Field                   Arts and Crafts

 

Review of Art History Level 1 unit standards 5797 and 10957-10962

 

Subfield	Domain	ID
Visual Arts	Art History	5797, 10957-10962

 

The Ministry of Education and NZQA National Qualifications Services have completed a review of the unit standards listed above.

 

New Registration date                           November 2010

 

Date new versions published             November 2010

 

Planned review date                              December 2014

 

Summary of review and consultation process

 

In 2008 the Ministry of Education (MoE) and NZQA began to review achievement and unit standards in light of the revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC).  This Alignment of Standards (AoS) review also addressed duplication of outcomes, credit parity, fairness, consistency, and coherence.  The AoS review was guided by the revised NZC itself and the Standards Review Guidelines.  A copy of the NZC is available at http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum.

 

Teacher subject associations were involved in the review and draft achievement standards were the focus of wide consultation, especially with secondary schools and teachers.  Extensive resources, including student exemplars, were also developed to support these standards, and are available on the MoE and/or the NZQA websites.

 

The review of unit standards included consultation with tertiary providers to assess continued relevance and likely future use of the standards.  Unit standards that duplicate achievement standard outcomes and those without the likelihood of future use were recommended for expiry.

 

National consultation was undertaken in 2009, with the results analysed by Research New Zealand.  The responses were generally positive.

 

The review of unit and achievement standards at Level 1 was completed in time for implementation in schools in 2011.  Standards at Levels 2 and 3 will be implemented in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

 

Main changes resulting from the review

 

·      All NZC Level 6 (NZQF Level 1) outcomes derived from the NZC are now assessed using achievement standards, and any unit standards are no longer linked to NZC.

·      Existing achievement standards were reviewed and new achievement standards were developed to align with the NZC. See table below.

·      Grading criteria for achievement standards were reviewed in accordance with the Standards Review Guidelines.

·      Unit standards that recognised similar outcomes as achievement standards were recommended for expiry.  See table below.

 

Impact on Accreditation and Moderation Action Plan (AMAP)

 

All new achievement standards have been registered on AMAP 0233.

 

For a detailed description of the review of, and the changes to, the Art History standards see appendix 1 at the end of this report.

 

Impact of changes on NCEA Exclusions List

 

For transition purposes, the following exclusions will apply for new achievement standards.

 

New achievement standard	Existing unit standard
91015 [External assessment]	10958
91016	10959
91018	10960
91019	10962
91020 [External assessment]	5797

 

Review Categories and changes to classification, title, level, and credits

 

The following summary shows the changes made to the standards as a result of the review.  All changes are in bold.  

 

Key to review category
A	Dates changed, but no other changes are made - the new version of the standard carries the same ID and a new version number
B	Changes made, but the overall outcome remains the same - the new version of the standard carries the same ID and a new version number
C	Major changes that necessitate the registration of a replacement standard with a new ID
D	Standard will expire and not be replaced

 

Unit standards categorised as category C or D expire at the end of

December 2011

 

Arts and Crafts > Visual Arts > Art History

ID	Title	Level	Credit	Review Category
5797 91020	Examine objects that may be considered as art Explain why selected objects may be considered as art [External assessment]	1 1	4 4	C
10957	Develop a vocabulary for examining art works	1	4	D
10958   91015	Examine and compare formal properties of art works Demonstrate understanding of formal elements of art works, using art terminology [External assessment]	1   1	5   4	C
10959 91016	Examine subject matter and ideas in art Demonstrate understanding of the subject matter of art works	1 1	4 4	C
10960 91018	Examine methods of making art works Demonstrate knowledge of media and methods used to produce art works	1 1	4 4	C
10961	Examine why people make art	1	3	D
10962 91019	Research an artist and his or her work Demonstrate understanding of developments in an artist's work	1 1	4 4	C
91017	Demonstrate understanding of links between context(s) and art works	1	4	New

 

Appendix 1

 

Development of the Art History Standards

 

Process of Aligning Standards with the New Zealand Curriculum

 

In developing the art history matrix the core objectives of the discipline of art history were addressed i.e. stylistic features, meanings and contextual relationships in art, as well as skills such as research and analysis.  These objectives are clearly covered within the NZC by the visual arts curriculum strands: Understanding the Arts in Context and Communicating and Interpreting.  The standards were also developed in a way that supported the incorporation the Key Competencies into teaching and learning programmes.  The resulting matrix provides a range of broad standards which could be used with varying contexts and in a variety of arrangements and assessment formats to suit learners and teachers.

