CONFERENCE PAPER No. 8
Recognition of community learning
on the Senior Secondary certificate
Presented by
Rod Bauer
Recognition of community learning on the Senior
Secondary certificate
Rod Bauer
Preamble
This paper is a synopsis of the development work of the Senior
Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA) in
recognizing
community
learning
on
the
South
Australian
Certificate of Education (SACE).
It should be regarded as a
brief overview rather than a detailed analysis of all of the
issues and decisions made.
Background
(SSABSA) is responsible for awarding the South Australian
Certificate of Education (SACE) within the Australian
Qualifications Framework (AQF). Between 1998 and 2003, SSABSA
conducted a series of research projects in schools to explore
ways in which students could be supported to meet the
requirements for SACE completion.
Researchers interviewed students who commenced studies of the
SACE but two years later were no longer enrolled in SACE studies
and who had not completed the SACE requirements. The research
indicated the wide range of activities of these students outside
of traditional school life.
SSABSA also commissioned a 4,000 household survey on community
attitudes to SSABSA and the SACE. Questions relating to
pressure felt by students during Year 12 again revealed the
complexity of the student lives and the wide range of
responsibilities that many students hold.
The SSABSA legislation includes the following functions:
o
To recognise if it thinks fit and to such extent as it
thinks fit, assessments of students at senior secondary
education levels made by schools, institutions or other
authorities;
o
To recognise, if it thinks fit and to such extent as it
thinks fit, the qualifications or experience of a student
in or towards completion of the prescribed certification
requirements of senior secondary education”
(Section
15(1) (d) and (e)).
o
These parts of the legislation have enabled SSABSA to
extend the recognition policy to include ‘community
learning’ as well as the Vocational Education and Training
(VET) studies.
o
Following further consultations with stakeholders, SSABSA
began exploring ways to recognise both learning achieved
by students both in structured community programs as well
as the learning through experience and participation in
less-structured community activities.
What is ‘community learning’?
While a considerable number of activities that might be regarded
as ‘community learning’ is within the Vocational Education and
Training (VET) sector, this policy is about recognising learning
that is not generally within VET.
Two forms of community learning both of which sit outside of the
Australian Qualifications Framework are identified in this
policy. The first is community learning which takes place in a
structured manner. The work of the Royal Lifesaving Society and
the Queen’s Scout Award are examples of this sort of learning.
Others include St John Ambulance training, the Country Fire
Service (CFS) and several music examination bodies.
The second type is informal community learning. This is learning
that is the result of a program that does not follow a formal,
accredited curriculum. Many students are taking leadership
roles in sports coaching and umpiring. Others are mentors for
younger people or carers for elderly relatives. Some
communities include young artists in drama, performance, and
music events. Others
include church based groups in adventure
activities.
Policy Principles
The recognition policy is underpinned by the following
principles:
1. That the recognition of community learning be consistent
with the principles, requirements, and standards of the
SACE (consistency with SACE principles);
2. That the request for recognition of community learning be
initiated by the student (student-initiated);
3. That the recognition process focus on the learning
achieved, and not the experiences themselves (learningfocused);
4. That the recognition process take into account the nature
and scope of the learning and the complexity of the
learning that is taking place (nature and scope of
learning; complexity of learning);
5. That the recognition process require the careful and
accurate documentation of evidence about the nature and
scope of learning and that judgments about complexity of
learning be made against this evidence (documentation of
evidence; judgments against evidence);
6. That the reporting of community learning be consistent with
the valuing of other, accredited learning towards the SACE
(consistency in reporting learning);
7. That the recognition process be clear, fair, ethical,
accessible, and equitable (ethical and equitable process);
8. That the recognition process be quality assured (quality
assurance);
9. That the recognition of community learning enhance the
integrity and international standing of the SACE (integrity
and international standing).
Recognition in current frameworks
For some years, SSABSA, like most boards of studies, has
acknowledged learning that occurs outside the classroom. For
example, teachers have been using ‘outdoor education’ for many
years in Australia. In the senior years of schooling, community
learning has been ‘captured’ using an embedding process whereby
the teachers link the standard curriculum statement to the
activities outside the classroom.
Assessment of community learning may be by direct observation of
skills in the field, particularly in VET, but informal community
learning may well not be counted in any formal sense at the
school.
