Curriculum 2C

Assessment 2 – School-based Assessment Task

Nur Salihi – 18120875

Year 11 Society & Culture .........................................................................................................3

Submission / Exam Instructions ......................................................................................................... 3

Absence / Misadventure Instructions................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Outcomes Being Assessed .................................................................................................................. 4

The Task.....................................................................................................................................5

Part A) ................................................................................................................................................ 5

Part B) ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Part C) ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Part D) ................................................................................................................................................ 5

Part E) ................................................................................................................................................. 6

Appendix 1:................................................................................................................................8

Social And Cultural Research Methods – Syllabus Overview ........................................................... 8

Research Methods............................................................................................................................. 10

Ethical Research ............................................................................................................................... 11

Diagrammatical Representation Of The Process Of Research ......................................................... 12

Appendix 2:..............................................................................................................................13

Marking Criteria ............................................................................................................................... 13

Evaluation ................................................................................................................................15

References ................................................................................................................................20
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RATIONALE:

Students will conduct research into a common topic by applying their understanding of select

research methods. Students will synthesise and present their findings using Personal Interest

Project report structure. This task will provide students with the opportunity to develop ethical

research and investigate skills and develop their social and cultural literacy.

Year 11 Society & Culture

Mini PIP

Task No. Date Issued Date Due Weighting Total Marks

1 Term 1, Week 7 Term 2, Week 1 40% 40

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OUTCOMES BEING ASSESSED

- P1: identifies and applies social and cultural concepts

- P5: explains continuity and change and their implications for societies and cultures

- P6: differentiates between social and cultural research methods

- P7: selects, organises and considers information from a variety of sources for

usefulness, validity and bias

- P8: plans and conducts ethical social and cultural research

- P9: uses appropriate course language and concepts suitable for different audiences and

contexts communicates information, ideas and issues using appropriate written, oral

and graphic forms

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THE TASK

This task has FIVE parts. Each part is designed to develop a research or communication skill.

Part a)

The class will negotiate possible mini PIP topics based on NESA guidelines and develop a

common mini PIP topic/question.

Part b)

i. Students will be guided through the process of secondary research. Students will be

taught how to extract information from academic readings and evaluate their

secondary research for validity and usefulness.

ii. Students will use their wide reading of academic resources and class discussion to

develop their own hypothesis to the common PIP topic/question.

Part c)

To facilitate their research, students will be taught the primary research methods listed in

Appendix 1. Students are required to use a minimum of THREE methods for this task. Students

MUST use secondary research and TWO other primary methods decided on by the class and

confirmed by the teacher via Google Classrooms.

Students are welcome to use additional methods listed in Appendix 1, but this is only advised

if additional methods are required to investigate their specific hypothesis. Teacher feedback

will be provided where necessary.

Part d)

i. Students will be taught how to develop a relevant cross-cultural component for their

research that will enhance the sociological merit of their work. The class will

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generate a list of cross-cultural options and students are to nominate their preferred

option and integrate their option into their research and communication of findings.

ii. Students will be taught how to develop a relevant continuity and/or change

component to their research that will enhance the sociological merit of their work.

The class will generate a list of continuity and change options and students are to

nominate their preferred option and integrate their option into their research, and

communication of findings.

Note: Students will need to ensure their cross-culture supports their community and/or change,

and visa versa. Teacher feedback will be provided.

Part e)

In this section students will be taught how to write their mini PIP. Written communication in

the mini PIP takes the form of a sociology report. The report is to be organised as follows:

Title Page: Name of your mini PIP, the question and your name.

ONE Log Entry: 300 words. (Your log entry will be a summary of your methods,

challenges and growth). You will be provided with sentence starters to help you complete your

log.

Introduction: 300 words (max). This introduces your topic, explains your methods,

comments on their limitations, identifies your relationship to the topic and outlines your

hypothesis. You will be provided with sentence starters to help you complete your introduction.

Central Material: 1000 – 1500 words. This can be broken up into chapters. Each

chapter should have a clearly identifiable theme/focus. Your central material will unpack your

hypothesis and synthesis the findings from all your research methods. Throughout your central

material, you will comment on personal revelations, turning point in your research, the

limitations of your methods and bias in your research. Your central material should present

answers to your question in accordance with the directive, your hypothesis and your cross-

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cultural and continuity and change choices. It should build up to your conclusion. You will be

provided with sentence starters to help you complete your central material.