 

Reference to content (i.e. topics) in the achievement standards has been removed, in line with practices in other curriculum subjects, and will be included in the Teaching and Learning Guide.  The previous Art History Guidelines detail the content that was relevant for the external standards.  Through placing the content in the guide, there will be more flexibility for the course content to be revised and reviewed in the future.  The potential for including more contemporary art practice (post 1980) has been considered carefully in the drafting of the standards.

 

Matrix

 

The matrix of standards has been reorganised to create consistency:

1.  To show progression from level to level between similar standards e.g:

·           AS91015 (1.1), Demonstrate understanding of formal elements of art works, using art terminology

·           AS 2.1, Examine the effects of stylistic characteristics of art works

·           AS 3.1, Analyse the stylistic characteristics of art works to explain differences and/or similarities in style

2.  To group together the externally assessed standards followed by the internally assessed standards.

 

Addressing Duplication

 

Where an achievement standard duplicated the main outcomes of an existing unit standard, the achievement standard was given precedence.  However, the unit standards contained valuable expertise, ideas and terminology which, where significant, have been included in the achievement standards.  Where the unit standards assessed different outcomes from the current achievement standards these have been developed as new achievement standards.

 

Some of the unit standards were deemed to be lower than Level 6 in the New Zealand Curriculum and have either been recommended to become expiring or incorporated into the achievement standards.  For example, the element of vocabulary seen in unit standard 10957, Develop a vocabulary for examining art works, has been incorporated into the AS 91015 (1.1) Demonstrate understanding of formal elements of art works, using art terminology.

 

External and Internal Assessment

 

Initially it was proposed that all the Level 1 standards be internally assessed for the following reasons:

·           the achievement standards derive from unit standards which were all internally assessed.

·           there is greater flexibility in the selection of content if the Level 1 achievement standards are internally assessed since there is no need to teach a particular 'body of knowledge' to meet the requirements of an external examination.

 

However after the requirements for course endorsement were established (they require at least 3 credits come from external assessment) it was decided that two achievement standards (91015 (1.1) and 91020 (1.6)) should be externally assessed.

 

Addressing Credit Parity

The matrix allocates four credits to every standard.  This represents very few changes from the previous matrix and should allow a high degree of flexibility for teachers to select appropriate achievement standards.

 

What Has Changed?

All achievement standards have been written with only one achievement criterion (one main outcome per standard).  This will allow a more holistic approach to both gathering evidence and making judgements on student work.

 

The wording of some achievement standards has been broadened to enable them to be used in relation to a range of contexts.

 

·         Six achievement standards are available at Level 1.

·         They have been written in a way that supports the direction for teaching and learning in the NZC and outcomes in present unit standards where appropriate.

·         The Level 1 achievement standards provide a foundation for students to learn the key art history skills of analysis of art works and understanding of the nature of art; including subject matter, contexts, media and methods of making.  Students also have an opportunity to research developments in an artists' work.

·         These achievement standards can be offered as a year-long Level 1 Art History course, or as part of a Level 1 course, or in combination with other disciplines in the school.

 

Feedback from consultation resulted in the following amendments.

 

·           In line with the principles of standards review each achievement standard has a single outcome.  To differentiate between achieved, merit and excellence the achievement standards use descriptors such as “informed” and “in-depth” while stems, such as “demonstrate understanding”, have been used to maintain consistency across the achievement standards.

·           The criterion “perceptively” has been removed from all Level 1 achievement standards.  In‑depth has been moved to excellence level, and informed has replaced in-depth as the qualifier used for a number of achievement standards at merit.

·           The explanatory notes have been simplified.  In most cases single statements are used to define and explain each of the criteria.  For example in AS91015 (1.1) “Understanding” is defined as “describing the formal elements of art works, using art terminology and evidence from art works”. 

·           Two achievement standards at Level 1 are externally assessed - AS91015 (1.1), Demonstrate understanding of formal elements of art works, using art terminology and AS91020 (1.6), Explain why selected objects may be considered as art.  By having two externally assessed achievement standards students will have two opportunities to gain external credits for course endorsement in Art History.

·           All Level 1 achievement standards may be used with any context and within a variety of learning disciplines e.g. visual arts courses, media studies.