Clarification details
Updated December 2020. All sections of this document have been updated to address the most common issues that have arisen from moderation.
Analysis
Analysis means moving beyond descriptions of what happened in an event or at a place. Explanatory Note 2 states that, “Merely describing what happened in an historical event is not by itself an analysis”. Analysis is required, even for Achieved.
Analysis could involve, for example:
- identifying different versions of the history and making comments and judgements about the differences
- examining causes and motives behind historical events and relating these to a point of view that the student is supporting or arguing.
For Excellence, students also need to present their own judgements on the historical debates and differences they encounter. This does not need to be written in first person.
Responding to a specific question is more likely to result in providing the type of evidence required for analysis. For example, a topic such as ‘The Battle of Passchendaele: more gross incompetence by the generals – or not?’ could elicit more analysis than the topic, ‘The Battle of Passchendaele’.
Assessment workload
Where assessment workload is an issue, teachers may wish to:
- suggest word counts
- ensure that contexts used for assessment are not too broad
- make use of the overlap in standards 91435 and 91437 to offer a combined assessment opportunity.
Other requirements
As at Level 2, students need to process their evidence so that it is presented through key historical ideas that they have discerned. A key historical idea is usually expressed as the topic sentence of a paragraph. At Level 3, each key idea needs to be supported with specific evidence at a depth appropriate for level 8 of the curriculum. A document further explaining key historical ideas is provided as a stand-alone clarification document.
The significance to New Zealanders of the historical event or place
Students need to address this requirement in a specific way rather than only by inference. Students must analyse the ways in which the place or event is significant and provide specific historical evidence to support what is written. This section is likely to be more than a paragraph in length and be between 350-450 words. The degree of difficulty in establishing significance for a particular context should be taken into account when making an assessment judgement on this aspect of the standard.