An initiative by
Tāmaki College
in Partnership with EPIT
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In this partnership between Tāmaki College and The University of Auckland, they will design, pilot, and evaluate innovative assessment tasks for the Akomanga Kaihanga (AK) programme, focusing on NCEA Level 1 Social Sciences. These 'tasks that matter' will aim to enhance the long-term value of learning beyond traditional accreditation, improving learner engagement and motivation. This is an under-explored and under-valued focus for validity in assessment.
Tāmaki College faces an equity challenge in integrating their innovative Akomanga Kaihanga (AK) programme, which focuses on social innovation and community engagement, with the high-stakes NCEA assessment system. While AK has shown promise in developing students' critical thinking, self-regulated learning, and community engagement skills, the challenge lies in designing and validating assessment tasks that can adequately capture these valuable competencies within the NCEA framework.
Teenagers from diverse cultures naturally lean towards socially oriented learning, and assessments should support this tendency by fostering students' self-perception as contributors. The recent NZQA review of achievement standards presents an opportunity to create new assessment tools that align with curriculum goals, cater to diverse learners, and measure learning outcomes effectively.
The goal is therefore to create equitable assessment practices that recognise students' diverse strengths, foster lifelong learning, and contribute to wider societal well-being, while still meeting the credentialling requirements of discipline-based knowledge. This challenge seeks to bridge the gap between innovative, community-focused learning and traditional assessment methods, ensuring that students from all backgrounds can have their skills and contributions fairly recognised and valued.
Beginning with the revised NCEA Level 1 Social Sciences Achievement Standard 1.4, Tāmaki College will test transformative approaches to the assessment of learning associated with the AK programme. The initial investigation will be developed so that in the future, findings can be contextually applied to achievement standards incorporating NCEA Levels 1-3 (Years 11-13) across Health, Science, Social Studies, and other subject areas.
This research will challenge and present alternatives to current practices of associating achievement solely with summative results or individual gains. Embedding the concept of ‘tasks that matter’ within achievement criteria has the potential to make learning for NCEA assessment more engaging and improve motivation for learners who struggle to see the relevance of assessment to their lives and experiences.