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What makes items easy or difficult?

Junior Science: Thinking with Evidence tests students’ ability to think within the context of science. To answer any of the items, a student has to think through the following:

  • the evidence provided in the stimulus material (includes vocabulary and written, visual and numeric texts)
  • what the question actually asks
  • the plausibility and relevance of the distractors in relation to the question asked.

Students may also have to think about the context and sometimes apply their understanding to an unfamiliar context or situation. They are likely to have to think about the scientific concepts involved.

Each one of the elements above contributes to the cognitive load of the items. The table below summarises less difficult to more difficult demands of items within the Junior Science: Thinking with Evidence assessment.

 

Less difficult items

More difficult items

Context

  • familiar context
  • familiar or provided scientific knowledge

Context

  • unfamiliar context/s
  • challenging scientific knowledge or concepts

Evidence

  • familiar and/or less complex text type/s and/or text, e.g., simple/ familiar vocabulary, photographs, evidence in simple tables.

Evidence

  • unfamiliar and/or more complex text and/or text type/s, e.g., scientific vocabulary, graphs, flow diagrams.

Cognitive load

  • few thinking steps
  • making simple or direct links
  • less competing evidence

Cognitive load

  • more thinking steps
  • synthesising more than one text and/or evidence
  • more competing evidence
  • complex thinking, e.g., orientating evidence in space and/or time
  • evaluating evidence
  • recognising positive, personal actions

 

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