Conclusion: 300 words (max). Your conclusion will clearly explain whether or

not/how your hypothesis has been proven/disproven. You will clearly reflect on the process of

researching and any problems encountered. It will also reflect on the validity of your findings

and address any ethical concerns. You may discuss what you would change if you were to

research the question again. You will be provided with sentence starters to help you complete

your conclusion.

Resource List: Your resource is a list of all the resources you have used to write your

mini PIP. It is like a very basic annotated bibliography. You will need to properly reference all

of your sources in alphabetical order. Additionally, you will be required to evaluate the

effectiveness of TWO of your research methods. We will do one as a class and you will do the

others individually. Evaluation only needs to be a few sentences long.

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Appendix 1:

Social and cultural research methods – Syllabus Overview

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Research Methods

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Ethical Research

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Diagrammatical representation of the process of research

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Appendix 2:

MARKING CRITERIA

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*The following marking criteria has been adapted from the Board of Studies (NESA) and has been modified to suit the assessment criteria.

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EVALUATION

Teachers have a significant role in the teaching practicum as assessment is required

throughout every lesson. Student are assessed in many ways possible therefore set assessment

tasks are an effective learning tool that is structured to provide teachers with a further insight

into what students know and what they have to learn. Throughout these lessons it is vital for

teachers to provide continuous feedback in order for students to stay on task and complete

relevant assessments. The Australian Professional Standards for teachers, standard five

required teachers to “assess, provide feedback and report on student learning” (AITSL, 2011).

The subsequent assessment task is designed for students to understand the importance of

assessment tasks through two set ways, first being a take home assessment task and the second

being assessment task set during a lesson where students write up a report in which they have

been working on. The following assessment task is also created to deliver students with

appropriate feedback as it is not only designed cater for students but also to differentiate the

needs of students in my teaching area ‘Society and Culture’.

There are two different forms of main assessment which students are assessed in and

these are known as formative and summative assessment. According to Harlen & James (1997)

formative assessment is a substantial form of assessment for teacher to monitor the growth and

progress of students, as it provides feedback for teachers to stimulate further learning (p.372).

An example of formative assessment is when students are assessed through the completion of

their assessment tasks. Whereas, summative assessment is designed for teachers to make

judgement on students learning for reporting, for example, half yearly and yearly assessments

(Harlen & James, 1997, p372). Summative assessment is therefore often generated to report on

student results. Assessment does not always have to be conducted formally however ensuring

that your students have grasped the knowledge throughout a lesson and constantly asking

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questions in order to assess knowledge is another way of assessment. Hence, formative

assessment and summative assessment are both important forms of evaluating student’s

knowledge.

Moreover, ‘assessment for learning’, ‘assessment as learning’ and ‘assessment of

learning’ are three main purposes for assessment (Department of Education, 2018). Overall, all

three types of assessments enable teachers to be able to gather results and classify students’

achievements through significant assessment of the development of all students.

It is important for teachers to gather information on their students as it allows to enhance

the interpreting process of their students results so as to be able to make judgement of their

learning. This allows for teachers to interpret the required level students are at and to further

assist students with their weaknesses. This is a significant process for teachers as they will be

able to provide further assistance and to be able to focus on what students need to learn

throughout the unit. Hence allowing for continuous improvement for students as they are able

to work towards fixing any mistakes before they begin their next assessment task.

Feedback is vital and effective, both for teachers and students after assessment, as it

allows for teachers to stay on track on what the student has delivered, whereas, it also allows

students to understand why they have been graded a specific mark and provided with that

certain feedback. Providing this feedback after every assessment is important for students to

improve in their leaning, as it should be centred to help students to improve their understanding,

learning skills and knowledge. Students will also be able to pick up on their strengths and

weaknesses as they identify what might have went wrong in their learning. On the other hand,

teachers and students should work together and identify the syllabus outcomes and content that

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is linked to their learning for enhanced improvement (NESA, 2019). Therefore, throughout this

assessment task feedback is significant for students to manipulate their understanding to the

task.

As a future teacher, I will make sure to provide clear and explicit feedback to all my

students in order for them to clearly understand the results they have received through the

feedback provided to them. Students will become engaged and more motivated in the

classroom if they are provided with perspicuous feedback (Higgins and Hartley, 2002).

Another way to provide feedback can be either oral or written feedback. Oral feedback provides

students to become further involved by creating collaboration and discussion (NESA, 2019).

Whereas written feedback is often focused on individual feedback with final comments

focusing on improvements that can be made and weaknesses that were assessed (NESA, 2019).

