|
|
|
The Project
directors acknowledge the vital suppsort and contributions of many
people to this report, including:
- The Project directors
acknowledge the vital support and contributions of many people to
this report, including:
- the very dedicated
staff of the Educational Assessment Research Unit
- Lisa Rodgers
and other staff members of the Ministry of Education
- members of the
Project’s National Advisory Committee
- members of the
Project’s Literacy Advisory Panel
- principals and
children of the schools where tasks were trialled
- principals,
staff, and Board of Trustee members of the 283 schools included in
the 2002 sample
- the 3137 children
who participated in the assessments and their parents
- the 107 teachers
who administered the assessments to the children
- the 44 senior
tertiary students who assisted with the marking process
- the 204 teachers
who assisted with the marking of tasks early in 2002.
|
|
New
Zealand's National Education Monitoring Project commenced in 1993, with
the task of assessing and reporting on the achievement of New Zealand
primary school children in all areas of the school curriculum. Children
are assessed at two class levels: year 4 (halfway through primary education)
and year 8 (at the end of primary education). Different curriculum areas
and skills are assessed each year, over a four-year cycle. The main
goal of national monitoring is to provide detailed information about
what children can do so that patterns of performance can be recognised,
successes celebrated, and desirable changes to educational practices
and resources identified and implemented.
Each year, small random
samples of children are selected nationally, then assessed in their
own schools by teachers specially seconded and trained for this work.
Task instructions are given orally by teachers, through video presentations,
or in writing. Many of the assessment tasks involve the children in
the use of equipment and supplies. Their responses are presented orally,
by demonstration, in writing, or through submission of other physical
products. Many of the responses are recorded on videotape for subsequent
analysis.
In 2002, the fourth year
of the second cycle of national monitoring, two areas were assessed:
health and physical education, and the writing, listening and viewing
components of the English curriculum. This report presents details and
results of the assessments of student skills and knowledge in listening
and viewing.
Many of the tasks were used
with both year 4 and year 8 students, which allows direct comparisons
of the performance of year 4 and 8 students in 2002. Because some of
the tasks were used both in 1998 and in 2002, trends in performance
across the four-year period can also be examined.
|
| ASSESSING
LISTENING AND VIEWING |
|
Chapter
2 explains the place of listening and viewing in the New Zealand curriculum
and presents the frameworks for listening and viewing. The listening framework
has as its central organising theme constructing meaning from spoken messages
and communications for a range of purposes. Seven purposes are specified
in the framework, together with a number of understandings, skills and
attitudes that students and their teachers are working to develop. The
viewing framework has as its theme constructing meaning from visual texts.
In other respects it has a parallel structure to the listening framework.
|
|
Chapter
3 presents results from the tasks that assessed the students’
listening skills. Averaged across 141 task components administered to
both year 4 and year 8 students, 11 percent more year 8 than year 4 students
succeeded with these components. The trend analyses showed almost no change
since 1998. Averaged across 25 task components attempted by year 4 students
in both years, the same percentage of students succeeded in 2002 as in
1998. At year 8 level, with 24 task components included in the analysis,
on average 1 percent more students succeeded in 2002 than in 1998. Students
generally achieved quite high performance levels on task components that
involved recalling and using specific factual information. Predictably,
they were less successful where the task components involved interpretation
or inference, such as distinguishing facts from opinions, interpreting
messages in a story, or evaluating the merits of opposing arguments. This
performance contrast was particularly evident for year 4 students.
|
|
Chapter
4 presents results for the viewing tasks, which assessed the students’
capabilities in constructing meaning from visual material. Averaged across
129 task components administered to both year 4 and year 8 students, 9
percent more year 8 than year 4 students succeeded with these components.
The trend analyses showed small gains since 1998. Averaged across 21 task
components attempted by year 4 students in both years, 2 percent more
students succeeded in 2002 than in 1998. These gains are not large enough
to be regarded as significant. At year 8 level, with 29 task components
included in the analysis, 3 percent more students succeeded in 2002 than
in 1998, representing a modest gain. Both year 4 and year 8 students often
achieved quite high performance levels on task components that involved
observing, recalling and using specific factual information, but were
less successful where the task components involved interpretation or evaluation
of visual messages, or of the intentions of the designers of those messages.
These latter components usually were substantially better handled by year
8 than year 4 students.
|
|
Chapter
5 reports the results of analyses that compared the performance
of different demographic subgroups. School size, school type (full primary
or intermediate) and community size did not seem to be important factors
predicting achievement on listening and viewing tasks. South Island
students performed better than Auckland students on about 40 percent
of the listening and viewing tasks at year 4 level, but only about 5
percent of the year 8 tasks. At both year levels, girls performed better
than boys on some tasks, with the proportion of these tasks increasing
somewhat from year 4 to year 8 (14 to 29 percent for listening, 6 to
11 percent for viewing). Non-Mäori students outperformed Mäori students
on about 35 percent of the viewing tasks at both year levels and of
the listening tasks at year 4 level, but this dropped to 18 percent
of the year 8 listening tasks. The SES index based on school deciles
showed the strongest pattern of differences, with differences on 50
to 70 percent of listening and viewing tasks at both year levels.
Between 1998 and 2002, there
have been noteworthy changes in subgroup differences for four of the
seven variables. The only variable showing increased disparity was geographic
zone, and that only at year 4 level, with the performance gap between
South Island and Auckland students increasing between 1998 and 2002
(from 13% to 36% of listening tasks, and from 22% to 44% of viewing
tasks). On the other hand, there were substantial reductions in subgroup
differences for three variables: gender, ethnicity and the SES index
based on school deciles. Over the four year period, the percentage of
viewing tasks on which girls performed better than boys decreased from
22 percent to 6 percent for year 4 students and from 29 percent to 11
percent for year 8 students. The percentage of tasks on which Mäori
students scored lower than other students decreased substantially for
listening and viewing tasks at both year levels (50% to 36% for year
4 listening tasks, 33% to 18% for year 8 listening tasks, 67% to 38%
for year 4 viewing tasks, and 57% to 33% for year 8 viewing tasks).
Similarly, the percentage of tasks on which students from low decile
schools scored significantly lower than students from high decile schools
decreased for both sets of tasks at both year levels (87% to 71% for
year 4 listening tasks, 78% to 59% for year 8 listening tasks, 100%
to 50% for year 4 viewing tasks, and 86% to 61% for year 8 viewing tasks).
|
|
|
Chapter
6 reports the results of analyses of the achievement of Pacific Island
students. Additional sampling of schools with high proportions of Pacific
Island students permitted comparison of the achievement of Pacific Island,
Mäori and other children attending schools that have more than 15 percent
Pacific Island students enrolled. The results apply only to such schools,
but it should be noted that about 75 percent of all Pacific students attend
schools in this category.
Compared to Mäori and “other” students in these schools with
more than 15 percent Pacific students, year 4 Pacific students performed
less well than the “other” students on 37 percent of the tasks
but similarly to Mäori students. In the corresponding results at year
8 level, the Pacific students performed less well than the “other”
students on 24 percent of the tasks and less well than the Mäori students
on 11 percent of tasks. |
