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The
2000 technology assessments included eight assessment tasks relating
to technological knowledge and understanding.
Seven
of the eight tasks were identical for year 4 and year 8 students and
the eighth had only minor modifications from year 8 to year 4. One is
a trend task (fully described with data for both 1996 and 2000), four
are released tasks (fully described with data for 2000 only), and three
are link tasks (to be used again in 2004, so only partially described
here).
The
task details and results for the trend task are presented in the first
section, followed by the task details and results for the four released
tasks. The third section contains some task information and the results
for the three link tasks.
Comparing
results for year 4 and year 8 students
Averaged across 58 task components completed by both years, 14 percent
more year 8 than year 4 students or teams produced correct or strong
responses. This indicates that, on average, students have made useful
progress between year 4 and year 8 in the skills and understandings
assessed by the tasks.
Trend
results: comparing 1996 and 2000 results
One trend task involving a total of seven components was administered
to students in both the 1996 and 2000 assessments.
For
year 4 students, results were very similar in 2000 to 1996, with the
change from 1996 to 2000 averaging 0 percent across the seven components.
For year 8 students, however, there was a marked improvement from 1996
to 2000. On average across the seven components, 12 percent more year
8 students succeeded in 2000 than in 1996. Small declines on two components
involving conceptual design were more than compensated for by large
gains on components involving analysis and description of materials
and processes. Because only one trend task was available, this gain
for year 8 students should be interpreted cautiously.
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