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Assessment

Accreditation period Units 1-4: 2023-2027

General assessment advice

The principles underpinning all VCE assessment practices are explained in VCE assessment principles.

Updates to matters related to the administration of VCE assessment are published in the VCAA Bulletin.

Advice on matters related to the administration of Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) assessment is published annually in the VCE Administrative Handbook.

The procedures for managing VCE school-based assessment are explained in Assessment advice for the VCE.

The glossary of command terms provides a list of terms commonly used across the Victorian Curriculum F–10, VCE study designs and VCE examinations and to help students better understand the requirements of command terms in the context of their discipline.

VCE Religion and Society Study Design examination specifications, past examination papers and corresponding examination reports can be accessed from the VCE Relgion and Society examination webpage

Graded Distributions for Graded Assessment can be accessed from the VCAA Senior Secondary Certificate Statistical Information webpage.

Excepting third-party elements, schools may use this resource in accordance with the VCAA’s Educational Allowance (VCAA Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy).

Refer to the relevant sections in the  VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook; for example, Authentication, School-assessed Coursework, Redeeming outcomes.

Teachers should be familiar with the area of study and outcome statement, relevant key knowledge and key skills in order to plan for the assessment task. It should be noted that the assessment task does not have to identify every key knowledge and key skill dot point; nor should the task focus on too narrow a range of key knowledge and key skills.

Teachers may develop their own marking schemes for the outcome, provided they reflect the VCAA performance descriptors.

Teachers must decide the most appropriate time and conditions for conducting this assessment task and inform the students ahead of the date. This decision is a result of several considerations including:

  • the estimated time it will take to teach the key knowledge and key skills for the outcome
  • the likely length of time required for students to complete the task
  • the classroom environment the assessment task will be completed in
  • whether the assessment task will be completed under open-book or closed-book conditions
  • any additional resources required by students
  • when tasks are being conducted in other subjects and the workload implications for students.

Authentication

Most work for the assessment of unit outcomes and School-assessed Coursework will be completed in class; however, this does not preclude normal teacher expectations for students to complete research and learning activities that contribute to gaining key knowledge and skills outside of class time.

A task for the assessment of unit outcomes may require preliminary preparation and activities associated with the task (for example, gathering necessary research data). The amount of work to be completed as homework is decided by the study teacher, taking into account the nature, scope and purpose of the task. Students should be advised just before beginning the task that some information or data may be collected outside the classroom.

For School-assessed Coursework undertaken outside of class time, teachers must monitor and record each student’s progress through to completion. This requires regular sightings of the work by the teacher and the keeping of records in the Authentication Record for School-based Assessment form.

Teachers are not required to formally sight drafts or to record their completion of drafts unless it is for authentication purposes. Drafting can remain a part of a teaching and learning strategy, and students may do preliminary drafting; however, drafts are not to be submitted to the teacher for the purpose of getting feedback on an incomplete task that will contribute to the total School-assessed Coursework score. Teachers must not mark or provide comments on any draft submitted for School-assessed Coursework.

Sample approach to developing an assessment task

Unit 3

Outcome 2

Examine how beliefs and their expression in other aspects of religion are intended to respond to the search for meaning.

Assessment task:

The study design allows for the following tasks in Unit 3:

  • analytical exercises
  • case studies
  • essays
  • extended responses
  • structured questions
  • visual analyses.

Select one task that would be most appropriate for the course developed at the home school. Make a special note of the fact that the study design requires that the three tasks in Unit 3 must be different types. That is, if analytical exercises were used to assess Area of Study 1, they cannot be used again to assess Area of Study 2.

Task type: visual analyses

For Area of Study 2, based on the learning sequence selected, it may be appropriate to use visual analyses for the assessment task. Consider the key knowledge and key skills for Area of Study 2 (pages 21–22 in the study design) and select three to four images from a local place of worship (or online) for students to analyse for their task. These images could be selected to assess different sections of the key knowledge or key skills. When selecting images, some could come from a known religious tradition or religious denomination and be used to address the expression of the two beliefs studied in Area of Study 2, and some images could come from an unfamiliar religious tradition or religious denomination to assess the role of the aspects and their relationship in general. One example of an image is shown below.

A young man performing a fire ritual while an old man reciting some scriptures

Image description: A Hindu ritual at the Kalyandi durga mondir Hindu temple in Mazaffarpur, Bihar, India.

Kalyandi durga mondir9 by Sakkhar21
Source: Wikimedia
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Assessment task:

Using this image, design a set of prompts for students to respond to when analysing the image.

Prompts could include:

  • When adherents participate in religious ritual they experience the other aspects of religion alongside them. Use the above image to discuss the way in which the aspects of religion are related to each other in general.
  • Many religious rituals rely on the presence of other aspects of religion. Discuss ways in which this idea is true of religions in general by analysing the above image.
  • The aspects of religion are intended to help express beliefs in the fullest sense, to develop meaning for an adherent. By referring to the above image, analyse the way that the aspects of religion can be used to assist adherents in understanding the meaning behind their beliefs.

