Dance

This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE Dance. It  considers the structure of the written paper and looks at the importance of assessment objectives and command words within the different question types. The video also looks at the different approaches to mark schemes.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this AQA video exploring assessment for GCSE Dance.

My name is Liz Dale, and I am Chief Examiner for GCSE Dance. This role gives me oversight of all aspects of the assessment including both the practical and the written components. I have worked for AQA for 34 years as a trainer, moderator, and member of the senior examining team for this specification.

In this presentation I will share with you some of the thinking that has gone into the design of the GCSE Dance qualification to make it a valid assessment. I hope that this will then help you to apply these principles to the creation of your own internal practice assessments with your students.

Hopefully, you'll have already seen AQA’s what makes good assessment videos about the principles of assessment.  These cover concepts such as reliability and validity and what those terms mean.

In GCSE Dance we need our assessments to differentiate between students and provide a balance between the practical and theoretical whilst still being accessible to the full range of student ability  and maintaining standards with previous exam series. As in all subjects, the assessment objectives remain the same to ensure that we have that comparability year on year.

Before we look at the assessment objectives, let’s have a quick recap of the structure of the GCSE Dance qualification.  You will know that examiners want to measure the knowledge, understanding, and skills of our students both in a practical context through coursework and, theoretically, in the written paper.

To do this, we need to ensure that this measurement is valid and consistent across exam series and this presentation hopes to outline the many ways we do this, particularly in the written paper.

In Component 1, examiners create valid assessment through the consistent use of the same set phrases, such as those from Solo Performance on screen here, and through using the same starting points for assessments in the performance section. We also provide stimulus materials for the Choreography task. These are new each year but are consistent in the range of stimuli provided. They are also always open-ended regarding choreographic approach.

Here you can see an overview of the range of the assessment for GCSE Dance which you will already be familiar with.

We’ll find out more about the structure of the written paper soon, but you should know that there are always three sections: knowledge and understanding of choreographic processes and performing skills, critical appreciation of own work and critical appreciation of professional works.

As the design of the assessment is inextricably linked to the assessment objectives, that makes a good place to start our more in-depth section of the presentation. Assessment objectives are the key statements about what the qualification is focused on/all about. They are set by Ofqual, and they are the blueprint that apply to all qualifications of the same name. There is currently only one GCSE Dance specification (AQA) but should another awarding organisation decide to offer a GCSE Dance qualification, they would have to use the same assessment objectives as we have in our qualification.

Each year the assessments measure how well students have achieved against these four assessment objectives. The first two measure the practical dance elements and are jointly weighted at 30% each, or 60% of the qualification in total to reflect the importance of the physical skills associated with the mastery of the art of creating and performing dance. The final two assessment objectives measure theoretical knowledge and understanding of dance through a single written paper.

AO3 retains an overall weighting of 15% and AO4 has a weighting of 25%, therefore combining to create 40% of the qualification. These assessment objectives measure knowledge and understanding of the practical application of dance skills and the ability to analyse, interpret and evaluate dance as an art form. This 60% practical and 40% written weighting reflects the importance that is placed on practical application of Dance as an art form, in this qualification. In other words, 20% more emphasis is based on practical dance but, as practitioners, we know that one type of learning can very much support the other. This is evidenced through the assessments – for example in choreography, students create real work in the practical assessment, but they also create hypothetical work in the written paper. However, the knowledge they need to do these two tasks successfully is the same – it is just being tested in different ways.

Now to discuss the structure of the written paper.

The design and layout of the actual question papers themselves are an important element of examining. We use the same template and structure for the design of the paper every year, to provide consistency and familiarity. Our goal is to be able to accurately test a student’s knowledge and understanding of dance, and this is well-supported when students are familiar with the layout of the paper. It makes it less stressful for students and helps to reduce the cognitive impact on both students and examiners who mark the papers.

Although the question types we use will be familiar to students, we include a range of them which helps us to effectively discriminate between students. The necessity to discriminate between students is also something we consider very carefully when we are deciding on the range of stimuli for section A in the written paper and of course for the practical paper too.

Finally, we work hard to avoid construct under-representation in dance, and one example of how we do this is by mixing up the combinations of professional works in section C of the written paper. This means students will always have studied works that won’t be assessed in any one year, but that study is important because it ensures students gain a holistic and broader knowledge and understanding of a range of different types of professional works.

Question writers hope that as students are accustomed to the layout of the paper and the style of questions, they can immediately focus on displaying their knowledge and understanding of dance in their answers.

As referenced earlier, the written paper covers Assessment Objectives 3 & 4, it is marked out of 80 and is valued at 40% of the qualification.  There are always three sections in the paper, and they are always in the same order:

Section A = Choreographic Processes and Performing Skills

Section B= Critical Appreciation of Own Work -  Performance and Choreography

Section C = Critical Appreciation of Professional Works x 4

There is never any optionality in the paper, learners must always answer all questions and the value and demand of the questions gradually increases as they progress through the paper.

Let’s think about Sections A and B first.

Section A always begins with a stimulus led creative for students to write a response. The value of the questions in this section are usually worth 1- 3 marks. The second part of this section tests knowledge and understanding of performance skills. These are again low value questions, usually between 1-3 marks and there is usually one multiple choice question.

The rationale behind starting the paper with a creative task is that we are providing a positive introduction for learners of all abilities.

Section B always consists of three 6-mark questions. These questions, such as the one to my right from 2022 are based on the student’s critical appreciation of their own work in performance and choreography completed in the practical examination.

