The assessments included 21 tasks which asked the students to listen to information presented orally or both orally and visually, and to repeat the information, answer questions using the information, or follow oral instructions. Some of the recordings used in these tasks included pictures as well as sound, but the details that students needed were provided mainly on the soundtrack. Students need to be able to listen to factual presentations, assertions, arguments or instructions, and to recall, interpret or follow them correctly.
Seventeen tasks were identical for year 4 and year 8 students, one was administered only to year 4 students, and three only to year 8 students. Eight are trend tasks (fully described with data for both 2002 and 2006), four are released tasks (fully described with data for 2006 only) and nine are link tasks (to be used again in 2010, 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 176 task components administered to both year 4 and year 8 students, 14 percent more year 8 than year 4 students succeeded with these components. Year 8 students performed better on 167 of the 176 components. The components with the largest differences were scattered across the tasks. Year 4 students performed better on several task components where students had to recall a number of details from a story or message that they had heard.
The trend analyses showed almost no change since 2002. Averaged across 78 task components attempted by year 4 students in both years, one percent more students succeeded in 2006 than in 2002. Gains occurred on 40 components and losses on 33 components (no differences on five components). At year 8 level, with 94 task components included in the analysis, two percent more students succeeded in 2006 than in 2002. Gains occurred on 51 components, with losses on 32 components (no differences on 11 components).
| The students generally achieved quite high performance levels on task components that involved recalling and using specific factual information, and on tasks that were of topics of interest to students of this age (sports, exciting events, etc.). 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. They also had difficulty with puns and figurative language. |
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