Ensuring the integral and optimal development of every student with a profound intellectual impairment is a challenge that requires the constant adaptation of educational practices. For this purpose, the Education Program for Students With a Profound Intellectual Impairment provides the basic reference framework for all pedagogical choices. It calls on teachers to work together as a team to help students develop competencies relating to knowledge, communication, motor development, socialization, affectivity and community life. It sets out an educational project that targets the development of students throughout their schooling, from the start of preschool at age 4 to the transition to adult life at age 21.
Evaluation of Learning
According to the Policy on the Evaluation of Learning, (MEQ, 2003), “Evaluation is the process whereby a judgment is made on a student’s learning on the basis of information gathered, analyzed and interpreted, for the purpose of making pedagogical and administrative decisions.” When used as a learning tool, evaluation allows teachers to adjust their pedagogical actions based on the progress made by students.
To help teachers interpret their observations and support the decisions they make, the Ministère provides teachers with scales of competency levels linked to the evaluation criteria for the competencies of the Education Program for Students With a Profound Intellectual Impairment. These scales provide a common point of reference for all the teachers involved.
When used to recognize competencies, the judgments made by teachers must report the level of development attained for all of a student's competencies. To prepare a record of learning, the teacher must consider all the observations gathered in a number of different learning and evaluation situations before making a judgment.
For more information on the evaluation of learning as it pertains to this program, see Scales of Competency Levels – Education Program for Students With a Profound Intellectual Impairment.