Currently in South Australia a teacher can include community
learning in the program in senior secondary schooling, by
writing an assessment plan attached to accredited subjects
explicitly stating tasks and how they are to be assessed. The
student is required to complete classroom assignments in order
to have any community learning counted.
While this may not sound particularly arduous, the community
learning then becomes prescriptive and locks the students into
completion times and linear learning pathways. These are not
always appropriate for the way in which the learner gains
knowledge and skills, and possibly develops or modifies beliefs
and attitudes.
If the teacher wishes to provide opportunities to capture a
variety of community learning activities done by different
students, this typically requires each student to negotiate an
individual assessment plan, a considerable workload for already
busy teachers. Of course this means assessing each student
differently too. Monitoring students’ work against these
assessment plans for a class of students is also a considerably
much greater workload for teachers than traditional classroom
settings.
A new approach - recognition of learning in community contexts
The approach that is being used is based on the broad principle
that the student wishes to make a claim about learning (outside
of school subjects.)
In a sense this can be considered a claim of what Leighton calls
‘domain mastery’ (Leighton, 2004). The student provides the
evidence that he/she has gained some significant learning
(mastery?) in a community activity, so that it can be assessed
by qualified educators, and judgments can then be made. This is
consistent with the general approach to all SSABSA assessment.
At this stage some further consideration needs to be given to
what is meant by ‘community learning’. One aspect is the
learning that is learning about community, and another is
learning through community activities. The former might include
tree-planting and the Country Fire Service, the latter might
include Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards and coaching a junior
basketball team.
This approach is based on the ‘evidence-based’ design of
assessment (Mislevy et al., 1999), (Messick, 1994) in which the
preliminary steps involve an analysis of the learning domain(s)
in community activities which then informs the researchers about
what sort of learning takes place and therefore what assessment
tools would be most useful to assess evidence, make inferences
and judgments.
SSABSA’s approach is to consider ‘stand-alone recognition’
whereby the student provides evidence from which inferences are
made about the scope and complexity of the community learning.
The process is not linked to a particular subject or class of
students. Furthermore the student is not required to perform any
further assessment tasks set by the school or teacher.
The framework
The following diagram (figure 1) and descriptors (see appendix
1) of the eight categories represents the way that the wide
variety of community learning is being categorized for four
purposes:
o
o
o
o
Firstly the early research indicates that there are some
common strands in the learning of different community
activities. For assessment purposes in individual casemanagement, a way of reducing the complexity across the
wide variety of learning activities is considered a high
priority in reducing the work load (resource impact) at
the school level.
Secondly for the purposes of reporting student achievement
and record-keeping at the school and at SSABSA, a limited
number of categories provides a much reduced resource
impact.
Thirdly a level of reporting for the student’s certificate
and statement of results is required to communicate a
meaningful statement about what has been learned without
unduly complex detail.
Fourthly the limited number of categories significantly
reduces the possibility of error in data input.
Figure 1: Eight reporting categories
Typical activities
Meals on Wheels Inc
Family care
Caregivers
Mentoring
Peer support
SA Country Fire Service
cadets
Royal Life Saving
St John Ambulance
Community Projects
Support - refugees
Environmental – Trees
for Life
Activism – Amnesty,
Youth Parliament
Community Arts
Cultural learning
Scouts Australia
Guides SA
Duke of Edinburgh’s
Awards
Australian Air Force
cadets
Personal Skills
Personal Skills
(Community connections)
Australian Music
Examinations Board
Trinity College London
Australian Guild of
Music & Speech
Drama performance
Dance performance
Music performance
Public speaking
Sports performance
Sports coaching
Sports umpiring
Sports trainer
Sports management
Reporting
categories
Volunteering
Community
Development
Self Development
Independent
Living
Performance
Sport skills &
Management
Recreational pursuits
(eg chess)
Personal enrichment (eg
reading)
Event management
part-time
work
Workplace skills
Workplace knowledge
Workplace responsibility
Recreation
skills &
Management
Learning in
Work skills &
Career
development
Career skill development
Career planning
Two approaches to evidence collection
The responsibility for collecting and verifying evidence of:
1. Community learning that is a result of a program of
instruction that follows a formal, accredited curriculum
rests with the student and the school, in collaboration
with the relevant learning provider (e.g. community
organisation);
2. Community learning that is a result of a program that does
not follow a formal, accredited curriculum rests with the
student and the school and/or SSABSA.
