Preparing students for Scholarship

NZACT Conference July 2011Megan Peterson

What is scholarship?

• Scholarship provides recognition and monetary reward to top students in their last year of schooling. Scholarship exams enable candidates to be assessed against challenging standards, and are demanding for the most able candidates in each subject.

• Scholarship candidates are expected to demonstrate high-level critical thinking, abstraction and generalisation, and to integrate, synthesise and apply knowledge, skills, understanding and ideas to complex situations.– http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/

awards/scholarship/

The financial incentive

Awards values:

$10,000 pa for 3 yearsPremier Award (For the very top 5 to 10 candidates who get at least three Scholarships at Outstanding level):

$5,000 pa for 3 yearsOutstanding Scholar Award (Minimum of 3 Scholarships with at least 2 at ‘Outstanding’ level or more than 3 Scholarships with at least 1 at Outstanding level):

$2,000 pa for 3 yearsTop Subject Scholar Award (Top candidates in each subject):

$2,000 pa for 3 yearsScholarship Award (Three Scholarship subjects):

$500 per subjectSingle Subject Awards (Scholarship in up to two subjects):

Eligibility to sit and fees• Any student who is enrolled in a New Zealand

secondary school with consent to assess• The NZQA fee includes up to three scholarship

subjects – additional fees apply for four or more subjects

• International fee-paying students are eligible but have to pay $102.50 per scholarship subject entered

• To be eligible to receive a scholarship award, the student must be enrolled in tertiary study in New Zealand for the years in which they receive monetary awards. For awards with second or subsequent year payments recipients must maintain a 'B' grade average during their tertiary study in New Zealand

Classical Studies Scholarship

• StandardClassicalStudiesScholarship[1].doc

Selecting students

• Check the school policy (if there is one) regarding enrolment

• Discuss workload and expectations with students

• Use the performance criteria to evaluate students’ aptitude

• Start process before the NZQA cut off for enrolments

A scholarship candidate

• A Scholarship Student.docx

Approaches to preparation• Shift onus from teacher driven to a

more collaborative approach with the teacher as the facilitator

• Have an annual plan for the approach• Be realistic in terms of workload – for

most teachers scholarship preparation is voluntary and additional to timetabled classes

• Use online tools (Google docs, Moodle, Facebook etc.) to get students to record and discuss their understanding of the topic

Resources

• The NZQA recommended reading list– classics_scholreadinglist_14apr05.doc

• National Library resources• Articles – Bulletin, Omnibus,

selections • Websites – livius.org, edu sites, • Videos and DVDs – youtube • Podcasts and iTunes U

– Scholarship 2011 listening list.doc

iTunes U

Programme planning

• Need to address all three topics • Should allow students time to

read widely on the topics, discuss new ideas with the teacher and each other and practice their discursive writing skills

• Needs to be manageable for the teacher (and the students)

Marking scholarship

• Mark for style• Mark for meaning and

understanding• Use the performance descriptors

to provide feedback and feed forward

• Allocating a mark out of 8 could initially be problematic

The importance of exams

• Students need to practice writing Scholarship essays under exam conditions

• Set an end of year Scholarship exam (if possible) in your exam slot

• Mark this numerically (our of 8) and holistically against the performance descriptors

Help and support for teachers and students

• Local university days• Invite lecturers / postgraduate

students to speak• Participate in local Classics

association events• Collaborative approach

between schools

Questions / concerns /

issues?