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Using formative assessment rubrics in Critical and Creative Thinking

ReasoningLevels 3 – 8

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

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ContentsThe formative assessment rubric...................................................................................................5

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

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

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

Evidence collected from this task............................................................................................8

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

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

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

Sample 1: Evidence of student learning................................................................................12

Any feedback given...............................................................................................................13

Sample 2...................................................................................................................................14



Sample 3...................................................................................................................................18



Sample 4...................................................................................................................................22



Sample 5...................................................................................................................................24



Using evidence to plan for future teaching and learning..............................................................26

Teacher reflections.......................................................................................................................26

Appendix 1.......................................................................................................................................27


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 VCAA acknowledges the valuable contribution to this resource of the following teachers: Rebecca Irvine (Melbourne Girls College), Josephine Kengni (Parade College), Seema Maharaj (Elisabeth Murdoch College) and Emily Scott (Our Lady of Mercy College). 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


The formative assessment rubricThe rubric in this document was developed to help inform teaching and learning in Critical and Creative Thinking. This rubric supports the explicit teaching of reasoning. It is designed to enable students to show that they can:

identify an argument about a topic

identify the reasoning that supports an argument

classify common reasoning errors in arguments.

Please note that the use of persuasive device in arguments is not assessed in this rubric.

Links to the Victorian Curriculum F–10

Curriculum area: Critical and Creative Thinking

Strand: Reasoning

Levels/Bands: Level 3 to Level 8

Achievement standard/s extract: Levels 3 and 4:

Students describe and structure arguments with clearly identified aims, premises and conclusions.

Levels 5 and 6:

Distinguish between valid and sound arguments and between deductive and inductive reasoning.

Levels 7 and 8:

They explain and apply a range of techniques to test the strength of arguments.

Content Description/s: Levels 3 and 4:

Examine and use the structure of a basic argument, with an aim, reasons and conclusion to present a point of view (VCCCTR014).

Levels 5 and 6:

Examine the difference between valid and sound arguments and between inductive and deductive reasoning, and their degrees of certainty (VCCCTR027).

© VCAA


https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Search?q=VCCCTR027



Levels 7 and 8:

Examine common reasoning errors including circular arguments and cause and effect fallacies (VCCCTR035).

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Learning continuumCritical and Creative ThinkingLevels 3 – 8Strand: Reasoning

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6

Students can identify a contention associated with an argument.

Students can identify reasons that attempt to support the contention.

Students can identify strong and weak reasoning.

Students can classify common reasoning errors.

Students can explain why particular reasoning strengthens or weakens an argument.

Students can reach an on-balance judgement about the strength of reasoning and justify their view.

Organising element

Action Insufficient evidence

Quality criteria

Reasoning 1 Identifies the contention being made about the topic.

1.0 Insufficient evidence

1.1 Identifies the contention being made about the topic.

2 Identifies reasons that attempt to support the contention.


2.1 Identifies reasons that attempt to support the contention.

3 Explains reasoning that strengthens the argument.


3.1 Identifies reasoning that strengthens the argument.

3.2 Explains why the reasoning strengthens the argument.

4 Analyses a range of common reasoning errors.


4.1 Identifies a range of common reasoning errors.

4.2 Classifies a range of common reasoning errors.

4.3 Explains why the reasoning error weakens the argument.

5 Evaluates the overall strength of reasoning within an argument.


5.2 Evaluates the overall strength of the reasoning.

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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)

Prior learning:

It would be expected that students are already able to ‘consider how reasons and examples are used to support a point of view and illustrate meaning’ (VCCCTR006).

Students were explicitly taught that:

1. There are many contestable issues in society that people support or oppose to varying degrees. Arguments can communicate support or opposition about contestable issues. Arguments present a conclusion about something supported by a set of reasons and reasoning.

2. The basic structure of an argument consists of an aim, premises and a conclusion.

3. Ways to identify the contention (conclusion) being put forward about an issue.

4. Reasoning to support an argument can be signposted or embedded within a text.

5. Valid arguments have reasoning where if the premises were true, the conclusion would follow. Sound arguments are where the premises happen to be true and the reasoning is also valid.

6. There are a number of reasoning errors that can weaken an argument.

This formative assessment task allows students to provide evidence of their understanding of the following reasoning errors and cause and effect fallacies:

appeal to fear

appeal to hypocrisy

appeal to irrelevant authority

guilt by association

irrelevant argument

not a cause for a cause

slippery slope.

