Art and Design

This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE and A-level Art and design. Starting with a detailed look at the assessment objectives and how they work, the video considers the role of externally set assignments and explains the assessment criteria and our holistic marking approach, demonstrating the continuity between GCSE and A-level.

Transcript

Sandra Allan: Hello and welcome to this Inside Assessment video. Today we're going to be bringing to life assessment for GCSE and A-level Art and Design. My name is Sandra Allan. I'm the Head of Curriculum for Creative Arts at AQA. And with me today, are two of our senior associates, we have Kevin Lole for GCSE and Peter Dryland for A-level. The purpose of the session today is to look at what makes good assessment in art and design. We're going to look at the assessment objectives, the assessment criteria, externally set assignments, and interpreting the correct mark. Pete, can you tell me what makes good assessment in art and design?  Let's start with validity, shall we.

Peter Dryland: Well, there are five very important things which make for good assessment in art and design, validity being one of them. And validity means avoiding construct irrelevance. And that in turn means what we assess in art and design is what students actually know, understand, and the skills that they can provide evidence of.

Sandra Allan: Let's move on to reliability then, Pete.

Peter Dryland:  Well, training, moderator standardisation and teacher standardisation and the process of moderator visits during the summer ensure the reliability of standards across the suite of titles at both GCSE and A-level.

Sandra Allan: And as we work through these, we now want to look at comparability.

Peter Dryland: Comparability of standards. There's only one standard, and the same standard is applicable to all the titles in the suite of titles within each qualification. Comparability is also important, I think, between, awarding bodies. And this is taken on board every year to ensure that there is this level playing field, this level application of standards.

Kevin Lole:  And the assessment objectives that we share between A-level and GCSE are the same for all awarding bodies.

Sandra Allan: So let's move on to consistency. Why is that important?

Peter Dryland: Consistency is important year on year across the life of the specifications. So standards are maintained from one year to the next and to the next, and so on. So the piece of work, which is marked at a particular grade, outcome, this year would get the same grade if it were entered the following year.

Kevin Lole: We make sure there's no bias from year to year, and there are quite rigorous procedures regarding the putting together of the ESA paper to make sure that the standard of challenge and the overall content of a particular paper is coherent and consistent with previous years.

Sandra Allan: Okay. And finally, let's look at differentiation. Why is this important?

Peter Dryland: Well, differentiation means that we use the whole of the range of marks, which are available across the mark scheme to distinguish between one level of ability and one level of outcome and another to accommodate the full range of candidates who are entered for the examination in any given year.

Sandra Allan: Okay. So we're going to delve into the assessment objectives a little bit more. Can you explain them to me in a little bit more detail, please, Kevin? And what do they actually reflect?

Kevin Lole: Well, the assessment objectives as a whole drive the award. They allow students to develop their own ideas, investigate sources. They allow students to create personal responses.

Sandra Allan: And can you tell me a little bit about their weighting?

Kevin Lole: There are four assessment objectives. There isn't one that's more important or less important than any other. They all carry the same number of marks in terms of their assessment, and they allow students to explore creative practice.

Sandra Allan: So they provide a valid, holistic and reliable assessment. Why is this important?

Kevin Lole: Assessment objectives drive the subject. And in terms of assessment, we only assess the evidence that's relevant to the assessment objective statements, and the assessment objectives are the same in both components, so that adds to their validity.

Sandra Allan: So tell me what's assessed in art and design, and can we focus here on both components, please?

Kevin Lole: In art and design, we do demonstrate understanding. Teachers will understand that it's a creative process and that we are dealing with areas that demonstrate development of skills, development of ideas and development of tests, etc. Understanding how to choose things. And so in one sense, there's no right or wrong way of doing a creative process. In fact, many art teachers would want to say that if a hundred students responded to a given starting point, they would like to see a hundred different responses to that starting point.

Sandra Allan: And so finally, you mentioned the creative process. Can you explain that a little bit more?

