Literacy demands of HSC Sciences
A literacy analysis of 2010 HSC Science papers: Physics, Chemistry and Biology, reveals remarkably different literacy demands on students.
The NSW Board of Studies releases each year past HSC papers, sometimes with sample answers, always with a mapping grid. The mapping grid identifies where test items are located in the syllabus. In a similar way I have mapped the 2010 papers against the literacy resources students must draw upon to successfully answer questions.
I have been guided by the imperative verb in the question, for example, describe, explain, justify etc. However, I have also been guided by the genre of the sample response supplied by the BOS. This is instructive as sometimes there is a mismatch between the verb in the question and genre of the response.
I restricted my analysis to 2010 Physics, Chemistry and Biology and the free response questions in the core.
I used the following categories in my analysis:
Comprehension
Describing
Explaining
practical
Calculation
Argument
This analysis showed remarkable differences in the three tests.
