Barefoot Evaluation
What is evaluation?
Evaluation is about making judgements, where possible in an objective and systematic way. Every day, we make judgements about what to do and what we think, based on a range of factors.
When considering a new digital device for the classroom, there are a number of criteria: operating system, portability, memory size, screen size, ease of use, warranty, etc.
After evaluating the options, laptops might be judged as the digital device most suitable for a classroom.
Why is evaluation important?
Evaluation is about judging the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of products, solutions, processes and systems. We ascertain whether they’re fit for purpose.
One approach could be to consider specific criteria, e.g. a design goal or specification, or user needs. In computer science, evaluation is systematic and rigorous.
What does evaluation look like in the curriculum?
Evaluation is something that occurs daily across schools. Pupils evaluate their work; teachers evaluate lessons, learning and progress. Self- and peer-assessment can help to develop children’s evaluation skills, as they make judgements using success criteria and consider potential improvements.
Gymnasts may have a list of ‘good’ things to aspire to – perhaps certain moves in a routine, perhaps landing on two feet. In Language, the success criteria for a pupil’s written work might be the correct use of capitals and full stops, or the inclusion of adjectives and adverbs. Children express preferences more readily and clearly. They may recommend a book to a friend, explaining why they think it will be enjoyed, having made a judgement about what type of books might be favoured. The design and technology curriculum makes use of evaluation as pupils work through the design–make–evaluate cycle.
An example of peer evaluation, using stars, a wish, “what went well” and “even better if”.
More resources on Evaluation by BBC
Barefoot Abstraction
What is abstraction?
Abstraction is about simplifying things – identifying what’s important without worrying too much about detail.
A school timetable is an abstraction of what happens in a typical week. It shows key information about classes, teachers, rooms and times but ignores further layers of detail such as learning objectives and activities.
A class timetable is an abstraction of the school day for one class.
Much is omitted, to provide a simplified summary.
Why is abstraction important?
Abstraction allows us to think about things to different degrees of detail. It’s a powerful tool in computer science, where it’s used to manage the complexity in much of what’s designed and created.
We can think of abstractions as layers, or boxes within boxes, allowing us to disregard what’s going on inside each of them. Software comprises layers of code, each hiding the complexity of the next. We can see items of hardware as “black boxes”, disregarding their internal workings unless we choose to look deeper.
What does abstraction look like in the curriculum?
Working with word problems in maths often involves identifying key information and thinking how to represent it in the more abstract language of arithmetic. A book can be abstracted to a story plan. Music is abstracted to notation. Models are abstractions. In geography, a map can be considered an abstraction of the complexity of the environment, and maps of different scales provide a sense of the layered nature of abstraction in computing.
Pupils can also gain experience of abstraction when playing computer games, appreciating that these interactive simulations are based on real life but are simpler.
A story plan summarizes a story, providing an abstraction of the story which shows just its key features.
Music is abstracted to musical notation.
Barefoot Patterns / Generalisation
What are patterns?
Patterns are everywhere. By identifying patterns, we can create rules and solve more-general problems.
Children notice patterns in how teachers react to their behaviour. Weather patterns feed into our forecasts. In maths, pupils can measure the area of a rectangle drawn on graph paper, by counting the number of unit squares within it, but this could be difficult or longwinded for rectangles which are really small or large. A more elegant solution is to multiply the length of the rectangle by the width – and it works well for all rectangles. Once pupils can remember this formula, it’s so much faster than counting squares.
In computing, the method of looking for a general approach to a class of problems is called generalisation.
Pupils learn mathematical formulae: these are generalisations.
Why are patterns important?
Computer scientists strive to solve problems quickly and efficiently, and they seek methods applicable elsewhere. If they see a pattern across an algorithm, they’ll look to create a single module of repeatable code, sometimes called a function or procedure – many programming languages have shared libraries of common functions. The recognition of patterns in input data plays an essential role in machine learning. This is an important application of computer science which plays a part in systems for, amongst many other things, algorithmic stock-market trading and the recognition of faces and vehicle number plates.
What do patterns look like in curriculum?
From an early age, children become familiar with repeated phrases in nursery rhymes. Later, they notice repeated structures in stories. We ask pupils to look for and learn from patterns to help them better understand the world. They might recognise common rules (and exceptions) for spellings, and repeating lines in many musical forms. In maths, pupils typically undertake investigations in which they spot patterns and deduce generalised results.
Can pupils spot the pattern to reveal the number-sequence rule?
Barefoot Decomposition
What is decomposition?
In computing, decomposition is the process of breaking down a task into smaller, more-manageable parts. It has many advantages. It helps us manage large projects and makes the process of solving a complex problem less daunting and much easier to take on.
With decomposition, a task can be tackled by several people working together as a team, each member contributing their own insights and skills to particular aspects of the project.
As a simple example, making breakfast can be decomposed into a number of smaller tasks, as below. Two people could make this breakfast at the same time, one making tea and one toast.
Two people could make this breakfast at the same time: one could make the tea and one the toast
An illustration of a plant can be decomposed into its constituent parts, and each of those can be further decomposed for extra detail:
A labelled diagram of a flowering plant. We find out more as we decompose.
Why is decomposition important?
Decomposing problems into their smaller parts is not unique to computing: it’s quite standard in engineering, in design and in project management.
Software development is a complex process, and so the ability to break down a large project into its component parts is essential: think of all the different elements that need to be combined to produce a program like PowerPoint.
The same principle is true of computer hardware: smartphones and laptop computers are each composed of many components, produced independently by separate manufacturers before being assembled into the finished product.
A tablet can be broken down (decomposed) into smaller components. (With thanks to iFixit.com.)
What does decomposition look like in the curriculum?
Putting on a school play or a cake sale, creating a news report, tackling a maths problem, making a sandwich: any task or project will need to be decomposed into smaller, more-manageable parts. Decomposition is everywhere in school practice.
Pupils are always being asked to find out more; whenever they’re labelling drawings, adding detail to concept maps, creating instructions, sketching lifecycles or marking out timelines, they’re breaking down something and thinking about detail, developing their decomposition skills.
The concept map below is a decomposition of children’s knowledge of the ancient Egyptians.
In a concept map, pupils can add detail to their knowledge and understanding of the ancient Egyptians.
Pupils’ decompositions might include just the things they currently know about. They should learn to check that they haven’t neglected aspects of a topic. They can consider further decomposing each aspect into sub-parts.
A computer game might be decomposed into plot, characters and setting. Next, the characters could be decomposed into actions and appearance, and the setting into background, obstacles and scoring objects. In developing a robotic toy, pupils will consider the hardware components – both individually and as a system – and the algorithms and code required. In computing, technology = hardware + algorithms + code.
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