MONITORING STANDARDS IN EDUCATION

Random Sample Assessment Program

MSE Assessment History

Reporting

School Assessment Materials

Forthcoming Assessments

Order Forms

Making Consistent Judgements

Tracking Student Performance

• Introduction

• Background to the Assessments

• General Information

• The Assessment

• Costs

• Ordering Assessment Materials

Introduction

There has been a renewed interest in the social and moral aspects of schooling, both nationally and at a state level. The National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty First Century sets out a framework of national collaboration for the improvement of Australian schooling. In terms of specific goals the declaration asserts that when students leave school they should

Have qualities of self-confidence, optimism and high self-esteem and a commitment to personal excellence as a basis for their potential life role as family, community and workforce members.

Have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives and accept responsibility for their own actions.

In Western Australia, the expectation that schools address the Social Outcomes of Schooling has arisen from several broad sources:

• A growing pressure to look at more than just the academic outcomes of schooling;
• The narrowness of existing reporting procedures;
• The outcomes of schooling which are made explicit in the Curriculum Framework, the Outcomes and Standards Framework and the National Goals of Schooling; and
• Community concerns

Background to the Assessments

In 1999 the Evaluation Unit in the then Standards and Effectiveness Directorate was asked by its director to consider ways in which a system-level contribution could assist schools to support, promote, monitor and report the development of the social outcomes of schooling. A group consisting of people from Education and Health who were already working in the area of social outcomes was established, resulting in the convening of a cross-sectorial Social Outcomes Interest Group.

Definition
The following is offered as a broad definition of Social Outcomes of Schooling:

• the benefits that are shared by society at large; and more specifically
• school students' attitudes about themselves (self-confidence and self-esteem), their optimism, respect for others, social competence, awareness and appreciation of social conventions, motivation, respect for learning and attitudes to lifelong learning.

Group Processes
The Social Outcomes Interest Group's approach to the designated task was by consensus decision-making. At all stages of the process, there was debate regarding the best way to move forward. This ensured that the interests of all stakeholders were considered and incorporated in the work undertaken at each stage.

Stage One - (A) Overview of Previous and Current Work
Initial meetings established that work already being done in the area was complementary. The Students at Educational Risk project aims to identify and assist students who are at risk of not achieving desired outcomes, and with the Institute of Child Health Research, a Social-Emotional Developmental Continuum was developed to better identify the progression of students' development in this area. In addition, the Clarkson Community Project has been developing ways in which schools and the community can best support each other to achieve desired outcomes. Monitoring Standards in Education has undertaken studies in Health and Physical Education and some work was undertaken in the Technology and Enterprise and Society and Environment learning areas.

Stage One - (B) Establishing a Way Forward
As all schools are working with the Curriculum Framework, it was decided that this document be the starting point for future work, at the same time as recognising the value of, and the complementary nature of, current work in relation to social outcomes of schooling.

Stage Two - The Place of Social Outcomes in the Curriculum Framework
The Curriculum Framework's Overarching Learning Outcomes were examined to identify explicit and implicit Social Outcomes. These Social Outcomes appeared to group around the spheres of

• Self
• Self with Other People
• Self with the Wider World

The following major clusters of Social Outcomes were defined to reflect these spheres:

• Interpersonal Skills
• Autonomy, Independence and Enterprise
  • Intrapersonal Skills (minor cluster with two aspects)
    • Feelings in relation to self
    • Self-management skills
  • Emotional expression and regulation (minor cluster)
  • Critical thinking/problem solving (minor cluster)
• Social, Moral and Ethical Development

Stage Three - Cluster Check
The Social Outcomes generated in Stage Two were mapped to the Social Outcomes Clusters in order to judge how well the Outcomes were accommodated by the clusters.

Stage Four - The Place of Social Outcomes in the Learning Area Outcomes
The Learning Outcomes of each of the eight learning areas, as described in the Curriculum Framework, were examined for explicit incorporation of the Social Outcomes clusters. Senior Curriculum Officers took a major role in this examination.

The clusters were found to be represented across all learning areas, demonstrating that the social outcomes of the overarching learning outcomes were consistent with the learning outcomes of each learning area.

