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The focus of this
chapter is on personal health and physical development, and includes
understandings about personal identity and self-worth. Students are
expected to be developing their abilities to meet their health and physical
activity needs, and learning about influences on their well-being and
strategies for safe and healthy living.
Eleven tasks were identical for year 4 and year 8 students, one was
administered in slightly different forms to students in both years,
four were administered only to year 4 students, and nine were administered
only to year 8 students. Ten are trend tasks (fully described with data
for both 1998 and 2002), five are released tasks (fully described with
data for 2002 only), and ten are link tasks (to be used again in 2006,
so only partially described here).
The tasks are presented in the three sections: trend tasks, then released
tasks and finally link tasks. Within each section, tasks administered
to both year 4 and year 8 students are presented first, followed by
tasks administered only to year 4 students and then tasks administered
only to year 8 students.
Averaged across 84 task components administered to both year 4 and year
8 students, 11 percent more year 8 than year 4 students succeeded with
these components. Year 8 students performed better on all except 10
of the components.
Trend analyses showed no meaningful change since 1998 for year 4 or
year 8 students. Averaged across 64 task components attempted by year
4 students in both years, the same percentage of students succeeded
in 2002 as in 1998. Gains occurred on 28 components and losses on 29
components. At year 8 level, with 76 task components included in the
analysis, 1 percent fewer students on average succeeded with the task
components in 2002 than in 1998. Gains occurred on 29 components, with
losses on 37 components.
Students’ responses suggested quite strong awareness of some health
and safety issues and messages. What was also evident, however, was
that this awareness was often rather one-dimensional: having identified
one or two key points, students had little to say about other important
points. For instance, they emphasized physical heath and largely ignored
social, emotional and spiritual health. Similarly, their main suggested
response to fire was to get down low and crawl, with little obvious
attention to other risks or issues that may need to be considered.
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