Clarification details
Updated December 2014. This document has been updated in its entirety to highlight key issues identified through moderation.
The purpose of clarifications
We create clarification documents to help people understand the current requirements of achievement standards. Clarifications do not introduce new criteria, change the intent of the standard, or change what we expect from assessment.
These documents unpack and explain the language and intent of the standard so people interpret and apply the standard consistently. We provide examples or guidance as illustrations only. They are not prescriptions or requirements.
For official requirements, always refer to the current version of the achievement standard as published by NZQA.
Assessment guidance
Evidence for these standards must include the entire developmental journey rather than a series of final outcomes.
Developing ideas
Developing ideas presupposes a degree of systematic advancement of a given proposition. This means that later works will reveal consideration of preceding work in terms of:
- technical ideas including media, surface, colour, tone, perspective, line, texture
- pictorial ideas including composition, depth, balance, harmony, rhythm, tension
- conceptual and communicative ideas including the treatment of subject matter, juxtaposition of imagery, symbolism, metaphor, narrative.
Clarification and extension of ideas
Clarification means the practical investigation advances deliberately towards an outcome that responds to a particular personal proposition. The proposition may be a pictorial, thematic, technical or conceptual idea.
Extension means the sustained advancement of a given proposition in a new or unexpected direction. This involves the critical analysis and elevation of preceding outcomes in order to inform the production of new work. Evidence will often include a degree of innovation and risk-taking.
Appropriate evidence
The related series requirement means that the sequential order of evidence is important for this developmental standard. Evidence must demonstrate the deliberate and coherent progressing of ideas. Isolated outcomes, or the exploration of an effect as an end in itself, do not produce appropriate evidence for this standard.
Technical, pictorial and conceptual conventions must be appropriate to the field.
Contemporary artist models and those relevant to the cultural milieu of students are recommended. New Zealand models are often particularly relevant. Models may be used explicitly or implicitly in the students’ work.
Written annotations may clarify students’ intentions. Annotations support rather than replace the required visual evidence.
Evidence for this standard may also validly contribute to assessment for the drawing conventions standard in the same field.