Curriculum Corporation Conference Brisbane: 2-3 June 2005

Curriculum Corporation Conference

Brisbane: 2-3 June 2005

Assessing Social competence:

Can and should we be assessing in the Social domain?

Susan Pascoe Executive Director, CECV

Overview• Foundations for

assessment in social domain

• System Level Assessment

• School Level Assessment

• Teacher Assessment

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.

FoundationsIt 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.

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….

FoundationsAnd 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.

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)

Foundations

1996 Delors Report (UNESCO)

• Learning to know

• Learning to do

• Learning to be

• Learning to live

• together

Foundations

Australia’s 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.

FoundationsAustralia’s 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.

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

Foundations: Social Capital

• The Wellbeing of Nations (OECD, 2002)

• Social Assessment Guidelines (World Bank)

• SA DPC Social Inclusion Unit -> indicators

• CECV 2004 study into contribution of Catholic schools to community wellbeing.

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.

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 Australia’s National Goals,

state curricula, school mission statements or major educational reports.

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 -> cognitive emphasis

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

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

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

School Level Assessment

• John XXIII Corporate Planning

• Measurement of mission statement

• Developmental scales eg conscience

• All students Yrs 8 & 12 and graduates

• -> ACER Attitudes and Values Questionnaire

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

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

Assessing in Social Domain

• Resolve to measure all aspects of schooling

• Abandon timidity• Adopt evidence-

based approaches• Value social capital