Assessment

For Units 1–4 assessment tasks should be a part of the regular teaching and learning program and should not add unduly to student workload. Students should be clearly informed of the timelines and the conditions under which assessment tasks are to be conducted, including whether any resources are permitted.

Points to consider in developing an assessment task:

1. List the relevant content from the areas of study and the relevant key knowledge and key skills for the outcomes.
2. Develop the assessment task according to the specifications in the study design. It is possible for students in the same class to undertake different tasks, or variations of components for a task; however, teachers must ensure that the tasks or variations are comparable in scope and demand.
3. Identify the qualities and characteristics that you are looking for in a student response and map these to the criteria, descriptors, rubrics or marking schemes being used to assess level of achievement.
4. Identify the nature and sequence of teaching and learning activities to cover the relevant content, and key knowledge and key skills outlined in the study design, and to provide for different learning styles.
5. Decide the most appropriate time to set the task. This decision is the result of several considerations including:
• the estimated time it will take to cover the relevant content from the areas of study and the relevant key knowledge and key skills for the outcomes
• the possible need to provide preparatory activities or tasks
• the likely length of time required for students to complete the task
• when tasks are being conducted in other studies and the workload implications for students.

The teacher must consider the authentication strategies relevant for each assessment task. Information regarding VCAA authentication rules can be found in the VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook section: Scored assessment: School-based Assessment.

All assessments for Units 1 and 2 are school-based. The determination of an S or N for each of Units 1 and 2 is a separate consideration from the assessment of levels of achievement.

Procedures for assessment of levels of achievement in Units 1 and 2 are a matter for schools to decide. Schools have flexibility in deciding how many and which assessment tasks they use for each outcome, provided that these decisions are in accordance with VCE Legal Studies study design and VCE Assessment Principles.

Teachers should note the cognitive demand of the command terms in the outcome statements to determine the type of teaching and learning activities and evidence of student understanding that will be needed for students to demonstrate satisfactory completion of each outcome.

Developing School-assessed Coursework (SAC) tasks

In VCE Legal Studies students are expected to demonstrate their level of understanding of key knowledge and key skills outlined in each area of study through a program of School-assessed Coursework (SAC) tasks. Each of these tasks is outlined in the VCE Legal Studies Study Design.

Each SAC task must meet the VCE Assessment Principles, allow students to demonstrate their highest level of performance and allow for student work to be authenticated as their own. Students should be familiar with and understand the meaning of the common terms embedded in the outcomes of the study design and each of the designated SAC task types. Each task has different cognitive requirements that assess different key knowledge and key skills, which should be explicitly taught and embedded in learning activities throughout the course of study. In this way, students will have the opportunity to practise and demonstrate a range of responses using the language of the study design.

To assess a student’s level of performance, the VCAA Performance descriptors can be used and adapted to the specifics of each SAC task, or a school-specific marking guide can be developed. The assessment instrument (performance descriptors, rubric and / or marking guide) should reflect the outcome, key knowledge and key skills. The SAC task and assessment instrument should be explained to students before they commence the task.

Area of Study 1: The Victorian criminal justice system

Outcome 1

On completion of this unit the student should be able to explain the key principles of the criminal justice system, discuss the ability of sanctions to achieve their purposes and evaluate the ability of the criminal justice system to achieve the principles of justice during a criminal case.

Step 1:

Identify the nature and sequence of teaching and learning activities used to cover the key knowledge and key skills outlined in the area of study. Ensure that these provide for different learning styles. The teaching and learning activities included in the support materials for Unit 3 Outcome 1 account for different learning styles and will allow students to build and consolidate their knowledge.

Build in opportunities for students to practise and develop skills in responding to different types of assessment within class activities on a regular basis.

Step 2:

Develop the task. Look carefully at Outcome 1 and then the key knowledge and key skills relevant to this statement. Note any other relevant points from the area of study and how key knowledge relates to the principles of justice. Also look at the introductory statement to the area of study and the unit overall. Finally, look at the relevant performance descriptors. All of this information will provide a clear guide as to the specific key knowledge and key skills that could be assessed through this task. Make a list or summary of the assessable items to refer to when designing specific questions. For example, the following key knowledge and key skills could be assessed in Unit 3 Area of Study 1 and questions could be designed around all or some.

• Explain the key principles of the criminal justice system.
• Discuss the ability of criminal sanctions to achieve their purposes.
• Evaluate the ability of the criminal justice system to achieve the principles of justice during a criminal case.
• Define and use legal terminology.
• Grasp and apply key knowledge.
• Synthesise and apply legal principles and information to actual and / or hypothetical scenarios.
• Discuss, interpret and analysis legal principles and information.