Kevin Lole: The assessment objectives are about learning how to develop ideas. They're about learning how to respond critically to sources, and they're about developing a personal response to that information.

Sandra Allan: We've talked a lot about the assessment objectives, but I just want to unpick them a little bit more. Why are the assessment objectives important and why are they important for the creative practice Pete?

Peter Dryland: Holistic assessment means that no single assessment objective is more important or less important than another. We're using the four assessment objectives almost like a structure, like signposts within the creative process, so that we can evaluate and assess each facet, each element of that journey of progress from the initial investigation through to the realisation of intentions.

Kevin Lole:  But often responses are interlinked. So evidence from one assessment objective will contribute to evidence from another assessment objective.

Sandra Allan:  And what about the sort of fostering creativity?

Peter Dryland: The assessment objectives foster creativity because they identify for students the key elements of art and design that they need to address when they're investigating and developing and realising their intentions.

Sandra Allan: And what about understanding of skills?

Peter Dryland: The assessment objectives promote the understanding of skills when students are investigating, developing ideas and exploring and selecting and manipulating materials, processes and techniques.

Kevin Lole: One thing we have to remember in art and design is that it's a living subject. It's happening in the real world, and students know that, they understand that. So the range of skills that we deal with, the combination of skills is never ending. We can never predict that.

Peter Dryland: and they contribute a great deal to the study of other subjects as well, bear in mind. There's a cross-fertilization between art and design and many other subjects.

Sandra Allan: That leads quite nicely into sort of the communication skill side of things.

Peter Dryland: Yeah, well, communication is an essential ingredient of art and design, and that's what artists do is communicate ideas, their feelings or communicate what they've seen to other people. And the assessment objectives encourage that and the students will develop their understanding of what observational skills are and how to manage them and handle them, in their response to source material, a great range of source material.

Sandra Allan: So looking at originality, why is that so important in art and design?

Peter Dryland: Art and design is a very personal subject, and we anticipate that the specification will elicit  personal responses from students where they claim ownership of their own ideas, their own work, and realise their intentions in pieces of work, which as Kevin was referring to earlier,  which are uniquely their own.

Sandra Allan: So the assessment objectives are closely linked between GCSE and A-level. So let's start off with assessment objective one. Kevin, can you talk about GCSE for me here?

Kevin Lole: As you've said, substantially they're the same at both levels. What distinguishes, and I'm sure Pete would agree, is the depth of understanding that's assessed or more important at A-level. Now, that's a progression from GCSE to A-level. In AO1 we're asking students to look at sources or a source, whichever they choose. And it can be their own choice. We are expecting them to understand, have a critical understanding of that source, and apply their understanding to the development of their ideas, emphasis being on their own ideas, rather than merely producing something which is, as Pete just said, a pastiche of the artisan. That's at the top end, as it were, for GCSE. So we're also expecting them to get to use those sources in terms of developing an understanding of the use of materials of formal properties such as colour composition, etc

Sandra Allan: And Pete, is there anything you want to add on that for A-level?

Peter Dryland: The key differences Kevin points out is the depth of inquiry in the investigation and the depth of understanding of the nature of the development of ideas. Contextual sources it’s most important that students are selective and they choose contextual material to investigate which is directly relevant to their own intentions.

Kevin Lole: Can I just add, sorry. So although it's called AO1, there's no implied sequence to the objectives. Critical understanding of sources can be done at any time during that creative journey and more than once and with other sources that are brought in perhaps to inspire different approaches, different pathways for the student.

Sandra Allan: Thank you both. So let's move on to assessment objective two. So let's start with GCSE again, Kevin.

Kevin Lole: AO2 is about refinement. It's about experimenting. It's about using a process of selection which is appropriate to the students' intentions that are starting to develop. So that sort of presumes something about that process and that there's an awareness, again, we come back to the notion of understanding that selection and that notion of appropriate determines something about the students' awareness and understanding in that process. And it can be a process which explores and experiments with materials, ideas, takes information from sources, etc, to develop that and inspire that understanding.

