Internal Assessment

This section presents the guiding principles that can be used as the basis for designing internal assessment and some common assessment practices for Combined Science for use in schools. Some of these principles are common to both internal and public assessment.

5.4.1 Guiding Principles

Internal assessment practices should be aligned with curriculum planning, teaching progression, student abilities and local school contexts. The information collected will help to motivate, promote and monitor student learning, and will also help teachers to find ways of promoting more effective learning and teaching.

(1) Alignment with the learning objectives

A range of assessment practices should be used to assess the achievement of different learning objectives for whole-person development. These include knowledge and understanding of scientific principles and concepts, scientific skills and processes, and positive values and attitudes. The weighting given to different areas in assessment should be discussed and agreed among teachers. The assessment purposes and assessment criteria should also be made known to students so that they have a full understanding of what is expected of them.

(2) Catering for the range of student ability

Assessment practices incorporating different levels of difficulty and diverse modes should be used to cater for students with different aptitudes and abilities. This helps to ensure that the more able students are challenged to develop their full potential and the less able ones are encouraged to sustain their interest and succeed in learning.

(3) Tracking progress over time

As internal assessment should not be a one-off exercise, schools are encouraged to use practices that can track learning progress over time (e.g. portfolios). Assessment practices of this kind allow students to set their own incremental targets and manage their own pace of learning, which will have a positive impact on their commitment to learning.

(4) Timely and encouraging feedback

Teachers should provide timely and encouraging feedback, through a variety of means such as constructive verbal comments during classroom activities and written remarks on assignments. Such feedback helps students to sustain their momentum in learning, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

(5) Making reference to the school’s context

As learning is more meaningful when the content or process is linked to a setting which is familiar to students, schools are encouraged to design assessment tasks that make reference to the school’s own context (e.g. its location, relationship with the community, and mission).

(6) Making reference to the current progress in student learning

Internal assessment tasks should be designed with reference to students’ current progress, as this helps to overcome obstacles that may have a cumulative negative impact on learning.

Teachers should be mindful in particular of concepts and skills which form the basis for further development in student learning.

(7) Feedback from peers and from the students themselves

In addition to giving feedback, teachers should also provide opportunities for peer assessment and self-assessment in student learning. The former enables students to learn among themselves, and the latter promotes reflective thinking which is vital for students’

lifelong learning.

(8) Appropriate use of assessment information to provide feedback

Internal assessment provides a rich source of data for providing evidence-based feedback on learning in a formative manner.

5.4.2 Internal Assessment Practices

A range of assessment practices such as assignments, practical work and scientific investigations, oral questioning, suited to the Combined Science should be used to promote the attainment of the various learning outcomes. However, teachers should note that these practices should be an integral part of learning and teaching, not “add-on” activities.

(1) Assignment

Assignments are a valuable and widely used assessment tool that reflects students’ efforts, achievements, strengths and weaknesses over time. A variety of assignment tasks – such as exercises, essays, designing posters or leaflets, and model construction – can be used to allow students to demonstrate their understanding and creative ideas. The assignment tasks should be aligned with the learning objectives, teaching strategies and learning activities. Teachers can ask students to select a topic of interest, search for information, summarise their findings and devise their own ways of presenting their work (e.g. role-play, essays, poster designs or PowerPoint slides). Teachers should pay close attention to students’ organisation of the materials, the language they use, the breadth and depth of their treatment, and the clarity with which they explain concepts. The scores or grades for assignments can be used as part of the record of students’ progress; and the comments on their work, with suggestions for improvement, provide valuable feedback to them.

Assignments can also help in evaluating the effectiveness of teaching by providing feedback upon which teachers can set further operational targets for students and make reasonable adjustments in their teaching strategies.

(2) Practical work and scientific investigation

Practical work and scientific investigation are common activities in the learning and teaching of science subjects. They offer students “hands-on” experience of exploring, and opportunities to show their interest, ingenuity and perseverance. In scientific investigations, teachers can first pose a problem and ask students to devise a plan and suggest appropriate experimental procedures for solving it – and the design of the investigations can then be discussed and, if necessary, modified. During such sessions, teachers can observe students’ practical skills and provide feedback on how the experiment/investigation can be improved. Reading students’ laboratory reports can provide teachers with a good picture of students’ understanding of the scientific concepts and principles involved, as well as their ability to handle and interpret data obtained in investigations.

(3) Oral questioning

Oral questioning can provide teachers with specific information on how students think in certain situations, as their responses often provide clues to their level of understanding, attitudes and abilities. Teachers can use a wide range of questions, from those which involve fact-finding, problem-posing, and reason-seeking to more demanding ones which promote higher levels of thinking and allow for a variety of acceptable responses. This can be a valuable supplement to conventional assessment methods.