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B: Social Subjects enquiry skills

B.1 Assessing and reporting Social Subjects enquiry skills

In the assessment of Social Subjects enquiry skills, thirty different written tasks were administered in the survey - six at each of levels A to E. All of the tasks used were newly developed for the 2006 SSA. Due to the length of these tasks and the limited amount of time available to test individuals, each pupil involved in the assessment of Social Subjects was randomly allocated a task at one of two consecutive levels within a stage appropriate for the pupil's stage. This means that each pupil was assessed at just one level, rather than a range of levels as was possible for reading and numeracy. Further details of the assessment materials and procedures are available in Annex II.

At P3, P7 and S2, the levels assessed were the level expected for that stage and the level above or the level below that expected. For example, levels A and B were assessed at P3, levels C and D at P7 etc. At P5, there is no expected level. Pupils at this stage were assessed at level B (the expected level for P4) or at level C (the expected level for P6).

The results of the survey are reported using criteria for performance on the assessment tasks as follows: 'very good skills' at a level, indicated by 80% or more of the test questions at that level answered correctly; 'well-established skills', at least 65% of questions answered correctly but fewer than 80%; and 'made a good start', at least 50% of the questions answered correctly but fewer than 65%.

In total, just over 13,000 pupils participated in the Social Subjects written assessments. All estimates of attainment shown in sections B.2 to B.5 are adjusted for the over-representation of reporting authorities in the national sample, and also for sample imbalance in terms of gender and deprivation A description of the weighting methodology can be found in Annex I. with all sample surveys, there is a level of uncertainty inherent in the results. Where appropriate, standard errors are quoted alongside the attainment estimate, and the size of the standard errors should be taken into account when interpreting the data. Further details of the sample design are available in Annex I.

Social Subjects enquiry skills were also assessed in the practical component of the survey, by field officers taking part in one-to-one conversations with pupils during school visits. More information about the practical assessment process is available in the Annex II.6, while the results are presented here as section B.6.

B.2 National estimates of Social Subjects enquiry skills

Chart B1 shows the percentage of pupils in each of P3, P5, P7 and S2 categorised into attainment bands at levels A-E for Social Subjects enquiry skills. Detailed results are available in Table B1. In P3, 63% of pupils demonstrated well-established or better skills at level A (the expected level for the stage) with 31% already well-established or better at level B. For pupils in P5, 68% were well established or better at level B and 35% were well established or better at level C (the expected level for P6). In later stages, 53% of P7 pupils are well-established at the expected level (level D) and 73% were well established at level C. At S2, 34% of pupils were well-established at level E, with 68% well established at level D.

Chart B1
Social Subjects enquiry skills attainment estimates at P3, P5, P7 and S2*
(% pupils classified into attainment bands by 5-14 level)

* Standard errors are around 2 percentage points for 'well-established skills or better', varying with stage and level.

B.3 Gender and deprivation differences in Social Subjects enquiry skills

Chart B2 compares the attainment of boys and girls within the survey. Generally, there is a picture of higher attainment in Social Subjects enquiry skills amongst girls than boys, although none of the differences is statistically significant. Detailed results are available in Table B2.

Chart B2
Social Subjects enquiry skills attainment estimates, by gender
(% pupils having "well-established" skills or better at the given level)

The thin black lines associated with each attainment bar are the 95% confidence intervals

B.4 Deprivation differences in Social Subjects enquiry skills

Chart B3 compares the attainment of pupils from the 20% most deprived areas against those from less deprived areas. Pupils from less deprived areas do better than pupils from the most deprived areas at all stages and at all levels assessed in Social Subjects. These differences are statistically significant at all attainment levels assessed for P5, P7 and S2. Detailed results are available in Table B3.

Chart B3
Social Subjects enquiry skills attainment estimates, by deprivation
(% pupils having "well-established" skills or better at the given level)

'Most' means the pupil lived in one of the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland based on the 2004 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD), the remainder of pupils are classified as' less' deprived
The thin black lines associated with each attainment bar are the 95% confidence intervals

B.5 Teachers' judgements about Social Subjects

In addition to the written assessments for Social Subjects enquiry skills, teachers were also invited to submit a level judgement for each pupil sampled in the survey.

Teachers were given the option to provide a judgement for one or more of the following subjects: Environmental Studies, Social Subjects, Geography, History or Modern Studies. Table B4 shows the national picture of attainment based on these judgements.

Generally, primary teachers responded for Environmental Studies or Social Subjects, while secondary teachers typically responded for Social Subjects (a minority) or for all of Geography, History and Modern Studies.

