Technology subjects (7-12) Consistency of moderation

What is consistency? Consistency of teacher professional judgement refers to the degree to which judgements about a student’s performance are independent of which teacher is assessing the student.

What is moderation? Moderation is a process where teachers compare each others judgements to either confirm or adjust them. The process involves close collaboration to establish a shared understanding of what achievement of syllabus standards looks like and whether or not the student has demonstrated achievement of the syllabus standard. Teachers can use moderation processes to assist them to make judgements that are consistent and comparable.

What are the benefits of moderation? Teachers moderate to: develop shared or common interpretations and expectations of what constitutes achievement of syllabus standards develop shared understandings of how well students have achieved the syllabus standards develop accuracy and reliability in making judgements ensure judgements fairly reflect student performance enable greater confidence in the reporting of assessment judgements.

Moderation techniques: Getting the task and the criteria right Collaboratively plan with other teachers of the course. Make sure the assessment task focuses on significant understandings and skills in the syllabus, not fragmented, low-order learning. (What do I want the students to learn and why does this learning matter?) Ensure the task is sufficiently open-ended to allow students to demonstrate performance from outstanding to basic levels. (What do I want the students to do?) Set assessment criteria that focus on significant learning for students and allows recognition of a range of performances. (How well do I expect them to do it?) Review the suitability of the assessment criteria by anticipating what responses students might provide. (What will high quality student work look like?) Make sure students and teachers have a shared and consistent understanding of the requirements of the task and what types of responses will be valued.

Moderation techniques: Getting the judgement right Review the task and the assessment criteria, discuss the features of student work you think each criteria is referring to. Dedicate sufficient time to the group of teachers delivering the course to undertake a moderation of judgement process. Ask each teacher to do a preliminary marking of their own students’ work but use moderation processes to review consistency. Ask each teacher to provide a sample of high, sound and basic work.  Each teacher might like to talk about the features of the work they have provided and explain what grade they would allocate and why, followed by discussion and review. OR  The group might choose to each mark each others sample work and then discuss similarities and differences of opinion, and review.  Review and revise grades, if necessary, prior to returning work to students. A different approach can be double-marking. Many technology teachers have had significant experience with moderation processes through HSC marking and in particular the marking of practical projects such as Design and Technology. Model these practices. Collaboratively agree on the marking scheme for the whole task and then each teacher marks a part of the task.

Moderation issues in technology subjects  Technology teachers are often the only teacher of the subject in the school…how to moderate? 1.Form a group of teachers in the local area who are prepared to collaboratively develop and moderate the assessment of a task for students. 2.Undertake the above process online and share student work online, thereby reducing the need for a group of local colleagues. 3.Ask another technology teacher at the school to act as a critical friend to your judgements.

Contacts Lyndall Foster (02) Bill Blake (02)