Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 145

Lynch, Smith, Howarth
2. KLA Indicators: Behaviours of learning achievement
An ‘indicator’ is a statement of the behaviour that students might display as they work towards the
achievement of a syllabus outcome. They can be used by teachers to monitor student progress within a Stage
and to make on-balance judgments about the achievement of outcomes at the end of a Stage. Teachers may
wish to develop their own indicators or modify the syllabus indicators, as there are numerous ways that
students may demonstrate what they know and can do. 64 Indicators can also be substituted as Instructional
Learning Outcomes (or ILOs).
3. The KLA ‘Scope and Continuum of Ideas’: Guidelines to support teaching plans and decisions
“Each KLA/ Subject Syllabus contains a scope and continuum of ideas which provides an overview of the sequence
of learning for particular concepts in a KLA and links content typically taught in primary classrooms with content that
is typically taught in secondary classrooms. It illustrates assumptions about prior learning and indicates pathways for
further learning. It is not intended that the Scope and Continuum be used as a checklist of teaching ideas. Rather, a
variety of learning experiences needs to be planned and presented to students to maximise opportunities for
achievement of outcomes. Students need appropriate time to explore, experiment and engage with the underpinning
concepts and principles of what they are to learn” 65 . In any case teachers can use the Scope and Continuum to guide
their interrogation of student assessment data: using it to identify deficiencies in the sequence of what is planned for
learning or examine the hierarchy of what is needed, and when, for students learning new things.
4. Statistical Calculations: Interpreting numerical scores or results
“Statistics is the mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data. In simple terms,
scores and other numerical values associated with assessment data can be ‘statistically processed’ to enable the teacher
to better understand / interrogate and to make judgments of numerically based student learning performance data”. 66
There are a number of basic statistical tools which may be of help to teachers: Table 11.4 illustrates these.
5. Qualitative Analysis: Analysing criteria and other qualities based data
Qualitative analysis has to do with the qualities of assessment data. This is typical in English where writing
pieces predominate and thus a numerical score is not readily applicable. In these cases teachers use ‘rubrics’
and ‘criteria’ (based on Stages, Indicators and scope of continuums of ideas. See points 1, 2 and 3) to indicate
/ ‘explain’ / ‘categorise’ performance. While a rubric can be converted into numerical scores by the teacher
applying a ‘numerical score’ to each criteria and summing the result, this approach is only really used in
higher education or senior secondary studies given their quantitative reporting requirements (i.e.
percentages, grades). Qualitative assessments rely on the application of standardised criteria and the
subsequent moderation of such results with ‘benchmarked’ work samples. ‘Foundation statements’ and
‘indicators’ in a syllabus provide a framework to assist teachers in creating assessment criteria and when
making associated judgments. Because qualitative data is assigned a ‘criteria’ as it is ‘assessed’ (or marked)
by a teacher, the quantum of such detailed comments made and the inherent attributes of them means
student work can be automatically reported upon and organised for diagnostic analysis. A further process
64
Sourced from http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/mathematics
Taken from http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/mathematics
66
See: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/statistics
65
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