SYM033
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Singapore
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy

SYM033a : Informing the practice on the school-wide
implementation of the Performance Task as an
alternative assessment.
By Mary George CHERIYAN

SYM033b : Teacher perception and attitudes towards
the design and implementation of the Performance
Task as an alternative assessment.
By Puay Lan CHUA, Lucille

SYM033c : Student motivation and achievement in the
Performance Task.
By Christopher SLATTER
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Thinking Schools
Learning Nation
(1997)
I&E
Teacher
Teach Less
Learn More
(2004)
The journey so far?
Quality of
Interaction
Learner
3
Goals/ Outcomes
Pedagogy
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Assessment
Holistic Assessment
2010
School-based Science
Practical Assessment
C21st Skills
Higher order thinking
Information communication
National Education
1997
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Project work
GCE A level
2003
2004
Aims of exploring new ways to assess


Empower students to thinking more
deeply about the Math they are learning
Provide teachers with information to
revise and redirect their teaching
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Homework
Class Tests
Semestral
Exams
Where are we?
Project
work
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Other
Assessment
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•
•
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Problem solving tasks
Investigation
Projects
Journals
Conferences
Portfolios
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
• Oral presentations
• Class discussions
• Observation
• Peer-directed
• Self-directed
• Teacher-directed
External
Agencies
Knowledge
& Skills
Self
assessment
Progress
World
TRENDS
in Assessment
Sole Reliance
On answers
Multiple
Sources
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Solutions
Feedback
On-going process
• Involving the partnership of both
teacher and students
• In making judgment about the
student’s progress
• Using non-conventional strategies
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
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Problem solving tasks
Investigation
Projects
Journals
Oral presentations
Interviews
Portfolios
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
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Class discussions
Observations
Checklists
Peer assessment
Self assessment
Student-generated items
Technological
•Measurement
•Knowledge
•Skills
Cultural
•Interpretation
•Integration
Political
•Power
•Authority
•Competing interests
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy

SYM033a : Informing the practice on the school-wide
implementation of the Performance Task as an
alternative assessment.
By Mary George CHERIYAN

SYM033b : Teacher perception and attitudes towards
the design and implementation of the Performance
Task as an alternative assessment.
By Puay Lan CHUA, Lucille

SYM033c : Student motivation and achievement in the
Performance Task.
By Christopher SLATTER
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Presented at the Redesigning Pedagogy Conference, June 2011
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy


Culture of informed practice: Teachers
integrate their experience, judgement and
knowledge with current, relevant and reliable
research.
Reflective Practice: habit of inquiring and
investigating a problem situation in order to
understand how to frame a solution (Schon,
1983,87)
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
This way of thinking is likely to instill in
teachers the following attributes:



Open-mindedness (Dewey, 1933)
Sense of responsibility
Motivation (Loughran, 2002)
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Key ideas
The divide between academic and
teacher research
 Legitimacy of the knowledge
production by school-based inquiries
 The teachers’ voice
(Zeichner, 1995)

Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Performance tasks are based on real world situations in
which the student creates products and/or performances
that demonstrate her key understandings of the big ideas
in the topic.
Students apply higher order thinking to synthesize their
knowledge of content and acquisition of skills to offer
solutions and perspectives on the given issue. They may
do so through divergent products that are appropriate to
the context and their learning styles. The rubric lists the
criteria that describe the standards by which their
product/performance is assessed.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
1.
Multiple measures of learning (Eisner, 1999), Tomlinson
& McTighe, 2006)
2.
Demonstration of critical thinking ( Howell, Brocato,
Paterson, Bridges, 1999; Foo and Fan, 2007)
3.
Requires content mastery & conceptual understanding
(MacLellan, 2004)
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy

Alignment to the Integrated Curriculum Model
(Baska, 1987)

