: Introduction
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introduction chapter 6

The focus in this fourth strand of the health and physical education curriculum is on the interdependence of students, their communities and the environment. The stated aim is for students to participate in creating healthy communities and environments by taking responsible and critical action.

This is not an easy area in which to create assessment tasks that can stand by themselves, separate from class programmes and activities and children’s life experiences. Six tasks were used in 2006. All of these were identical for year 4 and year 8 students. Three are trend tasks (fully described with data for both 2002 and 2006) and three are link tasks (to be used again in 2010, so only partially described here). The tasks are presented in two sections: trend tasks and then link tasks.

Averaged across 66 task components administered to both year 4 and year 8 students, seven percent more year 8 than year 4 students succeeded with these components. Year 8 students performed better on 77 percent of the components.

Trend analyses showed no meaningful change since 2002 for either year 4 or year 8 students. Averaged across 22 task components attempted by year 4 students in both years, one percent more students succeeded in 2006 than in 2002. Gains occurred on 12 components and losses on 8 components, with no change on two components. At year 8 level, with the same 22 task components included in the analysis, one percent more students on average succeeded with the task components in 2006 than in 2002. Gains occurred on 11 components, with losses on 10 components and no change on one component.

 
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