Sandra Allan: And Pete, is there anything we want to pull out here for A-level?

Peter Dryland: It can't be emphasised enough I think that students ought really to develop the skills to discriminate when they're selecting which materials or processes or techniques they're going to explore with developing and refining their work. It's not simply a matter of adding up the number of materials which are being used on a number of techniques, which have got no purpose to them. That sense of focus and purposefulness is what is most important.

Kevin Lole:  The points that we just made about awareness and understanding reflect on that notion, which is AO4 about a personal response. So you can see there how this notion of holistic assessment starts to take place, because doing one thing right automatically very often involves you approaching or responding to another objective.

Sandra Allan: We're now going to move on to assessment objective three Kevin.

Kevin Lole: It's about recording ideas, recording observations, and recording insights. Students do do that in a visual form by relating one development of one image to development of another, or one skill to another, or combinations of skills, etc. Developing and recording their ideas as they go. Again, rather than just producing the number of developments, it is about that understanding and awareness and that decision making process within the evidence for that objective.

Sandra Allan: And again, Pete, you know, anything here that we want to sort of differentiate at A-level?

Peter Dryland: Well, both GCSE and A-level, there’s a pretty seamless kind of relationship between the two. The progression from GCSE to A-level should be a very smooth path as students grow up into A-level during the course of the sixth form, and it's a period in which they will hone their skills when they're recording ideas and observations and providing insights as well in both the practical and written work, they'll hone their skills in doing that over the course of study.

Kevin Lole: Within AO3, within this recording, there has to be evidence of annotation. That's an Ofqual requirement.

Sandra Allan: That's at GCSE?

Kevin Lole:  At GCSE it’s an Ofqual requirement, but the

Peter Dryland: Under A-level, there’s the personal investigation has a required written element.

Sandra Allan: Okay. And that's quite lengthy, isn't it?

Peter Dryland: Minimum of a thousand words. A maximum of 3000 words.

Sandra Allan: Okay. So quite different to GCSE.

Peter Dryland: It's quite a different approach. Yes.

Sandra Allan: Okay

Kevin Lole:  But also that annotation and the requirement for drawing can provide evidence for any of the other assessment objectives. So though it has to be there in AO3, it can also be of value in other assessment objectives.

Sandra Allan: And finally, let's look at assessment objective four. So let's again start with GCSE.

Kevin Lole: A personal response, a personal meaningful response. Now, again, we've talked a lot about personal and the nature of the personal response and not being, as Pete said, a pastiche, that's important. It isn't about copying, it's about encouraging students to develop their own ideas, their own response. Also, in terms of a meaningful response, it again, if you like, emphasizes that the nature of the evidence of understanding and awareness within the assessment of that particular objective, it covers a broad, broad range. So that, again, is a difference. We are dealing with this very open-ended creative response to a task rather than a model response that we sometimes get in terms of other subjects. And a strict marking criteria, a mark scheme, we have a marking criteria, we have a mark scheme. It has to be open to be able to accommodate all those different responses.

Sandra Allan: And then Pete, finally with A-level, what are the differences here for AO4?

Peter Dryland: There aren't any differences. Again, really the similarity between the two qualifications is really striking and makes perfect sense, it is the same subject after all. A key word which is often overlooked or misinterpreted in AO4, is that of presenting a personal response, which doesn't mean that students have to decorate their pages in incredible detail to make them look more attractive. Presenting is about putting the work in a form or a format. And there’s many ways of doing this in which the students' intentions and their thinking are clear. And it's the clarity, the coherence of the work is what is meant by presenting. There's also an imperative in there as well about language, which applies to both the practical work and the written work at  A-level, which is the student's ability to, with understanding, use specialist terminology, specialist vocabulary. So in the practical work, formal elements, line, tone, space, volume, so on and in the written work, using technical terms with understanding, with some skill is important to make again. They're thinking clear at what they're trying to say across the ability level. Students will do this in their own ways.

Sandra Allan: Let's move on to our assessment criteria for GCSE and A-level. Can you explain how these have been created and why? Let's start off with the framework and the wording Kevin.