In Part A, students are required to match the above technical terms with a corresponding example.

In Part B, students read the text Don’t Bag the Bag, and then complete a series of short tasks which require identification of:

the contention of the argument

the reasons used to support the argument

where errors in reasoning may have occurred.

The Student Copy of the Assessment Task (Appendix 1).

© VCAA




Evidence collected from this task

Student matching activity with answers

Student writing samples.

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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 sceneThe following work samples were collected from students at two different schools. Some samples were collected from a large Catholic secondary school and some have been collected from an inner-city government secondary school.

Both schools situated the teaching and learning component within the context of an English or Humanities class. Each school taught the material across two periods.

One teacher provided additional contextual information to the students to explain how the information from the task would be used formatively, emphasising that it was fine to make mistakes and that the assessment was not being used for their reports. Some students required reasonable adjustments and were provided with additional time to complete the task.

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Sample 1

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Sample 1: Evidence of student learning

Annotations 4.3 Student has explained why some of the reasoning errors weaken the argument.

Insufficient evidence:

1.0 Student didn’t provide any evidence of this skill.


Note:

This student was not given any extra help.

3.0 and 5.0 These actions were not catered for in the task.

What is the student ready to learn next?While the student has demonstrated Phase 4 understanding of reasoning errors, on balance they are ready to learn Phases 1 for Action 1 and Phase 2 for Action 2.

Any feedback given

The student was given feedback on the accuracy of their identification of reasoning errors and on furthering their understanding of how explaining reasoning errors involves showing how it weakens an argument not just describing the error. Further next steps for the student were identified as understanding that in many texts, including in this text, some of the underlying reasons were set out as arguments within the point of view, so identifying reasons required identifying the conclusions of each of these small arguments; and to be able to identify the main contention or conclusion of an argument overall.

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Learning continuum Critical and Creative Thinking Levels 3 – 8 Strand: Reasoning








Organising element


Quality criteria





















Sample 2

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Annotations 4.2 Student classified a range of reasoning errors.


1.0 Student identified a supporting argument rather than the main contention.

2.0 Student generally underlined entire arguments in support of the contention rather than the reasons of each argument

Note:

This student was not given any extra help.


What is the student ready to learn next?Student on balance is at Phase 2. The student needs to develop understanding of the distinction between an argument, its contention and the supporting reasons.

Any feedback given

The student was given feedback on how they were almost able to identify the contention in Part 2. They were prompted to understand that an explanation of the reasoning error needed to show how it weakened the argument not just describe the error. Further next steps for the student were identified as distinguishing between a contention and its supporting reasons and then understanding that in many texts, including in this text, some of the underlying reasons were set out as arguments within the point of view, so identifying reasons required identifying the conclusions of each of these small arguments.

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Organising element


Quality criteria





















Sample 3

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Annotations or observations: 4.2 Student classified a range of reasoning errors.




Note:

Student was not given any extra help.


What is the student ready to learn next?The student is ready to learn Phase 2 in that they need to further develop an understanding of how to identify contentions and supporting reasons.

Any feedback given

The student was prompted to improve their understanding of how an explanation of a reasoning error has to show how it weakens the argument, using the strongest explanation in their work as a model. Further next steps for the student were identified as distinguishing between a contention and its supporting reasons and then understanding that in many texts, including in this text, some of the underlying reasons were set out as arguments within the point of view, so identifying reasons required identifying the conclusions of each of these small arguments.

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Organising element


Quality criteria






















Annotations 2.1 The student accurately identified a range of reasons within the text.


1.0 Evidence for understanding of the main contention was not explicit enough

4.0 More evidence beyond two examples were required for classification of errors and explanation of an error

Note:


Student provided verbal evidence of their understanding of the appeal to hypocrisy as the written evidence was not clear .

What is the student ready to learn next?The student achieved Phase 2 and is ready to learn at Phase 3.

Any feedback given

The student was prompted to improve their understanding of a range of reasoning errors. Further next steps were to learn how to identify the main contention or conclusion of an argument overall.

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Organising element


Quality criteria






















Annotations 1.1 Student identified the contention of the article.


2.0 The student identified one supporting reason but listed full arguments for other points rather than highlighting the conclusion of each small argument.

4.0 No work was attempted for this action.

Note:


Student was given 10 minutes extra time to complete the task.

