Part A - Stage 6 Formal School based Assessment Task

Weighting: 20%
Duration: Presentation (5mins), students have 3 weeks to complete and submit this
task.
Outcomes:
The student:
H1 critically analyses the role of business in Australia and globally
H2 evaluates management strategies in response to changes in internal and
external influences
H3 discusses the social and ethical responsibilities of management
H4 analyses business functions and processes in large and global businesses
H5 explains management strategies and their impact on businesses
H6 evaluates the effectiveness of management in the performance of businesses
H7 plans and conducts investigations into contemporary business issues
H8 organises and evaluates information for actual and hypothetical business
situations
H9 communicates business information, issues and concepts in appropriate
formats

Task Rationale
The purpose of this task is to allow students to inquire and research a real-life
business to understand the practical implications of marketing strategies and their
effectiveness in business success. To assist in the education of diverse learners, a
variety of components that require different skills are utilised in this assessment and
group work allows for students to choose a task that adheres to their strengths.
Instructions
1) Students must get into groups of 3-4 and select a business of their choice and
research the marketing strategies of this organisation.
2) Students must answer the following questions when conducting their
research:
- What is the segmentation, differentiation and positioning strategy of this
business?
- How does this business utilise the 4 P’s as part of their marketing strategy?
- Does this business use a global or e-marketing strategy?
- Are there any legal or ethical concerns that may impact on your businesses
marketing strategies?
3) Students must convey their discoveries on a poster and present this to the
class.
Marking Criteria
Students:
A (17-20)
- Demonstrate a superior knowledge of marketing strategies and establish a
strongly connected application to a real-life business context.
- Provide a highly thorough analysis and evaluation of the marketing strategies
of a business as well as relevant and accurate evidence-based responses to
inquiry questions.
- Communicate their responses in a clear, succinct manner and provide an
engaging and well-presented poster that includes all necessary information
B (13-16)
- Demonstrate strong knowledge of marketing strategies and establish a well-
connected application to a real-life business context.
- Provide a thorough analysis and evaluation of the marketing strategies of a
business as well as accurate evidence-based responses to inquiry questions.
- Communicate their responses in a clear, succinct manner and provide a well-
presented poster that includes all necessary information.
C (9-12)
- Demonstrate some knowledge of marketing strategies and establish a
connected application to a real-life business context.
- Provide an analysis and evaluation of the marketing strategies of a business
as well as responses to inquiry questions that contain some evidence.
- Communicate relevant responses and provide a poster that includes all
necessary information.
D (5-8)
- Demonstrate little knowledge of marketing strategies and establish a loosely
connected application to a real-life business context.
- Provide minimal analysis and evaluation of the marketing strategies of a
business as well as some response to inquiry questions.
- Communicate responses in a basic manner and provide a poster that includes
some information.
E (1-4)
- Demonstrate little knowledge of marketing strategies and no connection to a
real-life business context is established.
- Provide unsatisfactory analysis and evaluation of the marketing strategies.
- Communicate responses in an unsatisfactory manner and provide a poster.

Sample Scaffold
What to include on the poster checklist:
1) Images of the business
2) The 4 P’s of this business
3) The segments of this business
4) How this business differentiates their products
5) Positioning strategy
6) E-marketing or global strategy (if they have one)
7) Legal and ethical concerns that impact the businesses marketing strategies
8) Reference list
9) Any relevant graphs or tables
“NSW schools are taking more responsibility for their own performance, are
subject to closer public scrutiny and are finding new ways of improving
student outcomes in a world of ever-more demanding standards”(Smith, 2005,
p. 42)

The demands and expectations on teachers have only grown, particularly regarding

their ability to enhance the results of students. That is why it is imperative that the

significance of assessment and feedback is presented as these elements of teaching

enable results and achievement to progress in the light of demands. Also, so that

teachers can counteract these demands it is important that relevant and effective

assessment and feedback practices are discussed (this includes accurate designs).

