Rationale
What is a science exemplar?
A science exemplar is a sample of authentic student work annotated to illustrate learning, achievement, and quality in relation to levels 1 to 5 of Science in the New Zealand Curriculum.
Using the science exemplar materials
The science exemplars and their associated matrices of progress indicators will:
- help teachers to assess for learning in their everyday classroom interactions
- help students and teachers to identify the next learning steps
- guide schools in relating the performance of their students to the curriculum levels.
The diagrams in "Ways of using the matrices and exemplars" suggest some ways of using this assessment tool to achieve better learning for students.
The science exemplars aim to help teachers answer the question "When you are teaching science to your class, what do you want your students to learn?" Each exemplar indicates the intended outcomes for the learning it describes and relates these outcomes to one or more "big ideas" in science.
Development of the science exemplars
The science exemplars and matrices are based on Science in the New Zealand Curriculum and the science education literature. See Links between the matrices and Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, which sets out the relationship of the science matrices to the curriculum strands and the general aims of science education. The exemplars were generated in the course of science teaching sequences or units and are drawn from a wide sampling of New Zealand classrooms. The selected exemplars were chosen because they:
- demonstrate assessment for learning in action
- illustrate some effective teaching approaches in science
- are interesting samples of work and have the potential to stimulate discussion among teachers, students, and parents.
The four science matrices
The four science matrices of progress indicators cover key areas in which students need to develop in order to learn about science. The four matrices are:
Developing Interest and Relating Scientific Learning to the Wider World
This matrix (A) focuses on the development of students' interest in science and the environment and their willingness to debate issues related to science, including the role that science plays in societies. While progress indicators for most of the key aspects of learning on this matrix are set out as progressions from level 1 to level 5, the key aspect of "experiencing and showing awe, wonder, and interest" is shown as common to all five levels.
Investigating in Science
This matrix (B) focuses on students' ability to learn independently and to carry out investigations to answer their own questions.
Thinking in Scientific Ways
This matrix (C) focuses on students' ability to construct their own understandings through scientific discussion with others.
Developing and Communicating Scientific Understanding
This matrix (D) relates to the students' ability to explain events and phenomena using accepted scientific ideas.
Matrices B, C, and D each include an overall progression that broadly summarises the ideas set out in more detail in the indicators for each matrix.
Using the matrices
In most units of science learning, teachers will wish to focus on one or two of the areas covered by the matrices, particularly those areas in which they want their students to achieve improved performance. All four areas should be covered over time.
The matrix indicators apply to any science topic and describe qualities that can be seen in many different learning contexts and types of student work in science. The key aspects of learning (listed on the left-most column of each matrix) can be seen and encouraged in students' written work and in everyday classroom interactions.
Progress indicators from different matrices are likely to overlap each other in observed practice. For example, when students suggest their own explanations for observations or events, they may show evidence of thinking in scientific ways (matrix C), but they may simultaneously demonstrate their understanding of and ability to use accepted scientific ideas (matrix D).
Matrix levels and progressions
Although the matrices imply linear (sequential) progression, students' work does not necessarily progress in this way. For example, students may be capable of grasping quite advanced scientific concepts but find it more difficult to communicate their understanding, or they may achieve a particularly high level in one aspect of their work as a result of their strong personal interest in the topic.
In the science exemplars, it is not unusual for a student's work to match one or more indicators for a different level to the "best fit" level of the whole exemplar. (On the What the Work Shows pages, where a quoted indicator is a different level to the overall level of the exemplar, the higher or lower level is indicated in brackets after the indicator.)
A small number of the science exemplars straddle two levels, for example, the level 2–3 exemplar What Makes the Wind Blow? Samantha, in this exemplar, is evaluated at level 2, moving strongly towards level 3, for Thinking in Scientific Ways. She is evaluated as achieving level 3 for Developing and Communicating Scientific Understanding, even though her use of scientific vocabulary is still more at level 2. The connections to the achievement objectives (AOs) in the section Curriculum Links for such exemplars also reflect the student's spread of ability.
Teachers will use their professional judgment, as well as the information gained from diagnostic assessment, in deciding what progress indicators in any of the four science matrices best describe their students' work.
Content knowledge and contexts for learning
Matrix D: Developing and Communicating Scientific Understanding, implicitly raises the question of specific content knowledge (science concepts or ideas) and the contexts for such science learning.
The range of possible science content knowledge is vast; a recurring issue in science education is what ideas to include and what to leave out. Each exemplar makes a connection to several relevant "big ideas" in science.
The foreword to Science in the New Zealand Curriculum indicates "the need for initial learning in science to be set within contexts which are meaningful to students" (page 5), a perspective that is reinforced on pages 17 and 18 in Contexts for Learning. The curriculum does not prescribe such contexts but suggests "possible" learning experiences. The science exemplars represent a rich selection of authentic contexts for science learning and possible learning experiences that "are appropriate to students and which reflect local community characteristics and resources" (Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 18).
Many primary teaching contexts are open-ended. Students are encouraged to pursue their own interests and their own investigations, building from a particular starting point. Thus, the understandings students develop may cover a range of topics and concepts.
The relationship of science concepts to learning contexts is, in reality, rather complex. Concepts such as "life cycle" or "adaptation" could be linked to any number of different contexts, including ponds, waste areas, gardens, rocky shores, birds, stream life, and insects. The knowledge that students need to have is very different in each of these contexts. For example, birds and mosses have very different needs and react in very different ways to their environments. "Life cycle" applies to both birds and mosses, but it is a concept at a very high level of generality, which may become relevant and make sense to students only after several teaching units on living things. It is unlikely to be a useful goal for an introductory Living World study.
The Building Science Concepts series provides a structured approach to the teaching of science concepts, helping teachers to develop students' understandings from simple to more complex scientific ideas and to relate these ideas to students' existing understandings of the world around them. The key concepts in individual books build towards a major concept or "big idea." Teachers can use this series to complement the science exemplar materials. (See Resources for a further note on the series.)
The availability of the science exemplars
Online
The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars
View all the exemplar materials, including the 46 science exemplars, the science teachers' notes, and the four science matrices.
PDF format is available for printing the online versions.
In print
Twenty of the 46 science exemplars, the science teachers' notes, and the four science matrices are available in the print set.
Print version of science teachers' notes (PDF, 202kb)
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