Curriculum Corporation Conference Brisbane: 2-3 June 2005

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Curriculum Corporation ConferenceBrisbane 2-3
June 2005

• Assessing Social competence
• Can and should we be assessing in the Social
  domain?
• Susan Pascoe Executive Director, CECV

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Overview

• Foundations for assessment in social domain
• System Level Assessment
• School Level Assessment
• Teacher Assessment

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Foundations

• We are selling students short if we are not
  explicit about the expectations society puts on
  schools to turn out individuals who are able to
  thrive in global cultural, economic and
  environmental orders.

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(No Transcript)
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Foundations

• It is through the values we teach, the personal
  and social attributes that schools nurture, and
  the generic and work-related competencies
  inculcated in the curriculum that students can
  develop as well-rounded citizens and life-long
  learners.

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Foundations

• The absence of an explicit values statement is a
  value position in itself and is untenable from
  the perspective of a socially aware community.
  The absence of shared teacher understandings
  about expected standards of classroom and
  school-yard behaviour is an abrogation of
  professional responsibility.

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Foundations

• And the absence of generic and work-related
  competencies across the curricula of primary and
  secondary schools is a failure to fully prepare
  students for life beyond the school-yard.
  Concomitantly, the absence of assessment and
  reporting in these areas is a failure to fully
  understand our professional responsibilities as
  educators.

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Foundations

• UN Declaration of Human Rights
• Education shall be directed to the full
  development of the human personality and to the
  strengthening of respect for human rights and
  fundamental freedoms.
• (Article 26)

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Foundations

• 1996 Delors Report (UNESCO)
• Learning to know
• Learning to do
• Learning to be
• Learning to live
• together

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Foundations

• Australias National Goals (1999)
• 1.2 have qualities of self-confidence, optimism,
  high self-esteem, and a commitment to personal
  excellence as a basis for their potential life
  roles as family, community and workforce members.

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Foundations

• Australias National Goals (1999)
• 1.3 have the capacity to exercise judgement and
  responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and
  social justice, and the capacity to make sense of
  the world, to think about how things got to be
  the way they are, to make rational and informed
  decisions about their own lives and to accept
  responsibility for their own actions.

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Foundations Australian Government Values
Education Program
Care and compassion Fair go Respect Responsibility Honesty and trustworthiness Doing your best Freedom Integrity Understanding, tolerance and inclusion
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Foundations Social Capital

• The Wellbeing of Nations (OECD, 2002)
• Social Assessment Guidelines (World Bank)
• SA DPC Social Inclusion Unit -gt indicators
• CECV 2004 study into contribution of Catholic
  schools to community wellbeing.

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Foundations

• Just as governments now have the will to commit
  to social inclusion and to monitor its
  effectiveness, now school systems and schools
  have the capacity to commit to all aspects of
  their mission statements and to monitor their
  impact on students lives beyond the realm of the
  purely academic.

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Assessment of Social Competence

• Assessment of social competence is assumed to be
  within formal education settings and aligned to
  values dispositions, personal and social
  competencies and generic or work-related
  capabilities identified in Australias National
  Goals, state curricula, school mission statements
  or major educational reports.

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System Level Assessment

• MCEETYA PMRT Civics and Citizenship Assessment
• Cognitive and social outcomes
• National, Years 6 and 10, student samples
• Pencil and paper based centrally developed and
  scored -gt cognitive emphasis

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System Level Assessment

• WA MSE assessments of social competence Yrs 3,
  5, 7 and 9
• Teacher observation, self-reporting and response
  to scenarios
• Developmental scales on identified continua and
  marking guides for teachers

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System Level Assessment

• WA MSE key aspects of students social, moral
  and ethical development from Yrs 3 10
• Social knowledge
• Principled behaviour
• Recognition of different points of view
• Empathy
• Perspective

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System Level Assessment

• VCAA-ACER assessment of generic competencies in
  Yrs 9, 10 or 11
• Supported by software to record teacher
  judgements
• Cross curricula, shared teacher approach within 3
  minute time frame
• NB Roxburgh Park Secondary College

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School Level Assessment

• John XXIII Corporate Planning
• Measurement of mission statement
• Developmental scales eg conscience
• All students Yrs 8 12 and graduates
• -gt ACER Attitudes and Values Questionnaire

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Teacher Assessment

• Traditional teacher assessment in social domain
  parent-teacher interviews, some written reports,
  references etc
• Religious and ethical dimensions reported in
  faith-based schools

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Teacher Assessment
Data for reliable judgements Identifying generic behaviours in school Understanding behaviours along a continuum Finding time for observation and recording Allaying litigation concerns Variety of sources Support from software, developmental scales Clarify behaviours work with researchers Support from software Potential for litigation addressed with empirical approaches
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Assessing in Social Domain

• Resolve to measure all aspects of schooling
• Abandon timidity
• Adopt evidence-based approaches
• Value social capital