VAST

Assessment stems from the Latin Assidere – to sit beside.

If we truly believe the traits for success drive learning and personal growth, we should explicitly teach the elements of the VAST scaffold. And if we teach these “soft skills”, we do need to evaluate how well each learner, personally, is flourishing – so we can reflect on how well we are teaching them. 

The reliability of any judgment is based on the expertise of the person evaluating, and the quality of, the data used for reasoning – often referred to as “the facts”.  

When we assess VAST, we are looking at human qualities. We use qualitative assessment.

VAST is assessed via observation, discussion, and personal judgment, usually of actions and interactions in social situations.  It is vital all people assessing VAST truly understand each element.  Therefore, professional learning is vital.  

Living School purposefully plans opportunities to understand learners – and this is part of the assessment cycle, which is integral to the structure of the school year.  The year is structured to offer two semesters of three six-week terms.  The first week of each semester is a Challenge Week. Challenge Week offers emotional, intellectual, physical and expressive learning experiences.  Such experiences allow educators to observe and evaluate learners around the VAST elements (diagnostic pre-assessment).  Challenge Week is designed to allow educators and learners to develop positive relationships, to see each other’s vulnerability and to explore each other’s strengths. The last week of the semester is a revision week, whereby we reflect on our learning. This week allows summative assessment of VAST elements.  Each term is a six-week block, offering a range of learning experiences. Throughout each term, each week, and each lesson, there are opportunities for formative assessment of VAST capacity growth.

Our year is authentic and promotes oursness.  The VAST scaffold explicitly defines the traits that are so important for understanding our role in a network, a universal network. By understanding the elements of VAST we take personal responsibility to grow our capacity in each identified sub-element.