Learner Differences

We begin this chapter by making the somewhat paradoxical point that equality of educational provision can only be achieved when every learner receives an individual – and different – experience. Taking this as a starting point, we examine some of the data from the projects in Part Two to illustrate the varied responses of different subgroups of learners in relation to their performance. We examine the active/reflective emphases of age and gender groups as well as their levels of engagement with tasks. But we are careful not to assume these tendencies are necessary conditions, and rather we explore the power of ‘working from strengths to tackle weaknesses’. We discuss the issue of learners ‘designing style’, that was the explicit focus of one project and a powerful influence of several others. We also explore the interestingly different effects of models of teaching and learning through the years of schooling; very different approaches being used by teachers, e.g. in primary and secondary schools. Finally, we examine the differential effects on learners’ performance of the resources and the substructures of the activities (see Chapter 12) that we have used to shape and steer our assessment activities.

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