What is the student ready to learn next?Students has demonstrated an understanding of Phase 1 and should be able to quickly achieve Phase 2 as they are almost there, and then move into Phase 3.

Any feedback givenThe student was given feedback that they were almost there in identifying reasons and were prompted to understand that the reason was the conclusion within the small arguments within the main argument. Further next steps in learning were to understand a range of reasoning errors.

© VCAA









Organising element


Quality criteria





















Using evidence to plan for future teaching and learningThe student data revealed that a number of students focused on identifying the reasoning errors but skipped over the step of identifying the contention, and the reasons used to support the contention. Many students were able to identify reasoning errors and classify them but found it very difficult to explain why the errors weakened the argument.

Teacher reflections This task showed me that a good task will allow students to show me what they know.

Importantly, students who have lower levels of literacy were able to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding

After trialling the rubric, significant adjustments were made with the addition of Action 3. In addition, we would consider extending the sample text to include more examples of stronger reasoning when using this rubric and task again.

The redesign of the rubric helps to highlight that we need to separate out strong reasoning, reasoning errors, and persuasive language techniques. The updated rubric helps to distinguish between these more clearly.

Now that the rubric has been amended, I would like to try the task again and make the necessary amendments to the task. Possible areas where this rubric could be used include:

a unit of work on Megacities and persuasive language techniques

Philosophy

other English classes.

We noted that we needed to review our own understanding of the difference between sound arguments and valid arguments to support us to teach this part of the Critical and Creative Thinking curriculum.

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Appendix 1STUDENT COPY

Reasoning Errors

Task Instructions

1. Match each reasoning error with the correct example.

2. Read the opinion piece.

a. Annotate your copy of the opinion piece by highlighting and labelling:

b. The main argument being made in the opinion piece.

c. The reason(s) presented to support the argument being made in the opinion piece.

3. Any reasoning errors.

4. Write a justification for each error that you have identified in Question 3(c).

Task 1

Reasoning Errors

Irrelevant argument Appeal to hypocrisy

Appeal to irrelevant authority Not a cause for a cause

Slippery slope Appeal to fear

Guilt by association

© VCAA



Examples of Reasoning Errors

While claiming her commitment to reducing carbon emissions, Ms. Rogers has personal shares in the coal mining industry.

If we continue to allow off leash dog parks, dogs will start roaming the streets and attacking and killing toddlers.

Sophie must not believe in climate change because she voted for the Liberal party.

Economics professor, Joan Smith, believes there is a strong link between coffee consumption and sleep patterns.

If we allow gay marriage, people will start marrying their pets, and then their cars. In 2018, attendance at AFL matches reached 67,405.

My friend Paula cooks the best fish and chips in town. She should run for Parliament.

The National Cancer Council tells us a million reasons why we can’t go out in the sun.

Community-minded and caring people believed that lethal quad-bikes should be banned.

Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza.

Rallying rebels released rampage on our streets.If teenagers think they can see a doctor in confidence, they are more likely to do so. And isn’t this the outcome we want?

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Task 2

Don’t Bag the Bag

Those green-lefties have been let loose and now we all have to pay the price for their short-sighted, over-the-top action. If we ban plastic bags today what will they be banning tomorrow?

[There are no intended reasoning errors; there are persuasive language techniques - e.g. ‘green-lefties’]

Firstly, the tree-hugging group ‘Mothers Against Old Bags’ is behind this outrageous ban, even though their leader was pictured on the front page of the Herald Sun walking down the street with her shopping in a plastic bag, drinking from a disposable coffee cup!

As Australians, we love the beach. But recently, our oceans have become a killing field due to the increase in shark attacks. The increase in plastic in the ocean is helping to control the population of sharks. Therefore, there will be an increase in shark attacks and more blood on our shores for sure.

If we ban plastic bags today, tomorrow it will be water bottles. After that, we’ll have a sudden increase in alcohol fueled violence because no one can drink water on the go anymore! If we let them win on this then we’ve lost on everything. Not only will we lose our freedom of choice, we will also lose our right to feel safe on the streets.

Farmers are doing it tough enough. They are at the mercy of the big supermarket chains, and this will make it even harder for them. We need to support our farmers and stop giving them such a hard time!

As Professor Jones, a leading heart surgeon at Melbourne Central Hospital, states, “I’ve been using plastic bags to carry my shopping home my whole life! There is no evidence to support that banning plastic bags will have any positive impact on the environment.” Clearly this is a common issue which faces many Australian families.

© VCAA


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