Using formative assessment rubrics in Ethical Capability · Web viewUse Action 1, Explores stakeholders and the views on ethical obligation, and Action 2, Explains decision making

Using formative assessment rubrics in Ethical Capability

Ethical decision-making Levels 5 to 8

Authorised and published by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment AuthorityLevel 7, 2 Lonsdale StreetMelbourne VIC 3000

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ContentsWhat is formative assessment?.........................................................................................................4

Using formative assessment rubrics in schools..............................................................................4

The formative assessment rubric...................................................................................................5

Links to the Victorian Curriculum F–10...................................................................................5

The formative assessment task......................................................................................................7

Description of the task (administration guidelines)..................................................................7

Interpreting evidence of student learning...........................................................................................9

Setting the scene............................................................................................................................9

Sample 1...................................................................................................................................10

Sample 1: Evidence of student learning................................................................................10

Any feedback given...............................................................................................................11

Sample 2...................................................................................................................................12



Sample 3...................................................................................................................................14



Using evidence to plan for future teaching and learning..................................................................16

Teacher reflections...........................................................................................................................16

Appendix 1: Consequences, duties and obligations........................................................................17


What is formative assessment?Formative assessment is any assessment that is used to improve teaching and learning. Best-practice formative assessment uses a rigorous approach in which each step of the assessment process is carefully thought through.

Assessment is a three-step process by which evidence is collected, interpreted and used. By definition, the final step of formative assessment requires a use that improves teaching and learning.

For the best results, teachers can work together to interrogate the curriculum and use their professional expertise and knowledge of their students to outline a learning continuum including a rubric of measurable, user-friendly descriptions of skills and knowledge. Teachers can draw on this learning continuum and rubric to decide how to collect evidence of each student’s current learning in order to provide formative feedback and understand what they are ready to learn next.

The VCAA’s Guide to Formative Assessment Rubrics outlines how to develop a formative assessment rubric to collect, interpret and use evidence of student learning to plan teaching and learning. For more information about formative assessment and to access a copy of the guide, please go to the Formative Assessment section of the VCAA website.

Using formative assessment rubrics in schoolsThis document is based on the material developed by one group of teachers in the 2019 Formative Assessment Rubrics project. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority partnered with the Assessment Research Centre, University of Melbourne, to provide professional learning for teachers interested in strengthening their understanding and use of formative assessment rubrics.

This resource includes a sample formative assessment rubric, a description of a task/activity undertaken to gather evidence of learning, and annotated student work samples.

Schools have flexibility in how they choose to use this resource, including as:

a model that they adapt to suit their own teaching and learning plans a resource to support them as they develop their own formative assessment rubrics and

tasks.

This resource is not an exemplar.

Additional support and advice on high-quality curriculum planning is available from the Curriculum Planning Resource.

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http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/aboutus/policies/policy-copyright.aspx

http://curriculumplanning.vcaa.vic.edu.au/


The formative assessment rubricThe rubric in this document was developed to help inform teaching and learning in Ethical Capability. This rubric supports the explicit teaching of the decision making and actions strand of Ethical Capability across Levels 5 to 8. Its specific focus is to assess students’ ability to examine ethical issues within particular approaches to ethical decision-making.

Links to the Victorian Curriculum F–10

Curriculum area: Ethical Capability

Strand: Decision Making and Actions

Levels/Bands: Levels 5 to 8

Achievement standard/s extract: Levels 5 and 6:

They explain different ways to respond to ethical problems and identify issues related to these.

Levels 7 and 8:

Students… explain different views on the extent of ethical obligation and analyse their implications for the consequences of and duties involved in ethical decision-making and action.

Content Description/s: Levels 5 and 6:

Explore the significance of ‘means versus ends’ by considering two ways to act when presented with a problem: one that privileges means and one ends (VCECD012).

Levels 7 and 8:

Explore the extent of ethical obligation and the implications for thinking about consequences and duties in decision-making and action (VCECD017).

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https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Curriculum/ContentDescription/VCECD017

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Curriculum/ContentDescription/VCECD012


Learning continuumEthical Capability Levels 5 to 8 Strand: Decision making and actions Focus: Applying consequences or duties based approaches to an ethical issue

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5

The student can describe stakeholder groups.

The student can identify reasons for different stakeholder perspectives.

The student can compare how people make ethical decisions.

The student can explain views on ethical obligation and explain how ethical decision-making is approached.

