Knowledge and Understanding  : Introduction

The assessments included six tasks which allowed students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding about Link wire imagethe make-up and operation of technological devices. One task also asked students to look at historical changes in technology and their effects on lifestyle.

Four of the tasks were the same for year 4 and year 8 students. One task was given only to year 4 students and one task only to year 8 students.

Two of the tasks are link tasks (tasks which will be used again in the year 2000 and therefore are not described in detail here). One of these was attempted only by year 8 students, the other was attempted by both year 4 and year 8 students. The remaining four tasks are released tasks, described fully here.

This chapter presents the tasks and results in the following order:

  • three released tasks attempted by both year 4 and year 8 students;
  • a released task attempted only by year 4 students;
  • the two link tasks.

Averaged across all task components which were common to year 4 and year 8 students and which asked students to explain technological features, 20 percent of year 4 and 35 percent of year 8 students gave responses which were rated as strong. It is not surprising to note that students had greater success reporting observations and factual knowledge than giving good explanations for design features and processes.