At P3, teachers judged over half the pupils to be at level A and around a third at level B. At P5, around 70% of the pupils were judged to be at level C and 20-30% at level B. At P7, around 70% of the pupils were judged to be at level D, around 15% at level C and around 10% at level E. At S2, just under half the pupils were judged at level E, with around a third at level D and 15-20% at level F (with the exception of Environmental Studies, with just 4% at level F).

Although not directly comparable, similar patterns are seen at P3 when looking at teachers' judgements and test based results together (Tables B1 and B4). At P5, however, teachers estimate around two thirds of pupils to be at level C or better, while test based results show only 35% to be well established or better at level C. The picture is similar at P7 and S2, with fewer pupils attaining 'well-established' status at the higher level tested compared with teacher judgements.

Teacher judgements and SSA test results are not necessarily equivalent indicators of pupils' Social Subjects enquiry skills levels, so it might not be surprising to find differences emerging in the results of the two approaches. Most fundamentally teacher judgements are based on all Social Subjects attainment, rather than enquiry skills only. Additionally teacher judgements are based on a range of knowledge that the classroom teacher has about each pupil, which has been gained over a period of time. These judgements will be locally moderated within the school. The SSA Social Subjects assessments, on the other hand, are centrally administered and designed to provide comparable performance opportunities for all pupils in the survey wherever they might live and whichever school they might attend. In this case, the results are based solely on performance on the day of the test and pupils' responses to the material that is contained within them.

B.6 Practical assessments of Social Subjects enquiry skills

As previously mentioned, Social Subjects enquiry skills were also assessed within the practical component of the survey. The results for this part of the assessment are shown in Table B5. It should be noted that due to logistical constraints, these practical assessments involved relatively small numbers of pupils drawn from a limited sub-sample of the survey schools; typically 3-4 pupils were assessed for each type of practical enquiry in each school. Judgements about pupils' abilities are necessarily subjective, and although the field officers are provided with some training to help improve the consistency of their assessments, their judgements are not subject to moderation and will differ to some extent between field officers.

In conducting the assessments field officers engaged each pupil in a one-to-one conversation around a Social Subjects investigation the pupil had recently undertaken in class. Pupils were asked to bring along an artefact connected with the investigation. The artefact could be a model, a poster, a written report, or anything associated with the research; the artefact was not assessed, but acted as an aide memoire for the pupil and a stimulus for the conversation. Pupils were rated by the field officer on 'Reviewing and Reporting' their investigation.

The results in table B4 show that at P3 all pupils were rated at level A or better by the field officers, with over 60% rated to be above this level. At P5 over 90% were rated at level B or better. At P7 around two thirds were rated at level D or better, and at S2 around 40% were rated at E or better. The findings are presented as sample statistics only; the results are not weighted to provide estimates for the population.

B.7 Detailed Social Subjects results

The tables below provide detailed results to support the information provided in this section.

Table B1
2006 SSA - National Social Subjects enquiry skills attainment estimates
(% pupils categorised into each attainment band ^*)

* '< 50%' means fewer than 50% of the items in the level-based task answered correctly, 'good start' means between 50% and 64%, 'well-established' is 65% to 79%, and 'very good' is 80% or more. ' SE' is the standard error for the 'well-established or better' estimate.

Table B2
2006 SSA - National Social Subjects enquiry skills attainment estimates, by gender
(% pupils categorised into each attainment band ^*)

* '< 50%' means fewer than 50% of the items in the level-based task answered correctly, 'good start' means between 50% and 64%, 'well-established' is 65% to 79%, and 'very good' is 80% or more. ' SE' is the standard error for the 'well-established or better' estimate.

Table B3
2006 SSA - National Social Subjects enquiry skills attainment estimates, by deprivation** category
(% pupils categorised into each attainment band ^*)

* '< 50%' means fewer than 50% of the items in the level-based task answered correctly, 'good start' means between 50% and 64%, 'well-established' is 65% to 79%, and 'very good' is 80% or more. ' SE' is the standard error for the 'well-established or better' estimate.
**'Most' means the pupil lived in one of the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland based on the 2004 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD), the remainder of pupils are classified as less deprived

Table B4
2006 SSA - National Social Subjects attainment estimates: teachers' judgements
(% pupils judged to be at indicated levels by their teachers*)

* for each pupil, subject judgements may have been provided for one or more subject

Table B5
Practical Assessment results for Social Subjects enquiry skills, by stage*

* The findings in this table are presented as sample statistics only; the results are not weighted to provide estimates for the population

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