The student can use examples and evidence to support their analysis of ethical obligation and decision-making.

Organising element Action Insufficient evidence Quality criteria

Decision makingand actions

1. Explores stakeholders and their views on ethical obligation

1.0 Insufficient evidence 1.1 Describes perspectives of stakeholder groups.

1.2 Explains why stakeholder groups have differing perspectives.

1.3 Compares perspectives of stakeholder groups on ethical issue, taking into account underlying factors.

1.4 Explains stakeholder views on their level of obligation to those impacted by the ethical issue.

1.5 Provides supporting examples/evidence in analysis of stakeholder views on ethical obligations.

2. Explains decision making informed by consequences and/or duty based decision-making approaches

2.0 Insufficient evidence 2.1 Classifies stakeholders’ decision-making according to consequences and/or duty-based approaches.

2.2 Explains stakeholders’ decision-making according to consequences and/or duty-based approaches.

2.3 Provides examples/evidence to support explanation of stakeholders’ decision-making.

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The formative assessment taskThe following formative assessment task was developed to elicit evidence of each student’s current learning and what they are ready to learn next.

Description of the task (administration guidelines)

This task occurred in a sequence of learning that included:

Lesson 1: My ethical issues

This 50-minute lesson focused on learning about ethical decision making in order to identify ethical issues. The lesson gave an overview of the nature of ethics and ethical decision-making.

Lesson 2: Ethical issue – stakeholders and perspectives

This 50-minute lesson allowed students to delve deeper into an ethical issue about animals in captivity. The lesson covered:

What animals in captivity are and are not. Why we might keep animals in captivity. That people (stakeholders) connected to an ethical issue might have different views on

what is right and wrong according to their perspectives. How to apply ethical thinking about an ethical issue, using a prompt drawn from a

newspaper article about sharks from Australia being sent to France.

Lesson 3: Consequences and obligations

This 50-minute lesson focused on how people can apply consequences or duty-based approaches to resolve an ethical issue. The lesson covered:

how people go about their decision making is important. two ways to classify what motivates people to make decisions are consideration of

consequence and duty. a duty-based approach to making decisions prioritises means. a consequentialist approach to making decisions prioritises ends. consideration of where ethical obligation lies can influence in how people decide what to

do.

Task instructions: Pre-teaching takes place in the lessons before to prepare students for the formative

assessment activity. This task is designed to take 50-minutes. Familiarise yourself with the rubric and teacher guidelines. Explain to students that they will complete a formative assessment task in this lesson on

a new scenario, so it is important that they listen very carefully as it is read out to them. Encourage them to annotate the article as it is read to help them locate the information they will need to complete the assessment task later (5 minutes).

Read through the selected article together, allowing students to ask clarifying questions about the material if needed (10 minutes).

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Instruct students to complete the assessment task independently. Distribute the table handout and explain that they will use the note-taking tables to

identify the stakeholders, explain their perspectives and comment on their ethical obligation (20 minutes) (Appendix 1: Consequences and obligations ).

Collect the completed note-taking tables from students at the end of the lesson (5 minutes).

Use Action 1, Explores stakeholders and the views on ethical obligation, and Action 2, Explains decision making informed by consequences and/or duty based decision-making frameworks, in the rubric to identify students’ levels of competency and what they are ready to learn next.

Considerations: Students should be encouraged to self-annotate the article as it is read aloud to the

class, so they can easily go back and identify the information they have determined important to use to help them complete the task.

Students can choose to complete the note-taking tables by hand or complete a digital copy.

Students should complete the note-taking table independently with little discussion beyond task clarification from the teacher to ensure the assessment is accurate.

Evidence collected from this task

Completed student note-taking tables

Suggested articles

Teacher may use the following suggested articles, or modify the activity by selecting their own articles relevant to their teaching and learning program.

Thirty sharks captured on barrier reef and exported to France all died in captivity , Lisa Cox, The Guardian, May 15, 2019

'A more humane country': Canada to ban keeping whales, dolphins in captivity , Laura Howells, CBC news, Jun 20 2019

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mailto:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/whales-1.5169138

mailto:https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/15/thirty-sharks-captured-on-barrier-reef-and-exported-to-france-all-died-in-captivity


Interpreting evidence of student learning Evidence collected from each student was mapped against the rubric:

The quality criteria that were achieved was shaded in blue. The phase that the student is ready to learn next was shaded in green.

Please note, the following annotated student work samples are representative examples only.

