Performance descriptors
The performance descriptors are advice only and provide a guide to developing an assessment tool when assessing the outcomes of each area of study. The performance descriptors can be customised by teachers to complement existing assessment procedures in line with the VCE and VCAL Administration Handbook and the VCE Assessment Principles.
How to use the performance descriptors provides a guide to help teachers design rigorous assessment tools that will support assessing student demonstration of satisfactory completion of the outcome and determining the levels of achievement (study score).
The performance descriptors are developed from the Characteristics of the Study on page 6 and 7 of the VCE History Study Design 2022–2026 and the corresponding key skills of each of Units 3 and 4 Ancient History, Units 3 and 4 Australian History and Units 3 and 4 Revolutions. Each key skill is allocated one or two row(s) and each row describe six progressively higher levels of performance for that skill. Teachers can infer an increase in of progressively higher difficulty by reading the performance descriptors left to right, but not a similarity of difficulty reading the performance descriptors top to bottom. Students use historical knowledge to demonstrate progression in each skill.
Using these performance descriptors can assist students by showing them what improvement looks like, and thus how to get better. They can also provide students with detailed feedback, in a way that is informational rather than judgemental. Performance descriptors can also benefit teachers by making assessing more consistent, providing more detailed information for reporting purposes, and for helping teachers to determine students’ point of readiness (zone of proximal development).
This table describes the characteristics, key skills and typical performance in each range
| Characteristic of study | Key skill | Descriptors: typical performance in each range |
|---|
| Analyse cause and consequence | Analyse the causes of the revolution | Identify a cause | Describe cause(s) | Explain how events, ideas, individuals, or popular movements caused the revolution | Distinguish between long-term causes and short-term triggers | Explain why events, ideas, individuals, or popular movements have varying levels of influence in causing the revolution | Evaluate how effectively questions guide the historical inquiry |
| | Increasing difficulty
 |
This table describes the characteristics of study, key skills and typical performance in each range
| Characteristic of study | Key skill | Descriptors: typical performance in each range | |
|---|
| Ask historical questions | Ask and use a range of historical questions to explore the causes of the revolution | Ask relevant questions | Not necessarily similar difficulty
 |
| Use sources as evidence | Evaluate sources for use as evidence | Identify content of source(s) |
| Identify reliable content of a source |
| Explore historical perspectives | Analyse the perspectives of people during the development of the revolution and how perspectives changed and/or remained the same over time | Identify a perspective from the past |
| Use historical interpretations | Evaluate historical interpretations about the causes of the revolution | Identify a historian’s interpretation |
| Analyse cause and consequence | Analyse the causes of the revolution | Identify a cause |
| Identify continuity and change | Evaluate the extent of continuity and change in ideas, individuals and popular movements in the development of the revolution | Identify a continuity |
| Identify a change |
| Establish historical significance | Evaluate the historical significance of events, ideas, individuals, popular movements that contributed to the outbreak of the revolution | Identify historical significance |
| Construct historical arguments | Construct arguments about the causes of the revolution using sources as evidence | Identifies accurate knowledge in response to a question |
Refer to Example analysis of relative difficulty of each skill that illustrates the increasing relative complexity for each skill performance descriptor.
In designing School-assessed Coursework assessment tasks, teachers should adapt these performance descriptors by selecting the rows that are most appropriate to assess the outcome, key knowledge and key skills. For example, the key skill Ask and use a range of historical questions to explore the causes of the revolution performance descriptor may only apply to the historical inquiry task. Also, the task design may not provide the opportunities for students to demonstrate each skill at all levels. Teachers should use professional judgement to decide what parts of the performance descriptors to select when designing their assessment tool for their assessment tasks. Use the
How to use the performance descriptors which shows a step-by-step process in adapting the performance descriptors.
The performance descriptors should be able to capture the skill level of every student being assessed and will help provide the allocation of a range of marks. Thus, the lowest quality performance should be something most or all students can do, and the highest quality performance should be something that extends the most able students. These descriptors can also serve as a guide for how to describe student performance.
Example analysis of relative difficulty of each skill
How to use the VCE History 2022–2026 Performance Descriptors
VCE Units 3 and 4 Ancient History Performance Descriptors
VCE Units 3 and 4 Australian History Performance Descriptors
VCE Units 3 and 4 Revolutions Performance Descriptors