The RGS Assessment Framework
Time-based Assessments
Applied understandings
Applied understandings
-Performance
Tasks
-Performance Tasks
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Growth over time
-Journal and Portfolios
1.
2.
3.
Reliability and validity of school-constructed
performance tasks: Focus on Secondary maths
What are teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, selfefficacy and their pedagogical practices in
designing and implementing the performance
task? How are they related with one another?
What are students’ motivation and their
achievement in the performance task? How are
they related with one another?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Teacher perception and attitudes towards
the design and implementation of the
Performance Task
as an alternative assessment
(a CRPP-RGS PeRL Research Project)
SYM033b
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What do you understand by the term,
‘Performance Task’?
Was this new assessment initiative been
clearly communicated to you? Is it a
practical move?
How accurate (valid and reliable) are
performance tasks, compared to other
forms of assessments, in gauging
students’ understanding of a topic?
Do you vary your pedagogy according to
the type of assessments planned, pen
and paper assessment (PPA)
or
performance task (PT)?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What form of mentoring do you provide your
students with as they embark on their
performance tasks?
Which, PPA or PT, provides students with
more opportunities to demonstrate their
critical thinking and/or creative thinking?
How competent are you in designing a
performance
task?
How
can
your
competency be further developed?
What are the challenges that you faced in
the design of performance task? How did
you overcome your challenges ?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Understanding of Performance Task
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Encourage creativity - create product (2)
Extend student learning beyond the classroom
Demonstrate understanding (3)
Involve critical thinking skills
Challenging
Project work (PW) or alternative assessment (AA)
Audience (3)
Role
Authenticity (9) - transfer or application of learning
Communication of Performance Task
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PT design meetings – collaborative work
Inferences made about structure
Learn by doing…. look at past PTs, modify, adapt or create (5)
Dialogues on the multi-layered concept among teachers (3)
Workshops: Induction workshop(2) or PeRL PT workshop(2)
Draw parallels - similar to authentic transfer task in
Understanding by Design (UbD) workbook
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Practicality of Performance Task as an Alternative Assessment
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Feasible
Individualism (2)
Meaningful and engaging
Process of discovering and uncovering (3)
Assessment beyond the classroom; PPA and textbooks
would not be seen as a ‘be-all’ and ‘end-all’ in learning
Authentic scenarios (2)
Challenging Raffles Programme (RP) curriculum
“Assessment chore”
Asia Pacific study on International Baccalaureate (IB) –
intensive drilling carried out in Years 5 and 6
Recognition and acceptance of PT by overseas universities
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Accuracy of Performance Task in Gauging Understanding
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Fairness - assess different abilities and skills (3)
Use of assessment rubrics
Benchmarking
Transfer or application of learning (3)
Alignment to learner’s outcomes
Validation: internal and external
Pedagogical Approaches and Assessment Modes
• Built-in PT Prep (3)
• Show relevant examples or tasks
• PPA - chalk and board talk on the answer structure (2),
PT - idea exploration and standards (in rubrics)
• Understanding by Design (UbD) framework
- alignment of assessment and pedagogy to learner’s outcomes
• Status quo
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Mentoring of Students in PT
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Level of mentoring depends on class character
Similar form of guidance
Set benchmarks
Audio-visual Aids and digital resources
Task outline
Coaching @ two levels – task requirement and level of
development
Demonstration of Critical Thinking and/or Creative Thinking
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Multi-dimensional exploration of task
Creativity in product design (4)
Measurement of creative thinking is a challenge
Regulate scale of product (2)
Higher order thinking skills like evaluation and decision-making(4)
Evidence of deep critical thinking – looking at perspectives
Variations in approach to task
No model answer
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Level of Competency in PT design and Competency Development
• “Good at, but not an expert on”
• Begin with the end in mind – key understandings and
nature of product
• Learn on the job or learn by doing (5)
• Open-mindedness and receptive – continuous learning (3)
• Collaboration (2)
• Professional dialogues and sharing (3)
• PT Guidelines
Challenges in PT design and Overcoming the Challenges
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Learner’s outcomes – dimensions of learning
Nature of product
Assessment rubrics (3) – wording and standards
Key understanding
Bench-marking and objective grading
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
High level of awareness on the existence of a STRUCTURE
for PT design - GRASPS
G
R
A
S
P
S
real world GOAL
real world ROLE
real world AUDIENCE
real world SITUATION
real world PRODUCTS or PERFORMANCE
Standards Criteria to judge product or performance
Unevenness in the articulation of the meaning of PT
Organisational communication of the rationale and
objectives of PT is somewhat overlooked as teachers
have uncovered and understood the idea of PT through
self-discovery, collaborative work, professional discourse
and workshops
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Generally very supportive of the idea of PT as an
alternative assessment as it
i. caters to individuality
ii. supports the challenging Raffles Programme (RP)
curriculum
iii. equips students with the 21st century competencies
PTs have been viewed as an ‘assessment chore’