Stage Five - The Place of Social Outcomes in the Core Values
The five core values of the Curriculum Framework were examined in the light of the Social Outcomes clusters. The clusters were found to be consistent with the values, indicating coherence between the Social Outcomes and the core values.

Conclusion
The Clusters of Social Outcomes were found to be consistent with the key elements of the Curriculum Framework: the Overarching Learning Outcomes, the Learning Area Outcomes and the Core Values. They thus provided a way forward for a system-level contribution to the support, promotion, monitoring and reporting of the development of social outcomes of students in WA state schools.

An ongoing concern of the group was the danger of creating another "framework". This concern arose because of the demands that an additional framework may place on teachers who were already in the process of coming to terms with the Curriculum Framework and the Outcomes and Standards Framework. The concern also arose as core values and Social Outcomes are already explicit in the Curriculum Framework and Outcomes and Standards Frameworks and it was felt that another "framework" might be a duplication of these. The process that the group followed resulted in the clarification of what Social Outcomes are made explicit, and where they are located, within the existing frameworks. It appears that the development of an additional "Social Outcomes" framework will not eventuate, due to the consistency with which the Social Outcomes are represented within the frameworks.

The identification of the Social Outcomes within the Curriculum Framework and the Outcomes and Standards Framework was seen as being useful to schools in the implementation of the CIP in discrete learning areas, in particular the articulation of the identified Social Outcomes within the learning outcomes. This identification of the Social Outcomes was also seen as potentially useful in emphasising the cross-curricula nature of the Curriculum Framework.

The Assessments

The Social Outcomes assessment is planned for two stages:

First Stage
The first stage of the assessment targeted the following two major clusters:

• Social, moral and ethical development
• Interpersonal skills

Scenarios were developed which drew on aspects of the following:

• Empathy
• Social responsibility
• Social knowledge
• Principled behaviour
• Valuing difference
• Recognition of a dilemma
• Seeing things from a different perspective
• Human rights

Second Stage
The second stage of the assessment targeted the cluster

• Autonomy, Independence and Enterprise

Final Stage

The last stage of testing targeted both Interpersonal and Intrapersonal skills.

General Information

The MSE Social Outcomes Materials consist of 2 tests for students in each of the years 3, 7 and 10.  Students need to complete both test booklets for each specified year level.  It is recommended that each test be administered in two separate sessions.

The Outcomes in the Social Outcomes of Schooling, whilst not comprising a distinct and separate learning area, are implicit in all eight learning areas, and are reflected and articulated in the Overarching Learning Outcomes and Core Shared Values of the Curriculum Framework.

The key aspects of students' social, moral and ethical development from Year 3 to Year 10 are:

• Social Knowledge:  operating within and understanding ones' cultural framework.  It is drawn directly from the Active Citizenship strand of the Society and Environment outcomes.

 

• Principled behaviour:  the reasoning behind the way [people act, comprising valuing difference, social responsibility and human rights.  It is drawn from the Decision-Making strand of the Health and Physical Education learning area; the Acting Responsibly strand of the Science learning area; and from all the Technology and Enterprise strands.

 

• Recognition of different points of view:  recognising your own values through to empathising with values different to your own.  It has close links with the Health and Physical Education strand of Decision Making and almost all of the Society and Environment strands.

 

• Empathy:  incorporating recognition of different points of view, and an awareness of other people's emotional states.  Empathy is explicitly mentioned in the Decision Making and Interpersonal Skills strands of Health and Physical Education, and the Place and Space strand of Society and Environment.  It is implicit in most of the other Society and Environment strands.

 

• Perspective:  ranging across the social domains from self, through community, to society and the world.  This aspect of respecting and valuing others is present in all of the Western Australian Outcome Statements.

The Respecting and Valuing Others School release material incorporates these five aspects of students' social, moral and ethical development.

 The Assessment

 *  At year 3 the teacher should read each scenario and question to the class.  The   teacher should add on an appropriate amount of time to accommodate this.

 ** At year 7 the teacher may choose to read all or some of the scenarios and questions to the class.  An appropriate amount of time should be added on to accommodate this.

Costs

• Teachers Manuals: $10.00 ea
• Student Booklets: $0.60 ea

Ordering Assessment Materials

To order Assessment Materials click Ordering Assessment Materials