Qualifications and standards

Physical Education - moderator's newsletter

Physical Education newsletter - April 2011

Annotated exemplars for new Level 1 standards

Exemplars of student evidence have been created for all Level 1 standards for which new assessment materials have been developed. These have been created from a range of materials and exemplify each of the six grade boundaries: high Not Achieved, low Achieved, high Achieved, low Merit, high Merit, low Excellence. Two resources were created for each standard and therefore twelve exemplars are available per standard. These can be accessed through the NZQA Physical Education web page.

Collecting practical evidence

Collecting practical evidence continues to be an important aspect of assessment evidence across all three levels of the NCEA. At Levels 2 and 3 where standards may still have more than one criterion, often with one being practical and the other theoretical, emphasis must continue to be placed upon both criteria.

With the new Level 1 Achievement Standards the collection and presentation of practical evidence for assessment and moderation becomes even more important because the step up in AS 90962 and AS 90966 is based upon the practical evidence. Below is a summary of the new standards for which practical evidence is required.

AS 90962 Participate actively in a variety of physical activities and explain factors that influence own participation

The step up to Merit and then Excellence is based upon the students’ level and consistency of effort. It is expected that students will be involved in a programme where they can participate actively over a prolonged period of time and therefore teacher-collected evidence should illustrate this. See annotated exemplars for AS 90962, Resource A and Resource B, for ways this could be presented.

AS 90964 Demonstrate quality movement in the performance of a physical activity

This standard remains the same. This is a purely practical standard and as such the material presented for moderation should clearly show the collection of evidence to confirm judgements on students’ quality and consistency of movement.

The Resource A annotated exemplar for AS 90964 shows how the teacher has used detailed checklists for each aspect of game play in soccer to collect evidence over the duration of the programme. Where evidence in some areas may be lacking it also highlights how student self/peer assessments could be used to support final judgements overall.

Resource B shows how both student and teacher collected evidence can be used to make final judgements. Student evidence is directly related to the task in which students have been asked to come up with performance goals. From this the teacher has created a rubric and checklist to gather evidence against these performance goals ‘over time’.

The resource materials are written so that they can be adapted for different themes and contexts and teachers are encouraged to adapt these resources for local contexts. The rubrics from the prior Achievement Standard can also be still be applied for this realigned Achievement Standard. These are still available on the TKI website under 1.3.

AS 90966 Demonstrate interpersonal skills in a group and explain how these skills impact on others

As for AS 1.1 the step up in this standard is in the practical work requirements with the theoretical aspect being to ‘explain the impact on others’ at all three levels of achievement. The step up is based upon the level and consistency of demonstration of interpersonal skills and teacher/student records of evidence should reflect this.

Annotated exemplars for Resource A and Resource B for AS 90966 contain a teacher recording sheet showing how evidence is gathered over time and placed upon a continuum. Note that the judgement for ‘consistently demonstrate a high level of interpersonal skills’ will be made at the end of the unit of work and will be dependant upon the teacher’s records showing that students demonstrated a high level of interpersonal skills on most occasions.

AS 90967 Demonstrate strategies to improve the performance of a physical activity and describe the outcomes

Although the step up for this standard is theoretical the practical aspect is equally important. It is the expectation that students will apply strategies for performance improvement. Teachers will need to verify that students have applied these strategies during the teaching and learning programme. This could include verifying student logs/diaries, teacher observation sheets and so on.

AS 90968 Demonstrate and describe responsible behaviour for safety during outdoor education activities

Be aware that these exemplars were developed from draft standards in which there was a practical step up to Excellence which required students to ‘consistently demonstrate’ responsible behaviour for safety during outdoor education activities. Teacher records showed this step up and evidence to support judgements on ‘consistency’ was collected over a period of time. Note that there is no practical step in the final registered Achievement Standard however teachers will still need to verify that students demonstrated responsible behaviours during outdoor education activities.

AS 90969 Take purposeful action to assist others to participate in physical activity

It is expected that students will support others or provide opportunities for others to take part in physical activity.

Annotated exemplars Resource A and Resource B for AS 90969 show how student planning and teacher observations are used to confirm that others participated in physical activity. It is important that the teacher verifies whether the action has been purposeful, considered or independent.

AS 90970 Demonstrate self-management strategies and describe the effects on participation in physical activity

The expectation is that students at all levels demonstrate self-management strategies. This is shown by what the students write about in exemplar Resource A for AS 90969 but also by the teacher verification on Resource 2.

Modes of assessment

The new Level 1 assessment activities have been set up to encourage teachers to use a range of assessment modes to cater for the needs of their students and to link with their teaching and learning programme.

Evidence for participation should be collected through teacher observation (supplemented by self/peer assessments) and in some instances the Achievement Standards have been set up to encourage ongoing evidence to be collected over an extended period of time.

Evidence for reflections and demonstrations of understanding (e.g. descriptions, explanations) could be collected verbally, in writing and/or with the use of a range of multi media.

Where Powerpoint presentations have been used it is often not sufficient to send in simply the slides as these normally only serve as prompts to which students add the necessary detail verbally. Students’ additional notes or a summary from the teacher of what evidence was gathered verbally is required to allow teachers’ judgements to be confirmed by the moderator.

Video is also an assessment tool which could be utilised, particularly in collection of practical evidence. When used in relation to the practical Achievement Standards the completed rubrics and teacher checklists /marksheets /observation sheets are all that is required by the moderator. Where the step up is in the ‘consistency’ of skills and strategies the evidence should be collected over a period of time.

When a video has been used to record oral presentations a summary of evidence for the requirements of the standard should be submitted. For example a detailed checklist could be created on which ticks and context-specific comments could be made to allow judgements to be confirmed.

New tasks also encourage the use of up-to-date e-technology such as wikis, blogs, flip phones and so on. Again, summaries could be made from flip phone evidence and copies of online evidence stored in case required to be submitted for external moderation purposes.

Performance Standards

The performance standard appendices for Levels 2 and 3 should be checked to ensure that the most up-to-date version is used in 2011. During the year new tasks were submitted for approval and some existing ones modified based upon feedback from the sector. These can be accessed on the NZQA subject-specific resource page.

Level 2 Internal Assessment Resource Project

Assessment tasks for the draft Level 2 Achievement Standards are currently being trialled by the sector. Thank you to those who are assisting in this process. Once completed the student evidence will be used to create annotated exemplars.

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