Science Teachers' Association of Victoria

A: PREAMBLE

The Board of Studies in it's review of the VCE, Enhancing Their Futures (December 1997), made 33 recommendations regarding:

• The structure of the VCE
• Curriculum
• Assessment and reporting
• Accreditation and Benchmarking
• Information Technology

• Implementation

As a consequence of this review, the VCE Science studies have been restructured and the content of each study rewritten. Major changes to all Science Studies include:

• Changing work requirements to learning outcomes
• Changing Common Assessment Tasks to School Assessed Classwork

It is disappointing that (although some members of the course review teams are STAV individual members) STAV has had no input or consultation in the review/rewriting process for the Physics 2000 Study design. Indeed, we have been unable to ascertain the membership of the review panel even though we made a number of representations to the BOS.

It is also of concern that we were given little time to consult our members and frame a response to a document that appeared to be close to a "final" version. The version we obtained was "discovered" on the BOS web-site on the 6^th of October 98 and STAV received formal notification of the consultation documents and an invitation to participate in the response process on Monday 12^th of October. STAV has been asked to complete a response by the 21 October 98.

The consultation response from the BOS structures a response under the following areas:

• Course design (clear definition of a body of knowledge & skills, progression between units)
• Content (comprehensiveness and appropriateness)
• Outcomes (clarity of expression and encompassing all areas of the study)
• Assessment (are the tasks appropriate to demonstrate the outcomes?)
• Workload (is workload appropriate)
• Other (comments and concerns)

B: General Comments about VCE Science Studies

STAV believes that the VCE should be:

• Inclusive of gender, culture, attitudes and ability of students
• Incorporate local knowledge and issues
• Have a Science Technology Society/Problem solving context
• Be not restrictive and overly proscriptive

STAV also maintains that VCE science curricula must:

• Be able to be resourced by all schools
• Be able to be taught in a realistic time frame
• Encourage good teaching practice and not reduce the methods of teaching and learning
• Reflect the precepts of the Blackburn (1983-4) report.
• Provide for all students of all abilities and prepare students for all mainstream future educational pathways

The STAV Reference Group posed a number of questions

• Can a Year 12 Science Subject be both a tertiary entrance mechanism and an attempt to promulgate science to future citizens? (especially given the absence of an alternative for non-tertiary science-oriented students until 2001)
• Does the assessment of the subject reduce the diversity of teaching and learning?
• Does the assessment focus exclusively on the "tertiary oriented" students?
• Given that students are not enrolling into tertiary sciences, why should a VCE subject cater for an intellectual elite?

The STAV Reference group noted that, on first glance, the proposed Physics and Chemistry Study designs emphasised assessment issues over other pedagogical issues, and did not advise teachers how they could address the aims of the course.

It was noted that CAT 2 had been removed from the proposed course and had been replaced with "Learning Outcomes" that were assessed by teachers. It appears that the implication is that authentication of student work would not be an issue as all work should occur under the direct supervision of the classroom teacher. STAV has some misgivings with this approach:

• it appears to be fairly open to abuse from student cheating
• less able students could "slipstream" by pairing up with capable students
• Teachers under pressure to emphasise content and exam preparation could turn the pracwork into second hand data manipulation exercises, or "Virtual" experimentation by software or Internet access.

STAV has a strong belief that if pracwork is emphasised, then measures need to be taken to ensure that students do "hands-on" primary data gathering and not data manipulation exercises.

The reference group was dismayed that the chemistry and physics documents had no focus on modes of learning and the styles of learning of individual students.

C: Overview

STAV believes that the general introductory nature of Unit One is quite desirable and should continue. Unit One is considered to encourage active participation and skills development in the areas of collecting data, processing and presentation.

The connecting theme "Forces and Energy" provides some continuity through the Units Two, Three and Four. STAV is concerned about the time pressure with Unit 4 "ideas about Light and Matter" towards October in term 4. The alterations to Units two, three and four are minor in nature and the deletions do not affect the overall integrity of the areas of study.

Content

Although STAV would like to have been able to provide comment on the links between the VCE Physics Study Design and the CSF 2000 insufficient time prevented such an analysis.

The content of the Units 2, 3 and 4 in VCE 2000 is consistent with the previous (or current 1997-2000) VCE Study design. STAV believes that Physics teachers are in agreement with this current version of the Physics Study Design.

Assessment

STAV believes that there are several issues which need to be addressed in the area of assessment.

· Examination question styles should be reviewed to encourage students to be able to complete whole questions and topics. Currently students are not completing the external examinations and their attempts appear to be a collection of pieces of incomplete answers to questions.

· A large amount of prior work has been completed by a committee commissioned by the VBOS. The release of these report findings may inform further discussion on this issue of assessment .

· The relationship between the content of the course and the subsequent examination questions should be more closely matched and monitored.

· Language of the examination questions may mitigate against NESB students by being unnecessarily complex or unexpected by reason of the context.

Outcomes

The STAV Physics Reference Group considered that the outcome statements, in which key knowledge and key skills are listed, were clearly expressed and comprehensive.

They noted that each area of study appears to have a corresponding outcome requirement. A variety of tasks are proposed for the outcome requirements. The Review group acknowledged that teachers were encouraged to use a wide range of assessment strategies when assessing each outcome.

Key Skills Outcomes

Key skills outcome refers to the use of data gathering devices (DGDs), STAV strongly supports the development of skills in this area. Increased understanding and application of DGDs should be an essential requirement of this course, as well as developing techniques for the correct use and application of any instrumentation. The current statement allows schools to 'opt out' of using data gathering devices, STAV recommends that this activity becomes a significant and mandated requirement of the course outcomes

Workload

STAV welcomes the changes to the work required by teachers and students which was formally necessary in order to complete ' a work requirement' or 'assessment task'.

The proposed VCE Physics Study Design indicates that the quantity of required work (for students and teachers) will be reduced in terms of drafts to be assessed and commented on.

Consequently STAV believes that such changes to the study design will cause The length of the course TO BE reduced due to the deletion of some items.

Physics Study Design Introductory Comments

As the consultation draft is incomplete, the website material does not include the preamble and introduction sections, STAV expresses a very strong recommendation that the current introductory comments (1997 - 2000) be retained. These comments are simple descriptive and imaginative and capture a sense of the aspirations of a modern physics study.

The STAV Physics 2000 reference group consisted of:

Gary Bass

Bob Aikenhead

Chris Bowen

Robert Roe