Kevin Lole: Each of the six bands has four levels associated with it. So one mark associated with each of the descriptions within that on the mark band and a series of mark band descriptions which contain some of the qualities that you would want to see in order for that evidence, that you're looking at, to qualify within that band.

Sandra Allan: Okay. And what about the levels of attainment?

Kevin Lole: They're described in the mark criteria band starting at the bottom with minimal ability and gradually working through a number of other sort of qualitative words like some and then highly developed, then exceptional at the top. And those relate to the descriptions within the mark band. But we've also created a lexicon of words that describes characteristics that you would associate with each of those levels, such as minimal, some, highly developed, et cetera.

Sandra Allan: And how do we identify the different levels?

Kevin Lole: As I've said the lexicon of words, etc. And the mark scheme description gives us a framework for matching characteristics, matching qualities to the evidence that we're looking at, and therefore determines the mark.

Peter Dryland: I think it's important also to note that when we're assessing work matching these key identifiers of achievement and attainment, matching those to the standards which are provided by AQA teacher standardisation. So matching the words to what we can actually see in the live work can really help in producing a good assessment.

Kevin Lole: It's also important that that process is also part of sharing an understanding with teachers, with students, with moderators, so that we're all in tune with the way that that assessment process works so that students understand it as well.

Sandra Allan: Pete, JACC comes up quite a lot. What does it really mean and how many marks are given and how do students progress between them?

Peter Dryland: JACC or Jacc is just a simple way of reducing the process of assessment to its simplest possible terms so as to make the problem of assessment easier to manage. And when we're making an assessment of a student's work, the first important thing to do is to match the evidence to the appropriate words in the assessment criteria to establish which level the work's on, first of all. And then we decide which mark band the work sits in happily, and then to pinpoint the precise mark. And JACC is handy in that respect, within the four marks which are available in each mark band. The bottom mark is just within that mark band. The next one is adequately in that mark band and so on, until we reach the top where we are convincingly within that mark band but the evidence is just not quite there to match the criteria for the mark band above.

Kevin Lole: So it's a sort of fine tuning really. A support that teachers have found useful in fine tuning their judgment, establishing the mark band, and then working within that to establish whether it's just there or it's clearly there. And whether it's approaching the next mark band.

Sandra Allan: It just seem all seems really seamless. It's great. I really like that.

Peter Dryland: But it won't be a successful if your attention is just confined to words, it has to relate the words to the work that you can see.

Kevin Lole: And that's where the understanding comes in of sharing that language and what does it correspond to.

Sandra Allan: So let's look at the structure. So there are two components, two at GCSE, two at A-level. Let's start with GCSE component one. Tell me a little bit about that, Kevin.

Kevin Lole: Yeah, well, there are some differences, and I'm sure Pete will explain in more detail the differences at A-level. But in terms of GCSE component one is about producing evidence of a response to a project theme, study that embraces the creative process, demonstrating an understanding of source or sources, and then developing ideas through to realising an intention. And that is the same set of criteria, same set of objectives in both components. In component two, it's a response to one of the starting points, and I use the word advisedly because although it's referred to as a question paper, there are no questions because there's no right or wrong. So there are starting points, and we've emphasised in the past the potential range of responses is enormous, and that's another reason why there's no right and wrong. We're looking for evidence of those qualities, skills and abilities in terms of developing ideas, in terms of discrimination, selection and materials and development of ideas, and also use of materials and media and skills.

Sandra Allan: What are the key differences in terms of delivering component two compared to component one? Component two is timed. Is it more of a sort of exam?

Kevin Lole: Yeah. Component one is - the timing of that is up to the school, up to the timetabling issues, etc. Component two, the ESA paper for GCSE is issued at the beginning of January, January the second. And students then have a period of time to prepare their ideas, which they can do alongside the teacher in terms of providing some levels of interpretation and support. And then there's a period of 10 hours, which is timetabled by the school, the first two hours of which must be consecutive.

