Bystanders no more : Science assessment strategies for students with a profile of dyslexia

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the views and perceptions of Maltese educators – school leaders and teachers, students with a profile of dyslexia, a dyslexia expert and a MATSEC official – on ways of making science assessment strategies ‘fairer’ for students with a profile of dyslexia. I tried to understand what students with a dyslexic profile go through during assessment procedures and this was also studied from the science teachers’ perspectives. I also investigated the responses of school and MATSEC officials to a number of new assessment tasks introduced in my school in the course of this study. A qualitative approach was used for the collection of data, using focus groups and interviews. A small case study involved the development and trialling of an assessment protocol that benefited from the input of two students with dyslexia, six science teachers and an expert on dyslexia. All the participants that took part in this study came from a Church secondary school in the Maltese Islands; with the exception of the dyslexia expert and the MATSEC official. This was also the school where the assessment protocol was trialled. It was found, among others, that the inclusion of multiple assessments such as an oral component and more practical tasks in science school-based assessment improved the performance of the participant students with dyslexia and decreased their stress.