Moderator's Newsletter - Social Studies

June 2009

From the Moderator

This newsletter contains information about:

• Innovative programmes and assessment
• Level 1 TKI resources
• Best practice workshops
• Clarification documents
• Teacher-selected assessed work
• SocCon 09
• Consultation on draft Level 1 standards

Innovative programmes and assessment

Evidence collected within the recent moderation rounds suggests that the Social Studies teaching community is becoming more confident in their approach to the dual tasks of:

• the design of programmes to match the learning interests of students; and
• the creation of assessment activities written against the requirements of the achievement standards that measure student learning within these varied programmes.

Innovation such as Social Studies inquiries based on locally focused student directed investigations and the study of social actions based on contemporary local issues are becoming more common.

The creation of generic assessment activities that can be altered to reflect the continued change in learning focus is providing the flexibility that teachers require when reacting to the learning interests of their students.

When creating these generic assessment activities it is essential to also incorporate a fully developed assessment schedule so that accurate assessment decisions can be made. This includes evidence for each level and judgements which clarify how the grades are awarded.

If the assessment schedule is written against one setting or focus and in subsequent years the teacher decides to change the focus, it is not absolutely necessary to change the evidence statements to match the new focus, provided that it is clear what is being rewarded at each level.

Evidence statements

Evidence statements in the assessment schedule demonstrate what is expected at each level of achievement. They should be examples of student answers. The assessor then uses these examples to identify similar patterns in the student work that he/ she is making assessment decisions about.

Level 1 TKI resources

The level 1 achievement standards were reviewed in 2007 with the latest version being version 3. The assessment resources on TKI have not yet been reviewed or rewritten to reflect the changes in the achievement standards for version 3.

The preference has been to develop generic assessment resources that can be adapted to the needs of the teaching and assessment programme. The resources that meet the requirements of version 2 of the achievement standards should be modified to meet version 3 before use and will eventually be removed from TKI.

Best Practice Workshops

Social Studies will have the first of its best practice workshops in central Auckland on 15 July.

The focus of these workshops is on moderation of internally assessed standards and covers requirements of the standards and making judgements on samples of student work.

Planning is underway for the possibility of other Social Studies best practice workshops in regions later in the year.

Full details of costs, dates and locations are available online.

Clarification Documents

There are two clarification documents available on TKI. These are of assistance to teachers when developing an understanding of some of the technical details linked to the interpretation of Social Studies in the NZ Curriculum for the current Social Studies achievement standards.

Concept Guide Notes:
Perspective Guide Notes:

Teacher-selected assessed work

Teachers may choose to select up to four additional samples of work when sending assessment materials for moderation. These samples must be for the same standard and activity being moderated. Teachers should ask a specific question that raises an issue. This allows for professional feedback and two-way dialogue between assessors and moderators.

Reasons to do this include:

• There may be some issues related to making judgements that have not appeared in the random samples but have occurred in other work samples.
• The random sample may not have generated a sufficient range of grades to get feedback on judgements for a particular aspect of the standard.
• A teacher or department may have a specific question and would like further feedback from the Moderator e.g. a question seeking clarification of use of significant figures since final answer okay but working shows a varied number of figures.

It is not expected that schools will submit extra samples of student work simply for grade verification.

Further advice can be found in Assessment Matters circular A2009/013 Sending optional teacher-selected evidence with external moderation. 

SocCon 09

The Social Sciences conference, SocCon09, will be held in Christchurch from Monday, 28 September through to Wednesday, 30 September.

It is anticipated that there will be a senior Social Studies stream of choice within the conference programme.

Registrations are available on line.

Consultation on draft Level 1 standards

The Social Studies matrix and draft Level 1 standards are now available for consultation in the Standards Alignment project. Standards can be viewed on the survey web site, or on TKI.

Research New Zealand encourages online responses to be made, but paper submissions will also be accepted. This consultation closes on 3 July 2009. Other levels will be consulted later.

Level 1 standards will be registered during 2010 for use from 2011. Level 2 (2012) and Level 3 (2013) will follow progressively.

Last updated: 23 June 2009