Consequently, efficient feedback has different approaches provided by teachers which is

significant for students to identify areas for improvements.

According to research, studies claim students experience high extents of anxiety due to

a lack of self-assurance and self-confidence. This results in low performances during the

Higher School Certificate (HSC) exam, which affects their grades (Coulby, Cowen, & Jones,

2000, p.143). Regardless of research tasks, take home exams and exams (test centres), it is a

vital part of school that allows student assessment. Not only do students feel pressured by

teachers and peers, the parents of students and other individuals also pressure students. In order

to reduce stress and anxiety, teachers are trained to implement pedagogical strategies in order

for students to feel less pressured and reduce pressure, this correspondingly links closely with

the Australian Professional Standards for teachers “know your students and how they learn”.

In order to produce equivalence by assessing students equally through adjustments with

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assessment tasks, those students who experience anxiety and pressure, will be able to then

perform to the finest of their abilities through developments and nurture.

As a pre-service teacher, it is important to be able to cater for students with diverse

needs and differentiation. Differentiating assessment tasks links closely with making certain

adjustments and modifications of questions and activities to cater for students with various

learning styles and needs. For this reason, the designed assessment task has clearly been

thought through as to how students could approach a report for a school-based assessment task.

The Year 11 Society and Culture (2013) assessment highlights that all students must complete

a school-based assessment task in order to complete the course. This assessment task also

assesses student’s prior knowledge and whether if they have grasped information during

classroom lessons throughout the term. Therefore, these tasks are designed for students to face

learning distinctions, consequently providing students with scaffolds and clear structures that

clearly specify what the task requires of them. For example, the above assessment task has

been broken down into five separate parts which is designed to develop a research

communication skill for all students. Within each part, each section clearly states what is

require of students as well as the layout that is required including a word count for students to

follow. Part e of the assessment task is a clear representation of how clear and precise the form

of the sociology report is. This layout allows for students to become less stressed about the

assessment task, as how they approach the report in entirely about how they will perform within

the report when they sit the exam, as they have been provided with a detailed depiction of what

they are required to write, for example, being provided with sentence starts to get them to start.

Students have also been provided with syllabus overviews including ‘social and cultural

research methods’, ‘research methods’, ‘ethical research’ and ‘diagrammatical representation

of the process of research’ to allow them to expand on primary research methods for their

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assessment task. As the above assessment task is designed for students to minimise the stress

levels under exam settings where they will be provided with a clear outline of what is required

for them to complete. This assessment task also caters for all students including students with

special learning needs, as I will make sure to always provide my students with this scaffolding

assessment.

Overall, assessments are an important part of schooling and within all learning areas it

helps students convey their comprehension, skills and knowledge. Not only is it beneficial for

comprehending, it allows teachers to gather information on student’s development and progress

within the classroom and allows for differentiation. It is an effective tool to provide students

with feedback and is useful for parent—teacher interviews. Students will be able to focus on

the areas they need support with, with the use of effective feedback and assessments. Hence,

in order for me to become a successful Society and Culture teacher, I will make sure to design

assessment tasks that cater for all students needs when undertaking exams and assessment tasks

this includes differentiating students who might have anxiety.

Word Count: 1448 words

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REFERENCES

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian Professional

Standards for Teachers. Available online: <https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-

source/apst-resources/australian_professional_standard_for_teachers_final.pdf

Coulby, D., Cowen, Robert, & Jones, Crispin. (2000). Education in times of transition /

edited by David Coulby, Robert Cowen and Crispin Jones; series editors: David

Coulby and Crispin Jones. (World year book of education; 2000). London: Sterling,

Va.: Kogan Page; Stylus Pub.

Harlen, W., & James, M. (1997). Assessment and Learning: Differences and relationships

between formative and summative assessment. Assessment in Education: Principles,

Policy & Practice, 4(3), 365-379.

Higgins, R., Hartley, P., & Skelton, A. (2002). The Conscientious Consumer: Reconsidering

the role of assessment feedback in student learning. Studies in Higher Education,

27(1), 53-64.

NSW Department of Education. (2018). Retrieved from https://education.nsw.gov.au/

NSW Education Standards Authority. (2019). Retrieved from

http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/home

Society and Culture Stage 6 Syllabus. (2013). Retrieved from

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/a595c986-4712-41dc-9588-

0febca96a575/society-culture-st6-syl-from2015.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=

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