To highlight the importance of these factors, assessment has been compared to

policy, examined in an Australian and international context, shown how it can be

designed to benefit students and how feedback from and for assessment can allow

for student improvement.

Assessment has always been a crucial facet of education, but the importance of this

educational factor has become more valid in recent times due to the higher

standards placed upon teachers to enable their students to reach peak performance.

Deluca & Johnson (2017) review the place that assessment holds in response to the

increased accountability of teachers in schooling, particularly how assessment can

prove to be an effective tactic to enhance the achievement of students. In Australia,

it was discovered that to prepare pre-service teachers to be assessment capable,

standards-based evidence practices (not just merely, professional standards) were

needed to allow for this goal to be achieved, in New Zealand it was uncovered that

educators need to be versed in mathematics and statistics to further enhance their

assessment and data literacy, to enable them to be more effective in this area

(Deluca & Johnson, 2017). Additionally, a study in Norway emphasises that

educators need to focus on their own assessment abilities and proficiency not just

that of their students (Deluca & Johnson, 2017). This study not only highlights the

importance of assessment in relation to the demands of teaching in a modern

context, but the importance of teachers reflecting on their own assessment practices

and continually improving this area of their teaching. It is evident, that teachers need

to invest in their own abilities in order to ensure that assessments meet the

educational standards of today and that universities (as well as other government

bodies) ensure that pre-service teachers are receiving the right tools and techniques

to prepare them to be effective assessors.

To further demonstrate the importance of assessment, relevant policy from NESA

has been sought to highlight the validity of assessment for, as and of learning.

Assessment as learning is where students take responsibility for and monitor the

development of their own learning (NESA, 2019), this allows students to think about

and discuss their own learning with fellow students and reflect on this education

(Foster, 2019) and allows feedback to shape the next steps of a student’s learning

(NESA, 2019). Assessment for learning relates to formative assessment and is when

teachers and students plan and gather information to inform students of how they

can learn better (Foster, 2019), this can motivate students as this type of

assessment can provide effective feedback that instigates improvement and inspires

students to both self and peer assess (NESA, 2019). Assessment of learning allows

for the development of assessments that demonstrate the strengths of students and

reveal what is next in their learning (Foster, 2019) and which can provide evidence

for the whole community (schools, students, parents) of a student’s performance and

can be used to plot future goals (NESA, 2019). These types of assessment

demonstrate in a general sense (with support of Australian policy) the types of

assessment methods that a teacher can implement into their practice, that all gear

students toward improvement and enhancing their improvement. The provision of

different forms of assessment builds on the previous point about the importance of

assessment in todays educational context and provides teachers with assessment

practices that they can implement to ensure effectiveness in assessment among

demanding standards.

The nature of todays educational context has ensured that there are problems

regarding assessment that need to be recognised, solved and integrated into

teaching practice to allow for assessment to prevail. Issues that have been raised

regarding assessment include how an educator can meet a student at their current

stage? How teachers can accommodate assessments for high ability students

(possibly gifted and talented students)? How to create an assessment culture?

(Siegal et al., 2019). The recommended solutions for this problem include finding the

“sweet spot” of a student which may require use of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal

development, so basically, knowing exactly what to assess the student on, ensuring

that students are assessed at varying levels and that the culture of “right answer” is

changed by embracing the ideas of students (Siegal et al., 2019). This research

highlights the importance of knowing your students, differentiation and encouraging

creative thinking in assessment design in today’s diverse classrooms. It is to be

noted that Siegal et al., (2019) also details how this will not solve every problem in

assessment design, however it does draw attention to the importance of examining a

classroom context and the types of students present in the cohort, when generating

an assessment task. As this is not an Australian article, it is important to address the

adjustment suggestions that are present through ACARA, NESA and relevant

syllabuses regarding alterations that can be made to assessments based on the

different needs of a student (gifted and talented, EAL/D) and that teachers use this

as a guide when creating assessments to meet the needs of all their students. The

adjustments present in these Australian educational documents demonstrate how

one demand on teachers is the ability to meet the needs of a wider range of students

and how these same documents recognise how teachers must be aware of these

needs and be making suitable changes to their lessons. The importance of

assessment and assessment design in todays context has been discussed, with

practices that inform and should enhance educational effectiveness for teachers that

utilise these techniques.