Low level of acceptance of PTs as an indicator of academic
achievement by overseas universities
PTs do provide a valid measure of the intended student’s
outcomes. However the element of reliability is difficult to
determine as the nature and form of PTs change on a
yearly basis.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Slight to moderate variations in teaching pedagogy; it’s
task dependent as well as subject dependent.
Teacher-involvement in the student learning process;
some forms of teacher guidance, coaching and
facilitation are provided.
Clear thought processes reflected in the design of PT
- begin with the end in mind, and
- mindful of a STRUCURE
Encourage critical thinking (higher-order thinking skills)
and creative thinking (ideas and products).
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
2The teachers, as assessors, take responsibility for
their assessment design. They believe in learning by
doing and they commit themselves to continuous
learning to enhance their competency in the design of
PTs.
1The teachers are very positive about the use of PTs as
an alternative mode of assessment. They recognise and
acknowledge the value of PTs, especially in equipping
the students with the 21st century competency.
1TKey challenge – crafting of assessment rubrics
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
1.
Communicate with clarity, concreteness and
completeness to the teachers the idea of PT as
effective communication is a necessity to
successfully promote a shared vision.
2. Provide
i. PT training workshop, conducted either by Alberta
Assessment Consortium (AAC) or RGS PeRL, for
teachers so that
there is a common understanding
among the teachers, and
ii. greater infrastructure support e.g. provide a rubric
construction kit that comprises a rubric checklist and a
list of rubric vocabulary.
3. Encourage the development of a Professional Learning
Community, where dyadic communication, sharing and
support prevails, for PT design.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
4.
i.
ii.
End-of-year departmental review of PTs to
fine-tune and improve the quality of existing
PTs. (Students’ inputs can be sought.)
ensure the validity and reliability of PT as an
assessment tool by using a set of PT
assessment rubrics.
5. Validate PT as an alternative assessment so that
overseas universities would recognise and
accept the validity and reliability of PT as a
measure of student achievement in RGS in their
admission exercise.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
The Students’ Voice
Student Motivation and Achievement
in the Performance Task
SYM033c
Chris Slatter
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Introduction
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
The Ministry of Education recognized that nearly all
students from the top schools in Singapore progressed to
university.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
The Ministry of Education recognized that nearly all
students from the top schools in Singapore progressed to
university.
It was rationalized that these high ability students should
not be required to sit O' Level examinations, but should be
offered an enriched secondary school curriculum.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
The Ministry of Education recognized that nearly all
students from the top schools in Singapore progressed to
university.
It was rationalized that these high ability students should
not be required to sit O' Level examinations, but should be
offered an enriched secondary school curriculum.
This is the origin of the Raffles Programme.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
Best practices in gifted education recommend that the
teaching and assessment of high ability students should be
aligned with their learning style as well as their interests.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
Best practices in gifted education recommend that the
teaching and assessment of high ability students should be
aligned with their learning style as well as their interests.
This means using a range of pedagogies to teach the
students both inside and outside of the classroom, but what
about assessments?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
Best practices in gifted education recommend that the
teaching and assessment of high ability students should be
aligned with their learning style as well as their interests.
This means using a range of pedagogies to teach the
students both inside and outside of the classroom, but what
about assessments?
Performance tasks give students some degree of autonomy
through choice of topics and allow students to present
evidence of their understanding in a variety of different
ways.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
A Brief History of Performance Tasks at
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
The structure of a performance task...
G - real world Goal
R - real world Role
A - real world Audience
S - real world Situation
P - real world Products and Performance
S - Standards criteria to judge product and performance
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Compare and Contrast...
1) Alternative Assessment.
2) Authentic Transfer Task.
3) Performance Task.
Conducting Research into
Performance Tasks:
The Students’ Voice
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conceptual
Framework
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conceptual
Framework
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conceptual
Framework
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What Does the Literature Have to Say About
Performance Tasks?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What Does the Literature Have to Say About
Performance Tasks?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What Does the Literature Have to Say About
Performance Tasks?
Performance tasks tend to be used as an instrument to
identify minority gifted / underrepresented gifted
populations.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What Does the Literature Have to Say About
Performance Tasks?
Performance tasks tend to be used as an instrument to
identify minority gifted / underrepresented gifted
populations.
Performance tasks tend to be used as a formative
assessment (assessment for learning).
