess each piece, which over time builds a picture of pupils’ outcomes and progress.
• We provide such details in a variety of formats to suit schools; use of Purple Mash Data tab, Excel assessment format, paper-based methods, ‘I can’ statements for children and knowledge organisers.
• In addition, each unit has a concept map and quiz, these can be used for formative and summative assessment to give a picture of what children have understood.
• Formative assessment forms part of the lessons themselves to help children and teachers check children’s prior knowledge and understanding.

The focus for assessment is on deeper knowledge and not simply being able to use a tool: a variety of approaches will help teachers to build up this picture of their children.

Read the full series

This is the final blog post in the series. If you’d like to read the others, here’s what’s been covered:

Read day 1 blog post which covers:

• Teacher technical and pedagogical content knowledge
• Curriculum – Pillars of Progression

Read day 2 blog post which covers:

• Declarative and procedural knowledge
• Computer science

Read day 3 blog post which covers:

• Computational thinking and problem-solving
• Information Technology
• Digital literacy

Read the full Ofsted report here

Try the scheme for free

A free version of the Purple Mash Computing Scheme of Work is available to download here. You can also try Purple Mash for free to access the full version.