Transcript Higher – Course Assessment

Qualifications Update:
Higher Religious Moral and
Philosophical Studies
Jane Henderson QDM
Key messages
• Coherent progression from related National 5
subjects to Higher RMPS
• Relevant, challenging and enjoyable contexts
• Opportunities for candidates to show the breadth
and depth of what they know
• Opportunities for candidates to show the
application of their RMPS skills
• Personalisation and choice for learners in the
Assignment
Key messages
• Units combine skills and knowledge and offer
flexibility in how evidence is gathered, to
challenge and motivate learners
• Knowledge and understanding and the
application of skills build progressively up levels
in Unit and in Course assessment
• Maintains many of the best aspects of current
Higher while offering fresh learning contexts that
ensure the continuing quality and credibility of
RMPS
Key messages from Verification (Round 1)
•
Use valid and reliable assessments
-
•
Making assessment judgements
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•
SQA-produced Unit Assessment Support Packs
Centre devised assessments that have been prior verified
Your own assessments – strongly advise you have these prior verified
SQA packs are designed on a pass/fail basis
Use Judging Evidence Tables to make assessment judgments against Assessment
Standards
Judging Evidence Tables have commentary on how to meet each Assessment
Standard
A task/activity can meet most or all of the Unit Outcome and Assessment Standards
Indicate on candidate’s work that Unit Assessment Standards have been met
Unit Assessment complementing learning and teaching
-
Unit Assessment is open and flexible
Assessment should allow you space to prepare for Added Value/Course Assessment
Assessment Support Schedule 2013/14
Sept 13
CfE Update Letter
Oct 13
Unit Assessment Support (Package 1)
Feb 14
Unit Assessment Support (Package 2)
Feb 14
Higher Specimen Question Paper
Mar 14
Coursework General Assessment Information
Apr 14
Unit Assessment Support (Package 3)
May 14
Update Mandatory Documents
June 14
Update Unit Assessment Support
Religious, Moral and
Philosophical Studies
Unit Assessment
Higher
Unit assessment
• Supports assessment as part of learning and
teaching
• Is flexible in the ways in which evidence can
be generated
• Open in the context which is used and in the
form of the evidence
Unit Assessment Support
packages – purpose
• Assess your candidates
• Adapt in line with your own assessment
strategy
• Help you develop your own assessments
Unit Assessment Support
Packages – key features
• All Unit Assessment Support Packs are based on
the Unit Specification documents
• Tell you – with examples – how to judge
evidence against Assessment Standards
• Provide further clarification of the Assessment
Standards
• Encourage and support professional judgment
• Include advice on adapting to different contexts
• Valid from August 2014
Unit assessment support
packages - approaches
• Unit by Unit approach – discrete assessment
tasks for each Unit
• Combined approach – groups Outcomes and
Assessment Standards from different Units
• Portfolio approach – evidence generated as
part of learning and teaching and matched
against the Assessment Standards
Unit Assessment Support Pack 1: Contexts
World Religion
Morality and Belief
Religious and Philosophical
packages:
N3-Higher
Questions
You can use the illustrative examples provided and adapt these to suit the contexts that your
learners have studied .
N
3
N
4
Context: Islam
Context: Religion and
Justice
Context: Life after death
Context: Judaism
Context: Religion and
Relationships
Context: Existence of God
Context: Buddhism
Context: Religion and
Relationships
Context: The Problem of Evil and
Suffering
Context: Christianity
Context: Religion and
Conflict
Context: Origins of Life
N
5
H
Higher Unit Assessment Support
Packs 1,2 and 3: Contexts
World Religion
Morality and Belief
Religious and Philosophical
Questions
Pack 1
Context: Christianity
Context: Religion and
Conflict
Context: Origins of Life
Pack 2
Context: Sikhism
Context: Religion,
Environment & Global
Issues
Context: Miracles
Pack 3
Context: Islam
Context: Religion, Medicine
& the Human Body
Context: The Problem of
Evil & Suffering
Document read-through
• Overview of Assessment
– Contains an outline of the example task
– Also includes advice on how to adapt the task
– Evidence in one form may be supplemented with
evidence in other forms
Document read-through
• Assessment Conditions
– Level of teacher/lecturer support should be
appropriate but evidence must be the candidate's
own work
– When group work is used, evidence of individual
achievement is required
– Centres responsibility to ensure that all evidence
is the individual candidate’s work
Document read-through
• Assessment Conditions (continued)
– Only apply restrictions which are required by the
Assessment Standards
– SQA has left open time constraints - candidates
should have sufficient time to complete the task
– SQA has left open the resources to which
candidates may have access in the assessment
– Same conditions apply National 3 – Higher
Document read-through
• Evidence to be gathered
– A range of possible forms of evidence may be
appropriate
– Keep accurate records of the candidate meeting
the Assessment Standards
– Only need sufficient evidence to show
achievement of the Assessment Standards once
Document read-through
• Judging Evidence
– Table tells you how to judge evidence against the
Assessment Standards
– Illustrations of possible candidate responses
– Approach used can change, Outcomes and
Assessment Standards do not change
Document read-through
• Re-assessment arrangements
– Assessment should be carried out when the
individual candidate is ready
– If a candidate fails to provide evidence for all the
Assessment Standards, it is only necessary to reassess the individual Assessment Standard that
they have yet to achieve
Document read-through
• Examples of recording documentation
– Exemplar tables for recording candidate’s/group’s
achievement of Assessment Standards
– These can be adapted as required
Document read-through
• Assessment Task
– Aligns with the prompts in the Overview of
Assessment section
– Exemplifies one context in which Unit assessment
may take place
Workshop 1
• Use the materials provided:
• In groups of 2-3 discuss:
– The assessment task(s) provided in the Unit
Assessment Support packs
– How you might use/adapt the task(s)
– How your candidates will generate evidence for the
assessment task(s) provided
– How to make assessment judgements for the
assessment task(s) provided
– What questions/suggestions do you have which
might support others?
