The Scope and Size of Tasks


Curriculum Weighting

Consider the range of knowledge, skills and understandings outlined in the Unit Specific Goals, Content Descriptions and Achievement Standards. 

Determine the concepts and skills most significant to the course and elaborate on those in your program of learning.  

The more significant and pervasive concepts in the unit should be given the most weight in teaching, learning and assessment. 

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Estimating how long does it take students to complete assigned readings and formative tasks

Think carefully about how much a student can read and long it will take students to learn particular concepts and skills in planning curriculum implementation. 

The ACT Senior Secondary curriculum is looking for depth over breadth of knowledge understanding and skills. 

Spending more time on knowing some things deeply and developing the skills and conceptual understanding to learn the rest is preferred. 

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Research on Completion Times and Lengths

Some research on this topic is available below:

https://cte.rice.edu/resources/course-workload-estimator

While the research considers first year university students at a prestigious university in the USA, with thought, it can be used as a reflection exercise for considering  how much time it takes students to complete assignment work

3.1 Activity

Apply the Rice University calculator to a unit you have set before. 

Write about whether you think the calculator is reasonable and if you would set the same assignment after having considered its asserted time calculations.  (At least one paragraph)

Considering Task Weightings

As a general principle, the more time and effort a tasks takes, the more it should be weighted. 

A similar principle is that the more parts of the curriculum covered in a task, the more it might be weighted. 

Weight more discriminating and reliable tasks more heavily. 

Heavily weighted tasks need strong risk management procedures to ensure academic integrity. 

Some schools assemble many small tasks each with a small weighting into single portfolio task with a larger weighting. This has risks and benefits. A risk with many small tasks assembled into a portfolio or summative score, is that the small tasks will not sufficiently differentiate students. Another pitfall is  that they might not be of consistent and comparable standard and distort the picture of student capacity.  Designing a portfolio of tasks of sufficient challenge and consistent standard in a laborious task, therefore fewer parts are generally better than many parts.  To support students and prevent them doing it all at once at the end, it also requires regular grades based feedback to ensure students understand their progress.  Another concern with this model is that formative assessment becomes conflated with summative assessment thereby placing too much pressure on students who will not get a chance to learn through trial and error in a low stakes environment.  Feedback on progress is lost in the fog of high stakes assessment. Ultimately, There are more effective strategies for classroom management problems than making everything assessable. 

Estimating Time and Word Length

The best practice in determining how many words or how much time is needed to write an answer is to have a colleague or develop part or all of an answer or sit the proposed test/exam.

In terms of time, a student will take longer than a teacher. Apply the appropriate multiplier to your own or your colleagues performance. 

This will also enable you to see if the question can be answered in the number of words you have set, or if there are problems with the question. 

This might also provide a model answer to support student learning when returning work. 

Elements to Consider in Setting  time limits

There is an interaction between expectations of quality and time limits. Expectations should be made clear in the rubric.  

Written Work

Considerations - Experimental/Observational Report

When deciding on the word or time length of a task consider how many words or how much time it takes to make a logical, well-evidenced point based on empirical research. Consider the structure of a logical argument in a  report and how many words it takes to complete the parts.  

The typical parts of a report are as follows. Consider the number of words needed for each part in an A+ answer.

Title 

Abstract- summarise findings and reservations

Introduction- outline problem, evidence, hypothesis, explanation 

Method- propose possibilities, outline problems, outline choice, cite evidence, note strengths and weaknesses 

Results- Tabulate/ graphs/ stats/ prose explanation

Discussions- explain significance of evidence, link to wider research, outline weaknesses and strengths of method, cite evidence, make suggestions for improvements to get better results 

Reference Lists

Appendices


3.2 Activity

How many words should be expected from an A+ report in each section? 

Considerations - Research Essay

When deciding on the word or time length of a task consider how many words or how much time it takes to make a point in a research essay.  You may disagree with the word counts, but consider the parts of a logical point in a research essay and how many words it takes to complete the parts. 

Consider the following elements for an 'A' answer in one paragraph. The following  estimates of words counts on the elements are suggested for consideration. 

So if one shorter paragraph is 300 words, then the standard five paragraph essay is 900 words plus introduction and conclusion to make three points in an argument. 


3.3 Activity

Would you consider varying your assessment conditions as a result of these readings?