Examples of possible question types:

Lower order:

• Identify…
• Outline the key features of…

Medium order:

• Explain how…
• Discuss… (a simple concept or concepts)

Higher order:

• Discuss…in relation to the principles of justice.
• Compare…
• Apply key knowledge to the scenario.

Note: When allocating marks and designating questions as lower, medium or higher order, consider a combination of the following:

• complexity and difficulty of the skills inherent within the task word
• complexity or difficulty of the key knowledge required within a response
• volume of key knowledge to be considered or included within the response.

Step 3:

Select the task type from the range of options listed in the study design. [For this task: structured questions.]

Step 4:

Decide on the conditions under which the task will be conducted and include this in instructions to students.

• Given that this outcome is worth 50 marks out of the 100 marks available for School-assessed Coursework in Unit 3, it may be appropriate to have students complete only one task or to split the assessment of the outcome over two tasks, each covering different key knowledge points.
• Closed book test conditions: no notes or textbooks permitted and students to be supervised while undertaking the assessment
• Timing: 50 minutes to complete the task. This allows for 10 minutes of reading time, then 40 minutes to complete the written responses to structured questions.

Step 5:

Design the task.

• Consider the key knowledge points and assessable items above. In Area of Study 1 students need to be familiar with the key knowledge concepts related to the Victorian criminal justice system, the principles of justice during a criminal case, and sentencing.
• Note that the final key skill outcome requires students to ‘apply legal principles and information to actual and / or hypothetical scenarios’. One way to do this is to prepare stimulus material about the Victorian criminal justice system. Stimulus material could take the form of excerpts from judicial sentencing remarks, news articles or political cartoons concerning the criminal justice system, hypothetical criminal scenarios, or a combination of multiple types of stimulus. Include questions that require students to recall (lower order), discuss (medium order) and apply / synthesise (higher order) to allow students opportunity to clearly demonstrate their best performance level.
• Structured questions should relate to the scenario(s) as described in the stimulus material, allowing students to demonstrate their ability to apply key knowledge and key skills to scenarios. The task words used for the structured questions should be based on the key skills listed for the outcome.
• Prepare 25% lower order questions, 50% medium order questions and 25% higher order questions. This will allow for a spread of marks and a ranking of students to occur.

Step 6:

Provide students with a SAC Notification Sheet, advising them of the content of the forthcoming SAC.

Step 7:

Conduct the assessment task.

Step 8:

Mark the task and rank students.

• The marking scheme used to assess a student’s level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
• With structured questions, it may be appropriate to allocate marks for each answer. However, the marks allocated should reflect the degree of difficulty or complexity required by task words. These, in turn, should be based on the key skills listed for the outcome.
• The performance descriptor / rubrics provided are a useful guide to ranking/assessing student work.

Authentication

• Teachers are required to authenticate that work submitted by students is the result of their own efforts. Further details about authentication of student work is available in the VCE Administrative Handbook for the current year.
• Assessment rubrics / performance descriptors will provide a guide to the levels of performance typically demonstrated within each range on the assessment task(s). The performance descriptors for each outcome identify the qualities or characteristics expected in a student response at different level of achievement.

Area of Study 1: The people and the law-makers

Outcome 1

On completion of this unit the student should be able to discuss the ability of parliament and courts to make law and evaluate the means by which the Australian Constitution acts as a check on parliament in law-making.

Step 1:

Identify the nature and sequence of teaching and learning activities used to cover the key knowledge and key skills outlined in the area of study. Ensure that these provide for different learning styles. The teaching and learning activities included in the support materials for Unit 4 Outcome 1 account for different learning styles and will allow students to build and consolidate their knowledge.

Build in opportunity for students to practise and develop skills to respond to different types of assessment within class activities on a regular basis.

Step 2:

Develop the task. Look carefully at Outcome 1 and then the key knowledge and key skills relevant to this statement. Read the introductory statement to the area of study and the unit overall. Finally, look at the relevant performance descriptors. All of this information will provide a clear guide as to the specific key knowledge and key skills that could be assessed through this task. Make a list or summary of the assessable items to refer to when designing specific questions. For example, the following key knowledge and key skills could be assessed in Unit 4 Area of Study 1 and questions could be designed around all or some.