Religious, Moral and
Philosophical Studies
Higher Course Assessment
Context and Rationale for development of
Higher Religious, Moral and Philosophical
Studies
• Level of demand benchmarked against SCQF level 6 as
in current Higher
• Progression and articulation from National 5
• CfE principles e.g. personalisation and choice,
importance of skills
• Opportunity to refresh and update content and
contexts
• Consistency with other Highers as appropriate
• FIOCA provides further detail
Process of Development
• Course Specification – Aims and rationale of the
Higher Religious, Studies Course
• Unit Specifications – Skills developed across the
Units
• Course Assessment Specification – Requirements
for Question Paper and Assignment – application
of skills to mandatory content
Added Value
• Makes the Course more than the sum of its parts
• Builds on current Course assessment and Group Award
approaches
• Defined as breadth, challenge and application as
outlined in Building the Curriculum 5
• May involve accumulation, assimilation, integration
and/or application of skills, knowledge and
understanding
• Uses one or two of 7 defined assessment methods
Adding Value: National 4,
National 5 - Higher
• For National 4, the Added value is assessed in
the Added Value Unit – not graded.
• For National 5 and Higher (and Advanced
Higher) the Added Value is assessed in the
Course Assessment – graded A-D (as at
present).
Higher – Course Assessment
• Two components:
– Question Paper: 60 marks – approx. 66% of
total
– Assignment 30: marks – approx.33% of total
• Skills and knowledge and understanding will have
equal importance across course assessment as a
whole
• Both components will be externally marked
Question Paper Overview
• Three sections each worth 20 marks: World Religion, Morality and
Belief, Religious and Philosophical Questions
• No optional questions
• Mandatory content will be sampled
• Will assess the skills of analysing, evaluating and presenting reasoned
and well-structured views
• Will draw on in-depth knowledge and understanding
• Greater emphasis on knowledge and understanding than skills
• In the SQP mark allocations range from 10 to 20
Question Paper Sections
Section 1 – World Religion
•
Two 10 mark questions
Section 2 – Morality and Belief
Section 3 – Religious and Philosophical Questions
There will be two patterns of questions used between sections 2 and 3. Each question
paper will use both patterns but these will be applied to sections 2 or 3 in an
unpredictable way.
Pattern 1
• Each part in the section will have 2 mandatory questions.
• Each question will be an extended response.
Pattern 2
• Each part in the section will have 1 mandatory question.
• The question will require a single 20 mark extended response.
Question Paper command words
A limited range of command words/question stems will
be used in the paper such as, for example:
• Analyse / In what ways / Compare…
• Evaluate / How valid…
• To what extent / Discuss…
Greater clarity and support for centres in general
marking principles and detailed marking instructions as
to how these questions will be marked
Skills defined identically in Unit and Course Assessment
Question Paper command words
“Analyse” questions require candidates to…
Identify parts, the relationship between them, and their
relationships with the whole. Draw out and relate
implications.
“Evaluate” questions require candidates to…
Make a judgement based on criteria.
SQA Guidance
Question Paper question types
20 mark questions will require candidates to…
Apply KU, analyse and evaluate in order to present
a reasoned and well-structured view
May use, for example: To what extent is a claim
justified? / Discuss and present a reasoned view on…
Will assess in-depth knowledge and understanding of
mandatory Course content
Controlled Assessment
• Where the assessment method is not a question paper,
SQA has introduced the concept of controlled assessment
to ensure fairness and reliability
• Three stages of assessment: Setting, Conducting, Marking
the assessment
• Each will have a defined level of control: SQA-led activity,
Shared responsibility between SQA and centres, Centre-led
• Subject-specific decisions, but mostly SQA-led activity in
initial years
Higher – Assignment
• Opportunity for learner personalisation and choice
• Candidates will have an open choice of religious, moral or
philosophical question or Issue
• Marked out of 30
• Externally marked
• Evidence produced in controlled conditions in up to one
hour and 30 minutes
• Draws on research
Higher – Assignment
• Greater emphasis on skills than knowledge and
understanding
• SQA will provide General Assessment Information and the
Assessment Task
• Task does not change from year to year
• Detailed marking instructions available and can be shared
with candidates
• Guide to candidates will be provided, as at National 5
Workshop 2
Use the materials provided:
• read the FIOCA (10 mins)
In groups of 2-3 discuss:
• the relationship between assessment at Unit level and
Course level (10 minutes)
• aspects of your current practice which you plan to
continue (15 minutes)
• aspects of your current practice which you plan to
change (15 minutes)
• what will you take back to your centre to support
others?