Setting the sceneThese student work samples were collected from a school of approximately 1120 students located in the in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs. The college has been experiencing renewed growth in terms of student numbers in recent years, with nearly half of the students in Years 7 and 8.

This task was delivered to two groups of students – a Year 7 Science class and a Year 8 Science class. Science was selected because this is one of the subject where teachers report on Ethical Capability. Care was taken to employ literacy strategies to support students to understand any new vocabulary needed to comprehend the information covered in the task.

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Sample 1

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Sample 1: Evidence of student learning

Annotations 1.2: The student was able to explain who each stakeholder group was in relation to the

ethical issue and what their stance was.

Insufficient evidence:

2.0: The student has extended his explanation from the second column to the third column, rather than identifying what has motivated each group’s decision making.

Indirect evidence:

A learning conversation was held with the student while completing the task to prompt them to improve their explanation.

What is the student ready to learn next?

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This student understands the concept that different people/groups might approach the ethical issue differently, so he is ready to move onto Phase 3.

Any feedback given

‘You have taken steps to improve your explanation, but you have not yet been able to apply ethical thinking to examine the decisions made by these groups and classify them according to consequentialist or duty-based approaches.’

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Learning continuum Ethical Capability Levels 5 to 8 Strand: Decision making and actions Focus: Applying consequences or duties based approaches to an ethical issue








Decision making and actions













Sample 2

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Annotations 1.3: This student was able to explain who each stakeholder group was in relation to the

ethical issue, what their stance was and explored underlying factors for why they felt this way. There was an attempt made at discussing ethical obligation but the student only identified without offering explanation.

2.2: The student correctly determined stakeholders’ decisions in terms of means and ends and included explanation of why they were motivated by one or the other.


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This student is ready to begin working at Phase 4 which requires practise in explaining the concept of ethical obligation.

Any feedback given

‘You have developed a good understanding of decision-making approaches. Your next step is to think about what or who a stakeholder might care about the most and how this might influence their decision-making.’

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Sample 3

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Annotations 1.4: This student was able to accurately describe all stakeholder perspectives on the

issue. They were able to explain how Marineland sees its obligations but is not yet able to do this for all stakeholders.

Insufficient evidence:

2.0: The student attempted to classify the approaches of each stakeholder and provided supporting evidence. However they have not accurately understood consequentialist and duty-based approaches. For example what is written under the heading consequentialism is a description of a duty-based approach.


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This student is ready for Phase 3. They are ready to develop a more accurate understanding of approaches to decision-making.

Any feedback given

‘You have understood stakeholder perspectives and used evidence to back up your explanation. It is duty-based (means) approaches that just do what is perceived to be right even if there is some overall harm. In this case, we can infer that those wanting to set the animals free believe that the animals have rights that should be respected even if Marineland loses money or many people are sad that they can no longer see the animals.’

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Using evidence to plan for future teaching and learningThe student data showed that the rubric was sound and contained enough scope to support all students in these classrooms.

Teacher reflectionsAfter completing this task, it was obvious to the teaching team that there was a need to build in more time for feedback and re-teaching to address common misconceptions.

The next time we undertake this unit, we will provide students with more short practice scenarios before giving them a longer case study. We think this will help them to cement the concept of ethical motivation based on means versus ends which many of them confused.

In addition, we only glanced over the concept of ethical obligation, so these two areas would be the natural jumping off point for future learning. Finally, some task instructions needed to be modified to emphasise thinking and explanation over identification.

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Appendix 1: Consequences, duties and obligations Task: Use your knowledge of what influences ethical decisions – consequences or duties – and what obligations people making decisions might have to consider to complete the table below.

Name three stakeholders (people/groups) connected to the issue.

What does each stakeholder think is the right thing to do?

Remember you may need to make inferences to help you fill this part in.

Is this group motivated by thinking about the means (duty-based approach) or the ends (consequentialism)?

Explain why you think this if you can.

1.

2.

3.

Extension – Ethical obligation

For each stakeholder, comment on what they think they must do (obligation) because of their ethics. Again, you will need to think carefully about who they are and the actions they have taken in response to this ethical issue. You skills in inferring can help you again here.

Try to explain why you have said this is their obligation.

Write your response in the relevant box.

Stakeholder 1

Stakeholder 2

Stakeholder 3

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Documents

Using formative assessment rubrics in Ethical Capability · Web viewUse Action 1, Explores stakeholders and the views on ethical obligation, and Action 2, Explains decision making