• Evaluate the means by which the Australian Constitution acts as a check on parliament in law making.
• Discuss the ability of parliament and the courts to make law.
• Analyse the relationship between parliament and the courts.
• Define and use legal terminology accurately.
• Grasp and apply key knowledge.
• Synthesise and apply legal principles and information relevant to the key knowledge and to scenarios.
• Discuss, interpret and analyse legal principles and information relevant to the key knowledge.

Examples of possible question types:

Lower order:

• Identify…
• Outline the key features of…

Medium order:

• Explain how….
• Discuss… (a simple concept or concepts)

Higher order:

• Discuss…in relation to the principles of justice.
• Compare…
• Apply key knowledge to the scenario.

Note: When allocating marks and designating questions as lower, medium or higher order, consider a combination of the following:

• complexity and difficulty of the skills inherent within the task word
• complexity or difficulty of the key knowledge required within a response
• volume of key knowledge to be considered or included within the response.

Step 3:

Decide on the type of assessment task. Choose the task type from the range of options listed in the study design. [For this task: structured questions.]

Step 4:

Decide on the conditions under which the task will be conducted and include this in instructions to students.

• Given that this outcome is worth 60 marks out of the 100 marks available for school-assessed coursework in Unit 4, it may be appropriate to have students complete only one task or to split the assessment of the outcome over two tasks, each covering different key knowledge points.
• Test conditions: no notes or textbooks allowed and students will be supervised.
• Timing: 55 minutes (or longer) to complete the task. This allows for 5 minutes of reading time, then 50 minutes to complete the written responses to structured questions.

Step 5:

Design the task.

• Note that the final key skill for this outcome requires students to ‘synthesise and apply legal principles and information to actual and / or hypothetical scenarios’.
• One way to do this is to prepare stimulus material about the Victorian criminal justice system. Stimulus material could take the form of excerpts from judicial sentencing remarks, news articles or political cartoons concerning the criminal justice system, hypothetical criminal scenarios, or a combination of multiple types of stimulus.
• Consider the key knowledge. In Area of Study 1 students need to be familiar with the ability of parliament and courts to make law and the means by which the Australian Constitution acts as a check on parliament in law-making.
• The final key skill of the outcome requires students to ‘apply legal principles and information to actual and / or hypothetical scenarios’. One way to do this is to write stimulus material about the Australia’s constitutional framework of government; for example, a scenario requiring students to analyse the significance of s.109 of the Constitution and / or a scenario requiring students to consider the distinction between residual and concurrent legislative powers and / or circumstances in which the High Court may review the legality of Commonwealth legislation.
• Structured questions should relate to the scenario(s) as described in the stimulus material, allowing students to demonstrate their ability to apply key knowledge and key skills to scenarios. The task words used for the structured questions should be based on the key skills listed for the outcome.
• Questions should cover a range of the ‘command’ words in the study design to ensure that students will respond to less demanding skills (for example, identify / describe) as well as demonstrate higher-order skills by answering a question requiring a discussion, analysis or an evaluation. Marks allocated to each question should reflect the relevant complexity of the question and its ‘command’.
• Include questions that require students to recall (lower order), discuss (medium order) and apply or synthesise (higher order) to allow students opportunity to clearly demonstrate their best performance level
• Prepare 25% lower order questions, 50% medium order questions and 25% higher order questions. This will allow for a spread of marks and a ranking of students to occur

Step 6:

Conduct the assessment task. Most schools require students be provided with a SAC Notification Sheet, advising them of the content of the forthcoming SAC.

Step 7:

Mark the task.

• The marking scheme used to assess a student’s level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
• With structured questions, it may be appropriate to allocate marks for each answer. However, the marks allocated should reflect the degree of difficulty or complexity required by task words. These, in turn, should be based on the key skills listed for the outcome.
• The performance descriptor / rubrics provided are a useful guide to ranking / assessing student work.

Authentication

• Teachers are required to authenticate that work submitted by students is the result of their own efforts. Further details about authentication of student work is available in the VCE Administrative Handbook for the current year.
• Assessment rubrics / performance descriptors provide a guide to the levels of performance typically demonstrated within each range on the assessment task(s). The performance descriptors for each outcome identify the qualities or characteristics expected in a student response.
  

The VCAA publishes performance descriptors for each outcome in Units 3 and 4. These performance descriptors are advice only and provide a guide to developing an assessment tool when assessing the outcomes of each area of study. The performance descriptors can be adapted and customised by teachers in consideration of their context and cohort, and to complement existing assessment procedures in line with the VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook and the VCE assessment principles.

• Unit 3 Outcome 1
  
• Unit 3 Outcome 2
  
• Unit 4 Outcome 1
  
• Unit 4 Outcome 2