Section C is exclusively related to the study of four of the six mandatory professional works - but in different combinations each year. However, it should not be assumed that because a work has appeared one year that it will not appear the next. As you can see on screen, this section usually begins with a one-mark contextual question to draw the student into the following six-mark question based on the first of the four works. There are then two twelve-mark questions with a one-mark lead-in question to focus the thinking. The first of the two longer questions is always based on one professional work, in this case A Linha Curva, and the second is always a comparative question related to two professional works; E of E and Infra were the two selected in 2022.

In this example taken from June 23 you can see how a typical question in section C is constructed. You can use this question breakdown to construct your own questions for your students and you can look back over past papers for more inspiration. It is also useful to look at the mark schemes for past papers as they will help you understand how the marks are apportioned and give you lots of guidance on how to apply these to the construction of your own questions and mark schemes.

So how many marks would this question be worth?

Have a pause to think.

Yes, it is a 12-mark question.

Now let’s look at command words.  In addition to the consistent layout of the exam we also word questions to be as similar as possible each year, by using a tight framework of eleven command words, as on display. The command words, which are all explained in greater depth on the AQA website, play a key role in signposting the type, and sometimes depth, of response that is required for a given question.

Through using the same command word on a consistent basis, it helps us to ensure validity within the assessment, as teachers are able to fully prepare students for the type of question they will be encountering, therefore students can be fairly assessed on their knowledge and skills rather than their ability to interpret the question. The command words are usually at the start of the question to help students quickly process what the task is, and you can use the command words list to practice building confidence and speed in question processing.

If you write your own assessment materials for students, it is essential that you use a suitable command word from the GCSE Dance list. Students need to be familiar with them and to have the opportunity to practice answering questions that use the same command words they will encounter in the GCSE Dance examination paper. If you go through past papers, you will be able to see what command words are used and in what context and this will help you prepare your own questions for your students. There is also a comprehensive list of the command words we use in GCSE Dance available on the AQA website.

Finally, in this section, we should discuss subject specific vocabulary. To avoid construct irrelevance, we use a lot of subject-specific terminology and often it's the understanding of this terminology and how it applies to dance that is being assessed in the written paper.

To help students, on the AQA website we have clearly identified the specialist subject vocabulary we use in our assessments and provided definitions to support their learning. As this list contains over one hundred examples of subject specific vocabulary it provides great opportunities for the creation of crosswords, word-searches, letter scrambles, flashcards and other such activities to match up knowledge with terminology.

To summarise this section, please remember that:

1. The paper is designed to increase in difficulty as it progresses. – Section A offers the most questions with the smallest mark value, and then progressively increases in mark value through to Section C which requires greater analytical skill, knowledge and understanding. The last question on the paper is always the highest value question.
2. You can help prepare students to understand what to expect when they open the paper through using a consistent approach to creating assessment materials. If, when creating any bespoke materials, you stick to the guidelines outlined in this video then students should be confident to immediately begin answering questions as soon as the exam begins.
3. There is a lot to answer in the GCSE Dance Written Exam, so time management is key. Time guidance is provided in the instructions in the header of each section as to the amount of time learners should allow for each section. This is to ensure they leave enough time to get to the higher value questions and it is important for students to understand this and to use it to their advantage in the examination – you should include this in any material you create too.
4. When you are designing assessment materials for your students, aim to use a design template from a previous paper to ensure you have captured all the key elements.

Mark schemes are of course vital in any subject as these lead to valid assessment so we will look at two versions we use in GCSE Dance.

First, let’s look at levels of response mark schemes, such as the one on display. These mark schemes are broken down into levels, each of which has a descriptor. The descriptor indicates the quality that will be expected in the student’s answer for that level. The lower mark indicates that the student has just met the requirement described in the band, the upper mark indicates that the evidence is clear but that the student has not quite met the requirements set out in the level above.

In addition to using a levels of response mark schemes to assess some questions within the written paper, we also use it exclusively when assessing coursework. This is because there are not, of course, ‘right or wrong answers’ in performance and choreography - achievement in these areas is about demonstrating dance-related skills which a levels of response mark scheme can facilitate. If you are ever making your own coursework style activities, then to attain consistent and valid outcomes, you should always mark them against the standard level of response mark schemes.

The mark schemes for solo performance and Mental skills and attributes during performance do not have a range of marks within each level, whereas with the duet/trio assessment grid shown on screen, there are two marks within each level. This is also the case for the choreography element.’  For these, once you have identified the correct level, you need to decide which mark to allocate within the level. The lower mark indicates that the student has just met the requirement described in the level, the upper mark indicates that the evidence is clear but that the student has not quite met the requirements set out in the level above.

Teachers should use these levels of response grids with their students to show how their performance and choreography will be assessed. It is useful to share mark schemes with students so they can judge the level of their own work, meaning they can then understand how to improve their skills.

In written papers we also use points-based mark schemes, such as this one on screen here from 2021. Points-based mark schemes are where marks are given for correct points made by a student. Correct answers are clearly defined, and each correct point made directly corresponds to a mark. Points based mark schemes help students immediately understand why their answer achieved, or failed to achieve, marks. It is important to note to your students however, that the points listed on a points-based mark scheme are usually, although not exclusively, indicative content only, as seen in the example on screen. Any other valid answer to a question will always be accepted.

These mark schemes, including points based, levels of response and objective or multiple choice are all further explained in the generic inside assessment training.

And that leaves me to thank you for watching. I hope this resource has provided you with some insight into how to apply general assessment principles to assessment in GCSE Dance, and to learn how to write different styles of questions and mark schemes so that you are better able to produce useful practice assessment materials for your students.

If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us at aqadance@aqa.org.uk and remember that numerous useful GCSE Dance resources are available on the website or via Centre Services.

Questions you may want to think about

• How can you use these insights to prepare your learners for exams?
• Do your internal assessments reflect the approach of the exam? To what extent do you want them to?
• What’s the most important or surprising thing that you’ve learned? How might it influence your teaching?