Sandra Allan: And Pete, what are the differences when we are looking at A-level with component one and component two.

Peter Dryland: First of all, the higher demand at A-level is a recognition of the greater level of maturity of the students who are sitting A-level and the increased amount of time which they spent studying the subject over two years of the sixth form. And there are differences between A-level and GCSE where the personal investigation on component one is not a portfolio of work. That's the biggest difference, I think. It’s a project which is based on a single starting point and is an identifiably a single body of work in response to that starting point. It includes a written element, as we mentioned earlier, of a thousand to 3000 words, which must relate directly to the students’ practical work. It's an opportunity for students to study in more depth, selecting contextual sources, which they refer to in developing their ideas for the practical work in which they'll demonstrate their ability to analyse critically the sources. And it's an opportunity for them to explain how looking at those sources and looking at other sources which they may have used, have helped them develop their ideas and provide genuine insights into the practical work. So it, it’s really strongly embodied, it's not a history of arts essay.

Sandra Allan: Yeah. One of the things I noticed is that with AQA, with us, we mark holistically the written and the practical work. What benefits does that sort of, you know, provide for students and teachers?

Peter Dryland: I mean, essentially art and design is a practical subject, and the written work is put into context here, that it supports the practical work, it has a supportive role, and it's a way in which students can provide additional evidence of the assessment objectives. And I think that's one of the great benefits of it being marked as an integral whole within the body of work, rather than being a separate entity.

Sandra Allan: Let's move on to component two. So, picking out the differences again from what Kevin said about GCSE.

Peter Dryland: Well, component two, the question papers contain a range of starting points. There are eight questions. Each of which includes a multiplicity of starting points, which provide opportunities for students who are working in all the areas of study within each title. There are separate papers for each title as well, which is another feature. The starting points are provided to students from the 1st of February in the year of the examination. And after the preliminary period, each school or college will set their own date for a period of 15 hours.

Sandra Allan: So you've both mentioned the externally set assignments, so let's talk about those a little bit more here. Kevin, can you tell me how we standardise the assignments?

Kevin Lole: It's a process of looking at each of the starting points and making sure that there's no gender bias, that there is guidance or opportunities rather for students from different backgrounds to be able to respond to those starting points. It's a framework that teachers and students will be able to feel confident in terms of providing an opportunity for their students no matter what. And we take a great deal of care in those terms. The assessment objectives provide that framework really for students to demonstrate what they can do and understand.

Sandra Allan: What are the tasks intended to provide in terms of assessment, Kevin?

Kevin Lole: Well, they need to provide an opportunity for the students no matter what the title that they're responding to, what the discipline that they're using, or combination of materials, whatever they choose, it needs to provide them with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding that they've acquired from the course, but also an opportunity to address each of the assessment objectives.

Sandra Allan: So what does optionality really provide students here?

Kevin Lole: Because it's such a broad menu in terms of the range of topics, the range of approaches, the range of personal response, it's important that the optionality or choice that's available is across the, what is it, six different titles, and also within the range of starting points that are presented. That the optionality gives them the broadest possible choice, to demonstrate what they can do and understand.

Sandra Allan: And what are the parameters of the assignments?

Kevin Lole: As I sort of referred to previously, that they must make sure that students can address the objectives no matter what their background to make sure there's no cultural bias or gender bias, etc. Those are the parameters.

Sandra Allan: Pete, let's talk about balance. How do we get the right balance in our externally set assignments?

Peter Dryland: Well, balance is hard work because there are two areas of balance here. Balance within each question across the paper. It has to be balanced in terms of providing opportunities for students across the areas of study. Balance across the paper in terms of the titles of the starting points is important. For example, it would be wrong on a fine art paper if questions were all landscape based or all still life based or whatever, one particular genre. We have to remember that we're trying to stimulate students. We're trying to get them up on their toes and to stretch for their best, but we're also trying to give them with realistic opportunities there to approach ideas which are genuinely going to interest them and enthuse them.