A similar set of prompts could be developed for a second or third image, this time from a religious tradition or denomination that is familiar to the student, one that has been studied in detail. Using an appropriate image, additional prompts for analysis can be developed from the key skills and knowledge of the study design.

Prompts could include:

  • Examine how the beliefs in a religious tradition or religious denomination you have studied are expressed through the other aspects of religion based on what can be seen in the above image.
  • The religious beliefs in [Buddhism / Christianity / Hinduism / Islam / Judaism / Sikhism] gain their full meaning when they are experienced in the other aspects of religion. By analysing and examining the above image, describe how these beliefs achieve their fullest meaning by being experienced through the aspects of religion.
  • The beliefs in [Buddhism / Christianity / Hinduism / Islam / Judaism / Sikhism] are only able to engender and nurture meaning in the lives of adherents when they are experienced through the aspects of religion. Use the above image to examine the way in which the expression of these beliefs creates or fosters meaning for adherents.

Prompts should be drawn from the key knowledge and key skills in the study design, and be designed to emphasise that students must analyse and explain how the expression of beliefs assists adherents in responding to the search for meaning. The visual analysis is meant to assist students in seeing the religious tradition or denomination and its expression in the other aspects as an interconnected and living tradition, rather than as a smaller subset of ideas, quotes and references to be memorised. The final selection of prompts should cover all of the key knowledge and key skills in some way in order to fully assess the outcome.


Unit 4

Outcome 1

Analyse and compare stances and supporting responses taken by religious traditions or religious denominations as they are challenged.

Assessment task:

The study design allows for the following tasks in Unit 4:

  • analytical exercises
  • case studies
  • essays
  • extended responses
  • structured questions
  • visual analyses.

Select one task that would be most appropriate for the course developed at the home school. Make a special note of the fact that the study design requires that the two tasks in Unit 4 must be different types. That is, if structured questions were used to assess Area of Study 1, they cannot be used again to assess Area of Study 2.

Task type: case studies

Since Area of Study 1 requires students to study three challenges that are then compared, it may be appropriate to use these three challenges as the case studies for the assessment task. To allow students to compare and analyse in detail for the assessment task, provide them with extracts from key documents. Examples of source material could include:

  • Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech to the United Nations on Islamophobia
  • The proclamation of Baruch Spinoza’s excommunication from the synagogue in Amsterdam
  • Eusebius of Caesarea’s account of the persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian
  • The Dalai Lama’s 2019 speech to the European Parliament on his exile from Tibet in 1959
  • Hindus against Hate, letter to the editor from Hindu organisations and individuals in The Indian Express, 19 June 2022
  • The Sikh Human Rights Group’s Declaration on Diversity to the United Nations Human Rights Council, 2 February 2022

To assess students’ ability to compare and analyse these challenges, teachers could select small extracts from important texts and speeches (such as the above examples) to include in the assessment task. By giving access to materials such as these, students can incorporate their own knowledge and make comparisons with the challenges faced by the tradition. The following sample questions could be used to prompt students to compare these challenges in the cases studies:

  • By referring to the source material provided and your own understanding of these three challenges, compare the sources of these challenges and what made them significant.
  • Describe the stances held by the religious tradition or religious denomination you have studied towards the three challenges. Examine the materials provided to find evidence that explains the reasons why the tradition held these stances.
  • Drawing on your own knowledge of a religious tradition or denomination and the ways in which they responded to challenges faced, analyse ways in which the religious tradition or religious denomination tried to address these challenges in terms of their attempt to bring about change or to retain the status quo. Your analysis should include some discussion on the extent to which the religious tradition or religious denomination achieved their desired result.
  • By using the source material provided, as well as your own learning, compare the relative danger that each challenge posed to the religious tradition or religious denomination in terms of which aspects of religion were involved and the reasons why these situations posed dangers to the religious tradition or religious denomination.
  • Use the source material provided to compare the ways in which the challenges faced by a religious tradition or religious denomination have changed over time. In your comparison discuss how the aspects of religion have been involved in different ways over the course of history, and the reasons why the challenges have been similar or different.

Prompts used in case studies such as these should be drawn from the key knowledge and key skills in the study design, and be designed to emphasise that students must analyse and compare the challenges. By providing source material in the assessment task, the prompts can be written in such a way as to release the student from the burden of memory (such as recalling facts, dates, quotes etc.) and allowing them to focus on the analytical task of comparing challenges. The final selection of prompts should cover all of the key knowledge and key skills in some way in order to fully assess the outcome.


Performance descriptors

The performance descriptors are advisory and designed to support teacher judgments in making holistic assessments of students' demonstration of the key knowledge and key skills for each outcome. They provide a way for teachers to differentiate between levels of student achievement. Teachers may use their professional judgement to customise the performance descriptors in line with the VCE Administrative Handbook and the VCE Assessment Principles.

School-based assessment