Adapting science performance tasks developed in different countries for use in Irish primary schools

Abstract

This article describes a four-year project undertaken to develop a set of performance tasks that could be used for assessing hands-on science in Irish primary schools. It begins by considering some of the literature on performance assessment and concludes with a discussion on the potential of the tasks to support teaching and learning in science. The main body of the article is structured to reflect the five phases of the research project itself. In phase one, science assessments used in a variety of educational systems in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States were located and catalogued. In phase two, approximately 170 performance tasks were selected and adapted by the authors to suit the requirements of the Irish primary science curriculum. In phase three, a purposive convenience sample of teachers evaluated the extent to which the tasks (a subset of 67) were suitable for use at different grade levels. The teachers' feedback was used to amend tasks. In phase four, the researchers observed 11 different tasks being implemented in classrooms. The eleven teachers involved were interviewed about their experiences immediately afterwards. Again, based on the outcomes of this study, changes were made to the tasks. The fifth phase of the project, due to be completed in 2006, will involve the dissemination of 124 of the tasks to teachers via a booklet and a CD-ROM. Future prospects relating to other elements of the project such as Web-based resources, professional development courses and exemplars of performance are also discussed.