Study engages and extends

 

VCE Extended Investigation enables students to develop, refine and extend knowledge and skills in independent research and carry out an investigation that focuses on a rigorous research question. Aimed at developing transferable skills, VCE Extended Investigation was introduced in 2014 as a progressive study of student-directed inquiry-based learning.

Loren Clarke, Curriculum and Data Leader at Eltham High School, has been involved in VCE Extended Investigation since its inception.

‘When you first start teaching a new study, like VCE Extended Investigation, it can be daunting, but once you get into it, like anything, it becomes second nature,’ says Loren.

‘And it’s something that eventually has an impact on what you’re teaching in other subjects. The benefits you see from students – how much activity they have in their thinking and how passionate they get about the subject area – makes you think how you might expand into these other areas.’

Students develop their capacity to explore, justify and defend their research findings in oral and written forms to a general, or non-specialist, audience in a subject area of their choosing.

‘Your role as a teacher is quite different because you’re really more of a facilitator supporting them through the research process, but you’re not necessarily giving them the content knowledge,’ says Loren.

‘Once armed with tools of research and critical thinking, students become content owners, flipping the paradigm. The study design provides teachers with a clear learning structure and a clarified focus on critical thinking; a major component of the subject.’

Students who have completed VCE Extended Investigation credit the study with providing them with a range of flexible skills that have helped them meet challenges in post-VCE study and training programs.

Students select their research area extending from previous learning or interests inside or outside school. Over the years, students have conducted investigations across an astonishing range of the sciences, sociology, history, health and the arts.

After settling on a research area and formulating a rigorous research question in consultation with their supervising teacher, students gather, interpret and evaluate evidence in order to respond to the question.

Students are expected to conduct a review of relevant literature and develop knowledge and skills associated with research project management. They undertake research which is documented in a report, along with the outcomes of the research and their evaluation. The Written Report and the Oral Presentation together form the Externally-assessed Task, which is the most significant assessment of the study.

According to Alan James, former Head of Senior School at Beaconhills College, some students are attracted to VCE Extended Investigation because it provides freedom for them to explore an area of research they are passionate about. Others are drawn to it because they want to undertake deep exploration of a topic – even if they aren’t sure what that topic will be.

Handing responsibility to the student has been hugely rewarding for some teachers and Alan has seen the study not only engage students, but also engage teachers at his school.

‘Part of the assessment structure is for students to present their work to an assessing panel,’ he says.

‘Teachers who took part in the panel were astounded to see students who were struggling in the content areas they were teaching, working methodically and ruthlessly in a content area of the student’s choosing,’ says Alan.

‘Strategically, I introduced a Year 10 elective which mirrored Extended Investigation in Year 12, without the lengthy written report. Students created a learning journal and the upshot of that has been an increase in awareness of the subject and excitement around the potential for study as part of the VCE. Many of those Year 10 students elect for Extended Investigation in Year 12.’

School principals, leading teachers and subject leaders across the curriculum are encouraged to read the newly accredited study design for 2019–2021 and consider how their school could best support students in the study of VCE Extended Investigation.

For information about VCE Extended Investigation, contact Katherine Quin, Project Manager, VCE Curriculum, at vcaa.vce.extended.investigation@edumail.vic.gov.au or (03) 9032 1699.

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