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
What Does the Literature Have to Say About
Performance Tasks?
Performance tasks tend to be used as an instrument to
identify minority gifted / underrepresented gifted
populations.
Performance tasks tend to be used as a formative
assessment (assessment for learning).
There is little evidence that performance tasks are used as
summative assessments (assessment of learning).
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Hypothesis
Performance tasks enable teachers and students to
achieve learning goals that are less accessible by
traditional assessments.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Research Question
How effective are performance tasks as an alternative form
of assessment?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Mixed methods design (sequential exploratory strategy).
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Mixed methods design (sequential exploratory strategy).
Focus group interviews conducted with students
(purposeful stratified sample - Year 1 to Year 4 Class
Chairpersons, n = 40).
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Mixed methods design (sequential exploratory strategy).
Focus group interviews conducted with students
(purposeful stratified sample - Year 1 to Year 4 Class
Chairpersons, n = 40).
Interviews are coded, and qualitative data is extracted.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Mixed methods design (sequential exploratory strategy).
Focus group interviews conducted with students
(purposeful stratified sample - Year 1 to Year 4 Class
Chairpersons, n = 40).
Interviews are coded, and qualitative data is extracted.
Qualitative data is used to design a survey for the collection
of quantitative data from all students.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Mixed methods design (sequential exploratory strategy).
Focus group interviews conducted with students
(purposeful stratified sample - Year 1 to Year 4 Class
Chairpersons, n = 40).
 Interviews are coded, and qualitative data is extracted. 
Qualitative data is used to design a survey for the collection
of quantitative data from all students.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Methodology
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Seeing examples of good and bad products would be
useful.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Seeing examples of good and bad products would be
useful.
Setting students deadlines for certain key stages of the
performance task would be useful for Year 1 students. The
deadlines can be phased out as the students progress
through to Year 4.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Seeing examples of good and bad products would be
useful.
Setting students deadlines for certain key stages of the
performance task would be useful for Year 1 students. The
deadlines can be phased out as the students progress
through to Year 4.
The overall percentage that the performance task is worth
should reflect the amount of work that is required to
complete it.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Seeing examples of good and bad products would be
useful.
Setting students deadlines for certain key stages of the
performance task would be useful for Year 1 students. The
deadlines can be phased out as the students progress
through to Year 4.
The overall percentage that the performance task is worth
should reflect the amount of work that is required to
complete it.
Deadlines for performance tasks overlap.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
There is the danger that students just "copy and paste"
information into their performance tasks without critically
evaluating the data.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
There is the danger that students just "copy and paste"
information into their performance tasks without critically
evaluating the data.
There should be peer evaluation of each student's work.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
There is the danger that students just "copy and paste"
information into their performance tasks without critically
evaluating the data.
There should be peer evaluation of each student's work.
How to deal with students who do not do their fair share of
the group component of the performance task?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
There is the danger that students just "copy and paste"
information into their performance tasks without critically
evaluating the data.
There should be peer evaluation of each student's work.
How to deal with students who do not do their fair share of
the group component of the performance task?
It is unfair to assess students on skills that they are
unfamiliar with, for example, video editing. This also gives
girls who have a video camera at home an unfair
advantage.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
The aesthetic qualities of a performance task should not be
assessed.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
The aesthetic qualities of a performance task should not be
assessed.
The performance task should only cover topics that have
been studied in class.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
The aesthetic qualities of a performance task should not be
assessed.
The performance task should only cover topics that have
been studied in class.
Girls argue that it is unfair to give them scenarios that they
are completely unfamiliar with, but this is required to some
extent in order to make the performance task authentic.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Some performance tasks are valuable because they are
aligned with the curriculum. The performance task is a
natural progression of the topic being taught. Other
performance tasks are very artificial. They are "done
because they need to be done" and for no other apparent
reason.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Some performance tasks are valuable because they are
aligned with the curriculum. The performance task is a
natural progression of the topic being taught. Other
performance tasks are very artificial. They are "done
because they need to be done" and for no other apparent
reason.
Rubrics can be quite subjective. It would be better if they
were more detailed.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Some performance tasks are valuable because they are