The assessment processes are designed to take into account that
a student may provide evidence of learning in a variety of ways.
The theoretical foundation of this approach is consistent with
the work of the National Research Council (Pellegrino et al.,
2001), (Mislevy et al., 1999), and (Messick, 1994).
‘Data become evidence in an analytic problem only when one
has established their relevance to a conjecture
considered.’
(Schum, 1987) in (Pellegrino et al., 2001)
being
Thus SSABSA works in two ways to consider the context of the
community learning in order to establish the relevance of the
student’s evidence (data).
Version 1- Community awards and certificates
SSABSA works directly with community and youth organisations
that provide awards and certificates for completed programs of
learning. The first step involved in this process is to develop
an understanding of the context of the learning.
Examples of
these are indicated in italics in figure 1.
In this approach, a SSABSA panel of trained assessors examines
the community program to consider its equivalent value in terms
of scope and complexity compared with SSABSA curriculum
statements. A further set of benchmarks under the AQF is the
database of units of competency in Training Packages in the VET
sector.
For community learning that cannot be benchmarked
against either of the above, a Learning Outcome Analysis Grid
(LOAG) (see appendix 2) has been developed to assist the panel
of trained assessors in analysing the nature of the community
learning, and then make a holistic decision about its
equivalent value.
The panel uses a set of Quality Assurance guidelines to
establish the validity of training, delivery and assessment, as
well as principles of equity, accessibility, record-keeping,
and sustainability.
The recommendation for recognition then is presented to the
SSABSA Board for approval.
The decision about the recognition is then promulgated via the
regular communication systems with schools.
In terms of how the individual student makes a claim, the
evidence is provided in the form of the certificate or award
provided by the community organisation to the student. The
student presents the certificate/award to the school which then
applies for recognition for that particular student by sending
an application form with a copy of the award/certificate to
SSABSA for verification.
Because this approach considers only completed awards, there is
only a sense of complete/incomplete with regard to grading.
Therefore no grade or score is attached. On the Record of
Achievement attached to the Certificate, the recognition is
reported as ‘granted’.
Version 2 – Informal community learning
For the informal community learning, the primary focus is a
meeting between the student and the trained assessors, whereby
the student is invited to ‘tell the story’ of what has been
learned in community activities. The story may be oral, or it
may be based on a portfolio of evidence, or it may be based on
other evidence such as work reports, witness statements, and a
mentor’s supporting statements.
The student is encouraged to provide a context statement or a
learning statement in written format during this process. An
application form includes a request of the student to consider
the categories to assist his/her thinking about the nature of
the learning gained. This process in itself requires the sort
of metacognitive thinking the assessors are looking for, in
terms of complexity. Thus in at least one way this process can
be considered assessment for learning, as well as summative
assessment at some point.
Assessor training
A focus of
assessors
assessment
and across
the effort in this early phase of development is for
to be able to provide consistent standards of
across a wide variety of types of community learning
considerable time periods.
The training of assessors includes a study of learning
theories, assessment theories, interview techniques and issues,
key questions that may be used to collect evidence, and recent
case studies.
Some examples of different perspectives on this is provided by
researchers including:
o
o
o
o
The distinction between retrospective and concurrent
learning (Ericson & Simon, 1993) referred to by Leighton
(Leighton, 2004),
Mislevy describes a ‘learning domain analysis’ (Mislevy et
al., 1999) in his approach to assessment design,
The interpretation of the evidence is based on assessors
being
required
to
write
‘interpretative
summaries’
(Delandshere & Petrosky, 1994) and (Moss, 1995),
Bateman’s paper on subject matter experts (SMEs) being
able to reliably assess students’ work (Bateman, 2004).
In order that trained assessors have consistency in making
inferences from the evidence provided, SSABSA investigated the
nature of activities offered by community organisations across
South Australia. This ‘domain analysis’ began with the
development of the eight categories described above as a
starting point for a questionnaire for 155 teachers and 63
other community leaders to articulate the nature of the
learning they observe or have inferred in community activities.
