Level 4
In the Victorian Essential Learning Standards Level 4 is broadly associated with Years 5 and 6 of schooling.
Learners become more complex thinkers and are able to apply thinking strategies as part of their learning. They are able to participate in and lead small group activities and learn more deeply by undertaking more extended projects.
Key characteristics of students at this level include:
- assuming leadership responsibilities
- developing self-efficacy skills
- specialising and differentiating between domains
- managing new situations and solving problems
- learning deeply through extended projects to build flexible thinking and learning strategies
- exploring concepts that allow for several points of view
- demonstrating a preference for more specialised intelligences.
Students begin to develop leadership skills, taking roles in representing their school, speaking publicly and participating in local community activities and ‘present a point of view on a significant issue or issues and include recommendations’ (Civics and Citizenship: Community engagement). They are aware of the responsibilities that accompany their leadership roles, and are capable of communicating school values, rules and procedures using ‘summarise and organise ideas and information, logically and clearly in a range of presentations’ (Communication: Presenting). They critically analyse the functioning of groups and have a capacity to manage and achieve group goals. They demonstrate personal self-control and empathic behaviour, especially with younger peers. Through their interactions with others they demonstrate ‘respect for a diverse range of people and groups’ (Interpersonal Development: Building social relationships). They are confident and motivated, and use social problem solving strategies in the process of building more sophisticated self-efficacy skills.
Students build an increasingly complex understanding of themselves as learners. By reflecting on the influences that impact on learning, students gain insight into the requirements of effective learning and increasingly ‘identify and explain how different perspectives and attitudes can affect learning.’ (Personal Learning: The individual learner). Knowledge of learning and thinking preferences enables students to make choices and set future goals. Learning occurs in both individual and social contexts. Students connect their learning with real life. Many students become more discerning about their preferences and interests. They begin to make distinctions about what they like and what is important.
Students are becoming more complex thinkers. They begin to understand more abstract cognitive processes such as how to apply logical reasoning to both ideas and concrete objects and ‘generate imaginative solutions when solving problems’ (Thinking Processes: Creativity). They explore the concepts of belief, chance, probability, estimation, patterns, sequences and generalisations. Such concepts allow for a diversity of views, as well as for the mental and written organisation and manipulation of information.
Students become more adept at being critical of an idea, explaining why they believe something, collecting and using evidence to support ideas, changing their opinion on the basis of a superior argument, working out more than one solution to a problem, identifying relationships between ideas and using examples to help explain an idea. Students either work individually or collaboratively to observe, collect, interpret and critically analyse data. They pose questions about, and identify situations, problems, needs and opportunities for the creation of useful products. They reflect on their designs as these are developed ‘and use evaluation criteria, identified from design briefs, to justify design choices’ (Design, Creativity and Technology: Analysing and evaluating).
Students are expected to make judgments about ideas and their relative significance. They are assisted to develop and test models that show cause and effect, as well as to identify relationships within, or linkages between, ideas. Investigations and problem solving techniques are used as mechanisms to introduce the concept of deep thinking. They further extend their knowledge and skills in using information and communications technology (ICT) tools and techniques to ‘explore processes, patterns and cause-and-effect relationships’ (Information and Communications Technology: ICT for visualising thinking). They apply skills, techniques and processes to create and present arts works that ‘explore the potential of ideas’ (The Arts: Creating and making) and begin using ‘strategic thinking and work with both more- and less-skilled peers to improve game performance’ (Health and Physical Education: Movement and physical activity).
Students ‘read, interpret and respond to a wide range of literary, everyday and media texts in print and in multimodal formats’ (English: Reading). They draw on their knowledge of the generic structures of different types of texts to organise and structure ideas. They produce a variety of texts for different purposes, such as narratives, reports and arguments. Working in small and large discussion groups, students ‘identify opinions offered by others, propose other relevant viewpoints and extend ideas in a constructive manner’ (English: Speaking and listening). Students learn about a different language and culture through Languages Other Than English and practise reading a ‘wide range of short and/or modified texts for meaning and for use as models in their own writing’ (Languages Other Than English: Communicating in a language other than English).
Students’ knowledge of science and scientific concepts becomes more systematic and they are able to ‘apply the terms relationships, models and systems appropriately as ways of representing complex structures’ (Science: Science knowledge and understanding). Similarly, they develop a more sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts and an awareness of how ‘a few successful examples are not sufficient proof and recognise that a single counter-example is sufficient to invalidate a conjecture’ (Mathematics: Working mathematically).
Students develop further understanding of Australia’s history and its key Eastern and Western influences, along with the history of one or more countries in our region using ‘a range of primary and secondary sources to investigate the past’ (The Humanities – History: Historical reasoning and interpretation). They also acquire more sophisticated geographic skills as they develop their knowledge of the interrelationship between human and physical features, describing ‘Australia’s significant natural processes (and the) reaction of people to these processes’ (The Humanities – Geography: Geographical knowledge and understanding).
Students begin to grapple with economic concepts and understandings, and ‘use the inquiry process to plan economics investigations about economic issues in the home, school or local community and form conclusions supported by evidence’ (The Humanities – Economics: Economic reasoning and interpretation).