aligned with the curriculum. The performance task is a
natural progression of the topic being taught. Other
performance tasks are very artificial. They are "done
because they need to be done" and for no other apparent
reason.
Rubrics can be quite subjective. It would be better if they
were more detailed.
Students should be randomly grouped for each
performance task by their teacher.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks are a more interesting form of
assessment as compared to pen-and-paper assessments.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks are a more interesting form of
assessment as compared to pen-and-paper assessments.
Performance tasks give students who are not good at
pen-and-paper assessments an opportunity to demonstrate
their understanding.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks are a more interesting form of
assessment as compared to pen-and-paper assessments.
Performance tasks give students who are not good at
pen-and-paper assessments an opportunity to demonstrate
their understanding.
Performance tasks give students the opportunity to be
creative in terms of the process and the product.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks are a more interesting form of
assessment as compared to pen-and-paper assessments.
Performance tasks give students who are not good at
pen-and-paper assessments an opportunity to demonstrate
their understanding.
Performance tasks give students the opportunity to be
creative in terms of the process and the product.
Performance tasks allow students to “play to their
strengths” in terms of the process and product.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks allow students to find solutions to
authentic problems.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks allow students to find solutions to
authentic problems.
Performance tasks are interesting because they are framed
in a real world scenario.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks allow students to find solutions to
authentic problems.
Performance tasks are interesting because they are framed
in a real world scenario.
Performance tasks give students the opportunity to work in
groups. Preparation for the work place?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Performance tasks allow students to find solutions to
authentic problems.
Performance tasks are interesting because they are framed
in a real world scenario.
Performance tasks give students the opportunity to work in
groups. Preparation for the work place?
Some teachers go through the rubrics, clarifying,
elaborating and explaining.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Results - What Did the Students Say?
Students study a topic in more detail when they are
assessed by performance task. They read more deeply into
the subject.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conclusions
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conclusions
Limitations of the performance task appear to be grounded
in the technical details of its implementation. For example,
deadlines, duration and mark allocation.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conclusions
Limitations of the performance task appear to be grounded
in the technical details of its implementation. For example,
deadlines, duration and mark allocation.
Some issues centred around pedagogy were raised. For
example, some – but not all – teachers will discuss the
grading rubric with their students. This needs to be
addressed at a schoolwide level.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Conclusions
Limitations of the performance task appear to be grounded
in the technical details of its implementation. For example,
deadlines, duration and mark allocation.
Some issues centred around pedagogy were raised. For
example, some – but not all – teachers will discuss the
grading rubric with their students. This needs to be
addressed at a schoolwide level.
In general, the students recognise the importance of
performance tasks and are able to verbalise this. Their
feedback is in general agreement with the pedagogical
objectives of performance tasks as stated in the literature.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Recognised Limitations
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Recognised Limitations
Small sample size. The 40 students who participated in the
focus group interviews are only a small percentage of the
entire cohort of ca. 1800 students.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Recognised Limitations
Small sample size. The 40 students who participated in the
focus group interviews are only a small percentage of the
entire cohort of ca. 1800 students.
The students that were interviewed were the class
chairpersons. Are they typical students whose opinions
reflect those of their peers?
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Recognised Limitations
Small sample size. The 40 students who participated in the
focus group interviews are only a small percentage of the
entire cohort of ca. 1800 students.
The students that were interviewed were the class
chairpersons. Are they typical students whose opinions
reflect those of their peers?
Just because a student (or anybody for that matter) says
something, does not make it true!
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Further Research
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Further Research
To address the recognised limitations of the qualitative
study, items that have been coded from the students’ focus
group interviews will be translated into survey questions
that will be given out for all students to complete.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy
Further Research
To address the recognised limitations of the qualitative
study, items that have been coded from the students’ focus
group interviews will be translated into survey questions
that will be given out for all students to complete.
Numerical data obtained from the survey will be statistically
analysed, thus giving a mixture of both qualitative and
quantitative information. This will allow (confident)
recommendations to be made to both the school’s teachers
and student population with regards to performance tasks.
Uncovering Wisdom Through Pedagogy