Overview
This practice toolkit gives an introduction to learner profiles which aim to broaden what counts as learning and achievement, and enable students of all ages to demonstrate the full breadth of their strengths.
Student learner profiles are already state-level policy in Australia, and becoming widespread in the USA through initiatives such as the Mastery Transcript and Big Picture Learning credential. In the UK, this idea is gaining traction. The Times Education Commission 2022 recommended “a Digital Learner Profile, a personal online portfolio for every student, including academic qualifications alongside a record of other achievements”. Both Wales and Scotland are already trialing learner profiles, sometimes also known as E-portfolios.
Externally validated exam grades for core subjects (like maths and literacy) will form part of the Learner Profile, together with teacher assessment (where appropriate); but, crucially, other evidence of a student’s skills and capabilities, interests, projects they have completed, or wider volunteering or work experience will be demonstrated. Evidence of strengths in creative thinking, communication/oracy and collaboration will combine to give employers or admissions tutors a fuller picture of each young person.
Why Learner Profiles?
The mission of Rethinking Assessment is to recognise the breadth of strengths of every young person so that no one leaves school with just a set of exam numbers and letters. We believe that the best way of doing this is for every young person to be supported to create a learner profile while at school and be able to take it with them through life, topping it up as they go.
The current narrow ‘exam only’ assessment system is out of date and not fit for purpose. It doesn’t adequately prepare young people for a dynamic world and for their futures. Training for exams is a very different skill set to the attributes, abilities and knowledge young people need to thrive, and which employers and higher education providers seek.
The current exam-based system does not capture the full range of young people’s strengths and is a crude measure of 14 years of compulsory schooling. Assessment must provide young people with opportunities to develop and evidence the knowledge, strategies and skills they will need in their adult lives.
To address this, we have developed a framework and methodology for developing learner profiles, which is now being piloted across the UK.
See Rethinking Assessment’s Learner Profile draft framework here:
Many teachers, practitioners, schools and colleges, already use a strengths-based approach, and many SEND settings for example are ahead of the curve in thinking about how to document and evidence what young people with a broad range of experiences know and can do, inside and outside of a school setting.
The inequalities between the educational experiences and outcomes of groups of learners are stubbornly entrenched and, in places, accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The IFS reported in 2022 that 16-year-olds who are eligible for free school meals are still around 27 percentage points less likely to earn good GCSEs than less disadvantaged peers. 20% of young people leave formal education with no qualifications at all and nothing to show for 14 years spent in school.
Rachel Macfarlane, Lead Adviser for Underserved Learners, HFL Education makes the case for Why the Learner Profile is central to the Levelling Up agenda (rethinkingassessment.com).
To prepare all learners for positive destinations and a fulfilled life, they need to develop the skills and attributes to enable them to thrive in all areas of life, including their chosen employment route. Employers are clear about the skills they need, and the learner profile provides essential information at points of transition into work and professional training. If schools and colleges are supported to capture and value skills like creative thinking, communication and collaboration, and wider student achievements, in a portfolio, then they will be incentivised to provide a broader and more expansive educational experience for everyone.