10 May 2007
Grading of Project Work Consistent with Assessment Criteria
- We refer to Miss Eu Kar Mun's letter, “Project Work: Will MOE review results?” (ST, 2 May).
- Project Work (PW) in the A-level curriculum seeks to provide students the opportunity to synthesise knowledge from various areas of learning, and critically and creatively apply knowledge to real life situations.
- Teachers supervising students in PW are provided with guidelines and regular advice by MOE, especially on how they can help students acquire the skills they need for PW and give students feedback at key stages of their projects.
- Teachers involved in the assessment of PW have also been trained for this. They have access to detailed assessment guidelines as well as descriptions of various benchmarks of student performance, including videotapes of oral presentations. There has been no change to the way PW is assessed compared to the previous year.
- To ensure that all students are assessed by same standards, there is a rigorous moderation process. This takes place at two levels. Within each school, the school's Internal Moderator checks the accuracy of marking of all the assessors. Second, at the national level, each school's assessment is checked by an External Moderation Panel and moderated where necessary. The Panel is led by three Chief Examiners, with representation from the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES). The same team of Chief Examiners has been leading the panel since 2003 and the same standards have been maintained over the years.
- In general, the nationwide PW results in 2006 were comparable to those of 2005. For the majority of schools, the percentage of distinctions in 2006 was within 5% of the corresponding percentage in Band 1 in 2005. A few schools have submitted an appeal for a review of their results, which the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) is currently processing.
Tan Yap Kwang
Chief Executive,
Singapore Assessment and Examination Board
Ho Peng (Ms)
Director,
Curriculum Planning and Development Division,
Ministry of Education
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