The results of the questionnaire clearly indicated:
o
o
o
o
The eight categories enabled all of the reported learning
described by the participants to be considered.
Many of the community activities ‘overlapped’ from one
category to another, some across three categories.
There are common strands of learning across most of the
eight categories, such as:
o Communication
o Teamwork
o Working safely
o Self management
There are distinct differences that enable the trained
assessors to infer that the context of the community
activity provides appreciably different learning in each
of the eight categories.
Student preparation
The student is to be prepared for the meeting by considering
the context of the learning, the categories and what
distinguishes them, and examples of questions that might be
encountered in the meeting about how and what he/she learned.
The student may use the meeting itself as a demonstration of
some of the skills learned, for example, selecting and applying
appropriate communication strategies.
Furthermore the student may need more than one opportunity to
provide evidence. It is not the intention of the process to
limit the provision of evidence to a single meeting. Further
evidence can be provided in the variety of ways mentioned
previously.
However it is a requirement that the student does attend a
face-to-face meeting with assessors at some stage for
assessment purposes. This is regarded as a valuable aspect of
learning (assessment for learning) for the student. It also
provides an appropriate level of validation of learning and
discourages false claims.
To assist the interpretation of the evidence, a template for
each of the eight categories is being developed, together with
a set of guidelines for using the templates. The guidelines
include considerations for performance criteria, assumptions
about weighting of judgments on scope and complexity,
flexibility in using more than one category at a time, and the
issue of double-counting learning across the eight categories
and across other subjects the student may have done, is doing,
or is planning to do, for SACE completion.
Assessing the evidence
Exactly what evidence are assessors looking for? In terms of
approach to learning and assessment theory, of course the
assessors cannot be expected to be the ‘subject matter experts’
referred to by Bateman. It is not practical to think that
trained assessors can become experts in every type of community
activity. Thus the learning domain will need to be communicated
by the student. This can be initiated by the student through
the context statement or learning statement, and may well be an
ongoing process during the provision of evidence.
What are the assessors looking for?
The assessment components and the criteria for judging
performance are being developed with the following in mind:
o
o
The student is to provide the picture of the context of
the learning; this does not need to be a ‘first step’ in
the process. The picture can be a sketch in the early
stages, and the detail can be completed during the
process. This becomes the ‘learning domain’ within which
the student provides the evidence (content or subject
matter).
The student is to provide evidence of a range of thinking
skills including higher order thinking in the way he/she
describes the community activity. This means the student
needs to be able to demonstrate the skill of explicating
the appropriate learning in the stated context, reflecting
o
o
on that learning, and placing that reflection within the
bigger picture of the community activity (meta-analysis).
The student is to provide a sense of transferability of
the range of skills and/or knowledge, including higher
order thinking. This might be through some examples of
future planning, perhaps using the same context or a
different one. It might be demonstrated by a discussion
about other interests in the past, or current ones.
The student is to provide a sense of sustained direct
involvement in the community activity which enables
him/her to gain an understanding of the richness and
complexity of the community activity, and its significance
in the bigger picture. (As a guide, 50-60 hours of direct
contact is considered appropriate to be equivalent to a
SACE unit).
The use of key questions
The assessors are trained in the use of key questions to elicit
further evidence of understanding within the learning domain
and to assist in the judging of performance under the
assessment criteria.
The sort of questions developed by Marzano (Chapter 5)
(Marzano, 2001) indicate the nature of inquiry for further
evidence, for example,
Problem-solving
What sort of problems have you experienced / or might experience
in …. (community activities)? How did you/will you deal with it
effectively?
Monitoring clarity
Identify those aspects of the…(community activity) about which
you are confused. What are the causes of your confusion? Be as
specific as possible.
Examining efficacy
To what extent do you believe you can improve your ………
(understanding/skill)? Why do you believe this? How reasonable
is your thinking?
Further types of questions address criteria for judging
performance, such as:
To what extent is the student able to relate the depth of
his/her experience?
To what extent did the student deal
situation in which he/she was placed?
effectively
with
The nature of the recognition
The degree to which the panel of trained assessors is able to
provide consistency in making inferences from the evidence
provided is a significant issue. For the panel to come to a
satisfactory level of agreement is a fairly coarse-grained
the
judgment. Therefore a fine-grained assessment indicated by a
grade or a score out of twenty, for example, is impractical.