Sandra Allan: What we are showing now is the example of a starting point. So we've got a GCSE one and an A-level one. Pete, can you tell us a little bit about these please?

Peter Dryland: I think both of the examples show the breadth of opportunity, which is encapsulated at both GCSE and A-level by each starting point. But they also provide a clear and firm place from which students can start their own investigations and develop their own ideas. So clarity is important, but not in an all encapsulating way. Very open-ended for students to make of them what they will.

Sandra Allan: And there's quite a lot of artists mentioned here, but students can go away from that. They don't have to just select the ones that we've suggested.

Peter Dryland: Absolutely. What we try to do is provide contextual sources, which come from a variety of backgrounds and periods as well in the history of art, but they're not prescribed. Some students will use one or two of them, or all of them, and some students will use those within the starting points as a trigger to find entirely their own. But they're merely there as kicking off points to, to prompt and inspire and to shake the tree, really.

Sandra Allan: Ensuring students receive the correct marks for GCSE and A-level Art and design is of the utmost importance. So we measure the sort of accuracy, the fairness, the consistency of the assessment process. So let's talk about that process a little bit, Kevin. What does teacher standardisation involve?

Kevin Lole: It involves teachers coming to a meeting to receive information about the exemplar work that's been selected and to get training so that they have the opportunity to share the language that I was talking about previously in relation to the assessment objectives and the mark criteria, and also to make sure that they learn from that judgment, which is going to be consistent with that standard that's set by AQA each year.

Sandra Allan: So everybody can really understand the work there. That's live work that we show and do we show work from all titles?

Kevin Lole: Yes. That's important. Because there are six different titles and teachers don't all teach all of the titles or any one in particular. So it's important that there is a selection of ability range, attainment range, there's a selection that's appropriate to the range of titles that is under the art and design portfolio. So they have an opportunity to look at and apply that learning while they're there to test their own judgment, etc and they can talk to the presenters about that judgment.

Sandra Allan: So it's good opportunity to ask questions.

Kevin Lole: Yeah. And ask questions and also share that language, share that experience, relate what it what that language applies to.

Sandra Allan: So leading on from that, what about moderator standardisation? What's the differences here?

Kevin Lole: Well, in some ways they’re very similar, we do use work from the teacher's exhibition to make sure that we have that referenced in the exhibition that we put up for moderators. Our process is the same, the end product hopefully is the same, in that we're training moderators to share those same standards in order that they can go out and we are confident that they're going to apply that judgment accurately.

Sandra Allan: So we are kind of testing our moderators here to ensure that they understand and can mark reliably.

Kevin Lole: Yes, absolutely. That's really very, very important. It's important for maintaining the accuracy across hundreds of thousands of students within the centres that we deal with.

Sandra Allan: Okay. So moderators are standardised, then we get to sort of June time and we start doing our visiting moderation. So tell me a little bit about that. What does that involve?

Kevin Lole: It involves a moderator going into a school and assessing, making a judgment about the centre's judgment, about the teacher's judgment, whether or not it fits the standard that's been set. So there is, if you like, a check and balance on the marks awarded by the teachers, and whether they're consistent with the standard set for the entire cohort.

Pete Dryland: They're really important, I think because they're part of the whole package, which covers a huge amount of territory in terms of what we're expecting from students, what we're hoping to prompt them or stimulate them to produce, and in the end, we end up with a reliable assessment, an assessment which is fair, and students come away with outcomes which reflect their ability and the achievements that they produced during the course of study and the course of the work. It's very rewarding and fulfilling to see what students actually achieve. Yeah, it's a privilege to go into centres to actually see the work that students have produced, in centres with a variety of levels of materials and equipment in different places in different locations.

Sandra Allan: So I just want to end the video by saying a huge thank you to both of you. Thank you Kevin, thank you Peter for all of this information and thank you everybody, and I hope you've enjoyed this video and have found our Inside Assessment interesting. And if you do have any further questions, please do contact us at Art at aqa.org.uk.

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?