In addition to assessment, it is necessary that the importance of feedback is

addressed in enhancing student success (particularly in specific key learning areas),

as well as the types of feedback that can be incorporated into teaching practice. In

the key learning area of English (or even when literacy is being used), teacher-based

feedback, peer-based feedback and self-evaluation can impact on a students writing

ability, can encourage students to revise text more thoroughly and can assist the

implications of students in a classroom (Palmer, Evans, Barrett & Vinson, 2014).

This signifies the importance of feedback in ensuring that students’ progress and the

validity of this tool when utilising it in practice of a key learning area. In terms of the

types of feedback, technological approaches toward feedback (such as audio

feedback) can increase student engagement as this method can allow students to

receive personalised feedback that they can listen to multiple times (Carless & Boud,

2018). It is also important that when distributing feedback that a positive relationship

and trust is had between the student and teacher, as feedback can strike negative

emotions in students, preventing effective outcomes (Carless & Boud, 2018). It can

also be said that assessment tasks that are submitted at the end of a curriculum,
hinder a students ability to apply the feedback they receive (Carless & Boud, 2018).

To further argue the importance of feedback, strategies that can be incorporated into

teaching practices have been addressed to ensure that feedback actually reaches

the student and meets them where they are at (if not the teaching practice of

feedback loses significance). It is intriguing that Carless & Boud (2018) recommend

that assessment tasks should not take place at the end of a module, which makes it

imperative that teachers allocate time after the submission of a task to revise and

reflect on feedback and how improvement can take place in future. It is also

mentioned as the students become feedback literate that they create habits that

allow for continuous improvement, are willing to take on suggestions from teachers

and fellow students (do not take these words emotionally) and know how to take

action (Carless and Boud, 2018). After an assessment or task has been completed

by students it has been verified that feedback is an important element that needs to

be factored into practice to ensure improvement and that strategies for feedback are

also implemented to allow for effectiveness.

The significance of assessment, assessment design and feedback within education

has been presented as well as how teachers can utilise these elements within

practice to enhance student success. This has been in purpose of representing the

importance of these factors in today’s educational context and how teachers can use

assessment, assessment design and feedback to combat the difficulties in this

industry. As research is relevant and sources are both domestic and international

this allows teachers to broadly examine what practices have worked and what hasn’t

in a variety of contexts.
Reference List

Carless, D., & Boud. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy:
Enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education,
43(8), 1315-1325. doi: 10.1080/02602986.2018.1463354
Deluca, C., & Johnson, S. (2017). Developing assessment capable teachers in
this age of accountability. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy &
Practice, 24(2), 121-126. doi: 10.1080/0969594X.2017.1297010
Foster, E. (2019). How assessment supports English learners. Learning
Professional, 40(2), 22-25. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
NESA. (2019). Assessment for, Assessment as, Assessment of Learning. Retrieved
from NESA: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-
12/Understanding-the-curriculum/assessment/principles-of-
assessment/approaches

Palmer, B., Evans, C., Barret, E., & Vinson, J. (2014). Understanding The Impact Of
Feedback On Student Writing In Upper Elementary-Aged Children. Global Education
Journal, 2014(4), 73-90. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Siegal, M. A., Cite, S., Muslu, N., Murakami, C. D., Burcks, S. M., Izci, K., & Nguyen,
P. D. (2019). Attending to assessment problems of practice during community-
centred professional development. International Journal of Educational Research,
95, 190-199. doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2019.02.012