Learner preparation To ensure that you provide effective assessment for your learners, you need to make
sure that they understand their responsibilities for assessment and the centre’s
arrangements.
From induction onwards, you will want to ensure that learners are motivated to work
consistently and independently to achieve the requirements of the qualifications.
Learners need to understand how assignments are used, the importance of meeting
assignment deadlines and that all the work submitted for assessment must be
their own.
You will need to give learners a guide that explains how assignments are used for
assessment, how assignments relate to the teaching programme and how learners
should use and reference source materials, including what would constitute plagiarism.
The guide should also set out your approach to operating assessment, such as how
learners must submit work and request extensions.
Making valid assessment decisions Authenticity of learner work Once an assessment has begun, learners must not be given feedback on progress
towards fulfilling the targeted criteria.
An assessor must assess only learner work that is authentic, i.e. learners’ own
independent work. Learners must authenticate the evidence that they provide
for assessment through signing a declaration stating that it is their own work.
Assessors must ensure that evidence is authentic to a learner through setting valid
assignments and supervising them during the assessment period. Assessors must
take care not to provide direct input, instructions or specific feedback that may
compromise authenticity.
Assessors must complete a declaration that:
•
to the best of their knowledge the evidence submitted for this assignment
is the learner’s own
•
the learner has clearly referenced any sources used in the work
•
they understand that false declaration is a form of malpractice.
Centres can use Pearson templates or their own templates to document authentication.
During assessment, an assessor may suspect that some or all of the evidence
from a learner is not authentic. The assessor must then take appropriate action
using the centre’s policies for malpractice. Further information is given in
Section 7 Administrative arrangements .