Moderation as Judgement Practice: Reconciling System Level Accountability and Local Level Practice

Abstract

This paper is based on the very initial stage of a four year research project focused on teachers' judgements and interpretations of assessment data in the context of standardsdriven reform in Queensland. This major research project is investigating the local level practice of social moderation as a means of developing shared understandings of standards and consistency of judgement amongst teachers in face-to-face and ICT contexts for the purposes of demonstrating system level accountability. The authors draw on a social theory of learning (Wenger, 1998) and assessment research to illustrate the importance of acknowledging that teachers are the primary change agents who, through judgement practices, are best placed to identify important steps for students to improve in their learning. The initial stage of this research reported in this paper suggests that the practice at the local level of social moderation has the potential to fulfil an important role as a process for aiding teachers in ascribing value to student work through the use of standards that help them understand curriculum year level requirements and student achievement within year levels and in so doing attend to system level accountability.