Biology Upper Secondary Teacher Guide - Department of Education

Biology• a syllabus that provides a clear sense of the syllabus standards throughits aims, outcomes and content• tasks designed to produce an image of what students have achieved atthat point in the learning and teaching process relative to the outcomes• standards of performance at different levels: the ‘performance standards’• a report that gives marks referenced to predetermined standards• assessment tasks that refer to syllabus outcomes, content, assessmentcomponents and component weightings• external exams that are based on syllabus outcomes and content.External markers use standards-referenced marking guidelinesdeveloped by the Biology examination committee• assessment that is better integrated with learning and teaching.See pages 47 and 48 for the learning outcomes performance standardswhich are criterion referenced and must be used for assessment purposes.Assessment for learningAssessment for learning is often called ‘formative assessment’. It isassessment that gathers data and evidence about student learning duringthe learning process. It enables you to see where students are havingproblems and to give immediate feedback, which will help your studentslearn better. It also helps you plan your program to make student learning,and your teaching, more effective. Often it is informal⎯students can marktheir own work or their friend’s. An example is a quick class quiz to see ifstudents remember the important points of the previous lesson.Assessment of learningAssessment of learning is often called ‘summative assessment’. It is used toobtain evidence and data that shows how much learning has occurred,usually at the end of the term or unit. End of year examinations areexamples of summative assessment. It is usually done for formal recordingand reporting purposes.Assessing Biology unitsIn Biology the learning outcomes are assessed using the range ofassessment methods specified in the syllabus. In deciding what to assess,the first point to start is: ‘what do you want to students to do and/or learn?’and, following from this: ‘how will the students engage with the material?’.which leads to the design and development of learning tasks and activities. Itis crucial that at this point the assessment tasks clearly link back to thelearning outcomes and are appropriate for the learning activities. Theassessment can be used for formative and summative purposes.Assessment can be represented as follows:14