The recognition is considered in terms of being equivalent to
whole SACE units (half-year subjects), and therefore the
assessment is not used to calculate scores for Tertiary
Entrance Ranking (TER).
Standards check
The trained assessors attend central moderation meetings
annually to ensure standards are consistent across the state.
Partnerships
Our experience with school trials and the meetings with leaders
of community organizations have revealed how significant this
recognition policy can be, not only for the student and the
school, but also for the community organisations themselves.
For example:
o
o
o
o
o
o
For students who struggle with classroom methodology,
community activities enable them to gain credit for
learning outside the classroom.
For students with literacy problems, evidence of their
learning may be assessed without reference to the
student’s writing.
For school counsellors this can be a strategy to re-engage
students at risk of leaving school early, if they can
provide evidence of appropriate learning outside of
school.
For community organisations that rely on volunteers, such
as Country Fire Service and St John Ambulance, they
believe this policy will reduce the drop-out rate of
recruits that has been a major issue when students reach
the age of senior schooling and the students stop the
volunteer training to commit to school studies.
For community organisations that provide training and
support for young people at risk, such as in the justice
system, if their training enables young people to gain
SACE units for the training, they believe the link back to
schooling as well as the perceived value of the training
are both enhanced considerably.
For local government authorities and youth agencies, this
enables them to promote their youth programs with a higher
status. This has been reported widely in the early trials,
especially in smaller towns and farming communities.
Two years ago the South Australian Government established the
Social Inclusion Unit, a cross-agency unit to address three
particular issues:
o
o
o
Declining school retention
Homelessness
Drug abuse
This includes the Department of Education and Children’s’
Services, Health Services, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs
Reconciliation and Education, the Office for Youth, the Justice
Department and SSABSA.
SSABSA works with these other agencies to identify ways of
connecting young people to schooling and community:
o
o
o
by linking into existing community and volunteer networks,
by building new networks
by promoting the recognition policy to local community
leaders who initiate and manage short and long term
programs for young people at risk.
Issues
The use of meetings as the primary focus of the assessment
process brings to attention some issues that need to be
addressed.
o
o
o
o
o
o
Confidentiality – not only does the student have the right
for the whole process to be a confidential one, but some
of the subject matter may well be personal and of a
sensitive nature.
Oral skills as a barrier – early trials indicated that
some students are much more capable than others in
communicating ideas verbally; hence the need for a variety
of methods of providing evidence.
Cultural norms impacting on judgements – assessor training
addresses the need for assessors to be aware of such
factors as ‘middle-class bias’.
Formality of the meeting – as described previously, the
intent is for the student to be the initiator, and for the
student to be the ‘story-teller’, in control of the
evidence that is presented. Furthermore the school is
encouraged to make the experience a positive one for
student.
Resource impact - there is no doubt that recognizing
informal learning is a resource-intensive process, and
schools need to think about the extent to which they can
provide staff to support this. Possibly regionally-based
assessors will be the most economically feasible strategy
to minimize resource impact, yet provide a satisfactory
level of service for all schools.
Will it reach the most-at-risk? See below.
Evaluation
SSABSA will be conducting an external review of this policy in
2007. The aims of the review are to explore the extent to which
this policy
o
o
o
o
o
enables students to complete the requirements of the SACE,
particularly those students most at risk,
encourages students to re-engage with schooling,
reduces the likelihood of students disengaging with
schooling,
raises the self-esteem of students, and
contributes to community capacity building by increasing
volunteering.
Conclusion
People have long acknowledged that valuable learning occurs
‘outside of the classroom’. However the recognition of
learning ‘outside of accredited subjects’ is challenging and
thought-provoking for many.
The extent to which the wider community as well as the
education sector values this recognition is an important
consideration in the sustainability of this new approach.
References
Bateman, A. (2004). Grading: Accuracy of subject matter experts.
Paper presented at the AVETRA conference, Melbourne.
Delandshere, G., & Petrosky, A. R. (1994). Capturing teachers'
knowledge: Performance assessment. Educational Researcher,
23(5), 11-18.
Ericson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal
reports as data (Revised ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT
Press.
