Assessing Technology

In part one of this text Richard Kimbell explores the issues of assessment that have been raised by, and that have helped to define, the technology curriculum in the UK. Kimbell was closely involved in the evolution of the GCSE and the development of national curriculum assessment, more especially the Assessment of Performance Unit project of 1985-1991. He analyzes the successes and the mistakes and brings these together into a series of lessons he believes that educators in the UK should have learned about technology and about assessment. The second part of the book includes four sections on curriculum and assessment practice in technology from the USA, Germany, Taiwan and Australia. In each case the education system, the technology curriculum and its associated assessment practices are outlined. The final chapter of the text focuses upon lessons that the UK might reasonably learn from the practices in the four case studies.