Leighton, J. (2004). Avoiding misconception, misuse, & missed
opportunities: The collection of verbal reports in educational
achievement testing. Educational Measurement: Issues and
Practice(Winter), 6-15.
Marzano, R. J. (2001). Designing a new taxonomy of educational
objectives. California: Corwin Press.
Messick, S. (1994). The interplay of evidence and consequences
in the validation of performance assessments. Educational
Researcher, 23(2), 13-23.
Mislevy, R. J., Steinberg, L. S., & Almond, R. G. (1999).
Evidence-centred assessment design: Educational Testing Service.
Moss, P. A. (1995). Can there be validity without reliability?
Educational Researcher, 23(2), 5-12.
Pellegrino, J. W., Chudowsky, N., Glaser, R., & (eds). (2001).
Knowing what students know: The science and design of
educational assessment. Washington: National Academy Press.
Rogers, A. (2003). What is the difference? A new critique of
adult learning and teaching. Paper presented at the NIACE,
Leicester.
Schum, D. A. (1987). Evidence and inference for the
intelligence analyst (Vol. 2). Lanham, MD: University Press of
America.
Smith, M. K. (2003). Learning theory - models, product and
process. infed
Retrieved 6/06/2005, from
www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm
Appendix 1
8 reporting categories
Volunteering
Learning that is the result of activities or services where a
student lends assistance or support to others in some way, and
thereby contributing to the local or wider community. These
activities, or services, are undertaken without monetary gain.
This can occur either within the framework of community
organisations or groups, or as individuals working outside of
organisations. Typically, the activities that would be
recognised in this category deal with learning that is a result
of assuming particular roles and responsibilities in the local
or wider community, often guided under the auspices of
community organisations. Examples include caregiver, SA Country
Fire Service*, St John Ambulance Australia*, Mentor, Royal Life
Saving Society of Australia*, Meals on Wheels Inc.
Community Development
Learning that is a result of activities where a student’s
collaboration or participation with others leads, or aims to
lead, to benefit an aspect of the local or broader community.
The focus of this learning is the taking of action that leads
to a benefit for the community. This learning may be the
result of one one-off or ongoing projects or activities,
undertaken individually, or with local, national, or
international organisations, local, state, or federal
government, and other agencies. Examples include: Youth
Parliament, Community arts, Trees for Life, a community
project, and cultural learning.
Self development
Learning that is the result of activities or programs where the
student develops knowledge and skills in order to function
positively in society. The practical or personal skills that are
developed may include, for example, planning, time management,
organising, and communication and taking responsibility. Often,
the knowledge and skills that are developed are a result of
community-based programs under the auspices of community
organisations. Examples of activities that can be recognised
under this category are: Guides SA*, Scouts Australia*, Duke of
Edinburgh’s Scheme*, Australian Air Force Cadets*, and Personal
skills.
Independent Living
Learning that is a result of activities where the student
learns about community resources and how to access them in
order to support or manage his or her independence. This may
include community resources in federal, state, local government
and non-government agencies. Examples of activities that can be
recognised under this category are:
o
o
Living skills
Self-management skills
Performance
Learning that is a result of activities that develop a
student’s skills in presentation and performance. Typically,
activities include the performance of music, art, drama,
reading to another person, small group, or public audience.
Examples include: Australian Music Examination Board*, Trinity
College London*, Australian Guild of Music & Speech*, Dance
performance, Dramatic performance, Public speaking, and
Musical performance.
*These have already been recognised by SSABSA
Sports Skills and Management
Learning that is a result of activities that enable the student
to develop knowledge and skills acquired through playing,
coaching, officiating, or managing sport. Examples include:
sports performance, sports coach, sports umpire, sports
trainer, sports management.
Recreation Skills and management
Learning that is a result of activities that enable the student
to develop knowledge and skills acquired through a personal
hobby or interest, working with others in a shared recreational
(non-sport) interest. Examples include:
o
o
o
Recreational pursuits
Personal enrichment
Event management.
Work Skills
Learning that is a result of activities that enable the student
to develop vocational competencies (including those that enable
transitions between learning, work and other life roles) and
the ability to reflect on them. Examples include part-time
work, employability skills, workplace responsibility, career
skills development, career planning.